How do I show a “Loading . . . please wait” message in Winforms for a long loading form?

Question

I have a form that is very slow because there are many controls placed on the form.

As a result the form takes a long time to loaded.

How do I load the fo

Answer 1

I looked at most the solutions posted, but came across a different one that I prefer. It's simple, doesn't use threads, and works for what I want it to.

http://weblogs.asp.net/kennykerr/archive/2004/11/26/where-is-form-s-loaded-event.aspx

I added to the solution in the article and moved the code into a base class that all my forms inherit from. Now I just call one function: ShowWaitForm() during the frm_load() event of any form that needs a wait dialogue box while the form is loading. Here's the code:

public class MyFormBase : System.Windows.Forms.Form
{
    private MyWaitForm _waitForm;

    protected void ShowWaitForm(string message)
    {
        // don't display more than one wait form at a time
        if (_waitForm != null && !_waitForm.IsDisposed) 
        {
            return;
        }

        _waitForm = new MyWaitForm();
        _waitForm.SetMessage(message); // "Loading data. Please wait..."
        _waitForm.TopMost = true;
        _waitForm.StartPosition = FormStartPosition.CenterScreen;
        _waitForm.Show();
        _waitForm.Refresh();

        // force the wait window to display for at least 700ms so it doesn't just flash on the screen
        System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(700);         
        Application.Idle += OnLoaded;
    }

    private void OnLoaded(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        Application.Idle -= OnLoaded;
        _waitForm.Close();
    }
}

MyWaitForm is the name of a form you create to look like a wait dialogue. I added a SetMessage() function to customize the text on the wait form.