how to add a loading animation while its busy - vb.net

i want to add a loading animation while the form is loading..i tried backgroundworker but i can't get it to work..plz help me out..
Private Sub BackgroundWorker1_DoWork(sender As Object, e As System.ComponentModel.DoWorkEventArgs) Handles BackgroundWorker1.DoWork
CharTz.Show()
End Sub
Private Sub BackgroundWorker1_ProgressChanged(sender As Object, e As System.ComponentModel.ProgressChangedEventArgs) Handles BackgroundWorker1.ProgressChanged
loadingscreen.show()
End Sub
Private Sub BackgroundWorker1_RunWorkerCompleted(sender As Object, e As System.ComponentModel.RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs) Handles BackgroundWorker1.RunWorkerCompleted
loadingscreen.close()
End Sub

All of the UI stuff must be done on the UI thread. It doesn't make sense to show a form from the background worker. Showing the form is a UI thing, so that needs to be done on the main UI thread. I'm quite certain that it's not true that the "takes about 3-4 seconds to show". It may very well take 3-4 seconds to do something, but it's not the showing-the-form part that's taking that long. That form must be doing something when it loads which is slowing it down. That's the stuff that ought to be put in a background worker thread. If all that slow logic is done in a background thread, then the form will show very quickly and it can then display some sort of animation until the background thread is done doing the work.

Related

BackgroundWorker and ShowDialog()

I have to create a Loading form, while processing a calculus. This form should prevent any action to the other forms while performing this calculus so the most proper command to use should be ShowDialog(). I've also found that I need to run this command, in order to prevent the form freezing, with a BackgroundWorker. So what I've done is to define the button - that will start the calculus - and the BackgroundWorker itself. So this is what I wrote:
Private Sub Button4_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button4.Click
Form18.ProgressBar1.Minimum = 0
Form18.ProgressBar1.Value = 0
Form18.ShowDialog()
BackgroundWorker1.RunWorkerAsync()
End Sub
Private Sub BackgroundWorker1_DoWork(sender As Object, e As System.ComponentModel.DoWorkEventArgs) Handles BackgroundWorker1.DoWork
[calculus code and progressbar progression]
If Form18.ProgressBar1.Value = Form18.ProgressBar1.Maximum Then
Form18.Close()
hrrnativexcel.Visible = True
End If
End Sub
Even if I'm using the BackgroundWorker, when I press the button, the loading form - declared in my code as Form18 - becomes blocked and progressbar gets stuck at 0% loading. Could anyone tell me where I am doing wrong? I've tried to find something about BackgroundWorker with ShowDialog command but I haven't found anything that could help me. Thanks in advance.

VB.Net Timer3 Control is not stopping usin stop method

I have used three timers in my program. All are working fine except the third one. i don't know why?
Private Sub Timer3_Tick(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Timer3.Tick
MessageBox.Show("dont repeat please")
Timer3.Stop()
End Sub
In the form_load i had started the timer, but its showing message box again and again at the interval of 3000ms which i have set. Please help.
Unless there is more to it a quick solution is to just move the call stop the timer to before the message box.
Private Sub Timer3_Tick(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Timer3.Tick
Timer3.Stop()
MessageBox.Show("dont repeat please")
End Sub
Basically the processing of the code in the Timer3_Ticket sub is being blocked by the display of the message box. The timer running on another thread will continue to raise tick events at each time interval until a message box is closed and the stop method is called.

winform and session timeout

I have a vb.net winform and I want to know how to add sort of like a session time out to it. For example, I have a varialbe set to 10 min, within that 10 min, if there is no activity (no mouse/no keyboard interaction), I would like to log the user out. Can anyone shine some light on this subject on how to make this work?
First question, why do you want to do in a winform. Such things we generally use in web forms. But even you want to use such things in WinForms you need to use Timer Class.
Whenever you encounter activity, you can just reset the timer by calling Stop then immediately calling Start. Place whatever code you'd like in the Timer's Tick event (assuming this is a System.Windows.Forms.Timer) and you'll be all set.
I'd suggest you use the event Application.Idle.
No need to P/Invoke.
Public Class Form1
Private WithEvents _timer As Timer
Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
' 10 seconds for testing
Me._timer = New Timer With {.Interval = 10000, .Enabled = True}
AddHandler Application.Idle, AddressOf Me.Application_Idle
End Sub
Private Sub Application_Idle(sender As Object, e As EventArgs)
Me._timer.Stop()
Me._timer.Start()
End Sub
Private Sub Timer_Tick(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles _timer.Tick
Me._timer.Stop()
RemoveHandler Application.Idle, AddressOf Me.Application_Idle
' Do something to log the user out
Me.Close()
End Sub
End Class
If you are looking for a way to detect input outside your application Amit's suggestion will not work.
See Detecting idle users in Winforms if that is the case. Calling GetLastInputInfo() and checking the last input value should give you something to go off.
If you are not worried about the user leaving your application, and getting logged out after not using it, use Amit's way of resetting a timer on the input event.

