Custom splash screen page for Windows Phone applications

This article explains how to create your own custom splash screen

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Article

Created: (03 Nov 2012)

Last edited: mehul_raje (02 Nov 2012)

Introduction

"Most of the time during application launch up you need to do some background operations like making web request or parsing some data or something else and while doing this in background it is necessory to keep user engage showing splash screen this article helps you with this."

1. First create windows phone project from visual studio.
2. Delete default splash screen image from project
3. Your project already contains MainPage.xaml file keep it as it is, add new Page named SplashPage.xaml in project , replace existing xaml file code with following code.

<phone:PhoneApplicationPage
    x:Class="WindowsPhoneSample5.SplashPage"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    xmlns:phone="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Phone.Controls;assembly=Microsoft.Phone"
    xmlns:shell="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Phone.Shell;assembly=Microsoft.Phone"
    xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
    xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
    FontFamily="{StaticResource PhoneFontFamilyNormal}"
    FontSize="{StaticResource PhoneFontSizeNormal}"
    Foreground="{StaticResource PhoneForegroundBrush}"
    SupportedOrientations="Portrait" Orientation="Portrait"
    mc:Ignorable="d"
    shell:SystemTray.IsVisible="False">
 
    <!--LayoutRoot is the root grid where all page content is placed-->
    <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="Transparent">
        <Image Source="/splash.jpg" Stretch="Fill"/>
    </Grid>
 
</phone:PhoneApplicationPage>

Note keet SystemTray.IsVisible= False to show splash image covering whole screen.

Modify SplashPage.cs

Now open SplashPage.cs file

1. Handle Loaded Event of SplashPage , refer following code

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Net;
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Controls;
using System.Windows.Navigation;
using Microsoft.Phone.Controls;
using Microsoft.Phone.Shell;
using System.IO;
 
namespace WindowsPhoneSample5
{
    public partial class SplashPage : PhoneApplicationPage
    {
        private  HttpWebRequest request;
 
        public SplashPage()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
            Loaded += SplashPage_Loaded;
        }
 
        void SplashPage_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            request = (HttpWebRequest)HttpWebRequest.Create(new Uri("http://www.developer.nokia.com/Community/Wiki/Portal:Windows_Phone_UI_Articles"));
            request.BeginGetResponse(new AsyncCallback(ReceiveResponseCallBack), null);
        }
 
        private void ReceiveResponseCallBack(IAsyncResult result)
        {
            HttpWebResponse response = (HttpWebResponse)this.request.EndGetResponse(result);
            using (var stream = response.GetResponseStream())
            {
                using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(stream))
                {
                    string str =  reader.ReadToEnd();
                    Deployment.Current.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(() =>
                    {
                        NavigationService.Navigate(new Uri("/MainPage.xaml", UriKind.Relative));
                    });
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Please note SplashPage_Loaded function simply making asynchronous http request, and ReceiveResponseCallBack is called when http request returns response, once response comes user is navigated to MainPage.xaml, deployment.Current.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke is used to access UI thread. In this file you can do any needed work in background by keeping user engage in splash screen.

Modify MainPage.xaml.cs From SplashPage user is navigated to MainPage , Once MainPage is loaded remove stack entry of SplashPage from back stack as SplashScreen cant be consider as page so user doesn't want to come to SplashScreen,refer following code to do this

namespace WindowsPhoneSample5
{
    public partial class MainPage : PhoneApplicationPage
    {
        // Constructor
        public MainPage()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
            Loaded += MainPage_Loaded;
        }
 
        void MainPage_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            NavigationService.RemoveBackEntry();
        }
 
    }
}

Finally add SplashPage.xaml in WMAppManifest in Navigation Page tab so user is navigated to the Splash screen on application startup

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