PictureBox animation freezing while Task running

问题:

My Winforms application shows an animated gif inside a picturebox while long running operations run. However, it freezes while waiting for the completion of the task:

Public Class MyUserControl
    Sub Initialize()
        Dim folderscantask = Task.Factory.StartNew(
            Function() EwsManagedApiScanFolderHierarchy(),
            TaskCreationOptions.LongRunning
            )
        folderdictask.Wait()
        Dim folderscanresult = folderscantask.Result
    End Sub

    Function EwsManagedApiScanFolderHierarchy() As Dictionary(Of String, String)
        'Performs a long, recursive operation involving a
        'Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.Data.ExchangeService object
    End Function
End Class

What should I do differently in order to keep PictureBox's animation running?

EDIT

This is a more complete description of my problem, and this time I used Async/Await (since I was taught that Task.Wait() would block the caller thread). Now, animation moves fine until it reaches MyUserControl.BuildFolderMenus() for the first time, then it freezes. Is this inevitable? I mean, don't animations run in a dedicated thread?

Public Class MyForm : Inherits Form

    'Form has a PictureBox named PictureBoxWaiting that shows an animated gif

    Public Async Sub MyButton_Click(sender as Object, e as EventArgs) Handles MyButton.Click
        PictureBoxWaiting.Show()
        PictureBoxWaiting.BringToFront()
        Await MyUserControl1.Initialize()
        PictureBoxWaiting.Hide()
        MyUserControl1.Show()
    End Sub

End Class

Public Class MyUserControl

    Public Async Function Initialize() As Task
        Dim folderdic = Await GetFolderHierarchyAsync()
        BuildFolderMenus(ToolStripDropDownButtonFolders, folderdic)
    End Function

    Public Async Function GetFolderHierarchyAsync() As Task(Of Dictionary(Of String, String))
        Return Await Task.Factory.StartNew(
            Function() EwsManagedApiScanFolderHierarchy(),
            TaskCreationOptions.LongRunning
            )
    End Function

    Function EwsManagedApiScanFolderHierarchy() As Dictionary(Of String, String)
        'Performs a long, recursive operation involving a
        'Microsoft.Exchange.WebServices.Data.ExchangeService object
    End Function

    Private Sub BuildFolderMenus(menu As ToolStripDropDownItem, dic As Dictionary(Of String, String))
        'This reads the dictionary containing the folder hierarchy
        'and recursively adds menu items in order that folders´
        'subfolders correspond to subitems inside an item
        '
        'This must run in UI thread since it creates UI controls
    End Sub

End Class

回答1:

You are blocking the UI thread by calling Task.Wait(). You need to use Asunc/Await pattern. For example create a method like this:

Public Async Function MyFunction() as Task
    Await Task.Run(Sub()
                        ' Do something non-UI which is time-consuming
                        ' This code runs in another thread without blocking UI
                        ' For example Thread.Sleep(5000)
                    End Sub)
    'The code here runs is UI thread
End Function

And then as the usage:

Private Async Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
    Await MyUserControl1.MyFunction()
End Sub

Then you will see, although you have a time-consuming task in MyFunction, but the UI will not be blocked while the task is running.