WPF: How to load lots of large images fast into wrappanel? - c#

I have about 45 decently large images (about 680x1000) that need to be loaded into a simple user control (rounded backborder with fill, image, textblock, and 2 side rectangles) and then displayed in a wrappanel. Virtualizing won't really help here since the images are to be all visible at program load.
I know inside of the BitmapImage init i can set the decodepixel width, which does help a little, however id like to load them all as full size since i want to be able resize the images with a slider without losing quality (this part works fast for the most part). I know one possibility would be to set the decodewidth to be some number which i set as the max viewable size could help.
I tried the multithreaded approach found in How do I load images in the background? (first answer), however it caused the program to take a LOT longer to load!
Any ideas?
Current load code:
BitmapImage bmp = new BitmapImage();
bmp.BeginInit();
//bmp.DecodePixelWidth = 400;
bmp.UriSource = new Uri(file.FullName);
bmp.EndInit();
bmp.Freeze();
images.Add(bmp);
Sample XAML code:
<Border x:Name="backBorder" Background="Black" Padding="2" Margin="3" CornerRadius="3,3,4,4"
BorderBrush="Black" BorderThickness="1"
MouseEnter="backBorder_MouseEnter" MouseLeave="backBorder_MouseLeave" MouseLeftButtonUp="backBorder_MouseLeftButtonUp" >
<Grid>
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition />
<RowDefinition Height="16" />
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition />
<ColumnDefinition Width="15" />
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Image x:Name="imageBox" Stretch="Fill" Width="{Binding Path=ImageWidth, ElementName=me}" Height="{Binding Path=ImageHeight, ElementName=me}" />
<Border x:Name="backRatingBorder" Grid.Column="1" Margin="3,0,0,0" BorderBrush="Blue" Background="White" BorderThickness="1"/>
<Border x:Name="frontRatingBorder" Grid.Column="1" Margin="3,0,0,0" BorderBrush="Blue" Background="LightBlue" BorderThickness="1" VerticalAlignment="Bottom" Height="50"/>
<TextBlock x:Name="textBlock" Grid.Row="1" Grid.ColumnSpan="2" TextAlignment="Center" Background="Transparent" Foreground="White" FontFamily="Segoe UI" FontWeight="SemiBold" FontSize="12" />
</Grid>
</Border>
.
UPDATE:
Well i ended up making it more responsive by running the load image loop in a single background worker. After each image is loaded, Dispacher.Invoke is called to create the wrap item. After playing with it for a while i got it to show each item as it is created in the same time it took before.

If you're happy with the overall performance, just the loading of the images, you could try this Multithreaded UI tutorial. I managed to get it to work quite easily, but if you're loading all the images in a loop it won't update the visual until you've finished loading all of the images. The UI is responsive during this time, however, as all the loading is on a separate thread.
Alternativly, if you're loading all your images in a loop then you could try an improved version of Windows Forms DoEvents method (scroll down to the example). You'd call this after loading each image and it will give the UI a chance to update itself (process user interaction etc). This is the approach I used when loading map tiles for my project and is easier than the first.

