Download multiple files with one progressbar java / Android

Question

I am downloading multiple files in an AsyncTask with the help of for() loop. Below code works fine but each file downloaded with its own and single progress bar, I want only one progress bar for all the downloaded files.

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

And below is the AsyncTask for download files..

class DownloadFileFromURL extends AsyncTask<String, Integer, 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 {

            for (int i = 0; i < f_url.length; i++) {
                URL url = new URL(f_url[i]);
                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);
                System.out.println("Data::" + f_url[i]);
                // Output stream to write file
                OutputStream output = new FileOutputStream(
                        "/sdcard/Images/" + i + ".jpg");

                byte data[] = new byte[1024];

                long total = 0;
                int zarab=20;

                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();
                //cc++;
            }
        } catch (Exception e) {
            Log.e("Error: ", e.getMessage());
        }

        return null;
    }

    /**
     * Updating progress bar
     * */
    protected void onProgressUpdate(Integer... progress) {
        // setting progress percentage
        pDialog.setProgress(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() + "/downloaded.jpg";
        // setting downloaded into image view
        // my_image.setImageDrawable(Drawable.createFromPath(imagePath));
    }

}

Or if Progressbar shows and upgrades with respect to Nos of Files means instead of lenghtOfFile it will also be alternate and helpful solution. Any help will be highly appreciated.

Answer 1

I think you have 2 options:

The fake progress bar approach

You know in advance how many files you need to download, you can set the ProgressDialog total amount to the number of files to download. This works pretty well with files which are small and similar in dimensions and gives the user a good feedback about what's going on.

// you can modify the max value of a ProgressDialog, we modify it
// to prevent unnecessary rounding math.
// In the configuration set the max value of the ProgressDialog to an int with
pDialog.setMax(urls.length);

for (int i = 0; i < urls.length; i++) {
    // launch HTTP request and save the file
    //...
    // your code 
    //...

    //advance one step each completed download
    publishProgress();
}

/**
 * Updating progress bar
 */
protected void onProgressUpdate(Integer... progress) {
    pDialog.incrementProgressBy(1);
}

---

The real progress bar approach

You need to know in advance the total length of all the files you need to download. For example, you could create a separate REST API to call before everything else which give you the total length in bytes before you start to download each separate files. In this way, you can periodically update the total ProgressDialog length accordingly to the total bytes you have already downloaded.