Use the ProgressBar component

The ProgressBar component displays the progress of loading content, which is reassuring to a user when the content is large and can delay the execution of the application. The ProgressBar is useful for displaying the progress of loading images and pieces of an application. The loading process can be determinate or indeterminate. A determinate progress bar is a linear representation of a task’s progress over time and is used when the amount of content to load is known. An indeterminate progress bar is used when the amount of content to load is unknown. You can also add a Label component to display the progress of loading as a percentage.

The ProgressBar component uses 9-slice scaling and has a bar skin, a track skin, and an indeterminate skin.

User interaction with the ProgressBar component

There are three modes in which to use the ProgressBar component. The most commonly used modes are the event mode and the polled mode. These modes specify a loading process that either emits progress and complete events (event and polled mode) or exposes bytesLoaded and bytesTotal properties (polled mode). You can also use the ProgressBar component in manual mode by setting the maximum , minimum , and value properties along with calls to the ProgressBar.setProgress() method. You can set the indeterminate property to indicate whether the ProgressBar has a striped fill and a source of unknown size ( true ) or a solid fill and a source of known size ( false ).

You set the ProgressBar’s mode by setting its mode property, either through the mode parameter in the Property inspector or the Component inspector or by using ActionScript.

If you use the ProgressBar to show processing status, like parsing 100,000 items, if it is in a single frame loop there will be no visible updates to the ProgressBar because there are no redraws of the screen.

ProgressBar component parameters

You can set the following parameters in the Property inspector or in the Component inspector for each ProgressBar instance: direction , mode , and source . Each of these has a corresponding ActionScript property of the same name.

You can write ActionScript to control these and additional options for the ProgressBar component using its properties, methods, and events. For more information, see the ProgressBar class in the ActionScript 3.0 Reference for the Adobe Flash Platform .

Create an application with the ProgressBar

The following procedure shows you how to add a ProgressBar component to an application while authoring. In this example, the ProgressBar uses the event mode. In event mode, the loading content emits progress and complete events that the ProgressBar dispatches to indicate progress. When the progress event occurs, the example updates a label to show the percent of content that has loaded. When the complete event occurs, the example displays “Loading complete” and the value of the bytesTotal property, which is the size of the file.

  1. Create a new Flash (ActionScript 3.0) document.

  2. Drag the ProgressBar component from the Components panel to the Stage.

    • In the Property inspector, enter the instance name aPb .

    • In the Parameters section, Enter 200 for the X value.

    • Enter 260 for the Y value.

    • Select event for the mode parameter.

  3. Drag the Button component from the Components panel to the Stage.

    • In the Property inspector, enter loadButton as the instance name.

    • Enter 220 for the X parameter.

    • Enter 290 for the Y parameter.

    • Enter Load Sound for the label parameter.

  4. Drag the Label component to the Stage and give it an instance name of progLabel .

    • Enter 150 for the W value.

    • Enter 200 for the X parameter.

    • Enter 230 for the Y parameter.

    • In the Parameters section, clear the value for the text parameter.

  5. Open the Actions panel, select Frame 1 in the main Timeline, and enter the following ActionScript code, which loads an mp3 audio file: 

    import fl.controls.ProgressBar; 
import flash.events.ProgressEvent; 
import flash.events.IOErrorEvent; 
 
var aSound:Sound = new Sound(); 
aPb.source = aSound; 
var url:String = "http://www.helpexamples.com/flash/sound/song1.mp3"; 
var request:URLRequest = new URLRequest(url); 
 
aPb.addEventListener(ProgressEvent.PROGRESS, progressHandler); 
aPb.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, completeHandler); 
aSound.addEventListener(IOErrorEvent.IO_ERROR, ioErrorHandler); 
loadButton.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, clickHandler); 
 
function progressHandler(event:ProgressEvent):void { 
        progLabel.text = ("Sound loading ... " + aPb.percentComplete); 
} 
 
function completeHandler(event:Event):void { 
    trace("Loading complete"); 
    trace("Size of file: " + aSound.bytesTotal); 
    aSound.close(); 
    loadButton.enabled = false; 
} 
 
function clickHandler(event:MouseEvent) {         
    aSound.load(request); 
} 
 
function ioErrorHandler(event:IOErrorEvent):void { 
    trace("Load failed due to: " + event.text); 
}

  6. Select Control > Test Movie.

Create an application with the ProgressBar component in polled mode

The following example sets the ProgressBar to polled mode. In polled mode, progress is determined by listening for progress events on the content that is loading and using its bytesLoaded and bytesTotal properties to calculate progress. This example loads a Sound object, listens for its progress events, and calculates the percent loaded using its bytesLoaded and bytesTotal properties. It displays the percent loaded in both a label and in the Output panel.

  1. Create a new Flash (ActionScript 3.0) document.

  2. Drag a ProgressBar component from the Components panel to the Stage and enter the following values in the Property inspector:

    • Enter aPb for the instance name.

    • Enter 185 for the X value.

    • Enter 225 for the Y value.

  3. Drag the Label component to the Stage and enter the following values in the Property inspector:

    • Enter progLabel for the instance name.

    • Enter 180 for the X value.

    • Enter 180 for the Y value.

    • In the Parameters section, clear the value for the text parameter.

