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Creating Multithreaded Applications

One of the most eagerly anticipated features available in VB.NET is the ability to natively create and manage threads. While it was possible to create a multithreaded VB 6 application using the Win32 CreateThread API or by fooling the COM library into creating a component in a separate thread, these techniques were both difficult to debug and maintain. In this sample chapter, author Dan Fox discusses the basics of using threads in VB.NET.
This article is excerpted from Chapter 11, "Accessing System Services," from Building Distributed Applications with VB.NET.
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This article assumes that the reader has some experience with VB, the Windows environment, event-based programming, basic HTML, and scripting. This material is based on the Beta2 release version of Microsoft's .NET.

One of the most eagerly anticipated features available in VB.NET is the ability to natively create and manage threads. While it was possible to create a multithreaded VB 6 application using the Win32 CreateThread API or by fooling the COM library into creating a component in a separate thread, these techniques were both difficult to debug and maintain.

The main reason for these difficulties, of course, was that VB 6.0 wasn't built to handle multithreaded applications, which resulted in access violations and memory corruption. In stark contrast, the Common Language Runtime (CLR) was designed for a multithreaded environment, and indeed the Services Framework incorporates them implicitly in the basic architecture of delegates, as we've seen in both Chapter 4 and this chapter. However, the Services Framework also supports explicit use of threading APIs using the System.Threading namespace.

For those readers unfamiliar with threads, simply put, they allow your application to spawn multiple units of execution that are independently scheduled and prioritized by preemptive multitasking operating systems such as Windows 2000. Based on the thread priority and the particular scheduling algorithm, the OS schedules each thread to run for certain amount of time called a time slice. When the time slice elapses, the thread is suspended and placed back into a queue while another thread is then allocated a time slice. When the thread is suspended, its state (or context) is saved so that it can continue its work where it left off. The CLR supports threading by starting each AppDomain with a main thread and allowing it to create multiple worker threads, each with their own exception handlers and context data.

The obvious advantage to using more than one thread in an application is that your app can appear to be performing several activities simultaneously as the various threads are swapped in and out of the CPU. In fact, on machines with multiple processors, the threads from a single AppDomain may be scheduled across any available processor, allowing work to actually be done concurrently. In distributed applications, this can increase scalability as more clients can share the CPU resources available on a server while desktop applications such as spreadsheets and word processors frequently take advantage of threads to perform background operations such as recalculation and printing. However, how does this concept apply to distributed applications you'll write with VB.NET?

For starters, keep in mind that you're already using a multithreaded architecture that you get for free if you're building distributed applications like those described in this book. This is the case since application services such as IIS, Component Services, and SQL Server all are multithreaded. For example, as clients request web pages, their requests are carried out by worker threads controlled by IIS. One of these threads may execute an ASP.NET page that calls a component hosted in Component Services. The component could be configured to run as a Server Application and so it is executed on a thread allocated from a thread pool for the application. The component, in turn, may use a database connection pulled from a pool of worker threads allocated by the SQL Server engine. As a result, as multiple users request pages that instantiate components and access the database, their activities are not serialized and therefore constrained by single-threaded execution.

Since most of the code you write in distributed applications executes within the middle-tier, there are a limited number of scenarios for which you'll likely need to create threads explicitly. Some of these scenarios include lengthy operations such as file I/O and database maintenance tasks, servicing multiple clients in a Windows service application, and listening for messages from a Microsoft Message Queue. As a result, this section will cover the basics to prepare you for using threads, although for further information and additional samples you should consult the documentation.

A word of warning: Because threads are expensive for the operating system to track and schedule you should not go wild creating a new thread for everything your application does. Since memory must be allocated for each thread, too many threads can and will decrease the overall performance of the system. In addition, threads introduce problems that VB developers have not had to deal with before such as synchronizing access to shared resources. As a result, you should only add support for multiple threads after careful consideration.

In the rest of this section we'll discuss using threads and thread pools.

