Running a command in a loop to keep a connection open

Question

I have written a GUI that connects to Exchange Online to automate some tasks. If I leave the GUI inactive for 15 minutes, the connection is closed and I have to restart the GUI to connect again.

How can I include a command that will loop something like "Get-Mailbox -Identity [email protected]" every 10 minutes to ensure the connection does hit the idle limit?

I don't think Start-Sleep or Start-Job cmdlets will work as they prevent my GUI from opening until I exit the loop.

Answer 1

Use the following, which assumes a WinForms application and that your form is stored in variable $form:

# Show the form *non*-modally, by using `.Show()` rather than `.ShowDialog()`
# That is, this statement is *not* blocking and execution continues below.
$form.Show()

# Assume that the connection has just been established.
$lastRefresh = [datetime]::UtcNow

# While the form is visible, process events.
while ($form.Visible) {
  # Process form (UI) events.
  [Application]::DoEvents() 
  # Check if the connection needs refreshing
  if (([datetime]::UtcNow - $lastRefresh)).TotalMinutes -ge 10) {
    $null = Get-Mailbox -Identity [email protected]
    $lastRefresh = [datetime]::UtcNow
  }
  # Sleep a little.
  Start-Sleep -Milliseconds 100 
}

Note that this does not try to determine if a connection refresh is actually required - it simply does it every 10 minutes.