Question

I have a program that uploads files to our server when they are dropped over the form, to make it easy for our customers to get large files to us.
I have it mostly working, but I want to have a progress bar so that the user knows it’s working, instead of having it just sit there for 5 minutes while the files upload quietly in the background.

I would be happy to just have the progress bar pulse so it looks the program is working, and not frozen. If I can show actual status then that would be better.

My code:

Private Sub Grid1_Drop(sender As System.Object, e As System.Windows.DragEventArgs) Handles Grid1.Drop
    Dim sFileInfo As System.IO.FileInfo
    Dim sStatus As String = ""

    If e.Data.GetDataPresent("FileDrop") Then
        Try
            Dim theFiles() As String = CType(e.Data.GetData("FileDrop", True), String())
            For Each file As String In theFiles
                sFileInfo = New System.IO.FileInfo(file)

                If UploadFile(txtUsername.Text, sFileInfo) Then
                    lstFileList.Items.Add(file & " - Uploaded")
                Else
                    lstFileList.Items.Add(file & " - Upload Failed")
                End If
            Next
        Catch ex As Exception
            MsgBox(ex.Message)
        End Try
    End If
End Sub

Public Function UploadFile(ByVal User As String, ByVal oFile As FileInfo) As Boolean
    Dim ftpRequest As FtpWebRequest
    Dim ftpResponse As FtpWebResponse
    Try
        ftpRequest = CType(FtpWebRequest.Create(Base + User + "/" + oFile.Name), FtpWebRequest)
        ftpRequest.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.UploadFile
        ftpRequest.Proxy = Nothing
        ftpRequest.UseBinary = True
        ftpRequest.Credentials = Cred
        ftpRequest.KeepAlive = KeepAlive
        ftpRequest.EnableSsl = UseSSL
        If UseSSL Then ServicePointManager.ServerCertificateValidationCallback = New RemoteCertificateValidationCallback(AddressOf ValidateServerCertificate)
        Dim fileContents(oFile.Length) As Byte
        Using fr As FileStream = oFile.OpenRead
            fr.Read(fileContents, 0, Convert.ToInt32(oFile.Length))
        End Using
        Using writer As Stream = ftpRequest.GetRequestStream
            writer.Write(fileContents, 0, fileContents.Length)
        End Using
        ftpResponse = CType(ftpRequest.GetResponse, FtpWebResponse)
        ftpResponse.Close()
        ftpRequest = Nothing
        Return True
    Catch ex As WebException
        Return False
    End Try
End Function

Answer 1

Have a look at the background worker class. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc221403(v=vs.95).aspx which will free up your ui so you can add in a progress bar control and have it animate while your files are being uploaded