Displaying "saving.....please wait" messages in Windows Forms ?

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In my Windows application, I have a save button, which takes 30-40 seconds to save data to SQL Server. So in the mean time, I want to display a message "saving... please wait" and after saving, this message should disappear.

Thanks in advance!
shashi

Posted 9-Apr-10 0:51am

shashik1

Updated 9-Apr-10 5:25am

Deeksha Shenoy

v3

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William Winner · Answer 1 · 2010-04-09T06:10:00

I agree with Nick. When a process takes a long time, what you want to avoid is the user thinking that the program has frozen and then them killing the process from the Task Manager.

Since you indicated that it's a WinForms, you need to look into the StatusStrip control. You can add a StatusStrip at the bottom of your form. On that strip, you can add a Label and a ProgressBar.

Then, you can set the ProgressBar to Marquee style so that it will just continue to cycle and you can set a message that you are saving. Then, you start the save function on a BackgroundWorker.

Then just hook the RunWorkerCompleted event and set the form's cursor to the Wait cursor so that the user can't click anything else. Then, when the save is completed, you can set the StatusStrip's Visible property to false.

Doing it this way prevents the form from freezing and hopefully will prevent the user from trying to kill it.

Nicholas Butler · Answer 2 · 2010-04-09T05:36:00

shashik1 wrote:
which takes 30-40 seconds

For an operation that takes this long, you have no option other than running it on a worker thread. If you run it on the UI thread, your form will become unresponsive.

This sounds like an ideal case for using a BackgroundWorker:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.componentmodel.backgroundworker.aspx[^]

Nick

Gregory Gadow · Answer 3 · 2010-04-09T04:43:00

Since this is a Windows application, you probably already have at least one form visible. Rather than use a new window, you can place a label on the form that is already there. If you are working with an MDI application, then dock a StatusBar control along the bottom, and use a label there to provide feedback. Update the text at the start of your save process, then clear it when you are done. If there is more than one way to exit the save (because of error trapping, for example), you will want to clear the text before you ever exit.

Another thing users might find useful would be to call Cursor = Cursors.WaitCursor at the beginning and Cursor = Cursors.Default when done. When the user moves the mouse over your application, it will display the "doing something" cursor until the save has been completed. Again, you will want to make sure that the cursor is set back to the default before every exit.

Goutam Patra · Answer 4 · 2010-04-09T03:14:00

Solution 3

Showdialog method will not solve your purpose. The rest of the code will not get executed until you close the form. Rather try to make the form "Topmost" and display the form normally using .show only. After execution of the saving code, close the form.

Posted 9-Apr-10 3:14am

Goutam Patra

Updated 9-Apr-10 5:23am

v2

Khaniya · Answer 5 · 2010-04-09T01:06:00

Solution 2

You can use From instance with single label showing you "Please wait" message.

When clicking on save button, you can show form with ShowDialog() method.

As SQL finishes saving data, using thread/delegate you can close the Message form. :)

Posted 9-Apr-10 1:06am

Khaniya

Updated 9-Apr-10 5:22am

v2

Mustafa Ismail Mustafa · Answer 6 · 2010-04-09T01:04:00

Solution 1

Create a small form that has just that and remove the minimize, maximize and close buttons and make its size unchangeable, then write in your text. Now, at the start of the Save method, show this form as modal (ShowDialog()) and at the end of the save method, simply close it. :)

Posted 9-Apr-10 1:04am

Mustafa Ismail Mustafa