TexasSwede

Brian Moore wrote about the problem with users thinking Notes applications are slow, due to no visible feedback:
"People seem to be totally happy at letting something take bleeding ages just so long as there is a little moving object to distract them from the clock."

This is very true, and I addressed this in one of my applications a while back by implementing a progress bar.
Suddenly, when the users got feedback on what was happening, all complaints about it being slow stopped, despite it taking the same amount of time...

I built a progress bar class. Here it is, as well as a small code sample showing how to call it. Note that this is a Win32 only solution.

' ***** Declarations for (undocumented) progress bar in Notes *****
Private Const NPB_TWOLINE% = 1
Private Const NPB_STATUSBAR% = 32
Declare Private Function NEMProgressBegin Lib "nnotesws.dll" ( Byval wFlags As Integer ) As Long
Declare Private Sub NEMProgressDeltaPos Lib "nnotesws.dll" ( Byval hwnd As Long, Byval dwIncrement As Long )
Declare Private Sub NEMProgressEnd Lib "nnotesws.dll" ( Byval hwnd As Long )
Declare Private Sub NEMProgressSetBarPos Lib "nnotesws.dll" ( Byval hwnd As Long, Byval dwPos As Long)
Declare Private Sub NEMProgressSetBarRange Lib "nnotesws.dll" ( Byval hwnd As Long, Byval dwMax As Long )
Declare Private Sub NEMProgressSetText Lib "nnotesws.dll" ( Byval hwnd As Long, Byval pcszLine1 As String, Byval pcszLine2 As String )

Class ProgressBar
	Private hidden As Integer
	Private hwnd As Long
	Private value As Long
	Private title As String
	Private textline1 As String
	Private textline2 As String
	Private maxvalue As Long
	
	Public Sub New(range As Long, initialtitle As String)
		Dim session As New NotesSession
		maxvalue = Clng(range)
		title = initialtitle 
		textline1 = ""
		textline2 = ""
		' Check if code is running on server (scheduled agent)
		Íf session.IsOnServer Then										
			hidden=True
		Else
			hidden=False
		End If
		If hidden = True Then
			Exit Sub
		End If		
		hwnd = NEMProgressBegin(NPB_TWOLINE)
		Call SetRange(maxvalue)
		NemProgressSetText hwnd, title, textline1 & Chr$(13) & textline2
	End Sub
	
	Sub Increase()
		If hidden = True Then
			Exit Sub
		End If
		If hwnd <> 0 Then
			If value < maxvalue Then
				value = value + 1
				NEMProgressSetBarPos hwnd, value
			End If
		End If
	End Sub
	
	Sub Decrease()
		If hidden = True Then
			Exit Sub
		End If
		If hwnd <> 0 Then
			If value > 0 Then
				value = value - 1
				NEMProgressSetBarPos hwnd, value
			End If
		End If
	End Sub
	
	Sub Close
		If hidden = True Then
			Exit Sub
		End If
		If hwnd <> 0 Then
			NEMProgressEnd hwnd	
			hwnd = 0
			title = ""
			value = 0
		End If
	End Sub
	
	Sub SetRange(value As Long)
		If hidden = True Then
			Exit Sub
		End If
		If hwnd <> 0 Then
			maxvalue = value
			NEMProgressSetBarRange hwnd, maxvalue
		End If
	End Sub
	
	Sub SetValue(value As Long)
		If hidden = True Then
			Exit Sub
		End If
		If hwnd <> 0 Then
			NEMProgressSetBarPos hwnd, value
		End If
	End Sub
	
	Sub SetText(message As String)
		If textline2="" Then
			Call PrintText()		
		End If
		If hidden = True Then
			Exit Sub
		End If
		If hwnd <> 0 Then
			textline1 = message
			NEMProgressSetText hwnd, title, textline1 & Chr$(13) & textline2
		End If
	End Sub
	
	Sub SetText2(message As String)
		Call PrintText()
		If hidden = True Then
			Exit Sub
		End If
		If hwnd <> 0 Then
			textline2 = message
			NEMProgressSetText hwnd, title, textline1 & Chr$(13) & textline2
		End If
	End Sub
	
	Function GetText() As String
		GetText = textline1
	End Function
	
	Function GetText2() As String
		GetText2 = textline2
	End Function
	
	Sub PrintText()
		Dim text As String
		If hidden = True Then
			text = textline1
			If textline2<>"" Then
				text = text & "  -  " & textline2
			End If
			Print text
		End If
	End Sub
	
	Function Show() As String
		hidden = False
		hwnd = NEMProgressBegin(NPB_TWOLINE)
		Call SetRange(maxvalue)
		NemProgressSetText hwnd, title, textline1 & Chr$(13) & textline2
	End Function
	
	Function Hide() As String
		hidden = True
		If hwnd <> 0 Then
			NEMProgressEnd hwnd	
			hwnd = 0
		End If
	End Function
	
End Class

Here is some sample code:

units = GetNumberOfUnits()
Set pbar = New ProgressBar(Clng(units+1),"Loading data from backend server...")
Call pbar.Show()

For i = 1 to units
	Call pbar.Increase()
	Call pbar.SetText("Loading coverage for unit " & i & "...")
	set vehicle = New CoverageData(i)	' Get vehicle coverage
	Call pbar.SetText2(vehicle.year & " " & Fulltrim(vehicle.name) & " - Coverage " & vehicle.cvgcode)
Next

Call pbar.Increase()
Call pbar.SetText("Finishing processing.")
Call pbar.SetText2("Please wait...")
' Do some more stuff here
Call pbar.Close()