Timer can be stopped in backgroundworker, but can't be started

Recently, I've been working with a system.form.timer in the UI thread. I've have noticed that while I can stop a timer on a background thread, I cannot start it back up unless I use BeginInvoke even though I do not receive a cross-threading exception. On a system.timers.timer however it seems that I can stop and start it from the background thread created by the timer. Why is this? Is a system.form.timer allowed to be stopped, but not enabled from a background thread? This seems a bit odd to me.
System.Form.Timer Code
DOESN'T WORK
Private Sub Timer1_Tick(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Timer1.Tick
Dim BW As BackgroundWorker = New BackgroundWorker
AddHandler BW.DoWork, AddressOf CheckTimer
BW.RunWorkerAsync()
End Sub
Private Sub CheckTimer()
Timer1.Stop()
Timer1.Start()
MsgBox("Stopped and Started Timer")
End Sub
WORKS
Private Sub Timer1_Tick(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Timer1.Tick
Dim BW As BackgroundWorker = New BackgroundWorker
AddHandler BW.DoWork, AddressOf CheckTimer
BW.RunWorkerAsync()
End Sub
Private Sub CheckTimer()
Timer1.Stop()
Me.BeginInvoke(New TimerStart(AddressOf TimerStartFunction))
MsgBox("Stopped and Started Timer")
End Sub
Private Delegate Sub TimerStart()
Private Sub TimerStartFunction()
Timer1.Start()
End Sub
System.Timers.Timer Code
WORKS
Dim aTimer As System.Timers.Timer
Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
aTimer = New System.Timers.Timer(5000)
AddHandler aTimer.Elapsed, AddressOf OnTimedEvent
aTimer.Enabled = True
End Sub
Sub OnTimedEvent()
aTimer.Stop()
aTimer.Start()
MsgBox("Stopped and Started Timer")
End Sub
The Winforms Timer class is somewhat thread-safe, not enough to keep you happy. When you call its Start() method then it creates a hidden window that turns WM_TIMER messages into Tick events.
When you do this on a worker thread then you tend to have a problem, these WM_TIMER messages are only dispatched when the thread runs a message loop. Worker threads don't normally do this, they don't call Application.Run(). So the timer just won't tick.
Calling the Stop() method is otherwise okay, it knows how to find that hidden window back even through the code runs on the wrong thread. The workaround you found with BeginInvoke() works because it now correctly calls Start() on the UI thread and gets the hidden window created with the correct owner thread, one that pumps. System.Timers.Timer doesn't have this problem, it doesn't rely on WM_TIMER to tick but uses a System.Threading.Timer instead. Which is supported by a dedicated worker thread managed by the CLR. Do note that this timer is pretty dangerous. Calling MsgBox() on a worker thread is fundamentally wrong, for one. High odds that the user never sees it since it will be behind a UI window.
That explains it, I can't otherwise offer better advice since I can't see what you are really trying to do. Be careful, you are playing with fire.

VB.Net: Understanding the way Application.Run() works

Hans Passant gave me a great answer here, so I thought of asking for more details to try to understand the way Application.Run() works.
As far as I understand from the docs, it seems that Application.Run() starts a message loop on the current thread, which in turns enables it to process user input (Is that right?). The overloaded version Application.Run(Form) basically does the same, only it exists when the form closes, and it shows the form by default.
That raises a few questions:
How would one do to simply call from the Main() sub a function that can communicate with the user to (message boxes and so on) and wait for it to exit?
When the message loop is started without a form, how do you launch a new form from this loop, and wait for it to exit? ShowDialog could work, unless you don't want the form to display immediately when launched (eg. if you have a for that's launched minimized to the system tray)
Basically, the situation would be as follows: sub `Main` has a list of tasks to execute in 20mn, with a system tray icon telling the user that the program will operate in 20mn. A timer ticks after 20mns, and has to execute say approx. 15 tasks one by one, every time creating an instance of a progress dialog, initially hidden in the taskbar.
`ShowDialog` would display the form, which is not wanted; so the way I would do it would be to pass the progress dialog a callback to a function that starts the next task. But that wouldn't exit the first progress form before the second has exited, would it? Which means 15 forms would end up being opened...
So the solution may be to invoke (begininvoke?) the callback on the main application loop... Only, I don't know how to do this, because I don't have a form associated with the loop to invoke the callback on...
I hope my questions are clear (I might confuse many things, sorry),
Thanks,
CFP.
Drop a Timer, ProgressBar and a BackgroundWorker on the form. First thing you'll want to do is to prevent the form from getting visible when the program is started. Paste this code into the form class:
Protected Overrides Sub SetVisibleCore(ByVal value As Boolean)
If Not Me.IsHandleCreated Then
value = False
Me.CreateHandle
End If
MyBase.SetVisibleCore(value)
End Sub
Use the timer to get the job started. Set its Interval and Enabled properties, add the Tick event handler:
Private Sub Timer1_Tick(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Timer1.Tick
Me.Show()
ProgressBar1.Visible = True
Me.Enabled = False
BackgroundWorker1.RunWorkerAsync()
End Sub
That makes the form visible when the job is started and starts the background worker. Set the BGW's WorkerReportsProgress property to True and add the 3 event handlers:
Private Sub BackgroundWorker1_DoWork(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.ComponentModel.DoWorkEventArgs) Handles BackgroundWorker1.DoWork
'' Do stuff here, call BackgroundWorker1.ReportProgress to update the PB
End Sub
Private Sub BackgroundWorker1_ProgressChanged(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.ComponentModel.ProgressChangedEventArgs) Handles BackgroundWorker1.ProgressChanged
ProgressBar1.Value = e.ProgressPercentage
End Sub
Private Sub BackgroundWorker1_RunWorkerCompleted(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.ComponentModel.RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs) Handles BackgroundWorker1.RunWorkerCompleted
ProgressBar1.Visible = False
Me.Enabled = True
Me.Hide()
End Sub
It is up to you to fill in the code for the DoWork event handler. Have it do those 15 jobs, be sure to call BackgroundWorker1.ReportProgess so that the progress bar gets updated. Which is what the ProgressChanged event handler does. The RunWorkerCompleted event handler hides the form again.
You can call the Show() method in the context menu item event for the NotifyIcon so that the user can make your form visible again. Call Application.Exit() in the context menu item that allow the user to quit your app. Make sure you disable that when the BGW is running. Or implement a way to cleanly stop the job.