How to create a progress indicator in SwiftUI

Eric Callanan — Sunday, 21 Mar 2021

Circular rings are used frequently to show progress on a particular task or project. There has been a lot more awareness and discussion on closing activity rings since the introduction of the Apple watch. In this article we will create a circular progress indicator with the percentage complete displayed in the center.

Start with a Circle

The Circle shape in SwiftUI provides the basis of the circular progress view. Two circles are used in a ZStack to provide a gray background to show the path the progress bar is travelling. The stroke modifier is used to set the color of both circles. It is intuitive that a complete circle represents 100%. The circle on top is colored to show the progress with the trim modifier used to set the arc length. The circles could also be created by defining a Path for a shape using the path.addArc function, but use of circle is easier as it abstracts away some of the details.

 1ZStack {
 2    Circle()
 3        .stroke(Color(.systemGray4), lineWidth: 20)
 4    Circle()
 5        .trim(from: 0, to: 0.55)
 6        .stroke(Color.blue, lineWidth: 20)
 7}
 8.frame(width: 200, height: 200)
 9
10Path() { path in
11    path.addArc(
12        center: CGPoint(x: 100, y: 100),
13        radius: 90,
14        startAngle: Angle(degrees: 0.0),
15        endAngle: Angle(degrees: 360 * 0.55),
16        clockwise: false)
17}
18.stroke(Color.blue, lineWidth: 20)
19.frame(width: 200, height: 200)

Colored circle over a gray circle to represent the progress

Colored circle over a gray circle to represent the progress

Set progress to start at top

The default orientation in SwiftUI is a flipped xy coordinate system with the top left corner starting at (0, 0). The x coordinate increases moving from left to right and y increases moving down the screen. The circle shape is centered in its container view as required. The Trim modifier starts the arc at the horizontal line matching the center, which is equivalent 3 o'clock in clock position. What we want is the progress bar to start from the 12 o'clock position or the top of the circle. This could be achieved by subtracting 0.25 from the angles in the trim modifier, but it is better achieved by rotating the circle 90^o anti-clockwise. The following code modifies the circular progress to start at the top as well as extracting the code for the progress view into it a separate view.

 1struct CirclesTopView: View {
 2    var body: some View {
 3        VStack() {
 4            CircularProgressView(progress: 0.55)
 5
 6            CircularProgressView(progress: 0.85)
 7                .scaleEffect(0.75)
 8
 9            Spacer()
10        }
11        .padding(20)
12    }
13}
14
15struct CircularProgressView: View {
16    var progress: Double
17
18    var body: some View {
19        ZStack {
20            Circle()
21                .stroke(Color(.systemGray4), lineWidth: 20)
22            Circle()
23                .trim(from: 0, to: CGFloat(self.progress))
24                .stroke(Color.blue, lineWidth: 20)
25        }
26        .rotationEffect(Angle(degrees: -90))
27        .frame(width: 200, height: 200)
28        .padding()
29    }
30}

Shape rotated to start progress at top and scale applied to show smaller instance

Shape rotated to start progress at top and scale applied to show smaller instance

Change to rounded progress bar

The ends of the circular progress bar look particularly harsh, when one has become accustomed to seeing the activity rings on an Apple watch. Fortunately, it is easy to modify the ends of the stroke line using StrokeStyle specifying the lineCap as round. Once you see the round end, there's no going back to the butt end.

 1struct CircularProgressView: View {
 2    var progress: Double
 3
 4    var body: some View {
 5        ZStack {
 6            Circle()
 7                .stroke(Color(.systemGray4), lineWidth: 20)
 8            Circle()
 9                .trim(from: 0, to: CGFloat(self.progress))
10                .stroke(
11                    Color.blue,
12                    style: StrokeStyle(lineWidth: 20, lineCap: .round))
13        }
14        .rotationEffect(Angle(degrees: -90))
15        .frame(width: 200, height: 200)
16        .padding()
17    }
18}

Change style of the stroke to be rounded

Change style of the stroke to be rounded

Add text to progress view

Text can be added with the exact percentage progress using the overlay modifier on the circle shape. Note the rotationEffect needs to be moved to just rotate the progress circle since we do not want the text rotated. The text is formatted to display with zero decimal places.

