Showing progress bar in a status bar pane

1. From the View menu, choose Resource Symbols. Press the New button and assign the symbol a name. (In this example well be using ID_INDICATOR_PROGRESS_PANE) Its 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 IDs, unless you dont 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 weve created the pane, its time to put a progress bar in it.

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

2. Declare a protected variable in MainFrm.h of type BOOL. (In this example well 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 its created, and if it isnt, 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, 
	// youd put 0, second youd 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 well 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 doesnt 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); 
		
}

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