Splash Screen [RESOLVED]

[cpatzer]

That doesn’t quite do what I am looking for though as the load method is called after all of the dll's have been loaded and all of the form layout code has been hashed through.

This is the part that takes the time, not any routine that I have of my own.

That's why I was trying to do it with a separate thread in the startup sub so that the splash screen gets launched before any other code is executed, thus spanning the bridge in time between user double clicking on the program and the application actually loading.

Thanks.

[cpatzer]

Hate to do this but still no luck with this. Does anybody have any idea how to create a splash screen simlar to Microsoft Outlook or Adobe Reader...?

It needs to load first before any other code is executed or parsed.

Thanks.

[Aaron Young]

Try this instead:

In your "Splash Screen" Form Add the Following:

Private Shared _SplashScreen As frmSplashScreen
 
   Public Shared Sub ShowSplashScreen()
      If Not _SplashScreen Is Nothing Then
         CloseSplashScreen()
      End If
 
      _SplashScreen = New frmSplashScreen
      _SplashScreen.Show()
   End Sub
 
   Public Shared Sub CloseSplashScreen()
      If Not _SplashScreen Is Nothing Then
         Try
            _SplashScreen.Close()
            _SplashScreen = Nothing
         Catch
 
         End Try
      End If
   End Sub

Assuming your splash screen form is called frmSplashScreen you'd make
your startup object Sub Main which would be in a module:

Module modStartup
   Sub Main()
      frmSplashScreen.ShowSplashScreen()
      Application.Run(New Form1) ' Where "Form1" is the main form that takes a while.
   End Sub
End Module

To close the SplashScreen, do so in at the end of the main form's
Load event, i.e.

Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
      For i As Integer = 1 To 5000
         ' Simulate a load delay
         Console.WriteLine(i)
      Next
      frmSplashScreen.CloseSplashScreen()
   End Sub

Regards,

- Aaron.

[cpatzer]

Aaron,

Ok great, I had to make some changes but was able to get it to work. Your example worked except that the SplashForm would not show any controls just white space where the controls should have been. I was able to get around this by using ShowDialog instead of Show in the ShowSplashScreen sub.

This though introduced a new problem, code execution stopped in the StartUp sub. To get around this I started a new thread:

SplashScreenThread = New System.Threading.Thread(AddressOf SplashScreen.ShowSplashScreen)
            SplashScreenThread.Start()

This works great and accomplished just what I needed.

Thank you for your help!!!


**Edit**

If you use this you will also need to bring to front the main form after the SplashScreen form closes.

Private Sub SplashScreen_Closing(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.ComponentModel.CancelEventArgs) Handles MyBase.Closing
        MainForm.BringToFront()
    End Sub