[1.0/1.1] How to display file transfer progress [C# 2002]

[Shaitan00]

This is going to be an age-old question - I have a form that will perform IO File Transfer of certain files (10-20 of them) and this can take up to 10 minutes, during the file transfer period I want to display to the user a form that indicates what file is currently being copied.

So - to that end - I created a new form (frmFileTransfer) that will display the File Name, Source, and Destination to the user while the IO File Copy is occuring - so I did something like this:

Main Form

this.hide();
frmFileTransfer fFileTransfer = new frmFileTransfer;
fFileTransfer.show();
foreach (string sFile in sFilesToCopy)
{	
	string sSource = ...;
	string sDestination = ...;
	fFileTransfer.SetDisplay(sFile, sSource, sDestination);
	File.Copy(sSource + sFile, sDestination + sFile, true);
}
fFileTransfer.close();
this.show();

File Transfer Form

public void SetDisplay(string sFile, string sSourcePath, string sDestinationPath)
{
	tbFileName.Text = sFileName;
	tbSource.Text = sSourcePath;
	tbDestination.Text = sDestinationPath;
}

Where tb = TextBox (to display the FileName, Source, and Destination to the User).

Most of you are already reading this going "doh this won't work" as I assume I am violating some thread laws but obviously this method ends up blocking (holding hostage) both forms (the calling one doing the file transfer as well as fFileTransfer) - what can I do to unblock fFileTransfer so that it can show the progress to the user without freezing up as it does now?

I thought forms where seperate threads so I don't see why fFileTransfer is blocked at all when the IO File Copy occurs....I thought of using a delegate I just have no clue how that could be implemented...

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,

[nmadd]

Hi there,
I think you may only need to repaint your fFileTransfer form. Try a

fFileTransfer.Refresh();

in your loop.

Hope that helps.

[Pirate]

Did you try using "Application.DoEvents" ?...This helped me in some issues with halted forms !

[Atheist]

The best way would be to run your code in the DoWork subroutine of a BackgroundWorker component. You'd use the ReportProgress method to communicate with the main thread.

[jmcilhinney]

.NET 1.0 has no BackgroundWorker. You should perform the file transfer in a worker thread and then use delegation to access the UI.