Android Downloading File by Showing Progress Bar

When our application does a task that takes a considerable amount of time, it is common sense to show the progress of the task to the user.
This is a good User Experience practice. In this tutorial i will be discussing the implementation of a process-progress dialog.

Android Downloading File by Showing Progress Bar

As an example, i am displaying a progress bar that runs while the app downloads an image from the web. And once the image is downloaded
completely i am showing the image in a image view. You could modify this example and try it with any file type you may wish. That could be fun!

Creating new Project

1. Create a new project and fill all the details. File ⇒ New ⇒ Android Project
2. Open your main.xml are create a button to show download progress bar. Also define a ImageView to show downloaded image. Paste the following code in your main.xml

main.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical" >
 
    <!-- Download Button -->
    <Button android:id="@+id/btnProgressBar"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="Download File with Progress Bar"
        android:layout_marginTop="50dip"/>
 
    <!-- Image view to show image after downloading -->
    <ImageView android:id="@+id/my_image"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>
 
</LinearLayout>

3. Now in your main activity class import necessary classes and buttons. I am starting a new asynctask to download the file after clicking on show progress bar button.

public class AndroidDownloadFileByProgressBarActivity extends Activity {
 
    // button to show progress dialog
    Button btnShowProgress
 
    // Progress Dialog
    private ProgressDialog pDialog;
 
    // Progress dialog type (0 - for Horizontal progress bar)
    public static final int progress_bar_type = 0; 
 
    // File url to download
    private static String file_url = "https://api.infotheme.net/progressdialog/hive.jpg";
 
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.main);
 
        // show progress bar button
        btnShowProgress = (Button) findViewById(R.id.btnProgressBar);
        // Image view to show image after downloading
        my_image = (ImageView) findViewById(R.id.my_image);
 
        /**
         * Show Progress bar click event
         * */
        btnShowProgress.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
 
            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {
                // starting new Async Task
                new DownloadFileFromURL().execute(file_url);
            }
        });
    }

4. Progress Dialog can be shown using ProgressDialog class. It is a subclass of normal AlertDialog class. So add an alert method in your main activity class.

/**
 * Showing Dialog
 * */
@Override
protected Dialog onCreateDialog(int id) {
    switch (id) {
    case progress_bar_type:
        pDialog = new ProgressDialog(this);
        pDialog.setMessage("Downloading file. Please wait...");
        pDialog.setIndeterminate(false);
        pDialog.setMax(100);
        pDialog.setProgressStyle(ProgressDialog.STYLE_HORIZONTAL);
        pDialog.setCancelable(true);
        pDialog.show();
        return pDialog;
    default:
        return null;
    }
}

5. Now we need to add our Async Background thread to download file from url. In your main activity add a asynctask class and name it as DownloadFileFromURL(). After downloading image from the web i am reading the downloaded image from the sdcard and displaying in a imageview.

/**
 * Background Async Task to download file
 * */
class DownloadFileFromURL extends AsyncTask<String, String, String> {
 
    /**
     * Before starting background thread
     * Show Progress Bar Dialog
     * */
    @Override
    protected void onPreExecute() {
        super.onPreExecute();
        showDialog(progress_bar_type);
    }
 
    /**
     * Downloading file in background thread
     * */
    @Override
    protected String doInBackground(String... f_url) {
        int count;
        try {
            URL url = new URL(f_url[0]);
            URLConnection conection = url.openConnection();
            conection.connect();
            // getting file length
            int lenghtOfFile = conection.getContentLength();
 
            // input stream to read file - with 8k buffer
            InputStream input = new BufferedInputStream(url.openStream(), 8192);
 
            // Output stream to write file
            OutputStream output = new FileOutputStream("/sdcard/downloadedfile.jpg");
 
            byte data[] = new byte[1024];
 
            long total = 0;
 
            while ((count = input.read(data)) != -1) {
                total += count;
                // publishing the progress....
                // After this onProgressUpdate will be called
                publishProgress(""+(int)((total*100)/lenghtOfFile));
 
                // writing data to file
                output.write(data, 0, count);
            }
 
            // flushing output
            output.flush();
 
            // closing streams
            output.close();
            input.close();
 
        } catch (Exception e) {
            Log.e("Error: ", e.getMessage());
        }
 
        return null;
    }
 
    /**
     * Updating progress bar
     * */
    protected void onProgressUpdate(String... progress) {
        // setting progress percentage
        pDialog.setProgress(Integer.parseInt(progress[0]));
   }
 
    /**
     * After completing background task
     * Dismiss the progress dialog
     * **/
    @Override
    protected void onPostExecute(String file_url) {
        // dismiss the dialog after the file was downloaded
        dismissDialog(progress_bar_type);
 
