Can't Run Hotkeys Asynchronously

I have two hotkeys set, one to perform an action and the other to cancel it. The problem is that when I call the second hotkey while the first hotkey is doing something, it doesn’t trigger until after the first one is done.

HotkeyManager.Current.AddOrReplace("Paste", HkTextBox.Hotkey.Key, HkTextBox.Hotkey.Modifiers, AutoPaste);
HotkeyManager.Current.AddOrReplace("CancelPaste", Key.Escape, ModifierKeys.Alt, CancelPaste);

[thomaslevesque]

Task.Factory.StartNew means "run that on a new thread. But Dispatcher.BeginInvoke means “run that on the UI thread”. So there’s no point in starting a new thread just to execute something on the UI thread…

I gave you a few suggestions on how to fix the problem in my previous message, have you tried them? I checked what input.Keyboard.Sleep does, it’s just a Thread.Sleep. So I suggest you do it like this:

private CancellationTokenSource _autoPasteCancellation;

private async void AutoPaste(object sender, HotkeyEventArgs e)
{
    try
    {
        _autoPasteCancellation = new CancellationTokenSource();
        var cancellationToken = _autoPasteCancellation.Token;
        if (WindowState != WindowState.Minimized)
        {
            WindowState = WindowState.Minimized;
            await Task.Delay(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1), cancellationToken);
        }

        InputSimulator input = new InputSimulator();

        for (int i = 0; i < clipboardHistoryItems.Count; i++)
        {
            Clipboard.SetHistoryItemAsContent(clipboardHistoryItems[i]);
            await Task.Delay((int)Delay.Value, cancellationToken);
            input.Keyboard.ModifiedKeyStroke(VirtualKeyCode.CONTROL, VirtualKeyCode.VK_V);
            switch (DelimiterComboBox.SelectedIndex)
            {
                case 1:
                    await Task.Delay((int)Delay.Value, cancellationToken);
                    input.Keyboard.KeyPress(VirtualKeyCode.TAB);
                    break;
                ...
            }
        }

        e.Handled = true;

    }
    catch (OperationCanceledException)
    {
        // The operation was aborted
    }
    catch(Exception ex)
    {
        // Always catch exceptions in an async void method, otherwise it can crash the process
        MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);
    }
    finally
    {
        if (_autoPasteCancellation != null)
            _autoPasteCancellation.Dispose();
        _autoPasteCancellation = null;
    }
}

private void CancelPaste(object sender, HotkeyEventArgs e)
{
    if (_autoPasteCancellation != null)
    {
        _autoPasteCancellation.Cancel();
    }
    e.Handled = true;
}

Anyway, the problems you’re having have nothing to do with NHotkey, so I’m going to close this issue.

[wmortume]

I tried running a new thread on both individually and together but it’s still running synchronously. The only difference this time is that the message box pops up on the screen without me having to click on the application.

private void AutoPaste(object sender, HotkeyEventArgs e)
{
    Task.Factory.StartNew(() =>
    {
        Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(DispatcherPriority.Background, new Action(() =>
        {
            if (WindowState != WindowState.Minimized)
            {
                WindowState = WindowState.Minimized;
                Thread.Sleep(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1));
            }

            Paste = true;
            InputSimulator input = new InputSimulator();

            for (int i = 0; i < clipboardHistoryItems.Count && Paste; i++)
            {
                Clipboard.SetHistoryItemAsContent(clipboardHistoryItems[i]);
                input.Keyboard.Sleep((int)Delay.Value).ModifiedKeyStroke(VirtualKeyCode.CONTROL, VirtualKeyCode.VK_V);
                switch (DelimiterComboBox.SelectedIndex)
                {
                    case 1:
                        input.Keyboard.Sleep((int)Delay.Value).KeyPress(VirtualKeyCode.TAB);
                        break;
                    ...
                }
            }
        }));
    });

private void CancelPaste(object sender, HotkeyEventArgs e)
{
    Task.Factory.StartNew(() =>
    {
        Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(DispatcherPriority.Background, new Action(() =>
        {
            MessageBox.Show("Test");
            //Paste = false;
        }));                
    });
    e.Handled = true;
}