Related

XAML element fill all remaining space

I have a WPF application and I'm trying to get the elements positioned correctly. There are just four elements, so it should be pretty straight-forward, but I just can't get it working.
One wrinkle is that the window resizes itself to (about) the size of the desktop window when it appears, so it doesn't have a fixed size.
The elements are supposed to be stacked from top to bottom, so a Stack Panel seemed natural. But The third element has to take up all the remaining space that the top two and bottom ones don't. No matter what I tried, it either took up too much space, or too little. I could only seem to get it working if I gave it a concrete pixel size which, as explained above, won't work.
The latest thing I've tried is a Dock Panel. While it looks correct in the Visual Studio designer, when executed, the third element--a Canvas--completely covers the bottom element.
My XAML:
<DockPanel>
<Button x:Name="btnClose" DockPanel.Dock="Top" Content="X"
HorizontalAlignment="Right" Margin="0,5,5,0" VerticalAlignment="Top"
Width="Auto" Height="Auto" Background="Black"
Foreground="White" Click="btnClose_Click"/>
<Label x:Name="lblTitle" DockPanel.Dock="Top" Content="My Title"
HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="Auto"
Foreground="White" FontWeight="Bold" FontSize="22"/>
<Label x:Name="lblControls" DockPanel.Dock="Bottom" Content="Placeholder"
HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Bottom" Width="Auto"
Height="Auto" Foreground="White" FontWeight="Bold" FontSize="22"/>
<Border x:Name="CanvasBorder" BorderBrush="White" BorderThickness="5" >
<Canvas x:Name="cvsChart" Grid.Row="0" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch"
VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="Auto">
</Canvas>
</Border>
</DockPanel>
Any idea about how to get that Canvas to stretch and fill all the space the other three don't take?
UPDATE
Since #Peter Duniho pretty much proved to me that the code worked, I tried an experiment and removed the resizing code I have in place for when the window appears. Taking it out, the window appears absolutely correctly. This is what I do to resize it to (mostly) the desktop size:
public const int WINDOW_OFFSET = 10;
...
int screenWidth = (int)System.Windows.SystemParameters.PrimaryScreenWidth;
int screenHeight = (int)System.Windows.SystemParameters.PrimaryScreenHeight;
// center this window in desktop
Width = screenWidth - WINDOW_OFFSET;
Height = screenHeight - WINDOW_OFFSET;
Left = WINDOW_OFFSET/2;
Top = WINDOW_OFFSET/2;
So I did some poking around, and found a comment here on the 'Stack that said to get the WorkArea instead of the PrimaryScreenHeight. I tried that and voila!, the whole application window appears.
int screenWidth = (int)System.Windows.SystemParameters.WorkArea.Width;
int screenHeight = (int)System.Windows.SystemParameters.WorkArea.Height;
As it turns out, the bottom row was displaying, I just couldn't see it because it appeared below the bottom of the screen. Now I can see it, and I'm back to development heaven!
Thanks to everyone for their input!
There are a number of possible approaches to this. One of the most straightforward is to contain your elements in a Grid and set all but the third row height to Auto:
<Grid>
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
<RowDefinition/>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Button x:Name="btnClose" Content="X" Grid.Row="0"
HorizontalAlignment="Right" Margin="0,5,5,0" VerticalAlignment="Top"
Width="Auto" Height="Auto" Background="Black"
Foreground="White" Click="btnClose_Click"/>
<Label x:Name="lblTitle" Content="My Title" Grid.Row="1"
HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="Auto"
Foreground="White" FontWeight="Bold" FontSize="22"/>
<Label x:Name="lblControls" Content="Placeholder" Grid.Row="3"
HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Bottom" Width="Auto"
Height="Auto" Foreground="White" FontWeight="Bold" FontSize="22"/>
<Border x:Name="CanvasBorder" BorderBrush="White" BorderThickness="5" Grid.Row="2">
<Canvas x:Name="cvsChart" Grid.Row="0" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch"
VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="Auto">
</Canvas>
</Border>
</Grid>
The default setting for a grid's row definition height is "*", which says to distribute all of the remaining space among all the rows with that setting. With only one row using that setting, it gets all of the leftover space.
This produces a window that looks like this:
(I set the window background to Gray so that your white text and border would be visible.)
Another option would in fact be to use DockPanel. It appears to me that the main problem in your attempt is that you set the lblControls element to DockPanel.Dock="Bottom" when it should be Top instead. When I change it to Top, it seems to work fine for me.
Based on your comment below, it seems you actually did want lblControls to be set to DockPanel.Dock="Bottom", and in fact the code you posted seems to also do what you want. It's not clear to me what is different from what the code you posted does and what you want it to do. It would be better if you would provide a good Minimal, Complete, and Verifiable code example that reliably reproduces the problem.
Remove the vertical alignment of the Canvas