  4. Open the Actions panel, select Frame 1 in the main Timeline, and enter the following ActionScript code, which creates a Sound object ( aSound ) and calls loadSound() to load a sound into the Sound object: 

    import fl.controls.ProgressBarMode; 
import flash.events.ProgressEvent; 
import flash.media.Sound; 
 
var aSound:Sound = new Sound(); 
var url:String = "http://www.helpexamples.com/flash/sound/song1.mp3"; 
var request:URLRequest = new URLRequest(url); 
 
aPb.mode = ProgressBarMode.POLLED; 
aPb.source = aSound; 
aSound.addEventListener(ProgressEvent.PROGRESS, loadListener); 
 
aSound.load(request); 
 
function loadListener(event:ProgressEvent) { 
    var percentLoaded:int = event.target.bytesLoaded / event.target.bytesTotal * 100; 
    progLabel.text = "Percent loaded: " + percentLoaded + "%"; 
    trace("Percent loaded: " + percentLoaded + "%"); 
}

  5. Select Control > Test Movie to run the application.

Create an application with the ProgressBar component in manual mode

The following example sets the ProgressBar to manual mode. In manual mode, you must set progress manually by calling the setProgress() method and provide it with the current and maximum values to determine the extent of progress. You do not set the source property in manual mode. The example uses a NumericStepper component, with a maximum value of 250, to increment the ProgressBar. When the value in the NumericStepper changes and triggers a CHANGE event, the event handler ( nsChangeHander ) calls the setProgress() method to advance the ProgressBar. It also displays the percent of progress completed, based on the maximum value.

  1. Create a new Flash (ActionScript 3.0) document.

  2. Drag the ProgressBar component from the Components panel to the Stage and give it the following values in the Property inspector:

    • Enter aPb for the instance name.

    • Enter 180 for the X value.

    • Enter 175 for the Y value.

  3. Drag a NumericStepper component to the Stage and enter the following values in the Property inspector:

    • Enter aNs for the instance name.

    • Enter 220 for the X value.

    • Enter 215 for the Y value.

    • In the Parameters section, enter 250 for the maximum parameter, 0 for the minimum value, 1 for the stepSize parameter, and 0 for the value parameter.

  4. Drag a Label component to the Stage and enter the following values in the Property inspector:

    • Enter progLabel for the instance name.

    • Enter 150 for the W value.

    • Enter 180 for the X value.

    • Enter 120 for the Y value.

    • In the Parameters tab, clear the value Label for the text parameter.

  5. Open the Actions panel, select Frame 1 in the main Timeline, and enter the following code: 

    import fl.controls.ProgressBarDirection; 
import fl.controls.ProgressBarMode; 
import flash.events.Event; 
 
aPb.direction = ProgressBarDirection.RIGHT; 
aPb.mode = ProgressBarMode.MANUAL; 
aPb.minimum = aNs.minimum; 
aPb.maximum = aNs.maximum; 
aPb.indeterminate = false; 
 
aNs.addEventListener(Event.CHANGE, nsChangeHandler); 
 
function nsChangeHandler(event:Event):void { 
    aPb.value = aNs.value; 
    aPb.setProgress(aPb.value, aPb.maximum); 
progLabel.text = "Percent of progress = " + int(aPb.percentComplete) + "%"; 
}

  6. Select Control > Test Movie to run the application.

  7. Click the Up Arrow on the NumericStepper to advance the ProgressBar.

Create a ProgressBar using ActionScript

This example creates a ProgressBar using ActionScript. Apart from that, it duplicates the functionality of the preceding example, which creates a ProgressBar in manual mode.

  1. Create a new Flash (ActionScript 3.0) document.

  2. Drag the ProgressBar component to the Library panel.

  3. Drag the NumericStepper component to the Library panel.

  4. Drag the Label component to the Library panel.

  5. Open the Actions panel, select Frame 1 in the main Timeline, and enter the following code: 

    import fl.controls.ProgressBar; 
import fl.controls.NumericStepper; 
import fl.controls.Label; 
import fl.controls.ProgressBarDirection; 
import fl.controls.ProgressBarMode; 
import flash.events.Event; 
 
var aPb:ProgressBar = new ProgressBar(); 
var aNs:NumericStepper = new NumericStepper(); 
var progLabel:Label = new Label(); 
 
addChild(aPb); 
addChild(aNs); 
addChild(progLabel); 
 
aPb.move(180,175); 
aPb.direction = ProgressBarDirection.RIGHT; 
aPb.mode = ProgressBarMode.MANUAL; 
 
progLabel.setSize(150, 22); 
progLabel.move(180, 150); 
progLabel.text = ""; 
 
aNs.move(220, 215); 
aNs.maximum = 250; 
aNs.minimum = 0; 
aNs.stepSize = 1; 
aNs.value = 0; 
 
aNs.addEventListener(Event.CHANGE, nsChangeHandler); 
 
function nsChangeHandler(event:Event):void { 
aPb.setProgress(aNs.value, aNs.maximum); 
progLabel.text = "Percent of progress = " + int(aPb.percentComplete) + "%"; 
}

  6. Select Control > Test Movie to run the application.

  7. Click the Up Arrow on the NumericStepper to advance the ProgressBar.

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