Background Tasks in ASP.NET / Debug

Question

I have a task that is not important ; it should be run once in while if the website is used.

So I tried this approach : http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2008/07/easy-background-tasks-in-aspnet/

The task could be long so I want it to be asynchronous... so that the navigation is not stopped by the background task.

The thing I don't understand is that when I start debugging (attach to process w3wp.exe) I can't navigate on the site anymore until I stop debugging?

Here is the code (ResourceService being a WCF service hosted on ISS in the same project) :

private void CacheItemRemoved(string taskName, object seconds, CacheItemRemovedReason r)
    {
        switch (taskName)
        {
            case MedianamikTasks.UpdateResources:
                if (Config.EnableAutoResourceUpdate)
                {
                    ThreadStart threadStart = ResourceService.UpdateResources;
                    var thread = new Thread(threadStart) {IsBackground = true};
                    thread.Start();

                    //Do not use... : http://csharpfeeds.com/post/5415/Dont_use_the_ThreadPool_in_ASP.NET.aspx
                    //ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem(x => ResourceService.UpdateResources());
                }
                break;
        }

        AddTask(taskName, Convert.ToInt32(seconds));
    }

Answer 1

Use a background worker.

BackgroundWorker worker;  
worker = new BackgroundWorker();  
worker.DoWork += new DoWorkEventHandler(worker_DoWork);  
worker.RunWorkerCompleted += new RunWorkerCompletedEventHandler(worker_RunWorkerCompleted);  
worker.RunWorkerAsync();

Then in the DoWork handler call the method that you need

Answer 2

The thing I don't understand is that when I start debugging (attach to process w3wp.exe) I can't navigate on the site anymore until I stop debugging?

Just a guess, but do you have a breakpoint set? As soon as you hit a breakpoint the execution in the w3wp processes will stop at that point, thus you won't be able to 'navigate' around the site.