Splash Screen waiting until thread finishes

Question

I still have a problem with the splash screen. I don't want to use the property SC.TopMost=true.

Now my application scenario is as follows:

in progeram.cs:

[STAThread]
static void Main()
{
    new SplashScreen(_tempAL);// where _tempAL is an arrayList
    Application.Run(new Form1(_tempAL));
}

in SplashScreen class:

public SplashScreen(ArrayList _Data)
{
    DisplaySplash()
} 
private void DisplaySplash()
{
    this.Show();
    this.TopMost = true;
    this.CenterToScreen();
    this.SetTopLevel(true);

    _allServerNarrators = new string[10];
    for (int i = 0; i < _allServerNarrators.Length; i++)
        _allServerNarrators[i] = null;

    GetFromServer();

    this.Hide();
    _serverData = new ArrayList();
    _thisData.Add(_allServerNarrators);
    _thisData.Add(_serverNarrators);

}
private void GetFromServer()
{
    _serverNarrators = new ArrayList();
    string _file = "Suras.serverNar";

    if (!Directory.Exists("c:\\ASGAQuraan"))
        Directory.CreateDirectory("c:\\ASGAQuraan");

    while (counter < 4 && _serverFiles == null)
    {
        if (Download("c:\\ASGAQuraan", _ftpServerIP, _file))
        {
            StreamReader _strReader = new StreamReader
                         ("c:\\ASGAQuraan\\"+_file,System.Text.Encoding.Default);
            string _line = _strReader.ReadLine();
            string _word;

            while (true)
            {
                while (_line != null)
                {
                    _word = _line.Substring(0, _line.IndexOf("*"));
                    int _narId = Convert.ToInt32(_word);
                    _line = _line.Substring(2);
                    int k = 0;
                    _serverNarratorNode = new ArrayList();
                    while (true)
                    {
                        int ind = _line.IndexOf("*");
                        if (ind > 0 && ind < _line.Length)
                        {
                            string str = _line.Substring(0, (ind));
                            if (k == 0)
                            {
                                _allServerNarrators[_narId] = str;
                                _serverNarratorNode.Add(str);
                            }
                            else
                            {
                                _serverNarratorNode.Add(str);
                            }
                            _line = _line.Substring(ind + 1);
                            k++;
                        }
                        else
                        {
                            _line = null;
                            break;
                        }
                    }
                    _serverNarrators.Add(_serverNarratorNode);
                    _serverFiles = "added";
                }
                _line = _strReader.ReadLine();
                if (_line == null)
                {
                    break;
                }
            }
        }
        else
            counter++;
    }
}

What I want is something in the splash screen class which waits until the thread finishes.

For more details, please tell me what I need to tell you.

Answer 1

Same question, same answer:

The .NET framework has excellent built-in support for splash screens. Start a new WF project, Project + Add Reference, select Microsoft.VisualBasic. Add a new form, call it frmSplash. Open Project.cs and make it look like this:

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using Microsoft.VisualBasic.ApplicationServices;

namespace WindowsFormsApplication1 {
  static class Program {
    [STAThread]
    static void Main(string[] args) {
      Application.EnableVisualStyles();
      Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);
      new MyApp().Run(args);
    }
  }
  class MyApp : WindowsFormsApplicationBase {
    protected override void OnCreateSplashScreen() {
      this.SplashScreen = new frmSplash();
    }
    protected override void OnCreateMainForm() {
      // Do your time consuming stuff here...
      //...
      System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(3000);
      // Then create the main form, the splash screen will close automatically
      this.MainForm = new Form1();
    }
  }
}

Answer 2

You've entered dangerous territory by creating UI prior to your call to Application.Run(). Application.Run is essentially your program's message pump. By displaying the UI before you start the application's message pump, you make typical UI interaction effectively impossible on the premature UI. For a splash screen this may not seem relevant, but it will matter if (e.g.) there's a request to make the splash screen disappear if it's clicked on, or you want to use a BackgroundWorker.

These can be worked around by creating a message pump in your splash screen (by making it modal via a call to ShowDialog() instead of Show()), but that's treating the symptom when treating the problem really isn't that difficult.

I'd strongly encourage nobugz's answer in this case. The framework provides the support you need. While features in the Microsoft.VisualBasic namespace aren't always very discoverable to C# programmers, they can be a real timesaver and lifesaver for cases like this.

Good luck!