Showing progress bar in a status bar pane

This article was contributed by Brad Mann.

This code creates a progress bar anywhere in the status window and the control is created only once.

1. From the View menu, choose Resource Symbols. Press the New button and assign the symbol a name. (In this example we’ll be using ID_INDICATOR_PROGRESS_PANE) It’s probably best if you let the computer assign a value for it.

2. In MainFrm.cpp, find the indicators array (located under the message map section) and type the ID of the resource (ID_INDICATOR_PROGRESS_PANE) in the section. Put it under all the rest of the ID’s, unless you don’t want the bar in the far right corner. (placing the ID at the beginning of the array puts the pane in the far left where the program messages usually go)

3. Open the string table in the resource editor, and from the Insert menu, choose New String.

4. Double click the string and select the ID. For the message, just type a bunch of spaces. (the more spaces the larger the progress bar)

Now that we’ve created the pane, it’s time to put a progress bar in it.

1. Declare a public variable in MainFrm.h of type CProgressCtrl. (In this example we’ll call it m_Progress)

2. Declare a protected variable in MainFrm.h of type BOOL. (In this example we’ll call it m_bCreated)

3. In the OnCreate() function in MainFrm.cpp, initialize m_bCreated to FALSE:

	m_bCreated = FALSE;

4. Now, when we need to use the progress bar, we check to see if it’s created, and if it isn’t, we make a new one:

CMainFrame::OnSomeLongProcess(){	RECT MyRect;	// substitute 4 with the zero-based index of your status bar pane. 	// For example, if you put your pane first in the indicators array, 	// you’d put 0, second you’d put 1, etc.	m_wndStatusBar.GetItemRect(4, &MyRect);  	if (m_bCreated == FALSE)	{		//Create the progress control		m_Progress.Create(WS_VISIBLE|WS_CHILD, MyRect, &wndStatusBar, 1); 		m_Progress.SetRange(0,100); //Set the range to between 0 and 100		m_Progress.SetStep(1); // Set the step amount		m_bCreated = TRUE;	}	// Now we’ll simulate a long process:	for (int I = 0; I < 100; I++)	{			Sleep(20);			m_Progress.StepIt();	}}

If the window is resized while the progress bar is created, the progress control doesn’t reposition correctly, so we have to override the WM_SIZE event of class CMainFrame:

void CMainFrame::OnSize(UINT nType, int cx, int cy) {	CMDIFrameWnd::OnSize(nType, cx, cy);	RECT rc;	m_wndStatusBar.GetItemRect(4, &rc);	// Reposition the progress control correctly!	m_Progress.SetWindowPos(&wndTop, rc.left, rc.top, rc.right - rc.left,		rc.bottom - rc.top, 0); 		}

That’s the way to implement a progress control into a status bar pane! Although the process is long, it is relatively simple.