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.NET Forum / Windows Forms / WinForm General / January 2005Splash screen
Hi, I'm trying to 'hide' the main form of an application until all the layout work is done and all the controls have their final sizes and locations (once the form is displayed you can see the several toolbars, panels and docking sections being resized, drawn for the first time, etc, and makes it looks really unprofessional). What I'm looking for is to only display the form when everything is ready and the form can be displayed instantaneously, just like when a window is restored after being minimized. I've tried the following in Main but yields the same result: MainForm frm = new MainForm(); frm.CreateControl(); frm.PerformLayout(); Application.Run(frm); I'm guessing I need to go deeper and set some window styles or play with double buffering, but maybe there's an easier way. Anyone has any pointers on this or (much better) any sample code? Thanks in advance, Juan Hello, Can you handle all the control layout work in the constructor? If you don't want to do that you could create a public method that can be called before the form is shown. Form frm = new Form(); frm.Layout(); frm.ShowDialog();  SignatureTom Krueger My Blog - http://weblogs.asp.net/tom_krueger Smart Client DevCenter - http://msdn.microsoft.com/smartclient/ Mobile DevCenter - http://msdn.microsoft.com/mobility This posting is provided "as is" with no warranties and confers no rights. > Hi, > [quoted text clipped - 19 lines] > Thanks in advance, > Juan Hi Tom, I'm not doing the layout myself (I'm not setting any properties or calling any methods), rather it's the standard way the controls behave when shown the first time that bothers me. e.g. I see a panel resizing to fill where they are docked to Fill, another panel that paints the background a few seconds after it's shown, etc... looks like the form is being drawn part by part. I realize this is just ~1.5 secs. but it really doesn't make the application look solid. Maybe this is because I'm using the whidbey beta1 version of the framework, but a way to 'hide' the form should be common to .net 1.1 I think... or maybe its the other custom controls I'm using (divil.co.uk's), but none of this should really matter if there's a way to hide the form from the user while this layout work is being done for the first time... Apparently these controls (Panel, ToolStrip+RaftinContainer, etc.) only resize and paint the background once they've been made visible, and I can't make them do it with Form.PerformLayout() or Form.Refresh(), etc... it's only the first time the form is made visible that they start resizing + painting... After that, when I minimize the form and restore it any of this things happen, as the controls have their sizes already, and neither does this happen when I resize the form. What I'm looking for is a way to show the form for the first time instantaneously, like it was a bitmap... and I'm starting to think for that I'd need a way to double buffer the entire form... if that's even possible. BTW, this is the application's main form, so it'd be frm.Show();... or maybe there is a reason I'd want to use ShowDialog regarding this? Thanks for your help, Juan > Hello, > [quoted text clipped - 29 lines] > > Thanks in advance, > > Juan I turns out I *was* actually doing some work setting up a control (the larger one <g>) in a base form class after InitializeComponent(), and doing SuspendLayout() ResumeLayout() on my own. It's been a couple of months I designed that base class and had forgotten about this little method... I was forced to do this because the control wouldn't work in the windows form designer. So now I found the workaround to make it work with the designer, moved the initialization code inside InitializeComponent... added a couple Application.DoEvents() before doing some heavy work (calling webservices to load global data, etc), and finally the form looks like it comes up as a whole the first time its displayed... In any case, regarding my initial question... it would be nice to have a way for us to plug into InitializeComponent before it does all those .ResumeLayout() and .EndInit() 's, or some way of doing a double-buffer on the entire form (I did try Form.DoubleBuffered but didn't seem to have any apparent effect). Any pointers on that? Juan PS. the Remarks for DoubleBuffered state that (emphasis mine) "Buffered graphics can reduce or eliminate flicker that is caused by *progressive redrawing of parts* of a displayed surface. Buffered graphics require that the updated graphics data is first written to a buffer. The data in the graphics buffer is then quickly written to displayed surface memory. The relatively quick switch of the displayed graphics memory typically reduces the flicker that can otherwise occur."... however it didn't seem to do the trick for me at Form.... I'm xposting this to the whidbey ngs. > Hi Tom, > [quoted text clipped - 63 lines] > > > Thanks in advance, > > > Juan The DoubleBuffering does not work completely in Whidbey Beta 1. I beleive the solution for now is setting SetStyle(ControlStyles.AllPaintingInWmPaint, true). I believe in Beta 2, the DoubleBuffering property will do this. Did you acutally get the flickering to stop by putting the code in InitializeComponent? SignatureTom Krueger My Blog - http://weblogs.asp.net/tom_krueger Smart Client DevCenter - http://msdn.microsoft.com/smartclient/ Mobile DevCenter - http://msdn.microsoft.com/mobility This posting is provided "as is" with no warranties and confers no rights. >I turns out I *was* actually doing some work setting up a control (the > larger one <g>) in a base form class after InitializeComponent(), and [quoted text clipped - 111 lines] >> > > Thanks in advance, >> > > Juan Hi Tom, Yes, I had something like this: ... override ... OnLoad(...) { Setup(); } private DocumentContainer docs; void Setup() { this.SuspendLayout(); docs = new DocumentContainer(); docs.Size = docs.Dock = docs.Name = etc. etc. etc. panelThat.Controls.Add(docs); this.ResumeLayout(); } I only moved this into InitializeComponent in the way the designer would put it (moving each line to the area of the method the designer would put them), installed the control's assembly into the GAC (which is the workaround for the divil.co.uk controls to work ok with the whidbey designer), et voil?. I can really see the difference. So, this is the equivalent to two things: moving my control creation code to the constructor *and* moving it to the same block that creates its parent controls and the rest of the controls that affect its layout before doing the first layout and displaying them all. Cheers, Juan > The DoubleBuffering does not work completely in Whidbey Beta 1. I beleive > the solution for now is setting SetStyle(ControlStyles.AllPaintingInWmPaint, [quoted text clipped - 118 lines] > >> > > Thanks in advance, > >> > > Juan Yes, moving it to the constructor or called from the constructor is was my first thought. You may have problems seeing it in the designer though. I forget, but I believe the constructor doesn't get called from the designer just InitializeComponent. If this is the case and is a problem, I believe you can work around this by from a base form, because the base forms constructor gets called. You know what, this might not be correct. I thought this is how it worked, however, it just doesn't seem to make sense. I'm going to have to test it, but I don't have time right now. If you still are having a problem, let me know and I will look into it further. Take care, SignatureTom Krueger My Blog - http://weblogs.asp.net/tom_krueger Smart Client DevCenter - http://msdn.microsoft.com/smartclient/ Mobile DevCenter - http://msdn.microsoft.com/mobility This posting is provided "as is" with no warranties and confers no rights. > Hi Tom, > [quoted text clipped - 181 lines] >> >> > > Thanks in advance, >> >> > > Juan Hi Tom, Yes, you're correct, the designer only serializes the contents of InitializeComponent() on the derived form through CodeDom. In case someone reaches this thread looking for more information, here's a nice explanation of the designer behavior: http://blogs.msdn.com/rprabhu/archive/2004/12/12/280823.aspx As to my initial problem, it's been solved entirely. Thanks for your help! Regards, Juan > Yes, moving it to the constructor or called from the constructor is was my > first thought. You may have problems seeing it in the designer though. I [quoted text clipped - 195 lines] > >> >> > > Thanks in advance, > >> >> > > Juan Free MagazinesGet these publications absolutely FREE for up to 12 months. There are no hidden fees and no obligation. Simply choose a title, complete the application form and submit it. Read more ...
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