Basics of using the Microsoft Async Framework

Question

Using Visual Studio Async CTP (Version 3) I am struggling to understand how I can "wrap" existing code using this framework.

For example

Using the OpenPop.NET library I am trying to establish a connection with a pop3 server and confirm I have a valid username and password.

So lets say I have some code like this.

    public bool ConnectSync()
    {
        bool success = true;
        Pop3Client client = new Pop3Client();

        try
        {
            client.Connect("mail.server.com", 110, false);
            client.Authenticate("username", "password");
        }
        catch
        {
            success = false;
        }
        return success;
    }

And now I want to make it Async my understanding from what I have been reading and piecing together is that I would end up with a method signature along the lines of

    public async Task<bool> ConnectAsync()
    {

    }

I believe this is the correct signature because it will be a task that returns a boolean(?) and my guess is that I will need to utilize the TaskEx.Run() method? but that's as far as I can seem to get my head around. Could anyone point in the right direction?

Answer 1

Yes, you're right so far.

The easy way to convert your method is, as you say, just to wrap it in TaskEx.Run so the method runs on a thread pool thread and doesn't block your UI thread.

public Task<bool> ConnectAsync()
{
    return TaskEx.Run( () =>
        {
            bool success = true;
            Pop3Client client = new Pop3Client();

            try
            {
                client.Connect("mail.server.com", 110, false);
                client.Authenticate("username", "password");
            }
            catch
            {
                success = false;
            }
            return success;
        }
    );
}