How to add a new thread for executing particular function in ASP.NET website?

In my website, I want to create a separate thread for a process which needs to constantly run in the background. I want to use threading so that my website performance is not degraded.

I want to create thread for following code.

  [WebMethod]
    public void iterativeFunction()
    {
        int count = 0;
        DateTime date1 = new DateTime(2011,5,31);
        while (System.DateTime.Compare(System.DateTime.Now,date1)<0)
        {
            downloadAndParse();

            count++;
        }
    }

How should I add a n开发者_如何学JAVAew thread for this function?

Something like this:

public static class BackgroundHelper
{
    private static readonly object _syncRoot = new object();
    private static readonly ManualResetEvent _event = new ManualResetEvent(false);
    private static Thread _thread;

    public static bool Running { get; private set; }

    public static void Start()
    {
        lock (_syncRoot)
        {
            if (Running)
                return;

            Running = true;

            // Reset the event so we can use it to stop the thread.
            _event.Reset();

            // Star the background thread.
            _thread = new Thread(new ThreadStart(BackgroundProcess));
            _thread.Start();
        }
    }

    public static void Stop()
    {
        lock (_syncRoot)
        {
            if (!Running)
                return;

            Running = false;

            // Signal the thread to stop.
            _event.Set();

            // Wait for the thread to have stopped.
            _thread.Join();
            _thread = null;
        }
    }

    private static void BackgroundProcess()
    {
        int count = 0;
        DateTime date1 = new DateTime(2011, 5, 31);
        while (System.DateTime.Compare(System.DateTime.Now, date1) < 0)
        {
            downloadAndParse();

            // Wait for the event to be set with a maximum of the timeout. The
            // timeout is used to pace the calls to downloadAndParse so that
            // it not goes to 100% when there is nothing to download and parse.
            bool result = _event.WaitOne(TimeSpan.FromMinutes(1));

            // If the event was set, we're done processing.
            if (result)
                break;

            count++;
        }
    }

    private static void downloadAndParse()
    {
        // Your download and parse logic here.
    }
}

Then in your web service:

[WebMethod]
public void iterativeFunction()
{
    BackgroundHelper.Start();
}