Using Threads

The primary class used to create and manipulate threads is, not surprisingly, the Thread class. It contains methods that allow you to Start, Stop, Resume, Abort, Suspend, and Join (wait for) a thread in addition to querying and setting the thread's state using methods such as Sleep, IsAlive, IsBackground, Priority, ApartmentState, and ThreadState.

NOTE

Keep in mind that most members of Thread are virtual members and so can only be accessed from a particular instance of the Thread class. To manipulate a particular thread, you either need to create a new instance of the Thread class or get a reference to the current Thread using the CurrentThread property. The primary exception to this is the Sleep method, which suspends the current thread for specific number of milliseconds.

In order to start a new thread you must specify an entry point for the thread to begin its execution. The requirement is that the method, either a method on an object or within a module, include no arguments and for obvious reasons should be defined as a Sub procedure. It is also possible to execute a method within the same object on a separate thread.

For example, consider the code snippet below. In this example, the GetPhotos method of the Instructors class is to be executed on a separate thread. This method (not shown) queries the database for all of the instructor images and saves each one to a file on the file system. Unlike the asynchronous I/O example shown in Listing 11.5, both the database access and the file access is performed on a separate thread.

Dim tPhoto As Thread
Dim tsStart As ThreadStart
Dim objIns As New Instructors

tsStart = New ThreadStart(AddressOf objIns.GetPhotos)
tPhoto = New Thread(tsStart)

tPhoto.Priority = ThreadPriority.BelowNormal
tPhoto.Name = "SavingPhotos"

tPhoto.Start()

' Wait for the started thread to become alive
While (tPhoto.ThreadState = ThreadState.Unstarted)
 Thread.Sleep(100)
End While

...

If tPhoto.IsAlive Then
 MsgBox("Still processing images...")
 MsgBox("Waiting to finish processing images...")
 tPhoto.Join
End If

MsgBox("Done processing images.")

You'll notice in this snippet that starting a thread actually involves instantiating a ThreadStart delegate with the address of the entry point using the AddressOf operator. The delegate is then passed to the constructor of the Thread class. Before the thread is actually started, the Priority is set to BelowNormal so that the main thread will continue to service requests more promptly. There are four other priorities that can be set using the ThreadPriority enumeration (AboveNormal, Highest, Lowest, and Normal) even though the Win32 API supports over 30 priority levels.

NOTE

As mentioned the priorities exposed by the ThreadPriority enumeration map to a small subset of the 32 levels of priority available in the Win32 API. In fact, they map from lowest priority (Lowest) at a 6 to highest (Highest) at 10.

The code then sets the Name property of the thread. While at first glance this seems strange since a thread or its name should never appear in the user interface, the name does appear in the debugger and may also be useful for logging purposes. The Start method is then used to actually begin execution.

TIP

Sometimes it comes in handy to get a numeric identifier for the thread for logging and reporting purposes. One technique for doing so is to call the GetHashCode method on the CurrentThread property or an instance of the Thread class. This will return a number you can log to your application or event log.

After starting the thread, the snippet goes into a loop to wait until the thread has started by repeatedly checking the ThreadState property for a value other than Unstarted, which is the initial state of the thread. There are nine other states ranging from Running to Stopped exposed by the ThreadState enumeration. Note that calling the shared Sleep method of Thread class tells the thread running the statement to sleep for a specified number of milliseconds, in this case the main thread and not the one represented by tPhoto. Finally, after performing some other work, the main thread checks to see if tPhoto is still executing by checking the IsAlive property. If so, messages to that effect are relayed to the user before calling the Join method. This method synchronizes the two threads by blocking (suspending execution of the current thread) until the thread on which the method was called has stopped.

