How to implement a blinking label on a form

I have a form that displays queue of messages and number this messages can be changed. Really I want to blink label (queue length) when the number of messages were increased to improve form usability. Should I implement custom control and use additional 开发者_C百科thread or timer to change color of label? Has anybody implemented so functionality? What is the best solution (less resources and less performance degradation) to implement so behaviour?

SOLUTION:

Form's component with timer that can restrict number of animations per second and implement fade out effect to external control background color.

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The following is blinking using async and await

private async void Blink(){
    while (true){
        await Task.Delay(500);
        label1.BackColor = label1.BackColor == Color.Red ? Color.Green : Color.Red;
    }
}

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I know this is a really old post, but anyone looking for something a little more versatile than the Boolean solutions posted may get some use out of the following:

using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

private async void SoftBlink(Control ctrl, Color c1, Color c2, short CycleTime_ms, bool BkClr)
{
    var sw = new Stopwatch(); sw.Start();
    short halfCycle = (short)Math.Round(CycleTime_ms * 0.5);
    while (true)
    {
        await Task.Delay(1);
        var n = sw.ElapsedMilliseconds % CycleTime_ms;
        var per = (double)Math.Abs(n - halfCycle) / halfCycle;
        var red = (short)Math.Round((c2.R - c1.R) * per) + c1.R;
        var grn = (short)Math.Round((c2.G - c1.G) * per) + c1.G;
        var blw = (short)Math.Round((c2.B - c1.B) * per) + c1.B;
        var clr = Color.FromArgb(red, grn, blw);
        if (BkClr) ctrl.BackColor = clr; else ctrl.ForeColor = clr;
    }
}

Which you can call like such:

SoftBlink(lblWarning, Color.FromArgb(30, 30, 30), Color.Red,2000,false);
SoftBlink(lblSoftBlink, Color.FromArgb(30, 30, 30), Color.Green, 2000,true);

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Timer timer = new Timer();
timer.Interval = 500;
timer.Enabled = false;

timer.Start();

if( messagesNum > oldMessagesNum)
  timer.Tick += new EventHandler( timer_Tick );
else
  timer.Tick -= timer_Tick;

void timer_Tick( object sender, EventArgs e )
{
   if(messageLabel.BackColor == Color.Black)
      messageLabel.BackColor = Color.Red;
   else
      messageLabel.BackColor = Color.Black;
}

Here is a pretty simple implementation that would work inside your form. You could also create a custom control with the same code and just throw the Timer.Start() into a method for that control.

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Create your own UserControl for this, one that inherits from Label instead of from Control directly. Add a StartBlinking method, in which you start a Timer object whose tick event alters the style of the label (changing the BackgroundColor and ForegroundColor properties each time to create the blink effect).

You could also add a StopBlinking method to turn it off, or you could have your Timer stop itself after 5 seconds, perhaps.

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You can create a custom component and events to start blinking --which I think is a good solution. The Blinking you can implement with a timer.

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Can you use an animated .gif instead (perhaps as the background of the number)? it would make it look like old school web pages, but it might work.

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You can use Timer class here. Here what I have implemented. Label color blinking on Button_click Event.

//click event on the button to change the color of the label
public void buttonColor_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            Timer timer = new Timer();
            timer.Interval = 500;// Timer with 500 milliseconds
            timer.Enabled = false;

            timer.Start();

            timer.Tick += new EventHandler(timer_Tick);
        }

       void timer_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        //label text changes from 'Not Connected' to 'Verifying'
        if (labelFirst.BackColor == Color.Red)
        {
            labelFirst.BackColor = Color.Green;
            labelFirst.Text = "Verifying";
        }

        //label text changes from 'Verifying' to 'Connected'
        else if (labelFirst.BackColor == Color.Green)
        {
            labelFirst.BackColor = Color.Green;
            labelFirst.Text = "Connected";
        }

        //initial Condition (will execute)
        else
        {
            labelFirst.BackColor = Color.Red;
            labelFirst.Text = "Not Connected";
        }
    }

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this is how i ended up doing it

public partial class MemberDisplay : Form
{
    public string Input;
    public int MASS_STOP = 1;

    public MemberDisplay(string msg)
    {
        InitializeComponent();
        State_Entry();
        Input = msg;
    }

    public void State_Entry()
    {
        this.SpecialFocus.Select();
        this.lbl_TimerTest.Hide();
    }

    private async void RunBlinkyTest(string msg)
    {
        while (msg == "GO" && (MASS_STOP == 0))
        {
            await Task.Delay(500);
            
            lbl_TimerTest.ForeColor =
                lbl_TimerTest.ForeColor == Color.Red ?
                    Color.Black :
                    Color.Red;

            if (msg == "STOP" && (MASS_STOP == 1)) { return; }
        }
    }

    private void btn_TimeTest_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        if (btn_TimeTest.Text == "GO")
        {
            this.lbl_TimerTest.Show();
            MASS_STOP = 0;
            RunBlinkyTest("GO");
            btn_TimeTest.Text = "STOP";
            return;
        }

        if (btn_TimeTest.Text == "STOP")
        {
            MASS_STOP = 1;
            RunBlinkyTest("STOP");
            this.lbl_TimerTest.ForeColor = Color.Black;
            this.lbl_TimerTest.Hide();
            btn_TimeTest.Text = "GO";
            return;
        }
    }
}