How To Apply Threading in Loading controls??[Mobile 5.0 VB2005]

[gRob_AndDerSon]

How Can I apply Threading in multiple forms
One of my forms consist of around 100 controls so it took 30 seconds to navigate to that form

I use form.showDialog() to show that form then close it by Me.close(0

I dont Know where to place threading in my application code

[petevick]

Hi,
I don't understand what threading has to do with this? Are you trying to speed up the load of your form? If must be doing something else to take 30 seconds to load. Presumably these controls are in panels or similar?

What is it doing in the load procedure - reading from a database, populating combo boxes?

Pete

[gRob_AndDerSon]

In the Load event of my one form, 10 adapters fill my type datasets

I also bind the specific column of the datatables of the datasets to populate
data in the comboboxes

Also that form has many panels and Tab controls and within are sorts of textboxes,label,etc

Can I apply threading in the Initialize component of the form while filling the datasets? If it is possible how?


All my forms are inhereted in a Template Form to reuse the Clock header

This is the code of my template class

Public Class TemplateForm

    Protected Friend Sub TemplateForm_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        UpdateClock()
    End Sub

    Protected Friend Sub ClockTimer_Tick(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles ClockTimer.Tick
        UpdateClock()
    End Sub

    Private Sub UpdateClock()
        Me.TimeLabel.Text = Format(Now, "h:mm tt")
        Me.DateLabel.Text = Format(Now, "M/d/yyyy")
    End Sub

    Private Sub TemplateForm_Closing(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.ComponentModel.CancelEventArgs) Handles MyBase.Closing
        If Not NextForm Is Nothing Then
            NextForm.Visible = True
        End If
    End Sub

    Private _nextForm As TemplateForm

    Public Property NextForm() As TemplateForm
        Get
            Return Me._nextForm
        End Get
        Set(ByVal value As TemplateForm)
            Me._nextForm = value
        End Set
    End Property

I set the project startup of my project to sub main() within a module

 Sub Main()
        'Upon startup

        Dim curForm As TemplateForm = New LoginForm
        Dim nextForm As TemplateForm

        'To save PocketPC memory, we'll make sure that only one
        'form will be in memory at any given time. Once a form
        'activates another form, that current form is closed and
        'unloaded, while the new form is loaded and activated.

        'In case some data needs to be exchanged between forms,
        'we will pass a data object in the forms where they can
        'read and store data. That object will be managed by this
        'instance. The forms should be responsible for cleaning up
        'the data they store in this object.

        Do
            curForm.ShowDialog()
            If Not curForm.NextForm Is Nothing Then
                nextForm = curForm.NextForm
                curForm = nextForm
            Else        'if set to Nothing, then exit the program 
                Exit Do
            End If
        Loop
    End Sub

I call my child forms on this code

    Private Sub LoginMenuItem_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MenuItem1.Click

            Me.NextForm = New MainMenuForm ' Call the other form, same logic
            'applies with other forms
            Me.Close()
        End If

    End Sub

[gRob_AndDerSon]

I want to speed up the load of the next form

[gRob_AndDerSon]

I want to sped up the load of the next form

In the Load event of my one form, 10 adapters fill my type datasets

I also bind the specific column of the datatables of the datasets to populate
data in the comboboxes

Also that form has many panels and Tab controls and within are sorts of textboxes,label,etc

Can I apply threading in the Initialize component of the form while filling the datasets? If it is possible how?


All my forms are inhereted in a Template Form to reuse the Clock header

This is the code of my template class

Public Class TemplateForm

    Protected Friend Sub TemplateForm_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        UpdateClock()
    End Sub

    Protected Friend Sub ClockTimer_Tick(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles ClockTimer.Tick
        UpdateClock()
    End Sub

    Private Sub UpdateClock()
        Me.TimeLabel.Text = Format(Now, "h:mm tt")
        Me.DateLabel.Text = Format(Now, "M/d/yyyy")
    End Sub

    Private Sub TemplateForm_Closing(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.ComponentModel.CancelEventArgs) Handles MyBase.Closing
        If Not NextForm Is Nothing Then
            NextForm.Visible = True
        End If
    End Sub

    Private _nextForm As TemplateForm

    Public Property NextForm() As TemplateForm
        Get
            Return Me._nextForm
        End Get
        Set(ByVal value As TemplateForm)
            Me._nextForm = value
        End Set
    End Property

I set the project startup of my project to sub main() within a module

 Sub Main()
        'Upon startup

        Dim curForm As TemplateForm = New LoginForm
        Dim nextForm As TemplateForm

        'To save PocketPC memory, we'll make sure that only one
        'form will be in memory at any given time. Once a form
        'activates another form, that current form is closed and
        'unloaded, while the new form is loaded and activated.

