question

I am still not getting responses from the API call in my code above using a Form. I do, however, get apiResults from the Console application version of the code from the "Getting Started" example. I can receive the apiResult and parse it for a PlayFabId to feed back to the console.

Going through Microsoft's documentation on C# async programming patterns as I still try to wrap my head around async. It appears that the console application code example has a few workarounds that don't work as soon as you want to separate functions out via normal UI functions like a button click. Can someone provide a clear pattern for calling async API calls using a form control or let me know why the above code doesn't ever return an apiResult/apiError?

Finally solved this after about 10 hours of going through MSDN and reading several long blog posts about asynch patterns. It's really disappointing that the playfab "Getting Started" guide doesn't use a setup that shows how to properly call and listen for asynchronous methods. Using a while loop and listening for a bool is a pattern that falls apart the moment you want any kind of complexity.

I ended up rewriting the above code to use asynch calls all the way down and get away from the coroutine pattern. It works fine now. If anyone's interested I will post the revised code. However, I want to stress again that it would be really nice to see a doc on some recommended methods for asynch playfab API calls in C#.

In response to my own post, I think I've figured out a pattern that will allow the UI controls in the windows form to call events that call asynchronous functions on the program which don't hang the program. I'm leaving the code here for other people who come across it. (At least until there are more examples in the C# getting started demo - as mentioned by Paul above).

Here's the new code for the Form.cs file. Note in particular the events called from the button click are now async. It's async all the way down...

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Windows.Forms;




namespace CSharpGettingStarted
{
    public partial class FormMainWindow : Form
    {
        public FormMainWindow()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }


        private void FormMainWindow_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Form Loaded Successfully!");
            string[] startupMessages = { "Test App Loaded.", "Type in a new username or your old one.", "Then press the button to log in." };


            printMultiGuiLog(startupMessages);
        }


        //Event Handler - Click the Log In button to call async login function
        private async void buttonTestAsync_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            //Since we asynchronously wait, the UI thread is not blocked by the API request.
            string ID = await Program.OnLoginAttemptAsync(textBoxUsernameField.Text);
            printGuiLog(Environment.NewLine + "Async Test Success with ID: " + ID);   //GUI log of result


            string newsUpdate = await Program.GetNewsUpdate();
            printMultiGuiLog(Environment.NewLine + "---TITLE NEWS BEGIN---" + Environment.NewLine);
            printGuiLog(newsUpdate);    //GUI log of Title News
            printMultiGuiLog(Environment.NewLine + "---END OF TITLE NEWS---" + Environment.NewLine);


            string[] inventoryItems = await Program.GetPlayerInventory();
            printMultiGuiLog(Environment.NewLine + "---PLAYER INVENTORY---" + Environment.NewLine);
            printMultiGuiLog(inventoryItems);
            printMultiGuiLog(Environment.NewLine + "---END INVENTORY---" + Environment.NewLine);
        }


        //GUI Function - log messages on GUI
        public void printGuiLog(string message)
        {
            if (message != null)
                textBoxGuiConsole.Text = textBoxGuiConsole.Text + message + Environment.NewLine;
            else
                textBoxGuiConsole.Text = "Error: no message to display.";
        }
        //GUI Function - accept array of strings and display as log messages with new lines
        public void printMultiGuiLog(params string[] theMessages)
        {
            string newLog = string.Join(Environment.NewLine, theMessages);
            Console.Write(newLog);
            printGuiLog(newLog);
        }


    }
}

Here's the code for the Program.cs

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Threading;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using PlayFab;
using PlayFab.Internal;
using PlayFab.ClientModels;
using CSharpGettingStarted;
using System.Windows.Forms;


public static class Program
{
    //private static bool _running = true;
    public static FormMainWindow myForm; // <-- this is the main GUI


    [STAThread]
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        PlayFabSettings.TitleId = "1234"; // Please change this value to your own titleId from PlayFab Game Manager


        //Forms stuff to make these work
        Application.EnableVisualStyles();
        Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);


        //Start the Form GUI
        myForm = new FormMainWindow();
        Application.Run(myForm);
    }


    //Call the PlayFab API with a login request asynchronously and return the user's playfab ID as a string
    public static async Task<string> OnLoginAttemptAsync (string CustomUserID)
    {
        var request = new LoginWithCustomIDRequest { CustomId = CustomUserID, CreateAccount = true };
        var loginTask = await PlayFab.PlayFabClientAPI.LoginWithCustomIDAsync(request).ConfigureAwait(false);
        string sessionTicket = loginTask.Result.SessionTicket;
        string myID = loginTask.Result.PlayFabId;
        return myID;
    }


    public static async Task<string> GetNewsUpdate()
    {
        var newsRequest = new GetTitleNewsRequest();
        var newsTask = await PlayFab.PlayFabClientAPI.GetTitleNewsAsync(newsRequest).ConfigureAwait(false);
        string newsString = newsTask.Result.News[0].Title + Environment.NewLine + newsTask.Result.News[0].Body;
        return newsString;
    }


    public static async Task<string[]> GetPlayerInventory()
    {
        var inventoryRequest = new GetUserInventoryRequest();
        var inventoryTask = await PlayFab.PlayFabClientAPI.GetUserInventoryAsync(inventoryRequest).ConfigureAwait(false);


        int inventoryLen = inventoryTask.Result.Inventory.Count;
        string[] itemNames = new string[0];
        if (inventoryLen <= 0)
        {
            //nothign
        }
        else
        {


            ItemInstance[] items = inventoryTask.Result.Inventory.ToArray();
            // Display elements with ForEach.
            itemNames = new string[inventoryLen];
            int n = 0;
            foreach (ItemInstance i in items)
            {
                itemNames[n] = i.DisplayName;
                    n++;
            }
        }


        return itemNames;
    }




}