TIP

Unrelated to the Priority property previously mentioned, the CLR makes a distinction between threads that run in the foreground and those that run in the background. If a thread is marked as a background thread, the CLR does not wait for it to finish in the event that the AppDomain is shut down. As discussed in the previous section, the threads created by the runtime when using asynchronous file I/O are background threads and so you'd want to make sure the main thread of your code did not finish before the I/O was complete. Conversely, by default threads created as shown above are marked as foreground and consequently their IsBackground property is set to False.

Although not shown in the snippet, during the execution of the thread it can be suspended using the Suspend method and then subsequently resumed with Resume. In addition the thread can be deallocated using the Abort method, which raises an exception inside the thread.

Synchronizing Access to Resources

Typically you'll want to run processes on separate threads that do not require access to shared resources. The recommended way to do this is as follows:

  1. Encapsulate the process that is to be run in a class that exposes an entry point used to start the process, i.e. Public Sub Start() and instance variables to handle the state.

  2. Create a separate instance of the class.

  3. Set any instance variables required by the process.

  4. Invoke the entry point on a separate thread.

  5. Do not reference the instance variables of the class.

By following this approach, all of the instance variables will be "private" to the thread and can be used without fear of synchronization problems.

However, that may not always be possible in the case of database connections or file handles, for example. In order to ensure that threads wait for each other when accessing these resources, you can use the Monitor class and its associated Enter, Exit, TryEnter, Wait, Pulse, and PulseAll methods.

For example, assume the Instructors class used in the previous snippet includes a class level SqlConnection object shared by all methods and used to connect to the database. This is an example of a resources shared by all methods in the class.

NOTE

Although using connection pooling, as discussed in Chapter 7, would provide a more scalable solution, this example serves our current purpose and allows all database access to go through a single database connection. This approach might be warranted for applications that require a constant database connection but probably not for distributed applications.

In this case assume that after the call to GetPhotos the client continues on and subsequently calls a method that attempts to use the connection object. Since the connection may be in use by GetPhotos, the method may throw an exception if the SqlConnection is busy processing other results.

To avoid this situation, the GetPhotos method can use shared methods of the Monitor to class to create critical section inside of its code. Simply put, a critical section is a block of code enclosed by calls to the Enter and Exit methods of the Monitor class through which access must be synchronized based on the object passed to the Enter method. In other words, if the GetPhotos method wishes to exclusively use the SqlConnection for a block of statements it must create a critical section by passing the SqlConnection to the Enter method of Monitor at the beginning of the section and invoke Exit when it is finished. The object passed can be any object derived from System.Object.

If the object is currently being used by another thread the Enter method will block until the object is released. Alternatively, you can call the TryEnter method, which will not block, and simply returns a Boolean value indicating whether the object is in use. Once safely in the critical section, the GetPhotos method can use the SqlConnection to execute a stored procedure and write out the results. After closing the resulting SqlDataReader the Pulse method of the Monitor class is called to inform the next thread in the wait queue that the object is free. This moves the thread to the ready queue so that is ready for processing. The PulseAll method informs all waiting threads that the object is about to be freed. Finally, a call to Exit is made which releases the monitor and ends the critical section. The skeleton code for GetPhotos with the monitoring code can be seen in Listing 11.8.

Listing 11.8 Synchronizing Resources. This example shows how the GetPhotos method would use the Monitor class to ensure that two threads do not attempt to use the SqlConnection object simultaneously.

Public Sub GetPhotos()

 Dim cmSQL As SqlCommand
 Dim sdrIns As SqlDataReader

 Try
  ' Execute proc
  cmSQL = New SqlCommand("usp_GetPhotos", mcnSQL)
  cmSQL.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure

  ' Enter critical section
  Monitor.Enter(mcnSQL)
  '  Alternate code
'  Do While Not Monitor.TryEnter(mcnSQL)
'   Thread.CurrentThread.Sleep(100)
'  Loop
  sdrIns = cmSQL.ExecuteReader()
 Catch e As Exception
 End Try

 Do While sdrIns.Read
  ' Read the data and write it to a binary stream
 Loop

 sdrIns.Close
 Monitor.Pulse(mcnSQL)
 Monitor.Exit(mcnSQL)
  ' Exited critical section

 Return
End Sub

Obviously, critical sections should only be created when absolutely necessary since they slow overall throughput since they have the effect of blocking threads.

