On developing a websocket server I initiate the listener as following:
private void StartAccept()
{
_listener.BeginAcceptTcpClient(new AsyncCallback(HandleAsyncConnection), null);
}
for having it non-blocking to be able to accept multiple connection.
One of the functions in the responding callback should print a HTML page to the selected default printer:
WebBrowser webBrowser = new WebBrowser();
webBrowser.DocumentText = "<html><body><p>I am HTML text!</p><body></html>";
webBrowser.Print();
which is failing since i try to create the WebBrowser object from within the AsyncCallback:
ActiveX control '8856f961-340a-11d0-a96b-00c04fd705a2' cannot be instantiated because the current thread is not in a single-threaded apartment.
How can i get the WebBrowser object get created here?
Thanks to the following answer:
Print html document from Windows Service in C# without print dialog
I was able to get the printing working:
StaTaskScheduler Sta = new StaTaskScheduler(1);
public void PrintHtml(string htmlPath)
{
Task.Factory.StartNew(() => PrintOnStaThread(htmlPath), CancellationToken.None, TaskCreationOptions.None, Sta).Wait();
}
void PrintOnStaThread(string htmlText)
{
const short PRINT_WAITFORCOMPLETION = 2;
const int OLECMDID_PRINT = 6;
const int OLECMDEXECOPT_DONTPROMPTUSER = 2;
using (var browser = new WebBrowser())
{
browser.DocumentText = htmlText;
while (browser.ReadyState != WebBrowserReadyState.Complete)
Application.DoEvents();
dynamic ie = browser.ActiveXInstance;
ie.ExecWB(OLECMDID_PRINT, OLECMDEXECOPT_DONTPROMPTUSER, PRINT_WAITFORCOMPLETION);
}
}
The StaTaskScheduler comes from the above mentioned thread:
//--------------------------------------------------------------------------
//
// Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
//
// File: StaTaskScheduler.cs
//
//--------------------------------------------------------------------------
using System.Collections.Concurrent;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
namespace System.Threading.Tasks.Schedulers
{
/// <summary>Provides a scheduler that uses STA threads.</summary>
public sealed class StaTaskScheduler : TaskScheduler, IDisposable
{
/// <summary>Stores the queued tasks to be executed by our pool of STA threads.</summary>
private BlockingCollection<Task> _tasks;
/// <summary>The STA threads used by the scheduler.</summary>
private readonly List<Thread> _threads;
/// <summary>Initializes a new instance of the StaTaskScheduler class with the specified concurrency level.</summary>
/// <param name="numberOfThreads">The number of threads that should be created and used by this scheduler.</param>
public StaTaskScheduler(int numberOfThreads)
{
// Validate arguments
if (numberOfThreads < 1) throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("concurrencyLevel");
// Initialize the tasks collection
_tasks = new BlockingCollection<Task>();
// Create the threads to be used by this scheduler
_threads = Enumerable.Range(0, numberOfThreads).Select(i =>
{
var thread = new Thread(() =>
{
// Continually get the next task and try to execute it.
// This will continue until the scheduler is disposed and no more tasks remain.
foreach (var t in _tasks.GetConsumingEnumerable())
{
TryExecuteTask(t);
}
});
thread.IsBackground = true;
thread.SetApartmentState(ApartmentState.STA);
return thread;
}).ToList();
// Start all of the threads
_threads.ForEach(t => t.Start());
}
/// <summary>Queues a Task to be executed by this scheduler.</summary>
/// <param name="task">The task to be executed.</param>
protected override void QueueTask(Task task)
{
// Push it into the blocking collection of tasks
_tasks.Add(task);
}
/// <summary>Provides a list of the scheduled tasks for the debugger to consume.</summary>
/// <returns>An enumerable of all tasks currently scheduled.</returns>
protected override IEnumerable<Task> GetScheduledTasks()
{
// Serialize the contents of the blocking collection of tasks for the debugger
return _tasks.ToArray();
}
/// <summary>Determines whether a Task may be inlined.</summary>
/// <param name="task">The task to be executed.</param>
/// <param name="taskWasPreviouslyQueued">Whether the task was previously queued.</param>
/// <returns>true if the task was successfully inlined; otherwise, false.</returns>
protected override bool TryExecuteTaskInline(Task task, bool taskWasPreviouslyQueued)
{
// Try to inline if the current thread is STA
return
Thread.CurrentThread.GetApartmentState() == ApartmentState.STA &&
TryExecuteTask(task);
}
/// <summary>Gets the maximum concurrency level supported by this scheduler.</summary>
public override int MaximumConcurrencyLevel
{
get { return _threads.Count; }
}
/// <summary>
/// Cleans up the scheduler by indicating that no more tasks will be queued.
/// This method blocks until all threads successfully shutdown.
/// </summary>
public void Dispose()
{
if (_tasks != null)
{
// Indicate that no new tasks will be coming in
_tasks.CompleteAdding();
// Wait for all threads to finish processing tasks
foreach (var thread in _threads) thread.Join();
// Cleanup
_tasks.Dispose();
_tasks = null;
}
}
}
}
Now i can print from my AsyncCallback just by calling:
PrintHtml("<html><body><h1>I AM A html text</h1></body></hmtl>");