Using a dispatch timer in conjunction with an asynchronous call

We have an issue in our Silverlight application that uses WCF and Entity Framework where we need to catch an event when the user closes the application by closing the web page or browser instead of closing the silverlight application. This is done in order to check if any changes have been made, in which case we ask the user if they want to save before leaving.

We were able to accomplish the part about catching the webpage closing: we wrote code in the application object that calls the webpage method in the silverlight application object. The problem starts when in this method we make an asynchronous call to the web service to check if a change has occurred (IsDirty). We use a DispatcherTimer to check the return of an asynchronous call. The problem is that the asynchronous call never completes (in debug mode, it never finishes in the _BfrServ_Customer_IsDirtyCompleted method), while it worked great before we added this new functionality.

Below you will find the code we are using.

I'm new to writing timers combined with asynchronous calling, so I might be doing something wrong, but I can't figure out what. I have tried other things as well, but we have no success.

====================== CODE =========================== ================================================== =========

''# Code in the application object 

Public Sub New()

  InitializeComponent()

  RegisterOnBeforeUnload()

  _DispatcherTimer.Interval = New TimeSpan(0, 0, 0, 0, 500)

End Sub


Public Sub RegisterOnBeforeUnload()

  ''# Register Silverlight object for availability in Javascript.

  Const scriptableObjectName As String = "Bridge"

  HtmlPage.RegisterScriptableObject(scriptableObjectName, Me)

  ''# Start listening to Javascript event.

  Dim pluginName As String = HtmlPage.Plugin.Id

  HtmlPage.Window.Eval(String.Format("window.onbeforeunload = function () {{ var slApp = document.getElementById('{0}'); var result = slApp.Content.{1}.OnBeforeUnload(); if(result.length > 0)return result;}}", pluginName, scriptableObjectName))

End Sub


Public Function OnBeforeUnload() As String

  Dim userControls As List(Of UserControl) = New List(Of UserControl)

  Dim test As Boolean = True

  If CType(Me.RootVisual, StartPage).LayoutRoot.Children.Item(0).GetType().Name = "MainPage" Then

    If Not CType(CType(Me.RootVisual, StartPage).LayoutRoot.Children.Item(0), MainPage).FindName("Tab") Is Nothing Then

      If CType(CType(Me.RootVisual, StartPage).LayoutRoot.Children.Item(0), MainPage).FindName("Tab").Items.Count >= 1 Then

        For Each item As TabItem In CType(CType(Me.RootVisual, StartPage).LayoutRoot.Children.Item(0), MainPage).Tab.Items

          If item.Content.GetType().Name = "CustomerDetailUI"

            _Item = item

            WaitHandle = New AutoResetEvent(False)

            DoAsyncCall()

            Exit

          End If

        Next

      End If

    End If

  End If

  If _IsDirty = True Then

    Return "Do you want to save before leaving."

  Else

    Return String.Empty

  End If

End Function


Private Sub DoAsyncCall()

  _Item.Content.CheckForIsDirty(WaitHandle) ''# This code resides in the CustomerDetailUI UserControl - see below for the code

End Sub


Private Sub _DispatcherTimer_Tick(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles _DispatcherTimer.Tick

  If Not _Item.Content._IsDirtyCompleted = True Then

    Exit Sub

  End If

  _DispatcherTimerRunning = False

  _DispatcherTimer.Stop()

  ProcessAsyncCallResult()

End Sub


Private Sub ProcessAsyncCallResult()

  _IsDirty = _Item.Content._IsDirty

End Sub




''# CustomerDetailUI code

Public Sub CheckForIsDirty(ByVal myAutoResetEvent As AutoResetEvent)

  _AutoResetEvent = myAutoResetEvent

  _BfrServ.Customer_IsDirtyAsync(_Customer) ''# This method initiates asynchroneous call to the web service - all the details are not shown here 

  _AutoResetEvent.WaitOne()

End Sub


Private Sub _BfrServ_Customer_IsDirtyCompleted(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As BFRService.Customer_IsDirtyCompletedEventArgs) Handles _BfrServ.Customer_IsDirtyCompleted

  If _IsDirtyFromRefesh Then

    _IsDirtyFromRefesh = False

    If e.Result = True Then

      Me.Confirm("This customer has been modified. Are you sure you want to refresh your data ? " & vbNewLine & " Your changes will be lost.", "Yes", "No", Message.CheckIsDirtyRefresh)

    End If

    Busy.IsBusy = False

  Else

    If e.Result = True Then

      _IsDirty = True

      Me.Confirm("This customer has been modified. Would you like to save?", "Yes", "No", Message.CheckIsDirty)

    Else

      Me.Tab.Items.Remove(Me.Tab.SelectedItem)

      Busy.IsBusy = False

    End If

  End If

  _IsDirtyCompleted = True

  _AutoResetEvent.Set()

End Sub