A simpler technique that can be used to synchronize instance variables that are shared between threads is to use the Interlocked class. This class contains shared Increment and Decrement methods that combine the operations of changing the variable and checking the result into a single atomic operation. This is needed since a thread could change the value of a variable and then have its time slice expire before being able to check the result. In the intervening time before the thread was again run the variable could have been changed by another thread.

For example the following code increments the mPhotosProcessed instance level variable of the Instructors class:

Interlocked.Increment(mPhotosProcessed)

The Interlocked class also supports Exchange and CompareExchange to set a variable to a specified value and to do so only if the variable is equal to a specified value, respectively.

Using Thread Local Storage

Although in the ideal case your threads will use instance variables that are in effect private to the thread, there may be times when your thread runs a method in an object that may be shared by other threads. If so your thread may need to store and retrieve its own truly private data. This may be the case, for example, when a thread in a thread pool monitors an MSMQ queue and needs to store data pulled from the queue to be used for later processing.

As it turns out each thread in a Windows operating system contains its own thread local storage (TLS) used to track state information. Luckily the Thread class makes accessing TLS simple by exposing a set of methods to create and manipulate memory areas in the TLS called data slots.

As to the particulars, the Thread class exposes the shared AllocateNamedDataSlot method that creates a new data slot on all threads in the AppDomain with a specific name. This slot can subsequently be populated and read using the SetData and GetData methods. For example, assume there is a class called WorkerClass that performs some processing activity and we want to create a certain number of threads to perform the work. The following code snippet creates a data slot called "ID" for all threads and then spins up the appropriate number of threads on the StartWork method of the objWorker instance:

Dim dssSlot As LocalDataStoreSlot
Dim tNew As Thread
Dim objWorker As WorkerClass

dssSlot = Thread.AllocateNamedDataSlot("ID")

For i = 0 to intMaxThreads
 tNew = New Thread(New ThreadStart(AddressOf objWorker.StartWork)
 tNew.Start
Next

Notice that since all of the new threads will share the instance variables associated with objWorker, the StartWorker method and any methods called by Start would need to use synchronization to prevent concurrent access to these variables. However, if the threads each require their own data to be shared between methods they can place a copy in the "ID" slot in TLS like so.

Public Sub Start()
 Dim dssIDSlot As LocalDataStoreSlot
 Dim myID As Integer

 ' Do other work

 dssIDSlot = Thread.GetNamedDataSlot("ID")
 Thread.SetData(dssIDSlot, myID)
 Call NextProcess()
End Sub

Private Sub NextProcess()
 Dim myID As Integer
 Dim dssIDSlot As LocalDataStoreSlot

 dssIDSlot = Thread.GetNamedDataSlot("ID")
 myID = Thread.GetData(dssIDSlot)

 ' Do other work
End Sub

When the NextProcess method is called, the data can once again be read from the slot, using GetData as shown.

Once again it should be pointed out that the design pattern discussed in the previous section is the one that should be employed where possible. Only when your designs are more complicated and require concurrent access to the same object from multiple threads would you consider using TLS.

Using Thread Pools

While you can create and manage your own threads using the Thread class, the System.Threading namespace also provides a simple way to use threads from a pool allocated by the CLR. This is possible since the CLR automatically creates and manages one thread pool per process that it uses to handle asynchronous operations such as file I/O and events, as we've seen earlier. Within the pool, one thread is assigned Highest priority and is used to monitor the status of the other threads on the queue. Using the ThreadPool class, your code can tap into this pool to make more efficient use of this architecture already employed by the runtime. In essence, the ThreadPool class allows you to post work items, i.e. methods to execute, to the pool that are subsequently serviced by worker threads.

