TaskFactoryWithUIUpdates

MainForm.cs

using System;
using System.Threading;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace TestTaskFactory
{
    public partial class MainForm : Form
    {
        public MainForm()
        {
            InitializeComponent();

            // New up the ProcessingForm so that it can be shown/hidden 
            // when reports are generated
            ProcessingNotificationForm = new ProcessingForm();

            // Just for testing, let's set a random sleep timer to delay 5 seconds
            SleepTimer = 5000;

            // Also, let's load the OrdersDataGridView with bogus data
            var orders = new Orders
                             {
                                 new Order { OrderNumber = 1, Price = 9.99, Product = "Apples" }, 
                                 new Order { OrderNumber = 2, Price = 3.99, Product = "Bananas" }, 
                                 new Order {OrderNumber = 3, Price = 4.50, Product = "Ice"}
                             };

            // Bind
            OrdersDataGridView.DataSource = orders;
        }

        // Add variables
        public int SleepTimer { get; set; }
        private ProcessingForm ProcessingNotificationForm { get; set; }

        private void HideProcessingNotificationForm(bool results)
        {
            // If the task successfully completed, do something
            if (results)
            {
                MessageBox.Show(@"What a success!", @"Testing Things Out");
                // Probably should replace this message box with something meaningful
            }
            
            // ***** Don't forget to hide the form regardless of the exception.
            // ***** This is so that the user can now interact with the app again.
            ProcessingNotificationForm.Hide();
        }

        // Generates the invoice for the order
        private void GenerateReportButtonClick(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            // If no row was selected in the order, let's bonk out of this method.
            if (OrdersDataGridView.SelectedRows.Count < 1)
            {
                MessageBox.Show(@"You must choose an order before generating an invoice.", @"Testing Things Out");
                return;
            }

            // Get the selected row and it's values so we can update the 
            // ProcessingNotificationForm values
            var selectedRow = OrdersDataGridView.SelectedRows[0];
            var orderNumber = selectedRow.Cells[0].Value;
            var productName = selectedRow.Cells[1].Value;
            ProcessingNotificationForm.TaskName = " order " + orderNumber + " for " + productName;

            // Show the ProcessingNotificationForm
            ProcessingNotificationForm.Show();

            // Set our Task to run concurrently with the main thread (UI)
            // and allow our task to callback to HideProcessingNotificationForm
            var uiScheduler = TaskScheduler.FromCurrentSynchronizationContext();
            Task.Factory.StartNew<bool>(ExecuteBackgroundWork).ContinueWith(ca => HideProcessingNotificationForm(ca.Result), uiScheduler);
        }

        // Special method to execute background work
        private bool ExecuteBackgroundWork()
        {
            // Establish our return value
            var rtn = false;

            try
            {
                // Let's simulate processing a report
                Thread.Sleep(SleepTimer);

                // Just to throw a wrench into things, let's assume something
                // happens while generating the report
                throw new Exception(@"Something really bad happened.");
                rtn = true;
            } 
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                // For an exception, we need to log something. In our case,
                // we'll show a message box. However, the message box will
                // appear below the ProcessingForm as this thread doesn't 
                // have direct UI access and cannot bubble this to the front
                // unless we pass back the message to the main (UI) thread
                // and show the message box there (which is a possibility).
                MessageBox.Show(ex.Message, @"Testing Things Out");
            }

            // Return our return value
            return rtn;
        }
    }
}

MainForm.Designer.cs

namespace TestTaskFactory
{
    partial class MainForm
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Required designer variable.
        /// </summary>
        private System.ComponentModel.IContainer components = null;

        /// <summary>
        /// Clean up any resources being used.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="disposing">true if managed resources should be disposed; otherwise, false.</param>
        protected override void Dispose(bool disposing)
        {
            if (disposing && (components != null))
            {
                components.Dispose();
            }
            base.Dispose(disposing);
        }

