Making a splash screen

Question

The concept of a splash screen doesn\'t strike me as something that should be so complicated, but I\'m having trouble getting the whole splash screen painted.

Let\'s

Answer 1

Why not when you run the app open a form which loads whatever you need to load into a class, then when it's done loading, open your main form and send the class into it? Alternatively you can use a singleton to load everything.

In your Program.cs:

    [STAThread]
    static void Main()
    {
        Application.EnableVisualStyles();
        Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);
        Application.Run(new SplashScreen());
    }

Then in SplashScreen:

    public SplashScreen()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
        LoadEverything();
        this.Visible = false;
        MainForm mainForm = new MainForm(LoadedClass);
        mainForm.ShowDialog();
        this.Close();
    }

I need to update this:

Here's working code (the above is just the concept).

    public SplashScreen()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
        _currentDispatcher = Dispatcher.CurrentDispatcher;

        // This is just for the example - start a background method here to call
        // the LoadMainForm rather than the timer elapsed
        System.Timers.Timer loadTimer = new System.Timers.Timer(2000);
        loadTimer.Elapsed += LoadTimerElapsed;
        loadTimer.Start();
    }

    public void LoadMainForm()
    {
        // Do your loading here
        MainForm mainForm = new MainForm();

        Visible = false;
        mainForm.ShowDialog();
        System.Timers.Timer closeTimer = new System.Timers.Timer(200);
        closeTimer.Elapsed += CloseTimerElapsed;

        closeTimer.Start();
    }

    private Dispatcher _currentDispatcher;

    private void CloseTimerElapsed(object sender, System.Timers.ElapsedEventArgs e)
    {
        if (sender is System.Timers.Timer && sender != null)
        {
            (sender as System.Timers.Timer).Stop();
            (sender as System.Timers.Timer).Dispose();
        }
        _currentDispatcher.BeginInvoke(new Action(() => Close()));
    }

    private void LoadTimerElapsed(object sender, System.Timers.ElapsedEventArgs e)
    {
        if (sender is System.Timers.Timer && sender != null)
        {
            (sender as System.Timers.Timer).Stop();
            (sender as System.Timers.Timer).Dispose();
        }
        _currentDispatcher.BeginInvoke(new Action(() => LoadMainForm()));
    }

Answer 2

Try putting the call to loadAndCheckDatabase in a background thread, moving the close of the splash screen there, or simply closing it with a timer in the splash screen. With the work in a background thread, the all UI functions will be able to operate without interruption.

Answer 3

You can use the await command with .Net Framework 4.5 Your form will not be visible until the task is completed

    private void YourForm_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        //call SplashScreen form
        SplashScreen splash = new SplashScreen();
        splash.Show();
        Application.DoEvents();
        //Run your long task while splash screen is displayed i.e. loadAndCheckDatabase
        Task processLongTask = loadAndCheckDatabase();
        //wait for the task to be completed
        processLongTask.Wait();
        splash.Close();

        //...
    }

Answer 4

You are displaying the splash screen and checking your database on the same thread. The thread can only do one thing at a time.

A quick and cheap way to fix this is to have loadAndCheckDatabase() call Application.DoEvents() periodically. However that's a cheap fix.

You really want to run loadAndCheckDatabase() on its own thread, a BackgroundWorker is a nice simple way to do this.

Answer 5

Like me you probably created this as an afterthought and do not want to go through all the heck of redesigning your code to fit multi-threaded architecture...

First create a new Form called SpashScreen, in the properties click on BackgroundImage and import whatever image you want. Also set FormBorderStyle to None so that you can't click on the x to close the screen.

    public Form1()
    {
        InitializeComponent();

        BackgroundWorker bw = new BackgroundWorker();
        bw.WorkerSupportsCancellation = true;
        bw.DoWork += new DoWorkEventHandler(bw_DoWork);
        bw.RunWorkerAsync();  // start up your spashscreen thread
        startMainForm();      // do all your time consuming stuff here  
        bw.CancelAsync();     // close your splashscreen thread  
    }


    private void bw_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
    {
        BackgroundWorker worker = sender as BackgroundWorker;

        SplashScreen ss = new SplashScreen();
        ss.Show();

        while (!worker.CancellationPending) //just hangout and wait
        {
            Thread.Sleep(1000);
        }

        if (worker.CancellationPending)
        {
            ss.Close();
            e.Cancel = true;
        }

    }

This does not support progress bar or any fancy stuff but I am sure it can be tweaked.

Answer 6

You should be running the splash screen in a different thread, that should allow it to draw properly.

Have a look here:

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cs/prettygoodsplashscreen.aspx