Long activity indicator control

[nano2k]

Hi

I have a winforms application developed in c# v1.1.
The application has a form that calls a webservice method. The call is
performed from inside the GUI thread and may take up to a minute.
Meanwhile, I want to provide to the user some sort of visual indicator
indicating that the application is not frozen.
The call to the WS should remain on the GUI thread, as I don't want
the user to manipulate other visual controls while the call is in
effect.
I don't need to display a progress bar, just some sort of a dynamic
image like this:
https://marketplace.slizone.com/SliM...es/loading.gif
or another user control that plays some dynamic content.
Any idea how to perform this?
Thanks.

[Ian Semmel]

Don't you get frustrated when windows freeze on the screen, won't
respond to anything and display 'Not Responding'.

In programming, it is actually the 1% that involves most of the work.

>
On 12 Noi, 17:25, "Jon Skeet [C# MVP]" <[e-mail] mwrote:

On Nov 12, 3:22 pm, nano2k <adrian.rot...@ ikonsoft.rowrot e:

I have a winforms application developed in c# v1.1.
The application has a form that calls a webservice method. The

call

is

performed from inside the GUI thread and may take up to a minute.

Doing that on a GUI thread is not a good idea.

Meanwhile, I want to provide to the user some sort of visual

indicator

indicating that the application is not frozen.
The call to the WS should remain on the GUI thread, as I don't

want

the user to manipulate other visual controls while the call is in
effect.

Then disable those controls while the operation is in progress. You
shouldn't make a long-running call on the UI thread.

I don't need to display a progress bar, just some sort of a

dynamic

image like

this:https://marketplace.slizone.com/SliM...es/loading.gif

or another user control that plays some dynamic content.
Any idea how to perform this?

I would seriously look at disabling all controls on the UI thread,

and

then making the call elsewhere, updating the UI with a progress
indicator (of any kind, whether that's an image or not)

appropriately.

I know it's a pain, but locking up the UI thread for a minute is a
really bad idea.

Jon

Hi
Thanks
Why is it such a bad idea? The only bad side I see is that the GUI
won't get painted while the call is in progress.
Actually, in 99% of the times, the call will not take more than a
second (it only authenticates the user), but, say, when the WS is
offline, the call will take long enough until the exception pops up,
so the call deserves some sort of visual signal to the user.
Isn't there a method of forcing a portion of the GUI to update from
another thread?
Tried this from another thread (using Invoke(), of course), but no
luck.

Thanks again.