Total Access Components Tour: Progress Meter

The Progress Meter is a databound control that is designed to provide visual feedback to your users about various processes, such as the duration of an event or the magnitude of a value. Your user can make visual estimates of the time remaining to complete an event, or the percent of a numeric value without having to translate numbers or time units mentally.

The FMS Progress Meter has a wide variety of styles. The bar style of the meter can be either solid or segmented. If the meter is segmented, the segments may either be flat, raised, or sunken. A segmented meter may also use different colors for different segments. The Visual Unit (VU) style mimics the look of the VU meter of a sound system. The meter has a caption to display the numeric value of the meter, or the percent value. The meter may be oriented either vertically or horizontally, and may be filled either from the left/bottom or the right/top.

The best way to determine which style is right for your application is to experiment with the various settings using the property sheet for the control while it is in design mode. All properties of the progress meter can also be set programmatically during run-time.

Using the Min and Max Properties

Determine the range of values that your control displays by setting the Min and Max properties. If Min is set to zero and Max is set to 100, then when the meter is filled halfway, the value of the control is 50. The Min and Max values can be set to any numeric integer value. The only restriction is that the Min value must be less than the Max value. This means that if you are trying to reset the Min and Max values such that the new Min value is higher than the current Max value, adjust the Max value first, then change the Min value.

Using the Value Property

The Value property of the control sets the percentage of the bar that is filled in. Set the Value property to a number between the Min and Max values, and the progress meter automatically displays the appropriate bar or number of segments.

Using the Visual Unit (VU) Color Properties

The visual display of the VU-style progress meter can be further enhanced by specifying the colors to be used for up to four sets of segments. Specify the colors you wish to use for the segment sets by selecting the color for the VUColor1, VUColor2, VUColor3 and VUColor4 properties. Then specify the percentage point at which the segments change from one color to another by setting the corresponding VUPercent2, VUPercent3 and VUPercent4 properties. There is no VUPercent1 property since the VUColor1 property is used for the first segment set.

Displaying Text with the Caption Property

The Caption property of the meter can be used to display any text. This is a good place to display the actual numeric value that is reflected in the display of the meter. The Progress Meter also recognizes the special case of using a percent sign (%) in the caption. The % is automatically replaced with the actual percentage value. For example, if the caption is set to “%”, the actual caption displays “55 %” (where 55 is the actual percentage value).

Progress Meter Properties

Progress Meter Events