WPF splash screen until windows ends loading

Question

I have an application that consumes a lot of time when the window loading. In the Window_load event, I read from the database the state and the name of some controls. I want to do a splash screen that will ends after the window will fully load.

I have tried with this example http://www.codeproject.com/KB/dialog/wpf_animated_text_splash.aspx but the splash screen closes before the main window is fully loaded and my mainwindow appears in white and is not fully loaded.

I am beginner in wpf, and I don't know how can I have a splash screen which remain on the screen until the main window fully loads.

Please give me an example.

My Splash Screen Code:

public partial class SplashWindow : Window
    {
        Thread loadingThread;
        Storyboard Showboard;
        Storyboard Hideboard;
        private delegate void ShowDelegate(string txt);
        private delegate void HideDelegate();
        ShowDelegate showDelegate;
        HideDelegate hideDelegate;

        public SplashWindow()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
            showDelegate = new ShowDelegate(this.showText);
            hideDelegate = new HideDelegate(this.hideText);
            Showboard = this.Resources["showStoryBoard"] as Storyboard;
            Hideboard = this.Resources["HideStoryBoard"] as Storyboard;

        }

        private void Window_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            loadingThread = new Thread(load);
            loadingThread.Start();
        }
        private void load()
        {
            Thread.Sleep(6000);

            this.Dispatcher.Invoke(showDelegate, "first data to loading");
            Thread.Sleep(6000);
            //load data 
            this.Dispatcher.Invoke(hideDelegate);

            Thread.Sleep(6000);
            this.Dispatcher.Invoke(showDelegate, "second data loading");
            Thread.Sleep(6000);
            //load data
            this.Dispatcher.Invoke(hideDelegate);


            Thread.Sleep(6000);
            this.Dispatcher.Invoke(showDelegate, "last data loading");
            Thread.Sleep(6000);
            //load data 
            this.Dispatcher.Invoke(hideDelegate);



            //close the window
            Thread.Sleep(6000);
            this.Dispatcher.Invoke(DispatcherPriority.Normal,(Action)delegate() { Close(); });
        }
        private void showText(string txt)
        {
            txtLoading.Text = txt;
            BeginStoryboard(Showboard);
        }
        private void hideText()
        {
            BeginStoryboard(Hideboard);
        }

    }

And this splash screen I will call in my MainWindow constructor:

new SplashWindow().ShowDialog();

But my MainWindow Load function will run after the Splash Window will finish to be showed.

Thank you!

Kent Boogaart Kent Boogaart · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-25T09:14:21

If you use the built-in SplashScreen class, you can call Show(false) to specify that you will be responsible for closing the splash screen. You can then use the Close() method to close it.

Note that the SplashScreen class only supports displaying a static image. It does this for very good reasons though - to get the splash screen up in front of your user as soon as possible.

Code would look something like this:

static class Entry
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        var splashScreen = new SplashScreen("path/to/your/image.png");
        splashScreen.Show(false);

        InitializeLogging();
        InitializeServices();
        InitializeUserInterface();
        InitializeWhateverElseYouNeed();

        splashScreen.Close(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1));
    }
}

WPF splash screen until windows ends loading

4 Answers

Dynamic splash screen (with progress updates etc.)