As mentioned earlier, using threads should be reserved only for applications that require it and only after careful analysis. For example, a good use of the thread pool might be in a Windows service application that listens for new messages entering one or more message queues. Although as we'll see in Chapter 13, the System.Messaging namespace supports asynchronous operations, creating a thread pool allows you to control specifics like how many threads are processing messages and how long the threads live.

To give you an example of using the ThreadPool class the simplified classes in Listing 11.9 will be used to monitor an MSMQ queue.

Listing 11.9 The QueueListener class. This class uses the ThreadPool class to monitor an MSMQ queue.

Option Strict Off

Imports System
Imports System.Threading
Imports System.Messaging
Imports Microsoft.VisualBasic

  Public Class QueueListener
    ' Used to listen for MSMQ messages

    Protected Class EventState
      ' Used to store the event and any other state data required by the listener
      Public ResetEvent As ManualResetEvent
      Public ThreadName As String

      Public Overloads Sub New(ByVal myEvent As ManualResetEvent)
        MyBase.New()
        ResetEvent = myEvent
      End Sub

      Public Overloads Sub New(ByVal myEvent As ManualResetEvent, ByVal Name As String)
        MyBase.New()
        ResetEvent = myEvent
        ThreadName = Name
      End Sub
    End Class


    Private mstrMachine As String
    Private mstrQueue As String
    Private mWorkItems As Integer = 7
    Private mFinished As Boolean = False
    Dim mEvs() As ManualResetEvent

    Public Property WorkItems() As Integer
      Get
        Return mWorkItems
      End Get
      Set(ByVal Value As Integer)
        If Value > 15 Then
          mWorkItems = 15
        Else
          mWorkItems = Value
        End If
      End Set
    End Property

    Public Sub New(ByVal Machine As String, ByVal Queue As String)
      ' Constructor accepts the necessary queue information
      mstrMachine = Machine
      mstrQueue = Queue
    End Sub

    Public Sub Listen(ByVal state As Object)
      ' Method that each thread uses to listen for messages

      ' Create a MessageQueue object
      Dim objMQ As System.Messaging.MessageQueue = New System.Messaging.MessageQueue()
      ' Create a Message object
      Dim objMsg As System.Messaging.Message ' = New System.Messaging.Message()
      ' Event from the state
      Dim evs As ManualResetEvent

      ' Cast the state into the event
      evs = state.ResetEvent

      ' Set the priority and name
      Thread.CurrentThread.Priority = ThreadPriority.BelowNormal
      Try
        If Not state.ThreadName Is Nothing Then
          Thread.CurrentThread.Name = state.ThreadName
        End If
      Catch e As Exception
        ' Thread name can only be set once
        ' Don't set it and get out
      End Try

      'Console.WriteLine("Listen {0} ", state.ThreadName)
      Try
        ' Set the path property on the MessageQueue object, assume private in this case
        objMQ.Path = mstrMachine & "\private$\" & mstrQueue
        ' Repeat until Interrupt received
        While True
          Try
            ' Sleep in order to catch the interrupt if it has been thrown
            Thread.CurrentThread.Sleep(100)

            ' Set the Message object equal to the result from the receive function
            ' Will block for 1 second if a message is not received
            objMsg = objMQ.Receive(New TimeSpan(0, 0, 0, 1))

            ' Message found so signal the event to say we're working
            evs.Reset()
            ' Processing the message
            ProcessMsg(objMsg)
            ' Done processing

          Catch e As ThreadInterruptedException
            ' Catch the ThreadInterrupt from the main thread and exit
            Exit While
          Catch excp As MessageQueueException
            ' Catch any exceptions thrown in receive
            ' Probable timeout
          Finally
            ' Console.WriteLine("Setting Event " & Thread.CurrentThread.GetHashCode())
            ' Done with this iteration of the loop so set the event
            evs.Set()
          End Try

