I am creating an application that does screen shots of websites using the following method http://pietschsoft.com/post/2008/07/C-Generate-WebPage-Thumbmail-Screenshot-Image.aspx
I tried to make the application multithreaded but I have run into the following error:
[ActiveX control '8856f961-340a-11d0-a96b-00c04fd705a2' cannot be instantiated because the current thread is not in a single-threaded apartment.]
Any suggestions how to fix this issue? My code is basically as follows:
List<string> lststrWebSites = new List<string>();
lststrWebSites.Add("http://stackoverflow.com");
lststrWebSites.Add("http://www.cnn.com");
foreach (string strWebSite in lststrWebSites)
{
System.Threading.ThreadStart objThreadStart = delegate
{
Bitmap bmpScreen = GenerateScreenshot(strWebSite, -1, -1);
bmpScreen.Save(@"C:\" + strWebSite + ".png",
System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Png);
};
new System.Threading.Thread(objThreadStart).Start();
}
The GenerateScreenShot() function implementation is copied from the above URL:
public Bitmap GenerateScreenshot(string url)
{
// This method gets a screenshot of the webpage
// rendered at its full size (height and width)
return GenerateScreenshot(url, -1, -1);
}
public Bitmap GenerateScreenshot(string url, int width, int height)
{
// Load the webpage into a WebBrowser control
WebBrowser wb = new WebBrowser();
wb.ScrollBarsEnabled = false;
wb.ScriptErrorsSuppressed = true;
wb.Navigate(url);
while (wb.ReadyState != WebBrowserReadyState.Complete)
{ Application.DoEvents(); }
// Set the size of the WebBrowser control
wb.Width = width;
wb.Height = height;
if (width == -1)
{
// Take Screenshot of the web pages full width
wb.Width = wb.Document.Body.ScrollRectangle.Width;
}
if (height == -1)
{
// Take Screenshot of the web pages full height
wb.Height = wb.Document.Body.ScrollRectangle.Height;
}
// Get a Bitmap representation of the webpage as it's rendered in
// the WebBrowser control
Bitmap bitmap = new Bitmap(wb.Width, wb.Height);
wb.DrawToBitmap(bitmap, new Rectangle(0, 0, wb.Width, wb.Height));
wb.Dispose();
return bitmap;
}
Try setting the ApartmentState of the thread hosting the browser control:
var thread = new Thread(objThreadStart);
thread.SetApartmentState(ApartmentState.STA);
thread.Start();
WebBrowser, like many ActiveX controls, has strict threading requirements. The thread that creates it must be initialized with Thread.SetApartmentState() to switch it to STA. And the thread must pump a message loop, you get one from Application.Run().
That makes talking to the browser pretty tricky. Here's code to get you started. Beware that the Completed callback runs on a background thread. Don't forget to call Dispose() to shut down the thread.
using System;
using System.Threading;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Windows.Forms;
class WebPagePump : IDisposable {
public delegate void CompletedCallback(WebBrowser wb);
private ManualResetEvent mStart;
private SyncHelper mSyncProvider;
public event CompletedCallback Completed;
public WebPagePump() {
// Start the thread, wait for it to initialize
mStart = new ManualResetEvent(false);
Thread t = new Thread(startPump);
t.SetApartmentState(ApartmentState.STA);
t.IsBackground = true;
t.Start();
mStart.WaitOne();
}
public void Dispose() {
// Shutdown message loop and thread
mSyncProvider.Terminate();
}
public void Navigate(Uri url) {
// Start navigating to a URL
mSyncProvider.Navigate(url);
}
void mSyncProvider_Completed(WebBrowser wb) {
// Navigation completed, raise event
CompletedCallback handler = Completed;
if (handler != null) handler(wb);
}
private void startPump() {
// Start the message loop
mSyncProvider = new SyncHelper(mStart);
mSyncProvider.Completed += mSyncProvider_Completed;
Application.Run(mSyncProvider);
}
class SyncHelper : Form {
WebBrowser mBrowser = new WebBrowser();
ManualResetEvent mStart;
public event CompletedCallback Completed;
public SyncHelper(ManualResetEvent start) {
mBrowser.DocumentCompleted += mBrowser_DocumentCompleted;
mStart = start;
}
public void Navigate(Uri url) {
// Start navigating
this.BeginInvoke(new Action(() => mBrowser.Navigate(url)));
}
void mBrowser_DocumentCompleted(object sender, WebBrowserDocumentCompletedEventArgs e) {
// Generated completed event
Completed(mBrowser);
}
public void Terminate() {
// Shutdown form and message loop
this.Invoke(new Action(() => this.Close()));
}
protected override void SetVisibleCore(bool value) {
if (!IsHandleCreated) {
// First-time init, create handle and wait for message pump to run
this.CreateHandle();
this.BeginInvoke(new Action(() => mStart.Set()));
}
// Keep form hidden
value = false;
base.SetVisibleCore(value);
}
}
}
Does changing the attribute on your Main
method from STAThread
to MTAThread
help?
Example:
[STAThread]
public static void Main()
{
changes to:
[MTAThread]
public static void Main()
{