        #region Windows Form Designer generated code

        /// <summary>
        /// Required method for Designer support - do not modify
        /// the contents of this method with the code editor.
        /// </summary>
        private void InitializeComponent()
        {
            this.GenerateReportButton = new System.Windows.Forms.Button();
            this.OrdersDataGridView = new System.Windows.Forms.DataGridView();
            ((System.ComponentModel.ISupportInitialize)(this.OrdersDataGridView)).BeginInit();
            this.SuspendLayout();
            // 
            // GenerateReportButton
            // 
            this.GenerateReportButton.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(253, 206);
            this.GenerateReportButton.Name = "GenerateReportButton";
            this.GenerateReportButton.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(116, 23);
            this.GenerateReportButton.TabIndex = 0;
            this.GenerateReportButton.Text = "Generate Report";
            this.GenerateReportButton.UseVisualStyleBackColor = true;
            this.GenerateReportButton.Click += new System.EventHandler(this.GenerateReportButtonClick);
            // 
            // OrdersDataGridView
            // 
            this.OrdersDataGridView.ColumnHeadersHeightSizeMode = System.Windows.Forms.DataGridViewColumnHeadersHeightSizeMode.AutoSize;
            this.OrdersDataGridView.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(12, 12);
            this.OrdersDataGridView.Name = "OrdersDataGridView";
            this.OrdersDataGridView.SelectionMode = System.Windows.Forms.DataGridViewSelectionMode.FullRowSelect;
            this.OrdersDataGridView.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(357, 177);
            this.OrdersDataGridView.TabIndex = 3;
            // 
            // MainForm
            // 
            this.AutoScaleDimensions = new System.Drawing.SizeF(6F, 13F);
            this.AutoScaleMode = System.Windows.Forms.AutoScaleMode.Font;
            this.ClientSize = new System.Drawing.Size(381, 240);
            this.Controls.Add(this.OrdersDataGridView);
            this.Controls.Add(this.GenerateReportButton);
            this.Name = "MainForm";
            this.StartPosition = System.Windows.Forms.FormStartPosition.CenterScreen;
            this.Text = "Form1";
            ((System.ComponentModel.ISupportInitialize)(this.OrdersDataGridView)).EndInit();
            this.ResumeLayout(false);

        }

        #endregion

        private System.Windows.Forms.Button GenerateReportButton;
        private System.Windows.Forms.DataGridView OrdersDataGridView;
    }
}

Orders.cs

using System.Collections.Generic;

namespace TestTaskFactory
{
    public class Orders : List<Order> { }

    public class Order
    {
        public int OrderNumber { get; set; }
        public string Product { get; set; }
        public double Price { get; set; }
    }
}

ProcessingForm.cs

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace TestTaskFactory
{
    public partial class ProcessingForm : Form
    {
        public string TaskName { get; set; }
        
        public ProcessingForm()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
            //http://uorcdn.com/general/images/processingbar.gif
        }

        protected override void OnEnter(EventArgs e)
        {
            webBrowser1.Url = new Uri(Environment.CurrentDirectory + "\\test.htm?taskName=" + TaskName); 
            base.OnEnter(e);
        }

        protected override void  OnActivated(EventArgs e)
        {
            webBrowser1.Url = new Uri(Environment.CurrentDirectory + "\\test.htm?taskName=" + TaskName); 
 	        base.OnActivated(e);
        }

        protected override void OnLostFocus(EventArgs e)
        {
            base.OnLostFocus(e);
            this.Focus();
        }

        protected override void OnDeactivate(EventArgs e)
        {
            base.OnDeactivate(e);
            this.Focus();
        }
    }
}

Program.cs

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace TestTaskFactory
{
    static class Program
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// The main entry point for the application.
        /// </summary>
        [STAThread]
        static void Main()
        {
            Application.EnableVisualStyles();
            Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);
            Application.Run(new MainForm());
        }
    }
}

test.htm

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<html>
	<head>
		<title></title>
        <script src="http://ajax.aspnetcdn.com/ajax/jQuery/jquery-1.7.2.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
        <script type="text/javascript">
            // Simple function borrowed from a StackOverflow post at
            // http://stackoverflow.com/questions/901115/get-query-string-values-in-javascript
            function getParameterByName(name) {
                name = name.replace(/[\[]/, "\\\[").replace(/[\]]/, "\\\]");
                var regexS = "[\\?&]" + name + "=([^&#]*)";
                var regex = new RegExp(regexS);
                var results = regex.exec(window.location.search);
                if (results == null)
                    return "";
                else
                    return decodeURIComponent(results[1].replace(/\+/g, " "));
            }
        </script>
	</head>
	<body style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; border: 1px solid black;">
        <div style="padding: 3px; font-family: Tahoma; text-align: center; color: Blue;">
	        Processing <span id="taskName"></span>
        </div>
        <script type="text/javascript">
            $(document).ready(function () {
                // After the document is loaded, let's get the querystring parameter
                // and update the span called taskName.
                $("#taskName").html(getParameterByName("taskName"));
            });
        </script>
	</body>
</html>