          ' If finished then exit thread
          If mFinished Then
            'console.WriteLine("exiting " & thread.CurrentThread.GetHashCode)
            Exit While
          End If

        End While

      Catch e As ThreadInterruptedException
        ' Catch the ThreadInterrupt from the main thread and exit
      End Try

    End Sub

    Private Sub ProcessMsg(ByVal pMsg As Message)
      ' Here is where we would process the message
    End Sub

    Public Sub Monitor()
      Dim intItem As Integer
      Dim objState As EventState

      ReDim mEvs(mWorkItems)
      mFinished = False

      'Console.WriteLine("Queuing {0} items to Thread Pool", mWorkItems)

      For intItem = 0 To mWorkItems - 1
        'Console.WriteLine("Queue to Thread Pool {0}", intItem)
        mEvs(intItem) = New ManualResetEvent(False)
        objState = New EventState(mEvs(intItem), "Worker " & intItem)
        ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem(New WaitCallback(AddressOf Me.Listen), _
            objState)
      Next

    End Sub

    Public Sub Finish(Optional ByVal pTimeout As Integer = 0)
      'Console.WriteLine("Waiting for Thread Pool to drain")
      ' Make sure everyone gets through the last iteration
      mFinished = True
      ' Block until all have been set
      If pTimeout = 0 Then
        WaitHandle.WaitAll(mEvs) ' Waiting until all threads signal that they are done.
      Else
        WaitHandle.WaitAll(mEvs, pTimeout, True)
      End If
      'Console.WriteLine("Thread Pool has been drained (Event fired)")
    End Sub

  End Class

Notice that the listing contains two classes: EventState, which is a protected child class, and QueueListener. As we'll see, EventState contains a field called ResetEvent of the type ManualResetEvent that will be used to ensure that any worker thread can finish its work without interruption by signaling what state it is in using the ResetEvent field. The class also contains a ThreadName field used to set the name of thread associated with the class for debugging purposes.

TIP

Figure 11.2 shows VS.NET in debug mode when running this multithreaded listener application. Note that the drop-down window displays each thread with its associated name. By selecting the thread the code window shifts to the point at which that thread is currently executing. Note that a thread can only have its name set once and so in a situation where work items may end up using the same thread, the code must trap for an exception when setting the Name property.

Figure 11.2 Debugging multithreaded applications. This screen shot shows the debugger with the threads drop down exposed. Clicking on a thread shows the point at which the thread is paused

The QueueListener class is the class that actually polls the MSMQ queue on multiple threads and contains a constructor that accepts the machine name and queue name to monitor. The public Listen method receives messages from the queue while the public Monitor method initiates the process and creates the thread pool. The private ProcessMsg method is a stub that is used to process a message when it is received. Finally, the public Finish method can be called with an optional timeout argument to allow the threads used by the QueueListener class to complete their work within a specified time period.

To begin, notice that the Listen method accepts a state object as parameter. This object will contain an instance of EventState that will be used by Listen to signal when the method is in the midst of processing a message and when it is done. Doing so will ensure that the Finish method blocks until all the threads finish their current processing. After setting the ThreadPriority and Name and retrieving the EventState, you'll notice that the method simply contains a While loop inside a Try block. This loop repeatedly calls the Receive method of the MessageQueue class that returns the first available message within a specified timeout period. In this case, a TimeSpan object (discussed in chapter 12) is used to instruct the Receive method to block for one second before returning if there is no message. In the event that no message is received, a MessageQueueException will be thrown. Note that if a message is received, the method continues and calls the Reset method of the ResetEvent field in the EventState object. In either case, the Finally block calls the Set method of the ResetEvent field to signal that the thread is finished processing for this iteration of the loop.

As mentioned previously, the ResetEvent field of EventState contains an instance of ManualResetEvent, an event object whose signaled and non-signaled states can be manually changed using the Reset and Set methods. When the Reset method is called the state is changed to non-signaled to indicate that the thread is busy. When the state is set to signaled with the Set event, the thread is finished doing its useful work and can be safely destroyed.

