Wait until control layout is finished

Question

I am loading quite a lot of rich text into a RichTextBox (WPF) and I want to scroll to the end of content:

richTextBox.Document.Blocks.Add(...)
richTextBox.UpdateLayout();
richTextBox.ScrollToEnd();

This doesn't work, ScrollToEnd is executed when the layout is not finished, so it doesn't scroll to the end, it scrolls to around the first third of the text.

Is there a way to force a wait until the RichTextBox has finished its painting and layout operations so that ScrollToEnd actually scrolls to the end of the text?

Thanks.

Stuff that doesn't work:

EDIT: I have tried the LayoutUpdated event but it's fired immediately, same problem: the control is still laying out more text inside the richtextbox when it's fired so even a ScrollToEnd there doesn't work... I tried this:

richTextBox.Document.Blocks.Add(...)
richTextBoxLayoutChanged = true;
richTextBox.UpdateLayout();
richTextBox.ScrollToEnd();

and inside the richTextBox.LayoutUpdated event handler:

if (richTextBoxLayoutChanged)
{
    richTextBoxLayoutChanged = false;
    richTextBox.ScrollToEnd();
}

The event is fired correctly but too soon, the richtextbox is still adding more text when it's fired, layout is not finished so ScrollToEnd fails again.

EDIT 2: Following on dowhilefor's answer: MSDN on InvalidateArrange says

After the invalidation, the element will have its layout updated, which will occur asynchronously unless subsequently forced by UpdateLayout.

Yet even

richTextBox.InvalidateArrange();
richTextBox.InvalidateMeasure();
richTextBox.UpdateLayout();

does NOT wait: after these calls the richtextbox is still adding more text and laying it out inside itself asynchronously. ARG!

user_3924292 · Answer

The only (kludge) solution that worked for my WPF project was to fire off a separate thread that slept for a time and then asked to scroll to the end.

It is important to not try to invoke this "sleepy" thread on the main GUI, lest the user would be paused. Therefore, invoke a separate "sleepy" thread and periodically Dispatcher.Invoke on the main GUI thread and ask to scroll to the end.

Works perfectly and the user experience is not terrible:

using System;
using System.Threading;    
using System.Windows.Controls;

try {

    richTextBox.ScrollToEnd();

    Thread thread       = new Thread(new ThreadStart(ScrollToEndThread));
    thread.IsBackground = true;
    thread.Start();

} catch (Exception e) {

    Logger.Log(e.ToString());
}

and

private void ScrollToEndThread() {

// Using this thread to invoke scroll to bottoms on rtb
// rtb was loading for longer than 1 second sometimes, so need to 
// wait a little, then scroll to end
// There was no discernable function, ContextIdle, etc. that would wait
// for all the text to load then scroll to bottom
// Without this, on target machine, it would scroll to the bottom but the
// text was still loading, resulting in it scrolling only part of the way
// on really long text.
// Src: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6614718/wait-until-control-layout-is-finished
    for (int i=1000; i <= 10000; i += 3000) {

        System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(i);

        this.richTextBox.Dispatcher.Invoke(
            new ScrollToEndDelegate(ScrollToEnd),
            System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherPriority.ContextIdle,
            new object[] {  }
            );
    }
}

private delegate void ScrollToEndDelegate();

private void ScrollToEnd() {

    richTextBox.ScrollToEnd();
}

Wait until control layout is finished

8 Answers