Revision as of 18:46, 4 October 2011

This article demonstrates how to create a splash screen with an animated progress bar.

Introduction

The default SplashScreenImage.jpg in windows phone 7 application is a static image. In this article we will add an animated progress bar in the splash screen.

Splash Screen

Basic Idea

Here we will use some tips and tricks to add the progress bar in the splash screen. As we know that the default splash screen is SplashScreenImage.jpg and loads when the app starts. We use the Popup class to displays content on top of existing content. In our case the existing content is the default splash screen, so we will add the same splash screen and the progress bar in the Popup class so that the user doesn’t have the feel of image change. And thus the user will see the splash screen with an animated progress bar. The BackgroundWorker class is used to run an operation in a separate thread, so that when it expires we close the Popup class.

Implementation

First lets create a project with Windows Phone Application Template. Once the project is being created, lets create a Windows Phone User Control SplashScreenControl.xaml and add ProgressBar, TextBlock and Image in it. The image is the default splash of the project.

In MainPage.xaml.cs Constructor we called a function ShowSplash() to load the popup.

private void ShowSplash()
        {
            this.popup = new Popup();
            this.popup.Child = new SplashScreenControl();
            this.popup.IsOpen = true;
            StartLoadingData();
        }

First we initialize the Popup class and then set SplashScreenControl class to be hosted in the popup. IsOpen opens the popup. Till now the code will load the splash screen (popup) with the progress bar. Now we will add some background process, and when the background process gets completed we will close the popup as a result user will see the splash screen. Function StartLoadingData() starts and complete the background work.

private void StartLoadingData()
        {
            backroungWorker = new BackgroundWorker();
            backroungWorker.DoWork += new DoWorkEventHandler(backroungWorker_DoWork);
            backroungWorker.RunWorkerCompleted += new RunWorkerCompletedEventHandler(backroungWorker_RunWorkerCompleted);
            backroungWorker.RunWorkerAsync();
        }

First we initialize the BackgroundWorker class. We called RunWorkerAsync() function to starts execution of a background operation and thus backroungWorker_DoWork() is called.

 
void backroungWorker_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
        {
            //here we can load data
            Thread.Sleep(9000);
        }

Here we use the Sleep() function to wait for some time. When backroungWorker_DoWork() gets expired, backroungWorker_RunWorkerCompleted() is called which closes the popup.

 
void backroungWorker_RunWorkerCompleted(object sender, RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
        {
            this.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(() =>
            {
                this.popup.IsOpen = false;
 
            }
            );
        }

Thus user can see a splash screen with the progress bar. To make a continuous progress bar we add the below code in SplashScreenControl.xaml.cs

 
this.progressBar1.IsIndeterminate = true;

Source Code

The full source code of the example is available here: File:SplashBar.zip