During initialization, applications can show a splash screen (an image displayed briefly at the start) and/or a “Please Wait…” dialog box. A splash screen is useful for displaying your company’s logo or branding, while a dialog box informs users that the application is starting. Because the initialization phase can take several seconds due to the size of the Chromium engine, this dialog box lets users know the application is loading and prevents them from trying to launch it again immediately.
Splash Screen #
To display a splash screen, go to Application Settings -> Loading Screen and turn on “Display a splash screen at startup“.
Then, you must select the image file for your splash screen. It can be a BMP, JPG, PNG, or GIF (with animation support) file. We recommend using 32-bit PNG files for transparency effects.
- Image file: The full path to the image file.
- Duration: How many seconds the splash screen should be displayed.
- Text color: The color of the optional text that can be displayed at the bottom of the splash screen.
- Display text at the bottom of the splash screen: You can enter custom text here (accepts constants such as %APPVERSION%).
Info
ExeOutput for PHP supports non-rectangular, alpha-blended (semi-transparent) splash screens if you use 32-bit PNG files. This can give your application a unique look.
Splash Screen with Progress Bar #
The splash screen can also serve as a progress indicator. With this option, a progress bar is displayed at the bottom to show that the application is busy.
Click Customize Progress Bar to edit the progress bar’s color properties.
Info
This option is not compatible with the “Duration” setting. Moreover, the splash screen cannot be closed by users when in progress mode.
External Splash Screen File #
By default, ExeOutput for PHP compiles the source splash screen file into the EXE. If you prefer a customizable splash screen, you can place your own image file in the Data subfolder and name it splash.img. The application will load this custom splash screen file instead of the default one.
“Please Wait” Dialog Box #
To display a “Please Wait…” dialog box, go to Application Settings -> Loading Screen and turn on “Display a ‘Please wait’ dialog box“.
- Title: The title of the dialog box.
- Text: The text of the dialog box. You can use constants such as %APPVERSION%.
- Show progress bar: If you want a progress bar to be displayed.
Note
The “Please Wait” dialog box closes automatically when the application is ready to display the main window and the homepage.
Notes #
- Try to use small splash screens. Large splash screens may take longer to draw because the data may need to be decompressed first (like for PNG or JPEG files).
- The splash screen file is not stored in the project file; it must be available as an external file during compilation. Path variables like [PROJECTPATH] are supported.
