ProgressBar class

A ProgressBar is a horizontal or vertical bar that visually represents progress through a range. Three configurable axes shape the visual: Scrolling (segmented / smooth / marquee), State (Normal / Error / Paused, which tints the bar to match the OS theme), and Orientation (horizontal or vertical).

Private Sub StartTask()
    ProgressBar1.Min = 0
    ProgressBar1.Max = ItemCount
    ProgressBar1.Step = 1
    ProgressBar1.Value = 0
End Sub

Private Sub OnItemDone()
    ProgressBar1.StepIt   ' advances by Step (1 here) and fires Change
End Sub

Private Sub OnTaskFailed()
    ProgressBar1.State = PrbStateError
End Sub

For indeterminate progress (e.g. waiting on a server response with no length information), use the marquee variant:

ProgressBar1.Scrolling = PrbScrollingMarquee
ProgressBar1.MarqueeSpeed = 30       ' milliseconds per animation step
ProgressBar1.MarqueeAnimation = True ' start animating

The control inherits the non-focusable rect-dockable members from BaseControlNotFocusable2 --- size, position, Anchors, Dock, Appearance, MousePointer / MouseIcon, ToolTipText, DragMode / DragIcon, Drag, Refresh, ZOrder, CausesValidation, VisualStyles, hWnd, HelpContextID / WhatsThisHelpID.

Three axes of configuration

The visual is the cartesian product of three properties:

• Scrolling --- Standard (the default, animated segmented bar), Smooth (a continuous block --- combine with SmoothReverse to allow the bar to decrease), or Marquee (an indeterminate animated stripe; control with MarqueeAnimation + MarqueeSpeed).
• State --- Normal (theme-default color, typically green), Error (typically red), or Paused (typically yellow). The OS chooses the actual colors based on its current theme.
• Orientation --- Horizontal or Vertical.

All three can be changed at run time; the underlying Win32 styles are re-applied without recreating the window.

Range, value, and stepping

Min and Max bracket the range. Value is the current position. Step is the amount StepIt advances the bar by, used to power the common loop pattern:

ProgressBar1.Min = 0
ProgressBar1.Max = Items.Count
ProgressBar1.Step = 1
For Each item In Items
    DoWork item
    ProgressBar1.StepIt
Next

Each StepIt call increments Value by Step and fires the Change event.

Properties

BackColor

The background color drawn behind the progress bar segments. OLE_COLOR. Default: vbButtonFace. Applied via PBM_SETBKCOLOR.

BorderStyle

The control's border style. A ControlBorderStyleConstants member. Default: vbNoBorder.

ForeColor

The color of the progress bar segments themselves. OLE_COLOR. Default: vbHighlight. Applied via PBM_SETBARCOLOR.

INFO

The OS visual styles theme typically overrides this value in standard rendering. To see the assigned ForeColor at run time, disable visual styles by setting VisualStyles to False.

MarqueeAnimation

Whether the marquee animation is currently running. Boolean. Default: False. Only meaningful when Scrolling is PrbScrollingMarquee. Set to True to start, False to stop.

MarqueeSpeed

The marquee animation update interval, in milliseconds. Long. Default: 80.

Max

The upper bound of the range. Long. Default: 100. The combination of Min and Max is applied to the underlying control via PBM_SETRANGE32.

Min

The lower bound of the range. Long. Default: 0.

Orientation

The progress bar's orientation. A member of PrbOrientation. Default: PrbOrientationHorizontal.

Scrolling

The visual style of progress. A member of PrbScrolling. Default: PrbScrollingStandard.

SmoothReverse

Whether a smooth progress bar can decrease (when Value is set to a smaller number). Boolean. Default: False. Without this flag a smooth bar that has reached, say, 80% will not visibly decrease when Value is reduced --- it simply snaps back. Only meaningful when Scrolling is PrbScrollingSmooth.

State

The visual state of the bar. A member of PrbState. Default: PrbStateNormal. The OS uses the value to tint the bar --- PrbStateError typically renders red, PrbStatePaused typically renders yellow, PrbStateNormal uses the theme-default progress color (typically green).

Step

The amount StepIt advances Value by. Long. Default: 10.

Value

The current position in the range. Long. The default member. Reads and writes via PBM_GETPOS / PBM_SETPOS. Fires Change when the value is changed past the control's initialization phase.

Methods

StepIt

Advances Value by Step, wrapping to Min once Max is reached. Fires the Change event.

Syntax: object.StepIt

Events

Change

Raised when Value has changed --- either through direct assignment, through StepIt, or by code adjusting Step and re-applying.

Syntax: object_Change( )

Click, DblClick

Inherited mouse events.

DragDrop, DragOver

Inherited drag-drop events.

Initialize

Raised after the control's window has been created.

MouseDown, MouseMove, MouseUp

Inherited mouse events.

OLECompleteDrag, OLEDragDrop, OLEDragOver, OLEGiveFeedback, OLESetData, OLEStartDrag

Inherited OLE drag-and-drop events.

PrbOrientation

Determines the orientation of the progress bar. Declared on the ProgressBar class.

Member	Value	Description
PrbOrientationHorizontal	0	Horizontal bar; progress flows left-to-right.
PrbOrientationVertical	1	Vertical bar; progress flows bottom-to-top.

PrbScrolling

Determines how the progress bar animates as the value changes. Declared on the ProgressBar class.

Member	Value	Description
PrbScrollingStandard	0	Segmented bar with the classic discrete blocks animation.
PrbScrollingSmooth	1	Continuous block with no inter-segment gaps. Pair with SmoothReverse to allow the value to decrease visibly.
PrbScrollingMarquee	2	Indeterminate animated stripe. Control with MarqueeAnimation and MarqueeSpeed; the actual Value is irrelevant.

PrbState

Determines the color theme of the progress bar. Declared on the ProgressBar class.

Member	Value	Description
PrbStateNormal	1	Theme-default progress color (typically green).
PrbStateError	2	Error state (typically red).
PrbStatePaused	3	Paused state (typically yellow).

See Also

• Slider -- when the user needs to set a value within a range, not just see progress
• ControlTypeConstants -- where vbProgressBar lives