How to pass the UI Dispatcher to the ViewModel
I have abstracted the Dispatcher using an interface IContext:
public interface IContext
{
bool IsSynchronized { get; }
void Invoke(Action action);
void BeginInvoke(Action action);
}
This has the advantage that you can unit-test your ViewModels more easily.
I inject the interface into my ViewModels using the MEF (Managed Extensibility Framework). Another possibility would be a constructor argument.
However, I like the injection using MEF more.
Update (example from pastebin link in comments):
public sealed class WpfContext : IContext
{
private readonly Dispatcher _dispatcher;
public bool IsSynchronized
{
get
{
return this._dispatcher.Thread == Thread.CurrentThread;
}
}
public WpfContext() : this(Dispatcher.CurrentDispatcher)
{
}
public WpfContext(Dispatcher dispatcher)
{
Debug.Assert(dispatcher != null);
this._dispatcher = dispatcher;
}
public void Invoke(Action action)
{
Debug.Assert(action != null);
this._dispatcher.Invoke(action);
}
public void BeginInvoke(Action action)
{
Debug.Assert(action != null);
this._dispatcher.BeginInvoke(action);
}
}
You may not actually need the dispatcher. If you bind properties on your viewmodel to GUI elements in your view, the WPF binding mechanism automatically marshals the GUI updates to the GUI thread using the dispatcher.
EDIT:
This edit is in response to Isak Savo's comment.
Inside Microsoft's code for handling binding to properties you will find the following code:
if (Dispatcher.Thread == Thread.CurrentThread)
{
PW.OnPropertyChangedAtLevel(level);
}
else
{
// otherwise invoke an operation to do the work on the right context
SetTransferIsPending(true);
Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(
DispatcherPriority.DataBind,
new DispatcherOperationCallback(ScheduleTransferOperation),
new object[]{o, propName});
}
This code marshals any UI updates to the thread UI thread so that even if you update the properties taking part of the binding from a different thread, WPF will automatically serialize the call to the UI thread.
why would not you use
System.Windows.Application.Current.Dispatcher.Invoke(
(Action)(() => {ObservableCollectionMemeberOfVM.Add("xx"); } ));
instead of keeping reference to GUI dispatcher.