What options do we have nowadays with Microsoft and Ultra controls to display something more interesting than an hourglass to indicate to the user that the system is processing but a progressbar is not appropriate since we don't know how long things are going to take (such as a lengthy query or a report being generated)?
The simplest thing seems to me an animated gif, for example a rotating clock, like we are using on web pages all the time. However, I don't see a control capable of displaying an animated gif. I do see an AnimationControl class for displaying AVI files but that seems a little bit overdone.
Or is the hourglass still state-of-the-art?
What options do we have nowadays with Microsoft and
Ultra controls to display something more interesting
than an hourglass to indicate to the user that the
system is processing but a progressbar is not
appropriate since we don't know how long things are
going to take (such as a lengthy query or a report
being generated)?
The simplest thing seems to me an animated gif, for
example a rotating clock, like we are using on web
pages all the time. However, I don't see a control
capable of displaying an animated gif. I do see an
AnimationControl class for displaying AVI files but
that seems a little bit overdone.
The MS PictureBox shows animated gifs.
Thing I have learned (so far) today: they're called "throbbers" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Throbber#Spinning_wheel) and there's a link off the Wikipedia page that allows you to generate your own. Cool.
-- peter
Excellent! This is exactly what I needed! I could not figure it out from the documentation, but when I tried it even an image on a button can be animated. It's just that you have to run the form before you can see it.
The link is very cool as well!