Integrate with services and a RadWindow

This tutorial will show you how to apply a RadBusyIndicator while a long distance calls are being in progress.

One way to achieve this is to make the time consuming service calls in a separate thread. To accomplish this you can use the BackgroundWorker class.

This topic will create a RadWindow control containing a RadGridView and a Button. Pressing the button will reproduce a service call which will retrieve some data. Later when the data is available it will be loaded into the RadGridView and while the call is in progress the RadBusyIndicator will be shown to indicate the ongoing process.

Here is a snapshot of the final result:

• The first thing you have to do is to declare the RadWindow and set its content to be the RadBusyIndicator content control as long as you want to show the indicator over the RadWindow control.

We will create RadWindow as a user control, the approach is explained in details here.

RadWindow declaration

• XAML

<telerik:RadWindow x:Class="RadWindow1" 
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" 
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" 
        xmlns:telerik="http://schemas.telerik.com/2008/xaml/presentation" 
        Header="RadWindow1" Height="500" Width="400"> 
    <Grid> 
    <telerik:RadBusyIndicator x:Name="radBusyIndicator"> 
        <Grid> 
            <telerik:RadGridView x:Name="radGridView" 
                                         AutoGenerateColumns="True" /> 
            <Button Content="Load Data" 
                            VerticalAlignment="Bottom" 
                            Click="LoadDataButton_Click" 
                            Width="150" /> 
        </Grid> 
    </telerik:RadBusyIndicator> 
    </Grid> 
</telerik:RadWindow> 

Here is the sample data that is going to be retrieved:

Retrieved sample data

• C#

public class Employee 
{ 
    public string FirstName 
    { 
        get; 
        set; 
    } 
    public string LastName 
    { 
        get; 
        set; 
    } 
    public int Age 
    { 
        get; 
        set; 
    } 
    public bool Married 
    { 
        get; 
        set; 
    } 
} 

EmployeeService class

• C#
• VB
• VB

public class EmployeeService 
{ 
    public static ObservableCollection<Employee> GetEmployees() 
    { 
        ObservableCollection<Employee> employees = new ObservableCollection<Employee>(); 
        Employee employee = new Employee(); 
        employee.FirstName = "Maria"; 
        employee.LastName = "Anders"; 
        employee.Married = true; 
        employee.Age = 24; 
        employees.Add( employee );        //... 
        Thread.Sleep( employees.Count * 100 ); 
        return employees; 
    } 
} 

Public Class EmployeeService 
 Public Shared Function GetEmployees() As ObservableCollection(Of Employee) 
  Dim employees As New ObservableCollection(Of Employee)() 
  Dim employee As New Employee() 
  employee.FirstName = "Maria" 
  employee.LastName = "Anders" 
  employee.Married = True 
  employee.Age = 24 
  employees.Add(employee) 
  '... 
  Thread.Sleep(employees.Count * 100) 
  Return employees 
 End Function 
End Class 

Public Class Employee 
 Public Property FirstName() As String 
  Get 
   Return m_FirstName 
  End Get 
  Set 
   m_FirstName = Value 
  End Set 
 End Property 
 Private m_FirstName As String 
 Public Property LastName() As String 
  Get 
   Return m_LastName 
  End Get 
  Set 
   m_LastName = Value 
  End Set 
 End Property 
 Private m_LastName As String 
 Public Property Age() As Integer 
  Get 
   Return m_Age 
  End Get 
  Set 
   m_Age = Value 
  End Set 
 End Property 
 Private m_Age As Integer 
 Public Property Married() As Boolean 
  Get 
   Return m_Married 
  End Get 
  Set 
   m_Married = Value 
  End Set 
 End Property 
 Private m_Married As Boolean 
End Class 

• In code you can use the BackgroundWorker to make your service calls in a different thread:

  • Handle the DoWork event to make the time consuming call.

  • Handle the RunWorkerCompleted event to disable the RadBusyIndicator and show the result.

In order to use the BackgroundWorker you will have to add the following using/import in your code:

• System.ComponentModel

BackgroundWorker usage

• C#
• VB

public partial class RadWindow1 
{       
    private BackgroundWorker worker = new BackgroundWorker(); 
    public RadBusyIndicatorExample() 
    { 
        InitializeComponent(); 
        this.radWindow.Show(); 
        worker.DoWork += this.WorkerDoWork; 
        worker.RunWorkerCompleted += WorkerRunWorkerCompleted;             
    } 
    private void WorkerDoWork( object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e ) 
    { 
        e.Result = EmployeeService.GetEmployees();             
    } 
    private void UpdateGridDataSource( ObservableCollection<Employee> employees ) 
    { 
        this.radGridView.ItemsSource = employees; 
        this.radBusyIndicator.IsBusy = false; 
    } 
 
    void WorkerRunWorkerCompleted( object sender, RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e ) 
    { 
        Dispatcher.BeginInvoke( new Action<ObservableCollection<Employee>>( this.UpdateGridDataSource ), e.Result ); 
    } 
 
    private void LoadDataButton_Click( object sender, RoutedEventArgs e ) 
    { 
        if ( !worker.IsBusy ) 
        { 
            this.radBusyIndicator.IsBusy = true; 
            worker.RunWorkerAsync(); 
        } 
    } 
} 

Public Class RadWindow1 
    Private worker As New BackgroundWorker() 
 
    Public Sub New() 
        ' This call is required by the designer. 
        InitializeComponent() 
 
        AddHandler worker.DoWork, AddressOf WorkerDoWork 
        AddHandler worker.RunWorkerCompleted, AddressOf WorkerRunWorkerCompleted 
 
 
    End Sub 
 
    Private Sub WorkerDoWork(sender As Object, e As DoWorkEventArgs) 
        e.Result = EmployeeService.GetEmployees() 
    End Sub 
 
    Private Sub UpdateGridDataSource(employees As ObservableCollection(Of Employee)) 
        Me.radGridView.ItemsSource = employees 
        Me.radBusyIndicator.IsBusy = False 
    End Sub 
 
    Private Sub WorkerRunWorkerCompleted(sender As Object, e As RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs) 
        Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(New Action(Of ObservableCollection(Of Employee))(AddressOf UpdateGridDataSource), e.Result) 
 
    End Sub 
    Private Sub LoadDataButton_Click(sender As Object, e As RoutedEventArgs) 
        If Not worker.IsBusy Then 
            Me.radBusyIndicator.IsBusy = True 
            worker.RunWorkerAsync() 
        End If 
    End Sub 
End Class 

• Then just open the RadWindow:

Open RadWindow

• C#
• VB

var radWindow = new RadWindow1(); 
radWindow.Show(); 

Dim radWindow As RadWindow1 = New RadWindow1() 
radWindow.Show() 

Here is the final result: