How to stop loading the Page from its constructor or an event before Loaded

Question

I have a WPF Browser Application, it's got a StartupUri="StartPage.xaml"
and in the constructor for that Page I'm checking if it can
connect to a database which is on a server.

Now, if it fails, I'd like to stop loading that Page and navigate to a different one.
Trouble is - "A Page can only get a reference to its NavigationService when Page raises the Loaded event." (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms750478.aspx)
...and by the time Loaded is raised, the page is already "starting to show",
which means if i navigate to another Page from Loaded event, it'll still show the first Page
(very briefly though) before loading the second Page.

So, how do i prevent this?

Since i know it shouldn't show up early when it's being constructed,
but the NavigationService at that time is null. This wouldn't be a problem if it weren't the first Page to load when my application starts. Maybe i can test the connection in the App: Application class (which is currently empty) and there decide what the StartupUri should be. If that's a good way, please provide a small example. edit: Excavator

Answer 1

The approach you mentioned - putting the database check in the Application's OnStartup method - would work. But it would be horrible UX to block the UI, pre-startup, while you do a database lookup. Better to navigate first to a splash screen or something, as the startup page, and navigate from there as needed.