Use a Custom Class to Show a Splash Form (WinForms)

• 2 minutes to read

This topic demonstrates how to create a custom splash form and use a custom class to show this form.

1. Create a new Windows Form in your solution’s WinForms Application project, name the form SplashScreenForm, and design it to meet your requirements.

   

2. Add a new class to your WinForms Application Project and implement the ISplash interface.

   • Override the ISplash.Start method. Create a SplashScreenForm instance and call the form’s Show method.
   • In the ISplash.Stop method’s override, hide and close the SplashScreenForm.
   • The ISplash.IsStarted property indicates whether the SplashScreenForm is shown.
   • Override ISplash.SetDisplayText. You can call this method to change the SplashScreenForm‘s text.

   The code below demonstrates the MySplash class that implements the ISplash interface.

   C#

   using DevExpress.ExpressApp.Win;
   //...
   public class MySplash : ISplash {
       static private SplashScreenForm form;
       private static bool isStarted = false;
       public void Start() {
           isStarted = true;
           form = new SplashScreenForm();
           form.Show();
           System.Windows.Forms.Application.DoEvents();
       }
       public void Stop() {
           if(form != null) {
               form.Hide();
               form.Close();
               form = null;
           }
           isStarted = false;
       }
       public void SetDisplayText(string displayText) {
       }
       public bool IsStarted {
           get { return isStarted; }
       }
   }
   

3. Access the WinApplication.cs file. Set the SplashScreen property to a new MySplash class instance.

   C#

   public MySolutionWindowsFormsApplication() {
      //...
      SplashScreen = new MySplash();
      // ...
   }
   

4. You can display loading progress information. To do this, implement the ISupportUpdateSplash interface in the MySplash class and add the UpdateInfo method to the SplashScreenForm class.

   C#

   public class MySplash : ISplash, ISupportUpdateSplash {
       // ...
       public void UpdateSplash(string caption, string description, params object[] additionalParams) {
           form.UpdateInfo(description);
       }
   }
   // ...
   public partial class SplashScreenForm : Form {
       // ...
       internal void UpdateInfo(string info) {
           label2.Text = info;
       }
   }
   

5. Start the application to see the result.