async await - Long running task in WebAPI

Question

Here's my problem: I need to call multiple 3rd party methods inside an ApiController. The signature for those methods is Task DoSomethingAsync(SomeClass someData, SomeOtherClass moreData). I want those calls to continue running in the background, after the ApiController has sent the data back to the client. When DoSomethingAsync completes I want to do some logging and maybe save some data to the file system. How can I do that? I'd prefer to use the asyny/await syntax.

Answer 1

Great news, there is a new solution in .NET 4.5.2 called the QueueBackgroundWorkItem API. It's really simple to use:

HostingEnvironment.QueueBackgroundWorkItem(ct => DoSomething(a, b, c));

Here's an article that describes it in detail.

https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/webdev/2014/06/04/queuebackgroundworkitem-to-reliably-schedule-and-run-background-processes-in-asp-net/

And here's anohter article that mentions a few other approaches not mentioned in this thread. http://www.hanselman.com/blog/HowToRunBackgroundTasksInASPNET.aspx