Asp.net MVC Control execute 2 async task - asp.net-mvc

Question

I want to check if this possible, I have an MVC Controller Action method (POST) which should have 2 parallel tasks, completing one of them should return the view based on the result from task that has completed.
Task is not aweb service which has asynchronous options. Assume its more like creating a bunch of file. I really want my task as simple as this.
private static string DoStuff(int sleepTime, string input)
{
Thread.Sleep(sleepTime);
return input;
}
Task would be like - but i dont if this is correct or not because there is not 'await'
public async Task<string> DelayTimerCallAsync()
{
string msgs = DoStuff(Convert.ToInt32(
ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["DelayTimer"]),
"Timeout");
return msgs;
}
Let me know if my question is not clear or if you need more information.
From below update my 2 tasks are like this
public Task<String> DelayTimerCallAsync(CancellationToken cancellationToken)
{
return Task.Run(() =>
{
String messages = null;
return DelayTimer();
}, cancellationToken);
}
public Task<String> BlazeCallAsync(CancellationToken cancellationToken)
{
return Task.Run(() =>
{
String messages = null;
return BlazeCall();
}, cancellationToken);
}
How can I call them and use Task.WhenAny(task1, task2) ?

Answer 1

Not sure if I understand the question, however I'll take a stab at it.
Assuming you have "work" to do (that would normally run synchronously) but would like to wrap that in an async method, it would look sort of like the following:
public Task<String> DelayTimerCallAsync(CancellationToken cancellationToken)
{
return Task.Run(() => {
String messages = null;
/* do work here (assign messages a value) */
return messages;
}, cancellationToken);
}
If you're looking to do the opposite (run a Task synchronously) you can do so easily as well. To help, here's a simple class that makes things a bit easier:
public static class AsyncHelper
{
private static readonly TaskFactory taskFactory = new TaskFactory(CancellationToken.None, TaskCreationOptions.None, TaskContinuationOptions.None, TaskScheduler.Default);
public static void RunSync(Func<Task> func)
{
taskFactory
.StartNew<Task>(func)
.Unwrap()
.GetAwaiter()
.GetResult();
}
public static TResult RunSync<TResult>(Func<Task<TResult>> func)
{
return taskFactory
.StartNew<Task<TResult>>(func)
.Unwrap<TResult>()
.GetAwaiter()
.GetResult();
}
}
You then have the ability to execute Task methods without await. Something like:
// (referencing DelayTimeCallAsync above:
String messages = AsynHelper.RunSync(DelayTimeCallAsync(CancellationToken.None));