Layout cycle detected error with two progressRings

I want to create a custom user control with two grids in which I want to load images and until images are loaded I want to show the progressRing control. The problem occurs when I add a second ProgressRing. My XAML looks like this:
<Grid Margin="0,0,0,21" Background="{ThemeResource PhoneAccentBrush}">
<Grid x:Name="leftImage" Margin="10" Width="190" Height="190"
HorizontalAlignment="Left">
<Image x:Name="imageHolderLeft" x:FieldModifier="public" Width="180"
Height="180" ImageFailed="imageHolderLeft_ImageFailed"
ImageOpened="imageHolderLeft_ImageOpened"/>
<Grid>
<ProgressRing x:Name="waitImageLeft" IsActive="True"
VerticalAlignment="Center" HorizontalAlignment="Center"
Background="Transparent"
Foreground="{ThemeResource AppBarBackgroundThemeBrush}"/>
</Grid>
</Grid>
<Grid x:Name="rightImage" Margin="10" Width="190" Height="190"
HorizontalAlignment="Right">
<Image x:Name="imageHolderRight" x:FieldModifier="public" Width="180"
Height="180" ImageOpened="imageHolderRight_ImageOpened"
ImageFailed="imageHolderRight_ImageFailed"/>
<Grid>
<ProgressRing x:Name="waitImageRight" IsActive="True"
VerticalAlignment="Center" HorizontalAlignment="Center"
Background="Transparent"
Foreground="{ThemeResource AppBarBackgroundThemeBrush}"/>
</Grid>
</Grid>
</Grid>
So when I comment out one ProgressRing it works fine, but when there are two of them my program crashes with the following error: Layout cycle detected. Layout could not complete
Does anyone knows why?
Thanks :)
This error indicates that the layout of an element depends on other elements that indirectly depend on the original element. Windows was not able to figure out the overall layout... Much like an infinite loop or infinite recursion.
In your case the cause probably relates to the alignments and sizes. You should be able to solve the problem by simplifying the layout. Keep the outer Grid but add 5 ColumnDefinitions, the middle one having width * and the other ones width Auto. Get rid of the other 4 Grids. Instead, put the two images and progress rings directly into the main Grid in columns number 0, 1, 3, and 4 (using the Grid.Column attached property). Put the desired sizes on the Width and Height properties of the images and progress rings, not on the Grid.

Enlarging image in WPF

I have a WPF application which checks for new images in a certain parent directory, and if there are new images, it switches the currently displayed images (I have 6 images).
I would like to add a feature which will allow a user to click on one of the images, and upon that click, a 'new' window will appear, showing that image enlarged, and another click anywhere on the screen will quit this enlargement and put the focus back to the other (6) images.
Is that possible? I tried googling zoom image wpf but found only mouse-drag related solutions.
I also tried using viewport but that didn't to work so well either.
Update - XAML
<Grid Grid.Row="0">
<GroupBox x:Name="AccuracyGraphsGroupBox" Header="Accuracy" Foreground="Red">
<Grid >
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="0.5*" />
<ColumnDefinition Width="0.5*" />
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Image Grid.Column="0" Width="Auto" Height="Auto" Stretch="Fill" x:Name="AccuracyPicBox" MouseUp="AccuracyPicBox_OnMouseUp"></Image>
<Image Grid.Column="1" Width="Auto" Height="Auto" Stretch="Fill" x:Name="AccuracyPerioPicBox" MouseUp="AccuracyPerioPicBox_OnMouseUp"></Image>
</Grid>
</GroupBox>
</Grid>
As the guys mentioned in the comments, your best bet is to use a ToolTip to popup your full size image. There is a slight problem with data binding the Image.Source value from the original Image in your ToolTip, because they are not part of the normal UI visual tree and exist in their own tree. However, we can overcome this by using the ToolTip.PlacementTarget property:
<Image Name="Image" Source="/WpfApplication1;component/Images/Tulips.jpg" Height="100"
Stretch="Uniform">
<Image.ToolTip>
<ToolTip DataContext="{Binding PlacementTarget,
RelativeSource={RelativeSource Self}}">
<Border BorderBrush="Black" BorderThickness="1" Margin="5,7,5,5">
<Image Source="{Binding Source}" Stretch="None" />
</Border>
</ToolTip>
</Image.ToolTip>
</Image>
Of course, you could just use the same Binding Path in both Image.Source properties, but I never like repeating code.

