How to Use Timer in Windows Store Application Using XAML

In this article I will integrate or use the Timer in a Windows Store Application Using XAML and C#. Sometimes the developer needs to do work at some time interval and to delay until that time they need to have a mechanism to automatically trigger an event at a specific time interval. So, this article will help those who want to run their particular block of code at a regular time interval.

So, here I will use the DispatcherTimer class to do that in a Windows Store Application.

Introduction of DispatcherTimer

The DispatcherTimer can be used to run code on the same thread that produces the UI thread. This provides a timer that is integrated into the Dispatcher queue, which is processed at a specified interval of time and at a specified priority.

Here I will discuss some necessary members of this class.

Methods of DispatcherTimer Class.

There are mainly two types of methods of this class.

1. Start: Starts the DispatcherTimer with specified members.
2. Stop: Stops the DispatcherTimer.

Properties of DisptacherTimer Class.

1. Interval: It specified the time interval of the trigger. In the other words it gets or sets the amount of time between interval ticks.
2. IsEnabled: It gets a value that indicates whether the timer is running or not. It returns Boolean, true if the timer is enabled; otherwise, false. By default it sets false.

Event

DispatcherTimer has a Tick event.

• Tick: The Tick event fires after the time specified the for the interval has elapsed.

Note: Tick continues firing at the same interval until the Stop method is called.

So, I think you are now all familiar with the DispatcherTimer Class from the preceding description.

Now, let's start to create an application in which I integrated the DispatcherTimer Class.

First, choose Blank Template of the Windows Store using XAML.

Step 1

After that, I design my UI interface in XAML file, as in:

<Page

x:Class="TimerInWindowsStoreApps.MainPage"

xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"

xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"

xmlns:local="using:TimerInWindowsStoreApps"

xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"

xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"

mc:Ignorable="d" Loaded="Page_Loaded_1" >

<Grid Background="{StaticResource ApplicationPageBackgroundThemeBrush}">

<StackPanel Orientation="Vertical" Margin="20,50" HorizontalAlignment="Center">

<TextBlock x:Name="TimerLog" FontSize="30"></TextBlock>

<TextBlock x:Name="TimerStatus" FontSize="25"></TextBlock>

<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">

<Button x:Name="TimerStart" Content="Start" Click="TimerStart_Click_1"></Button>

<Button x:Name="TimerStop" Content="Stop" Click="TimerStop_Click_1"></Button>

</StackPanel>

</StackPanel>

</Grid>

</Page>

In the above code I use two buttons for starting and stopping the timer and texblocks to display the status of the timer.

Step 2

Now, let's explore the DispatcherTimer Class in .cs file.

First I create a method that sets up all the necssary members of the DispatcherTimer class. Here we need to follow some steps.

1. Create object of DispatcherTimer Class:
   
   DispatcherTimer dispatcherTimer = newDispatcherTimer();
   
2. Registered Tick event:
   

   dispatcherTimer.Tick += dispatcherTimer_Tick;
   

3. Set the Interval property:
   

   dispatcherTimer.Interval = newTimeSpan(0, 0, 1);
   

4. At last, start the timer using Start() method:
   

   dispatcherTimer.Start();
   

5. And, stop the timer using Stop() method:
   

   dispatcherTimer.Stop();