Bad performance, panels inside panels

Sorry i havent made that obvious enough, its not ASP, its WinForms.

SuspendLayout doesn't prevent the screen from being updated, it just prevents multiple layout events.  LockWindowUpdate Win32 API call prevents a screen from updating.

So you would do a
[DllImport("user32")]

The bad thing about this though is that you are effectively removing the chance to run this program on other systems than Windows, or am i wrong ?

There is no LockWindowUpdate as part as the .NET Framework ?
Seems like a rather important feature ?

Hmm i just tried implementing it,
Did help concerning the "flickering", however it just resulted in the system seeming to take alot of time to load.
So no speed enhancements, seems that the construction is simply to slow.

Loading this  http://www.scoding.dk/view.jpg   with the construction described in the first post, shouldnt that be possible faster that 8 seconds ?

The data is not the issue its iterated very fast, however it seems that the problem is the way that the panels resize and realign to each new panel.
I can litteraly see every single panel being added one at a time, resulting in the other panels resizing.

ShiftSchedule mSched = new ShiftSchedule(); <-- HERE ALL SUB OBJECTS ARE CREATED AND ADDED TO THE TOP PANEL, THIS IS VERY QUICK
 
panel.Controls.Add(mSched); <-- THIS IS THE SLOW PART, WHEN IT HAS TO RENDER THE TOP PANEL AND ALL ITS CHILDREN.
                                              

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Hmm i found part of a solution.

within the Constructor of the ShiftSchedule, i added all the children controls.
Afterwards adding the ShiftSchedule to the form resulting in all children controls being drawn without any suspend layout, meaning after each drawn controls the layout of all children is adjusted.

1) You are right that LockWindowUpdate is a Windows API call, and not platform independent.

2) I don't understand how the partial solution that you explain helps.

If i do it like this it boosts performance greatly

ShiftSchedule a = new ShiftSchedule();
panel.Controls.Add(a);
a.LoadSubcontrols();

I have made a new post to try to figure that part out:
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Programming/Languages/C_Sharp/Q_24219292.html

What is "ShiftSchedule"?

Its a UserControl.

This is copied from the other post mentioned:

Hi

Iam adding alot of controls to a UserControl, and when all the children are rendered i need the layout of specific panels to be suspended.
However the OnPaint doesnt seem to be the one taking care of this part.
I also tried OnLayout with no results either.

I have some code like this:
                ShiftSchedule mSched;
                mSched = new ShiftSchedule(item, shiftList,mDate) { Dock = DockStyle.Top };
                shiftSchedulePanel.Controls.Add(mSched);
                mSched.LoadGrid();

Implented like this:
This way is very slow:
        public ShiftSchedule(ShiftGroup mGroup, ShiftList sList, DateTime mDate)
        {
            InitializeComponent();
            this.mDate = mDate;
            this.SelectedGroup = mGroup;
            shiftList = sList;
            lbGroupName.Text = mGroup.Name;
            ctlShiftDay1.LoadValues(mDate, SelectedGroup.ID, shiftList);
            ctlShiftDay2.LoadValues(mDate.AddDays(1), SelectedGroup.ID, shiftList);
            ctlShiftDay3.LoadValues(mDate.AddDays(2), SelectedGroup.ID, shiftList);
            ctlShiftDay4.LoadValues(mDate.AddDays(3), SelectedGroup.ID, shiftList);
            ctlShiftDay5.LoadValues(mDate.AddDays(4), SelectedGroup.ID, shiftList);
            ctlShiftDay6.LoadValues(mDate.AddDays(5), SelectedGroup.ID, shiftList);
            ctlShiftDay7.LoadValues(mDate.AddDays(6), SelectedGroup.ID, shiftList);
        }
        public void LoadGrid()
        {

        }

However doing this is okay fast:
        public ShiftSchedule(ShiftGroup mGroup, ShiftList sList, DateTime mDate)
        {
            InitializeComponent();
            this.mDate = mDate;
            this.SelectedGroup = mGroup;
            shiftList = sList;
            lbGroupName.Text = mGroup.Name;
           
        }
        public void LoadGrid()
        {
            ctlShiftDay1.LoadValues(mDate, SelectedGroup.ID, shiftList);
            ctlShiftDay2.LoadValues(mDate.AddDays(1), SelectedGroup.ID, shiftList);
            ctlShiftDay3.LoadValues(mDate.AddDays(2), SelectedGroup.ID, shiftList);
            ctlShiftDay4.LoadValues(mDate.AddDays(3), SelectedGroup.ID, shiftList);
            ctlShiftDay5.LoadValues(mDate.AddDays(4), SelectedGroup.ID, shiftList);
            ctlShiftDay6.LoadValues(mDate.AddDays(5), SelectedGroup.ID, shiftList);
            ctlShiftDay7.LoadValues(mDate.AddDays(6), SelectedGroup.ID, shiftList);
        }

It seems that there is a large difference on the two approaches and i would like to know why ?!
I though that it could have something to do with how OnPaint is done but it doesnt seem to.
        protected override void OnPaint(PaintEventArgs e)
        {
            panel1.SuspendLayout();
            tableLayoutPanel1.SuspendLayout();
            base.OnPaint(e);
            panel1.ResumeLayout();
            tableLayoutPanel1.ResumeLayout();
        }

Does anyone have any ideas why this is happening, and what the best way of doing this would be ?

I would love to say that I can see exactly what is going on, but I have such a myopic view of your world, and I wouldn't even know where to look.

Well i can try to give you some more information:
This is the code thats inside the LoadValues, the thing i find very wierd is that doing th e LoadValues within the contructor of the ShiftSchedule and then adding the ShiftSchedule to my form is very slow.
However Adding the ShiftSchedule first and then loading the values is like 10-20 times faster.

Does that give you a better idea or would you need even more information ?

        public void LoadValues(DateTime mDate, int groupID, ShiftList shiftList)
        {
            this.groupID = groupID;
            this.selectedDate = mDate;
            this.shiftList = shiftList;
            shiftList.ShiftAdded += new ShiftList.AddShiftEventHandler(shiftList_ShiftAdded);
            shiftList.ShiftChanged += new ShiftList.EditShiftEventHandler(shiftList_ShiftChanged);
            reloadPanel();
        }
        void reloadPanel()
        {
            this.SetStyle(ControlStyles.OptimizedDoubleBuffer, true);
            this.SetStyle(ControlStyles.AllPaintingInWmPaint, true);
            this.SetStyle(ControlStyles.UserPaint, true);
            shiftPanel.SuspendLayout();
            shiftPanel.Controls.Clear();
            var q = (from a in shiftList.GetList()
                     where
                         a.Date.Date == selectedDate.Date
                         && a.GroupID == groupID
                     orderby a.ShiftTime descending
                     select a);
            foreach (Shift item in q)
            {
                addToPanel(item);
            }
            shiftPanel.ResumeLayout();
        }

Add to Panel does this
        void addToPanel(Shift mShift)
        {
            ctlShift aShift = new ctlShift(mShift) { Dock = DockStyle.Top };
            aShift.shiftClickHandler += new ctlShift.OnShiftEventHandler(shiftClickHandler);
            shiftPanel.Controls.Add(aShift);
        }

Hmmm...have you run any code profilers against this code both ways?

code profilers ?