        // Displaying downloaded image into image view
        // Reading image path from sdcard
        String imagePath = Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory().toString() + "/downloadedfile.jpg";
        // setting downloaded into image view
        my_image.setImageDrawable(Drawable.createFromPath(imagePath));
    }
 
}

6. Open your AndroidManifest.xml file and add internet connect permission and writing to sdcard permission.

AndroidManifest.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    package="com.example.infotheme"
    android:versionCode="1"
    android:versionName="1.0" >
 
    <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="8" />
 
    <application
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
        android:label="@string/app_name" >
        <activity
            android:name=".AndroidDownloadFileByProgressBarActivity"
            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>
 
    <!-- Permission: Allow Connect to Internet -->
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />
    <!-- Permission: Writing to SDCard -->
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
 
</manifest>

7. Run your Application and click on show progress bar button to see your progress bar. You can see the downloaded image in imageView once it is downloaded.

package com.example.infotheme;
 
import java.io.BufferedInputStream;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.OutputStream;
import java.net.URL;
import java.net.URLConnection;
 
import android.app.Activity;
import android.app.Dialog;
import android.app.ProgressDialog;
import android.graphics.drawable.Drawable;
import android.os.AsyncTask;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.os.Environment;
import android.util.Log;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.Button;
import android.widget.ImageView;
 
public class AndroidDownloadFileByProgressBarActivity extends Activity {
 
    // button to show progress dialog
    Button btnShowProgress;
 
    // Progress Dialog
    private ProgressDialog pDialog;
    ImageView my_image;
    // Progress dialog type (0 - for Horizontal progress bar)
    public static final int progress_bar_type = 0; 
 
    // File url to download
    private static String file_url = "https://api.infotheme.net/progressdialog/hive.jpg";
 
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.main);
 
        // show progress bar button
        btnShowProgress = (Button) findViewById(R.id.btnProgressBar);
        // Image view to show image after downloading
        my_image = (ImageView) findViewById(R.id.my_image);
        /**
         * Show Progress bar click event
         * */
        btnShowProgress.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
 
            @Override
            public void onClick(View v) {
                // starting new Async Task
                new DownloadFileFromURL().execute(file_url);
            }
        });
    }
 
    /**
     * Showing Dialog
     * */
    @Override
    protected Dialog onCreateDialog(int id) {
        switch (id) {
        case progress_bar_type: // we set this to 0
            pDialog = new ProgressDialog(this);
            pDialog.setMessage("Downloading file. Please wait...");
            pDialog.setIndeterminate(false);
            pDialog.setMax(100);
            pDialog.setProgressStyle(ProgressDialog.STYLE_HORIZONTAL);
            pDialog.setCancelable(true);
            pDialog.show();
            return pDialog;
        default:
            return null;
        }
    }
 
    /**
     * Background Async Task to download file
     * */
    class DownloadFileFromURL extends AsyncTask<String, String, String> {
 
        /**
         * Before starting background thread
         * Show Progress Bar Dialog
         * */
        @Override
        protected void onPreExecute() {
            super.onPreExecute();
            showDialog(progress_bar_type);
        }
 
        /**
         * Downloading file in background thread
         * */
        @Override
        protected String doInBackground(String... f_url) {
            int count;
            try {
                URL url = new URL(f_url[0]);
                URLConnection conection = url.openConnection();
                conection.connect();
                // this will be useful so that you can show a tipical 0-100% progress bar
                int lenghtOfFile = conection.getContentLength();
 
                // download the file
                InputStream input = new BufferedInputStream(url.openStream(), 8192);
 
                // Output stream
                OutputStream output = new FileOutputStream("/sdcard/downloadedfile.jpg");
 
                byte data[] = new byte[1024];
 
                long total = 0;
 
                while ((count = input.read(data)) != -1) {
                    total += count;
                    // publishing the progress....
                    // After this onProgressUpdate will be called
                    publishProgress(""+(int)((total*100)/lenghtOfFile));
 
                    // writing data to file
                    output.write(data, 0, count);
                }
 
                // flushing output
                output.flush();
 
                // closing streams
                output.close();
                input.close();
 
            } catch (Exception e) {
                Log.e("Error: ", e.getMessage());
            }
 
            return null;
        }
 
        /**
         * Updating progress bar
         * */
        protected void onProgressUpdate(String... progress) {
            // setting progress percentage
            pDialog.setProgress(Integer.parseInt(progress[0]));
       }
 
        /**
         * After completing background task
         * Dismiss the progress dialog
         * **/
        @Override
        protected void onPostExecute(String file_url) {
            // dismiss the dialog after the file was downloaded
            dismissDialog(progress_bar_type);
 
            // Displaying downloaded image into image view
            // Reading image path from sdcard
            String imagePath = Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory().toString() + "/downloadedfile.jpg";
            // setting downloaded into image view
            my_image.setImageDrawable(Drawable.createFromPath(imagePath));
        }
 
    }
}

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