Bring Window Buttons to Front

I'm currently developing a Twitter application for Windows, similar to the Twitter client for OSX.
I'm using the Windows Shell Extensions library found here to make the entire window Aero, and be able to extend beyond the bounds of the designated window location.
I want the window buttons (Minimize, Maximize, Close) to be shown over top of the grid with the white background. This is a functionality that I thought would have been built into Windows, but apparently I'm wrong.
The two images below illustrate my point. In the second image, I want the window buttons to take precedence over the white-background grid, not the other way around like it's shown.
Is there some kind of code snippet or XAML-snippet that'll help me? Has anyone else ever had this problem before?
I stumbled upon a simple, yet dirty solution. I just made a path to go around the outside of the Windows buttons, and set the background of the outside to white, or whatever background color I was using. Then I just pieced rectangles together to make it look nice.
Here's the resulting code:
<Grid HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalAlignment="Top" Grid.Row="0" Height="20">
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="1.0*" />
<ColumnDefinition Width="105" />
<ColumnDefinition Width="5" />
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Rectangle Grid.Column="0" Fill="#FFFFFFFF" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalAlignment="Stretch" />
<Path HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" Grid.Column="1" Stretch="Fill" VerticalAlignment="Bottom" Height="20" Fill="#FFFFFFFF" Data="M 0,4.11334L 4.008,4.11334C 1.792,4.11334 0,2.27332 0,0L 0,4.11334 Z M 140,4.11334L 135.957,4.11334C 138.192,4.11334 140,4.11334 140,0L 140,4.11334 Z " />
<Border Grid.Column="2" CornerRadius="0, 10, 0, 0" Background="#FFFFFFFF" BorderThickness="0" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalAlignment="Stretch" />
</Grid>
And here's the resulting image:
you should hide your minimize maximize and close buttons and draw your own like described here.
http://winsharp93.wordpress.com/2009/07/21/wpf-hide-the-window-buttons-minimize-restore-and-close-and-the-icon-of-a-window/

WPF - UserControls very slow

I am designing something similar a PropertyGrid where I want to show properties of objects. For special reasons I am not going to use the PropertyGrid but create my own.
For each property I have created a custom usercontrol. Now to my horror the performance is very bad. If I have something like 100 properties it takes 500 milliseconds to show them in a StackPanel/Listbox.
I did an experiment where I add 200 default UserControls to a StackPanel. It took about 50 milliseconds. Still a very high number I think.
Should I not use usercontrols for such a purpose? It seems very object-oriented to do it this way and I can not really see another solution.
However I can see that PropertyGrid and TreeView performs good, so what have they done and what should I do?
Edit:
Stopwatch stopwatch = new Stopwatch();
stopwatch.Start();
using (var suspend = Dispatcher.DisableProcessing())
{
// Add all children here
for (int i = 0; i < 200; i++)
{
this.propertiesStackPanel.Children.Add(new System.Windows.Controls.Button(){Content = "Testing"});
}
}
stopwatch.Stop();
This still takes about 50 milliseconds. If I change to my own custom usercontrol it is much higher. I might add that scrolling is not a problem.
Edit2:
OK. It has nothing to do with stackpanel. I have found out that it is because creating UserControls is a very expensive operation. If you have any other idea of what to do I would gladly hear them :)
Edit3:
Nothing is going on in the constructor of my usercontrol other than InitializeComponent method. Here is an example of a usercontrol I am adding.
<UserControl
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
mc:Ignorable="d"
x:Class="PropertyBox.GroupUC"
x:Name="UserControl"
d:DesignWidth="640" d:DesignHeight="480" Background="#FF32B595" BorderThickness="0">
<Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot">
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="20px"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Border x:Name="border" BorderThickness="0,1" Grid.Column="1">
<TextBox Text="TextBox" TextWrapping="Wrap" VerticalAlignment="Center" HorizontalAlignment="Right" BorderThickness="0" Padding="0" Visibility="Hidden"/>
</Border>
<Label x:Name="groupNameLabel" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="5,0,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Center" Content="Label" Padding="0" Grid.Column="1"/>
<Button x:Name="expandButton" HorizontalAlignment="Left" VerticalAlignment="Center" Width="12" Height="12" Content="" Click="ExpandButtonClick" Margin="4,0,0,0" Padding="0" Grid.ColumnSpan="2" d:IsHidden="True"/>
<Image x:Name="expandButton2" Visibility="Hidden" Width="12" Height="12" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center" Stretch="None"/>
</Grid>
My suspicion is that you're triggering many layout updates while adding your hundreds of children.
If that is the bottleneck, you may want to consider doing:
using(var suspend = Dispatcher.DisableProcessing())
{
// Add all children here
}
This will cause the dispatcher to stop processing messages while you add your controls, and do the entire layout and render in one pass at the end.

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