        'In case some data needs to be exchanged between forms,
        'we will pass a data object in the forms where they can
        'read and store data. That object will be managed by this
        'instance. The forms should be responsible for cleaning up
        'the data they store in this object.

        Do
            curForm.ShowDialog()
            If Not curForm.NextForm Is Nothing Then
                nextForm = curForm.NextForm
                curForm = nextForm
            Else        'if set to Nothing, then exit the program 
                Exit Do
            End If
        Loop
    End Sub

I call my child forms on this code

    Private Sub LoginMenuItem_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MenuItem1.Click

            Me.NextForm = New MainMenuForm ' Call the other form, same logic
            'applies with other forms
            Me.Close()
        End If

    End Sub

[petevick]

Hi,
use a splash screen, and load your typed datasets in sub main, then they are available throughout your project.

I suspect that is what is taking the time, loading the datasets, not loading the form

Pete

[Shaggy Hiker]

I agree, those datasets are killers for speed. In theory, you could load them on a separate thread, but what would it gain you? You still wouldn't be able to use the form until all that loading was completed, so you would still be waiting.

If you can find something useful to do with the time, such that the datasets can load in the background while something meaningful is happening without that data, then that is a good alternative, but it is rarely possible. Because of a similar issue with a shopping list program, I saved the current list to a text file so that I could toss the current list up in a splash screen that looked like the main program, while I loaded the lists from the DB in the background. Once the main form was ready, I replaced the splash with the main form, but until that happened, the user could see the list, but not change anything. This is almost exactly what Petevick was suggesting. It really doesn't do a thing to speed up the loading of the program (in fact, it slowed it by one second in my tests), but it sped up the time to first use, which was good enough for me.

Whether or not you can do anything like that is up to your understanding of your particular problem.

[gRob_AndDerSon]

But I used Typed Dataset, I design it before I run my appz.

how Do i include it in the Sub main()?

I think the reason why i took 30 seconds to load one of my forms is the number of Controls on the form. I test it without the dataset and it is the same.

I heard that using stack could be a possible solution.
But I don't know how to implement it.

[petevick]

Hi,
I just knocked up a form with 120 controls on it, and it takes 7 seconds to show and load if i run it from explorer. If i make it the 2nd form, and do a showdialog of it from the 1st form, it takes 3 seconds.

I suggest you take a close look at what is happening in your code.

Pete

[Shaggy Hiker]

I have forms with a few dozen controls located on panels that were being swapped in and out of the view screen. I don't think I ever bothered to time the loading, but I suspect that it would time out around what Pete showed, as his timing is suspiciously similar to another app that I DID time. However, I narrowed that other app down to the DB connection taking time.

How are you displaying things? Dozens of controls shouldn't normally be a problem, but it seems like it might cause problems if all the controls were shown, then hidden in one of a small variety of possible ways.

[gRob_AndDerSon]

I think I will redesign the navigations of my form, its get complicated when I inherit of my mobile forms on a Template form. The reason behind why I do that is to reuse the Clock header so even though I'm switching between forms my clocks run.

Can somebody help me how to redesign my form navigation??

The Form Style I use is as follows:
me.controlbox = false

CheckOut my Sample Form




Thanks for helping me. I'LL appreciate it so much

[Shaggy Hiker]

Unfortunately, that picture came through so small that I can't read anything on it. I'm not sure if that is important. How many forms do you have? If it is more than one, search this forum on Panels. You might search for my user name, as I have certainly talked about the subject often enough. Basically, loading forms in the CF is too slow, so I put everything onto panels, and swap panels in and out of the view plane, which has no lag at all. If you are already doing that, then that suggestion was not exactly helpful.