The interesting work is actually performed by the Monitor method. In this method, a class level array of ManualResetEvent objects is created of the same size as the number of work items that will be serviced by the pool.

NOTE

Remember that work items are not the same thing as threads in this context. Work items are serviced by threads but your application could conceivably create more work items than there are threads available. Currently the runtime supports a thread pool size of 30, so posting more than 30 work items to the pool will automatically cause some work items to wait until the processing of other work items is completed. In this example, more than 30 work items would never run since each work item invokes Listen, which essentially keeps control of the thread until the Finish method is called. That, and to make sure that the runtime has available threads for other purposes such as firing events, is the reason the WorkItems property is capped at 15.

Note that the number of work items can be set by the WorkItems property of the QueueListener class, although it is defaulted to seven. A For loop is then used to create each of the ManualResetEvent objects and associate them with a new instance of EventState. The resulting object, objState, is then passed as the second argument to the shared QueueUserWorkItem method of the ThreadPool class. As implied by the name, this method queues a work item to the thread pool managed by the runtime to be serviced by the next available worker thread. The first argument specifies the method to call back into when the work item begins execution, in this case Listen. By passing the EventState as the second argument, the Listen method can retrieve the object and use any state information stored inside as discussed previously. In this case, the state consists of the name of the thread to use in debugging and a ManualResetEvent object used to synchronize the thread. Once the loop has completed, the specified number of work items will have been queued for execution by the thread pool. At this point the threads will continually check the specified queue for new messages.

When the client finally calls the Finish method to complete execution the method first sets the private mFinished variable to True. This variable is checked on each iteration of the loop in the Listen method and if set to True exits the loop, freeing the thread to return to the pool. The Finish method then uses the shared WaitAll method of the WaitHandle class to block until all of the ManualReset event objects in the mEvs array have been set to a signaled state (True). The optional second argument used if the timeout value is passed to the method, specifies the time period to wait for this to occur before unblocking the current thread. Using this approach ensures that the Finish method will block until each worker thread has completed its current iteration of the loop in the Listen method. Note that the threads are actually returned to the pool and not destroyed. As a result another call to Monitor will reuse the existing threads and will not incur the overhead of recreating them.

For the client using the QueueListener class, the implementation is straightforward as shown in the following snippet:

Dim objQ As New QueueListener("ssosa", "tester")

objQ.WorkItems = 10
objQ.Monitor()

' Do other work here

objQ.Finish()

After instantiating a new object and passing it the machine name and queue to listen for, the number of work item is set and the Monitor method called. At some point later, the client can call the Finish method with the optional timeout to clean up the worker threads.

While this example was created to illustrate how to use the ThreadPool class, it is obviously not the only way to create a pool of threads to perform actions like monitoring a message queue. For example, the QueueListener class could be easily modified to create and track an array of Thread objects from within the class to implement the thread pool. The Finish method could then have executed a loop after setting the mFinished flag looking at the IsAlive property to determine when the thread pool was drained rather than using a ManualResetEvent object. In addition, the technique shown in the previous section for using TLS could have been used to pass state information to the threads. In many respects, this architecture would allow you more control over the threads and in fact, for scenarios where the runtime managed thread pool is already heavily used or where more worker threads are needed, this alternate approach would be preferred.

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Other Collection and Use of Information


Application and System Logs

Pearson automatically collects log data to help ensure the delivery, availability and security of this site. Log data may include technical information about how a user or visitor connected to this site, such as browser type, type of computer/device, operating system, internet service provider and IP address. We use this information for support purposes and to monitor the health of the site, identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents and appropriately scale computing resources.

