You can show progress of a task in android through loading progress bar. The progress bar comes in two shapes. Loading bar and Loading Spinner. In this chapter we will discuss spinner.

Spinner is used to display progress of those tasks whose total time of completion is unknown. In order to use that, you just need to define it in the xml like this.

<ProgressBar
   android:id="@+id/progressBar1"
   style="?android:attr/progressBarStyleLarge"
   android:layout_width="wrap_content"
   android:layout_height="wrap_content"
   android:layout_centerHorizontal="true" />

After defining it in xml, you have to get its reference in java file through ProgressBar class. Its syntax is given below −

private ProgressBar spinner;
spinner = (ProgressBar)findViewById(R.id.progressBar1);

After that you can make its disappear , and bring it back when needed through setVisibility Method. Its syntax is given below −

spinner.setVisibility(View.GONE);
spinner.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);	

Apart from these Methods, there are other methods defined in the ProgressBar class , that you can use to handle spinner more effectively.

Example

Here is an example demonstrating the use of ProgressBar to handle spinner. It creates a basic application that allows you to turn on the spinner on clicking the button.

To experiment with this example , you can run this on an actual device or in an emulator.

Following is the content of the modified main activity file src/MainActivity.java.

package com.example.sairamkrishna.myapplication;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.Button;
import android.widget.ProgressBar;


public class MainActivity extends Activity {
   Button b1;

   private ProgressBar spinner;
   @Override
   protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
      super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
      setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
        
      b1=(Button)findViewById(R.id.button);
      spinner=(ProgressBar)findViewById(R.id.progressBar);
      spinner.setVisibility(View.GONE);

      b1.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
         @Override
         public void onClick(View v) {
            spinner.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
         }
      });
   }
}

Following is the modified content of the xml res/layout/activity_main.xml.

In the following code abc indicates the logo of tutorialspoint.com

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout 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">
   
   <TextView android:text="Progress Dialog" android:layout_width="wrap_content"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      android:id="@+id/textview"
      android:textSize="35dp"
      android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
      android:layout_centerHorizontal="true" />
      
   <TextView
      android:layout_width="wrap_content"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      android:text="Tutorials point"
      android:id="@+id/textView"
      android:layout_below="@+id/textview"
      android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
      android:textColor="#ff7aff24"
      android:textSize="35dp" />
      
   <Button
      android:layout_width="wrap_content"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      android:text="download"
      android:id="@+id/button"
      android:layout_below="@+id/imageView"
      android:layout_centerHorizontal="true" />
      
   <ImageView
      android:layout_width="wrap_content"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      android:id="@+id/imageView"
      android:src="@drawable/abc"
      android:layout_below="@+id/textView"
      android:layout_centerHorizontal="true" />
      
   <ProgressBar
      style="?android:attr/progressBarStyleLarge"
      android:layout_width="wrap_content"
      android:layout_height="wrap_content"
      android:id="@+id/progressBar"
      android:progressDrawable="@drawable/circular_progress_bar"
      android:layout_below="@+id/button"
      android:layout_alignRight="@+id/textView"
      android:layout_alignEnd="@+id/textView"
      android:layout_alignLeft="@+id/textview"
      android:layout_alignStart="@+id/textview"
      android:layout_alignParentBottom="true" />

</RelativeLayout>

Following is the content of the res/drawable/circular_progress_bar.xml.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<rotate
   xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
   android:fromDegrees="90"
   android:pivotX="50%"
   android:pivotY="50%"
   android:toDegrees="360">
   
   <shape
      android:innerRadiusRatio="3"
      android:shape="ring"
      android:thicknessRatio="7.0">
      
      <gradient
         android:centerColor="#007DD6"
         android:endColor="#007DD6"
         android:startColor="#007DD6"
         android:angle="0"
         android:type="sweep"
         android:useLevel="false" />
   </shape>
   
</rotate>

Following is the content of AndroidManifest.xml file.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
   package="com.example.sairamkrishna.myapplication" >

   <application
      android:allowBackup="true"
      android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
      android:label="@string/app_name"
      android:theme="@style/AppTheme" >
      
      <activity
         android:name="com.example.sairamkrishna.myapplication.MainActivity"
         android:label="@string/app_name" >
         
         <intent-filter>
            <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
            <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
         </intent-filter>
         
      </activity>
      
   </application>
</manifest>

Let”s try to run our application we just modified. I assume you had created your AVD while doing environment setup. To run the app from Android studio, open one of your project”s activity files and click Run icon from the toolbar. Android studio installs the app on your AVD and starts it and if everything is fine with your setup and application, it will display following Emulator window −

Now click on the load spinner button to turn on the loading spinner. It is shown in the image below −