How To Display A Progress Dialog Window In Android

Overview 

In this article, I will explain about displaying a progress dialog window.To create an environment for Android application development, get an idea about activities life cycle and dialog window, refer the articles, stated below:

1. Android Application - Day One
   
2. Android Application – Day Two 
3. How To Display A Dialog Window In Android 

Introduction

 

It is very common to display text like “Please wait” or loading.. in an Android application, when an application is performing a long-running task. If an application tries to connect to a server or do a calculation before displaying the result to the user, progress dialog gives the information about the status of the task.

 

Implementation 

 

First of all, create a project, as shown below:



Click Next as per instruction given in the wizard and you will finally reach the last step.

 

Coding

Add a button in activity_main.xml file, as shown below:

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools" android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent" android:paddingLeft="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
android:paddingRight="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
android:paddingTop="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
android:paddingBottom="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin" tools:context=".MainActivity">

<Button
android:id="@+id/btnDialog"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:text="click to display a dialog"
android:onClick="onClick"
/>

</LinearLayout>

In MainActivity.java class, add the reference of ProgressDialog class

import android.app.ProgressDialog;

To create a progress dialog, you created an instance of the ProgressDialog class and called it’s show() method.

public void onClick(View v)
 {
     //Show the dialog
     final ProgressDialog dialog= ProgressDialog.show(this,"Doing something", "Please wait....",true);
     new Thread(new Runnable() {
         @Override
         public void run() {
             try {
             Thread.sleep(5000);
                 dialog.dismiss();
             }
             catch(InterruptedException ex){
                 ex.printStackTrace();
             }
         }
     }).start();
 }

Run the app and get the result, depicted below:

In the screenshot, given above, it is a model dialog and will block the UI until, it is dismissed. We have created a Thread, using a Runnable block to perform a long running task. The code, given above, will execute in a separate thread and it is simulated to perform the task for five seconds by inserting a delay, using the sleep() method.

We can also create a more user friendly Progress Dialog and display the progress of an operation.



In the screenshot, given above, one more button is added in activity_main.xml

<Button
     android:id="@+id/btnDialog2"
     android:layout_width="fill_parent"
     android:layout_height="wrap_content"
     android:text="Click to display a detailed progress dialog"
     android:onClick="onClick2"
     android:layout_below="@+id/btnDialog1"
     android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
     android:layout_alignParentStart="true"
     android:layout_marginTop="200dp"
     />

In the method, onCreateDialog(), add option for the second button will display a sophisticated Progress dialog. OK and Cancel buttons are set inside the progress dialog along with the various properties, such as icon, title and style.

Case 1:   

progressDialog=new ProgressDialog(this);

    progressDialog.setIcon(R.drawable.i1);

    progressDialog.setTitle("Downloading files........");

    progressDialog.setProgressStyle(progressDialog.STYLE_HORIZONTAL);

    progressDialog.setButton(DialogInterface.BUTTON_POSITIVE, "OK",

            new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {

                @Override

                public void onClick(DialogInterface dialogInterface, int i) {

                    Toast.makeText(getBaseContext(), "OK clicked", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();

                }

            }

    );

    progressDialog.setButton(DialogInterface.BUTTON_NEGATIVE, "Cancel",

            new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {

                @Override

                public void onClick(DialogInterface dialogInterface, int i) {

                    Toast.makeText(getBaseContext(),"Cancel clicked", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();

                }

            });

Add a method to display the progress status in the progress dialog by using a Thread object to run a Runnable block of the code.

public void onClick2(View v) {
     showDialog(1);
     progressDialog.setProgress(0);

     new Thread(new Runnable(){
         public void run(){
             for(int i=1;i<=10;i++){
                 try{
                     Thread.sleep(2000);
                     progressDialog.incrementProgressBy((int)(100/10));
                 }
                 catch (InterruptedException ex) {
                     ex.printStackTrace();
                 }
                 }
             progressDialog.dismiss();
             }

     }).start();
 }

Output

 

It is further incremented by the multiples of 10%.

Conclusion 

The incrementProgressBy() method increments the counter in the progress dialog. When it reaches 100%, it is dismissed.Thus it is all about progress dialog and a detailed progress dialog control used in android app.

In the next article, I will explain about the Intents.