When loading large object collections in Silverlight, there is enough of a time delay so that I need some kind of animated icon that indicates a ‘loading’ state. There were many such icons used when loading data via AJAX, which are basically animated Gif’s. As Gif’s aren't supported in Silverlight, I needed to create one. I decided therefore to create a design in Expression Design, and then animate it in Blend, with a little tidying up in VS2008.
Im not sure how well it’ll perform with large number of instances in a single control, but it does the trick for my needs.
The code for my animated spinning logo is below.
(Use the scaletransform in the grid to change the size)
<Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="White">
<Grid.RenderTransform>
<ScaleTransform x:Name="SpinnerScale" ScaleX="0.5" ScaleY="0.5" />
</Grid.RenderTransform>
<Canvas RenderTransformOrigin="0.5,0.5" Width="120" Height="120">
<Ellipse Width="21.835" Height="21.862" Canvas.Left="20.1696" Canvas.Top="9.76358"
Stretch="Fill" Fill="#E6000000"/>
<Ellipse Width="21.835" Height="21.862" Canvas.Left="2.86816" Canvas.Top="29.9581"
Stretch="Fill" Fill="#CD000000"/>
<Ellipse Width="21.835" Height="21.862" Canvas.Left="5.03758e-006" Canvas.Top="57.9341"
Stretch="Fill" Fill="#B3000000"/>
<Ellipse Width="21.835" Height="21.862" Canvas.Left="12.1203" Canvas.Top="83.3163"
Stretch="Fill" Fill="#9A000000"/>
<Ellipse Width="21.835" Height="21.862" Canvas.Left="36.5459" Canvas.Top="98.138"
Stretch="Fill" Fill="#80000000"/>
<Ellipse Width="21.835" Height="21.862" Canvas.Left="64.6723" Canvas.Top="96.8411"
Stretch="Fill" Fill="#67000000"/>
<Ellipse Width="21.835" Height="21.862" Canvas.Left="87.6176" Canvas.Top="81.2783"
Stretch="Fill" Fill="#4D000000"/>
<Ellipse Width="21.835" Height="21.862" Canvas.Left="98.165" Canvas.Top="54.414"
Stretch="Fill" Fill="#34000000"/>
<Ellipse Width="21.835" Height="21.862" Canvas.Left="92.9838" Canvas.Top="26.9938"
Stretch="Fill" Fill="#1A000000"/>
<Ellipse Width="21.835" Height="21.862" Canvas.Left="47.2783" Canvas.Top="0.5"
Stretch="Fill" Fill="#FF000000"/>
<Canvas.RenderTransform>
<RotateTransform x:Name="SpinnerRotate" Angle="0" />
</Canvas.RenderTransform>
<Canvas.Triggers>
<EventTrigger RoutedEvent="ContentControl.Loaded">
<BeginStoryboard>
<Storyboard>
<DoubleAnimation Storyboard.TargetName="SpinnerRotate"
Storyboard.TargetProperty="(RotateTransform.Angle)"
From="0" To="360" Duration="0:0:01"
RepeatBehavior="Forever" />
</Storyboard>
</BeginStoryboard>
</EventTrigger>
</Canvas.Triggers>
</Canvas>
</Grid>
Note: If you want to turn this animated spinner on and off (say, when accessing a WCF service), you could do so with something like the code below:
First, in your XAML make the spinner invisible by default
<Grid x:Name="Spinner" Background="White" Visibility="Collapsed">
Then in your code do something like below:
var client = new DataServiceClient();
client.DoWorkCompleted += (s, e) => Spinner.Visibility = Visibility.Collapsed;
Spinner.Visibility = Visibility.Visible;
client.DoWorkAsync();
hope some of you find this usefull
Dean