UI not updating

I'm having a problem with a program I'm trying to write in C#. I run a long loop of downloading a file and parsing it after you click a button, but the status bar doesn't change until the loop is totally completed. I also had a progress bar, which did update, and go across. If you want to see code, here it is:

Code:

---

        void BtnClick(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            string url = tb.Text;
            string sea = search.Text;
            string [] lines = sea.Split('\n');
            string searchurl = "";
            int depth = track.Value * 10;
            int queryloop=0;
            int depthloop=0;
            int pro=lines.Length * depth;
            int procount=0;
            double percent=0;
            while(queryloop < lines.Length){
                depthloop = 0;
                while(depthloop < depth){
                    //create search query
                    searchurl="http://www.google.com/search?q="+
                        lines[queryloop]
                        +"&hl=en&safe=off&start="+
                        depthloop
                        +"&sa=N";
                    //create download object
                    WebClient Client = new WebClient();
                    //download file
                    Client.DownloadFile(searchurl, " in.txt");
                    depthloop++;
                    procount++;
                    percent=((double)procount/(double)pro)*100;
                    progress.Value=(int)percent;
                    statustext.Text="current url: "+searchurl;
                   
                }
                queryloop++;
            }

---

basicly what this program is going to do is help with website optimization. I work for a company that wants their page higher on google for many searches, so I'm automating the process of checking the site rank on a specific search by downloading all the files, which is the first 10 pages of results for X amount of search querys, then parsing them. (I haven't gotten to the parsing yet, as you can see in the code) So what happens is as of now, it downloads all the files, as this is happening, the progress bar goes across, but the 'statustext.Text' doesn't show up until the progress bar goes all the way across, which means it is finished anyway. So my question is, how do I make the text display before the loop is finished?

Instead of trying to set the statustext.text inside this function, create another function called set_status_text or something and pass the actual text you wish to set as an argument.

Hi

There are two different ways to do this.


1. the ugly way

Although the status of the 'statustext'-object is dirty,
ie. there are changes which are not shown, the object is
not refreshed.

Thus, you can force a refresh by using

Code:

---

  statustext.update()
  // since the control has been invalidated already

---

or

Code:

---

  statustext.refresh()
  // which essentially is invalidate(true) und update()[1]

---

Another hammer is to use the following:

Quote:

---

System.Windows.Forms.Application.DoEvents()

---

2. the elegant way

The above technique works, if the time between the refreshes does not
exceed 30 seconds. After that the form will become 'white', which reflects
the unprofessionality of the programmer :)

Thus, what you should do is the following: perform the download in a
new thread, and simply update the form which is in the 'main thread'.
With such a setup, users even can interact with the form (such as
pause, resume, stop, ...).

Luckily, with .net 2.0 this is all trivial: have a look at the backgroundworker[2]-class.


Cheers

/edit: Certainly, WolfeTone is right by suggesting a nicer way of system design,
however, the problem remains. It is better design though, since you simply
have to add a line

Code:

---

  statustext.refresh()

---

in your "AddText"-method.


[1] http://blogs.msdn.com/subhagpo/archi...22/378098.aspx
[2]
http://www.agiledeveloper.com/articl...oundWorker.pdf
http://www.codeguru.com/columns/vb/article.php/c10755/
http://www.ondotnet.com/pub/a/dotnet...undworker.html
and others

Good post sec_ware!

thanks for the help guys. I think i may use the update() anyway, because the program is fairly simple, and the backgroundworker class looks complicated, and I'm not very used to C#..I just use it for the GUI.