Interrupt save operation hanging

Unfortunately, there are situations where the application hangs during document saving and ceases to respond. This feature allows you to gracefully cancel long-running operations, such as saving large or complex PDF documents, preventing application freezes, and improving responsiveness. You’ll find the relevant information to integrate this functionality into your applications. Note that this approach ensures that your application remains responsive even during resource-intensive operations.

The ‘InterruptMonitor’ class provides the capability to interrupt the document saving process if it takes too long. (https://reference.aspose.com/pdf/net/aspose.pdf.forms/form/properties/xfa) .

The following code snippet also work with Aspose.PDF.Drawing library.

Using InterruptMonitor

Let us highlight that the implementation involves several key steps:

1. InterruptMonitor Creation: Instantiate an InterruptMonitor object. This object acts as a signal for thread interruption.

2. ThreadLocalInstance Assignment: Before initiating the long-running Aspose.PDF operation, assign the InterruptMonitor instance to InterruptMonitor.ThreadLocalInstance for the current thread. This links the monitor to the thread.

3. Thread Execution: Execute the code containing the Aspose.PDF operation (e.g., Document.Save()) within a separate thread.

4. Interruption Signal: At a suitable point (e.g., after a timeout or user action), call monitor.Interrupt(). This signals the thread to terminate.

5. Exception Handling: The Document.Save() method throws an OperationCanceledException if interrupted. Handle this exception using a try-catch block. Remember that proper exception handling is crucial for application stability.

The following code snippet shows you how to use InterruptMonitor in PDF processing.

.NET Core 3.1

// For complete examples and data files, visit https://github.com/aspose-pdf/Aspose.PDF-for-.NET
private static void InterruptMonitorExample()
{
    // The path to the documents directory
    var dataDir = RunExamples.GetDataDir_AsposePdf_Text();
    // Path to a large text file 
    var longTextFile = dataDir + "LongTextFile.txt";
    var outputFile = dataDir + "interrupt_output.pdf";
    var longText = File.ReadAllText(longTextFile);

    // Create an InterruptMonitor instance
    using (var monitor = new InterruptMonitor())
    {
        // Create a RowSpanWorker instance, passing the monitor
        var worker = new RowSpanWorker(outputFile, monitor, longText);

        // Start the worker thread
        var thread = new Thread(worker.Work);
        thread.Start();

        // Simulate a timeout (adjust as needed)
        Thread.Sleep(500);

        // Interrupt the thread
        monitor.Interrupt();

        // Wait for the thread to finish
        thread.Join();
    }
}

// Helper class to demonstrate how to handle PDF generation with interruption support
private class RowSpanWorker
{
    private readonly string outputPath;
    private readonly string longText;
    private readonly Aspose.Pdf.Multithreading.InterruptMonitor monitor;

    public RowSpanWorker(string outputPath, Aspose.Pdf.Multithreading.InterruptMonitor monitor, string longText)
    {
        this.outputPath = outputPath;
        this.monitor = monitor;
        this.longText = longText;
    }

    public void Work()
    {
        // Create PDF document
        using (var document  = new Aspose.Pdf.Document())
        {
            // Assign the InterruptMonitor to the current thread
            Aspose.Pdf.Multithreading.InterruptMonitor.ThreadLocalInstance = this.monitor;
            var page = document.Pages.Add();

            var table = new Aspose.Pdf.Table
            {
                DefaultCellBorder = new Aspose.Pdf.BorderInfo(Aspose.Pdf.BorderSide.All, 0.1F)
            };

            var row0 = table.Rows.Add();

            // Add a cell spanning multiple rows with long text
            var cell00 = row0.Cells.Add(this.longText);
            cell00.RowSpan = 2;
            cell00.IsWordWrapped = true;
            row0.Cells.Add("Ipsum Ipsum Ipsum");
            row0.Cells.Add("Dolor Dolor Dolor");

            var row1 = table.Rows.Add();
            row1.Cells.Add("Ipsum Dolor");
            row1.Cells.Add("Dolor Dolor");

            page.Paragraphs.Add(table);

            try
            {
                // Save the document (this operation can be interrupted)
                document.Save(this.outputPath);
            }
            catch (OperationCanceledException ex)
            {
                Console.WriteLine($"Operation cancelled: {ex.Message}");
            }
        }
    }
}

.NET 8

private static void InterruptMonitorExample()
{
    // The path to the documents directory
    var dataDir = RunExamples.GetDataDir_AsposePdf_Text();

    // Construct a long text string to simulate a long process
    var longTextFile = Path.Combine(dataDir, "LongTextFile.txt");
    var outputFile = Path.Combine(dataDir, "interrupt_output.pdf");
    var longText = File.ReadAllText(longTextFile);

    // Create an InterruptMonitor instance
    using Aspose.Pdf.Multithreading.InterruptMonitor monitor = new();

    // Create a RowSpanWorker instance, passing the monitor
    var worker = new RowSpanWorker(outputFile, monitor, longText);

    // Start the worker thread
    var thread = new Thread(worker.Work);
    thread.Start();

    // Simulate a timeout (adjust as needed)
    Thread.Sleep(500);

    // Interrupt the thread
    monitor.Interrupt();

    // Wait for the thread to finish
    thread.Join();    
}

// Helper class to demonstrate how to handle PDF generation with interruption support
public class RowSpanWorker
{
    private readonly string _outputFile;
    private readonly InterruptMonitor _monitor;
    private readonly string _longText;

    public RowSpanWorker(string outputFile, Aspose.Pdf.Multithreading.InterruptMonitor monitor, string longText)
    {
        _outputFile = outputFile;
        _monitor = monitor;
        _longText = longText;
    }

    public void Work()
    {
        // Create PDF document
        using Aspose.Pdf.Document document = new();

        // Assign the InterruptMonitor to the current thread
        Aspose.Pdf.Multithreading.InterruptMonitor.ThreadLocalInstance = this._monitor;
        var page = document.Pages.Add();

        var table = new Aspose.Pdf.Table
        {
            DefaultCellBorder = new Aspose.Pdf.BorderInfo(Aspose.Pdf.BorderSide.All, 0.1F)
        };

        var row0 = table.Rows.Add();

        // Add a cell spanning multiple rows with long text
        var cell00 = row0.Cells.Add(this._longText);
        cell00.RowSpan = 2;
        cell00.IsWordWrapped = true;
        row0.Cells.Add("Ipsum Ipsum Ipsum Ipsum Ipsum Ipsum ");
        row0.Cells.Add("Dolor Dolor Dolor Dolor Dolor Dolor ");

        var row1 = table.Rows.Add();
        row1.Cells.Add("IpsumDolor Dolor Dolor Dolor Dolor ");
        row1.Cells.Add("DolorDolor Dolor Dolor Dolor Dolor ");

        page.Paragraphs.Add(table);
        try
        {
            //Save() operation supports interruption 
            document.Save(this._outputFile);
        }
        catch (OperationCanceledException ex)
        {
            //print operation cancel exception's message to console 
            Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
        }
    }
}