Web Analytics

Pearson may use third party web trend analytical services, including Google Analytics, to collect visitor information, such as IP addresses, browser types, referring pages, pages visited and time spent on a particular site. While these analytical services collect and report information on an anonymous basis, they may use cookies to gather web trend information. The information gathered may enable Pearson (but not the third party web trend services) to link information with application and system log data. Pearson uses this information for system administration and to identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents, appropriately scale computing resources and otherwise support and deliver this site and its services.

Cookies and Related Technologies

This site uses cookies and similar technologies to personalize content, measure traffic patterns, control security, track use and access of information on this site, and provide interest-based messages and advertising. Users can manage and block the use of cookies through their browser. Disabling or blocking certain cookies may limit the functionality of this site.

Do Not Track

This site currently does not respond to Do Not Track signals.

Security


Pearson uses appropriate physical, administrative and technical security measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure.

Children


This site is not directed to children under the age of 13.

Marketing


Pearson may send or direct marketing communications to users, provided that

  • Pearson will not use personal information collected or processed as a K-12 school service provider for the purpose of directed or targeted advertising.
  • Such marketing is consistent with applicable law and Pearson's legal obligations.
  • Pearson will not knowingly direct or send marketing communications to an individual who has expressed a preference not to receive marketing.
  • Where required by applicable law, express or implied consent to marketing exists and has not been withdrawn.

Pearson may provide personal information to a third party service provider on a restricted basis to provide marketing solely on behalf of Pearson or an affiliate or customer for whom Pearson is a service provider. Marketing preferences may be changed at any time.

Correcting/Updating Personal Information


If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as your postal address or email address), we provide a way to correct or update that user's personal data provided to us. This can be done on the Account page. If a user no longer desires our service and desires to delete his or her account, please contact us at customer-service@informit.com and we will process the deletion of a user's account.

Choice/Opt-out


Users can always make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with certain services offered by InformIT. If you choose to remove yourself from our mailing list(s) simply visit the following page and uncheck any communication you no longer want to receive: www.informit.com/u.aspx.

Sale of Personal Information


Pearson does not rent or sell personal information in exchange for any payment of money.

While Pearson does not sell personal information, as defined in Nevada law, Nevada residents may email a request for no sale of their personal information to NevadaDesignatedRequest@pearson.com.

Supplemental Privacy Statement for California Residents


California residents should read our Supplemental privacy statement for California residents in conjunction with this Privacy Notice. The Supplemental privacy statement for California residents explains Pearson's commitment to comply with California law and applies to personal information of California residents collected in connection with this site and the Services.

Sharing and Disclosure


Pearson may disclose personal information, as follows:

  • As required by law.
  • With the consent of the individual (or their parent, if the individual is a minor)
  • In response to a subpoena, court order or legal process, to the extent permitted or required by law
  • To protect the security and safety of individuals, data, assets and systems, consistent with applicable law
  • In connection the sale, joint venture or other transfer of some or all of its company or assets, subject to the provisions of this Privacy Notice
  • To investigate or address actual or suspected fraud or other illegal activities
  • To exercise its legal rights, including enforcement of the Terms of Use for this site or another contract
  • To affiliated Pearson companies and other companies and organizations who perform work for Pearson and are obligated to protect the privacy of personal information consistent with this Privacy Notice
  • To a school, organization, company or government agency, where Pearson collects or processes the personal information in a school setting or on behalf of such organization, company or government agency.

Links


This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects Personal Information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this web site.

Requests and Contact


Please contact us about this Privacy Notice or if you have any requests or questions relating to the privacy of your personal information.

Changes to this Privacy Notice


We may revise this Privacy Notice through an updated posting. We will identify the effective date of the revision in the posting. Often, updates are made to provide greater clarity or to comply with changes in regulatory requirements. If the updates involve material changes to the collection, protection, use or disclosure of Personal Information, Pearson will provide notice of the change through a conspicuous notice on this site or other appropriate way. Continued use of the site after the effective date of a posted revision evidences acceptance. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about the Privacy Notice or any objection to any revisions.

Last Update: November 17, 2020