 1struct CircularProgressView: View {
 2    var progress: Double
 3
 4    var body: some View {
 5        let progressText = String(format: "%.0f%%", progress * 100)
 6
 7        ZStack {
 8            Circle()
 9                .stroke(Color(.systemGray4), lineWidth: 20)
10            Circle()
11                .trim(from: 0, to: CGFloat(self.progress))
12                .stroke(
13                    Color.blue,
14                    style: StrokeStyle(lineWidth: 20, lineCap: .round))
15                .rotationEffect(Angle(degrees: -90))
16                .overlay(
17                    Text(progressText)
18                        .font(.system(size: 56, weight: .bold, design:.rounded))
19                        .foregroundColor(Color(.systemGray))
20                )
21        }
22        .frame(width: 200, height: 200)
23        .padding()
24    }
25}

Circular progress view with Text overlay

Circular progress view with Text overlay

Animate the Progress View

Animation is easily added to the circular progress view by attaching the animation modifier. A Slider is used to modify the progress and see the progress bar respond.

 1struct AnimateProgressView: View {
 2    @State private var progress: Double = 42.0
 3
 4    var minProgress = 0.0
 5    var maxProgress = 100.0
 6
 7    var body: some View {
 8        VStack() {
 9            CircularProgressView(progress: self.progress / 100)
10                .animation(.linear)
11
12            VStack {
13            Text("Progress: \(progress, specifier: "%.1f")")
14                Slider(value: $progress,
15                       in: minProgress...maxProgress,
16                       minimumValueLabel: Text("0"),
17                       maximumValueLabel: Text("100")
18                ) {}
19            }
20            .padding()
21
22            Spacer()
23        }
24        .padding(20)
25    }
26}

Use of a slider to view animation of circular progress view

Use of a slider to view animation of circular progress view

Add color gradient to progress bar

The progress bar can be further customised by adding a color gradient. An AngularGradient is used with the color getting darker to the end of the current progress. The end angle for the color is set to the current progress value.

 1struct CircularProgressView: View {
 2    var progress: Double
 3
 4    var body: some View {
 5        let progressText = String(format: "%.0f%%", progress * 100)
 6        let purpleAngularGradient = AngularGradient(
 7            gradient: Gradient(colors: [
 8                Color(red: 200/255, green: 168/255, blue: 240/255),
 9                Color(red: 71/255, green: 33/255, blue: 158/255)
10            ]),
11            center: .center,
12            startAngle: .degrees(0),
13            endAngle: .degrees(360.0 * progress))
14
15        ZStack {
16            Circle()
17                .stroke(Color(.systemGray4), lineWidth: 20)
18            Circle()
19                .trim(from: 0, to: CGFloat(self.progress))
20                .stroke(
21                    purpleAngularGradient,
22                    style: StrokeStyle(lineWidth: 20, lineCap: .round))
23                .rotationEffect(Angle(degrees: -90))
24                .overlay(
25                    Text(progressText)
26                        .font(.system(size: 56, weight: .bold, design:.rounded))
27                        .foregroundColor(Color(.systemGray))
28                )
29        }
30        .frame(width: 200, height: 200)
31        .padding()
32    }
33}

 1struct FinalProgressView: View {
 2    @State private var progress: Double = 42.0
 3
 4    var minProgress = 0.0
 5    var maxProgress = 100.0
 6
 7    var body: some View {
 8        VStack() {
 9            CircularProgressView(progress: self.progress / 100)
10                .animation(.linear)
11
12            VStack {
13            Text("Progress: \(progress, specifier: "%.1f")")
14                Slider(value: $progress,
15                       in: minProgress...maxProgress,
16                       minimumValueLabel: Text("0"),
17                       maximumValueLabel: Text("100")
18                ) {}
19            }
20            .accentColor(Color(red: 200/255, green: 168/255, blue: 240/255))
21            .padding()
22
23            Spacer()
24        }
25        .padding(20)
26    }
27}

Circular progress bar with color gradient

Circular progress bar with color gradient

circular progress indicator

Circular progress indicator

Conclusion

In this article we created a circular progress indicator similar to those seen in activity rings. A slider is used to interact with the progress and see the progress animating. An angular color gradient is added to show darker color at the higher end of the progress.

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