Starting async method as Thread or as Task

Question

I\'m new to C#s await/async and currently playing around a bit.

In my scenario I have a simple client-object which has a WebRequest

Answer 1

Here's an option since you can't call await from inside a constructor.

I would suggest using Microsoft's Reactive Framework (NuGet "Rx-Main").

The code would look like this:

public class Client
{
    System.Net.WebRequest _webRequest = null;
    IDisposable _subscription = null;

    public Client()
    {
        _webRequest = System.Net.WebRequest.Create("some url");
        _webRequest.Method = "POST";

        const string keepAliveMessage = "{\"message\": {\"type\": \"keepalive\"}}";

        var keepAlives =
            from n in Observable.Interval(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(10.0))
            from u in Observable.Using(
                () => new StreamWriter(_webRequest.GetRequestStream()),
                sw => Observable.FromAsync(() => sw.WriteLineAsync(keepAliveMessage)))
            select u;

        _subscription = keepAlives.Subscribe();
    }
}

This code handles all of the threading required and properly disposes of the StreamWriter as it goes.

Whenever you want to stop the keep alives just call _subscription.Dispose().