[Tip] JProgressBar bean

Illusion and reality -- two things that you need to think about in your Servoy solution. Applications with a lot of reality and not a lot of illusion confuse your users. On the flip side, a lot of illusion and little reality annoys users. I'm getting dangerously close to drawing comparisons with past girlfriends so I'll move on and explain myself....

"Reality" is when a solution does what it is supposed to. "Illusion" refers to all the non-functional stuff you add to tell your users that "reality" is happening. Rollover buttons, bleeps and whistles at appropriate times, and my favorite creation -- a boxing glove that explodes from the screen and punches the user in the nose (*pow!*) when they do something stupid.

Let's say you have a super-duper import process set up (Harjo will show you how next week). In one grand swoop you can condense 20 spreadsheets so everyone in the company can actually see and use the data at the same time. Your client is going to love it!

Unfortunately the first time the client uses it, they click on the button and...nothing happens. Or the client isn't sure if something is happening. Client clicks button again...and again. Still nothing. I have found out the hard way that clients tend to go from "happy" to "pissed" without passing "annoyed" in these situations and the sledgehammer comes out without a moments hesitation.

When the dust clears, Servoy is whimpering in the corner of the screen, only 3 of 20 spreadsheets made it into the solution, and phones are ringing in the hapless developers office.

Sometimes you need some smoke and mirrors to clue your user into thinking something is happening. My favorite technique (not counting the boxing glove) for this is using the JProgressBar. Bob Cusick (Servoy USA) sent this demo file over to share with all of you. I didn't know you could turn the percentage counter on...very cool!