how to show progress bar(circle) in an activity having a listview before loading the listview with data

There are several methods of showing a progress bar (circle) while loading an activity. In your case, one with a ListView in it.

IN ACTIONBAR

If you are using an ActionBar, you can call the ProgressBar like this (this could go in your onCreate()

requestWindowFeature(Window.FEATURE_INDETERMINATE_PROGRESS);  setProgressBarIndeterminateVisibility(true);

And after you are done displaying the list, to hide it.

setProgressBarIndeterminateVisibility(false);

IN THE LAYOUT (The XML)

<LinearLayout    android:layout_width="fill_parent"    android:layout_height="fill_parent"    android:layout_weight="1"    android:orientation="vertical" >    <LinearLayout        android:id="@+id/linlaHeaderProgress"        android:layout_width="fill_parent"        android:layout_height="fill_parent"        android:gravity="center"        android:orientation="vertical"        android:visibility="gone" >        <ProgressBar            android:id="@+id/pbHeaderProgress"            style="@style/Spinner"            android:layout_width="wrap_content"            android:layout_height="wrap_content" >        </ProgressBar>    </LinearLayout>    <ListView        android:id="@+id/list"        android:layout_width="fill_parent"        android:layout_height="fill_parent"        android:layout_weight="1"        android:cacheColorHint="@android:color/transparent"        android:divider="#00000000"        android:dividerHeight="0dp"        android:fadingEdge="none"        android:persistentDrawingCache="scrolling"        android:smoothScrollbar="false" >    </ListView></LinearLayout>

And in your activity (Java)I use an AsyncTask to fetch data for my lists. SO, in the AsyncTask's onPreExecute() I use something like this:

// CAST THE LINEARLAYOUT HOLDING THE MAIN PROGRESS (SPINNER)LinearLayout linlaHeaderProgress = (LinearLayout) findViewById(R.id.linlaHeaderProgress);@Overrideprotected void onPreExecute() {        // SHOW THE SPINNER WHILE LOADING FEEDS    linlaHeaderProgress.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);}

and in the onPostExecute(), after setting the adapter to the ListView:

@Overrideprotected void onPostExecute(Void result) {         // SET THE ADAPTER TO THE LISTVIEW    lv.setAdapter(adapter);    // CHANGE THE LOADINGMORE STATUS TO PERMIT FETCHING MORE DATA    loadingMore = false;    // HIDE THE SPINNER AFTER LOADING FEEDS    linlaHeaderProgress.setVisibility(View.GONE);}

EDIT: This is how it looks in my app while loading one of several ListViews

You can do this easier.
Source: http://www.tutorialspoint.com/android/android_loading_spinner.htm
It helped me.

Layout:

<ProgressBar   android:id="@+id/progressBar1"   style="?android:attr/progressBarStyleLarge"   android:layout_width="wrap_content"   android:layout_height="wrap_content"   android:layout_centerHorizontal="true" />

After defining it in xml, you have to get its reference in java file through ProgressBar class. Its syntax is given below:

private ProgressBar spinner;spinner = (ProgressBar)findViewById(R.id.progressBar1);

After that you can make its disappear , and bring it back when needed through setVisibility Method. Its syntax is given below:

spinner.setVisibility(View.GONE);spinner.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);

I used this one for list view loading may helpful.

activity_main.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"android:layout_width="fill_parent"android:layout_height="fill_parent"android:paddingLeft="5dp"android:paddingRight="5dp" ><LinearLayout    android:id="@+id/progressbar_view"    android:layout_width="fill_parent"    android:layout_height="wrap_content"    android:gravity="center_horizontal"    android:orientation="vertical" >    <LinearLayout        android:layout_width="fill_parent"        android:layout_height="wrap_content"        android:gravity="center_horizontal"        android:orientation="horizontal" >        <ProgressBar            style="?android:attr/progressBarStyle"            android:layout_width="wrap_content"            android:layout_height="wrap_content"            android:layout_gravity="center_vertical|center_horizontal" />        <TextView            android:layout_width="wrap_content"            android:layout_height="wrap_content"            android:layout_gravity="center_vertical|center_horizontal"            android:text="Loading data..." />    </LinearLayout>    <View        android:layout_width="fill_parent"        android:layout_height="1dp"        android:background="#C0C0C0" /></LinearLayout><ListView    android:id="@+id/listView"    android:layout_width="fill_parent"    android:layout_height="wrap_content"    android:layout_alignParentTop="true"    android:layout_marginTop="1dip"    android:visibility="gone" /></RelativeLayout>

and my MainActivity class is,

public class MainActivity extends Activity {ListView listView;LinearLayout layout;List<String> stringValues;ArrayAdapter<String> adapter;@Overrideprotected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);    listView = (ListView) findViewById(R.id.listView);    layout = (LinearLayout) findViewById(R.id.progressbar_view);    stringValues = new ArrayList<String>();    adapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>(this,            android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1, stringValues);    listView.setAdapter(adapter);    new Task().execute();}class Task extends AsyncTask<String, Integer, Boolean> {    @Override    protected void onPreExecute() {        layout.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);        listView.setVisibility(View.GONE);        super.onPreExecute();    }    @Override    protected void onPostExecute(Boolean result) {        layout.setVisibility(View.GONE);        listView.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);        adapter.notifyDataSetChanged();        super.onPostExecute(result);    }    @Override    protected Boolean doInBackground(String... params) {        stringValues.add("String 1");        stringValues.add("String 2");        stringValues.add("String 3");        stringValues.add("String 4");        stringValues.add("String 5");        try {            Thread.sleep(3000);        } catch (Exception e) {            e.printStackTrace();        }        return null;    }}}

this activity display progress for 3sec then it will display listview, instead of adding data statically to stringValues list you can get data from server in doInBackground() and display it.