Running an async method inside a relaycommand using MVVM

Question

I'm developing an asynchronous application using WPF and MVVM, but I can't seem to get an async method to run inside my relaycommand.

I have a button on my WPF view hooked up to a relaycommand in my viewmodel, which trys to call an async method in my model to return a list of results:

/// <summary>
/// Search results 
/// </summary>
private ObservableCollection<string> _searchResults = new ObservableCollection<string>(); 
public IList<string> SearchResults
{
    get { return _searchResults; }
}

/// <summary>
/// Search button command
/// </summary>
private ICommand _searchCommand;
public ICommand SearchCommand
{
    get
    {
        _searchCommand = new RelayCommand(
            async() =>
            {
                SearchResults.Clear();
                var results = await DockFindModel.SearchAsync(_selectedSearchableLayer, _searchString);
                foreach (var item in results)
                {
                    SearchResults.Add(item);
                }                    
                //notify results have changed
                NotifyPropertyChanged(() => SearchResults);
            },
            () => bAppRunning); //command will only execute if app is running
        return _searchCommand;
    }
}

However I get the following exception when the relaycommand tries to execute:

An unhandled exception of type 'System.AggregateException' occurred in mscorlib.dll

Additional information: A Task's exception(s) were not observed either by Waiting on the Task or accessing its Exception property. As a result, the unobserved exception was rethrown by the finalizer thread.

I've tried a number of things in this thread to try and resolve the issue with no luck. Does anyone know how to resolve this?

Answer 1

Not sure where your RelayCommand is coming from (MVVM framework or custom implementation) but consider using an async version.

public class AsyncRelayCommand : ICommand
{
    private readonly Func<object, Task> execute;
    private readonly Func<object, bool> canExecute;

    private long isExecuting;

    public AsyncRelayCommand(Func<object, Task> execute, Func<object, bool> canExecute = null)
    {
        this.execute = execute;
        this.canExecute = canExecute ?? (o => true);
    }

    public event EventHandler CanExecuteChanged
    {
        add { CommandManager.RequerySuggested += value; }
        remove { CommandManager.RequerySuggested -= value; }
    }

    public void RaiseCanExecuteChanged()
    {
        CommandManager.InvalidateRequerySuggested();
    }

    public bool CanExecute(object parameter)
    {
        if (Interlocked.Read(ref isExecuting) != 0)
            return false;

        return canExecute(parameter);
    }

    public async void Execute(object parameter)
    {
        Interlocked.Exchange(ref isExecuting, 1);
        RaiseCanExecuteChanged();

        try
        {
            await execute(parameter);
        }
        finally
        {
            Interlocked.Exchange(ref isExecuting, 0);
            RaiseCanExecuteChanged();
        }
    }
}