Bind a List to a DataGridView which is filled by an other thread

In .NET v1.1 I already tried to implement a List that tells the DataGrid that it was updated. I managed this through deriving a class from System.Collections.CollectionBase and overriding a bunch of Methods. The Problem was whenever I chaned a property of an item which was already added to this list nothing was updated. I had to implement Events and update the List on my own. Everything was connected and everytime I wanted to use the list for an other Item Type I had to write a lot lines of code. What a waste of time.

Then a few days ago I took a look at Visual Studio 2005 Beta2 and discovered a Class named BindingList which will inform the databinding Control that itself is updated. Besides it is a generic list which makes that thing more type-safe.
I bound the list to a DataGridView and added some items. To cause an update when a bound item's property is changed I had to implement System.ComponentModel.INotifyPropertyChanged Interface. This Interface delivers the PropertyChanged event which informs the databinding control that itself was changed. I think this is a dirty solution but better than .NET v1 in any way.
I implemented the Interface on all objects and raised the event delivered whenever I changed a property. Great job! Everything worked fine!

I didn't care about that thing anymore because it worked fine and integrated it into my application. But I didn't think that multi-threading is such a heavy problem for this Microsoft guys because everytime an item was changed by an other thread I got an exception. Fortunatelly I already implemented a Service which provides UiSafety so I simply had to call this service before I rose the event and my list were updated correctly.

I think noone will talk about in any TechTalk or PDC but in my oppinion it is a great feature saving a lot lines of code although you have to care for thread safety on your own. Good job Microsoft!

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