Update or show progress label on asp.net web forms

Ok, well the starting process or say even a nice gif like this:

So, the FIRST message, or animation is no problem.

Additional messages? Hum, that’s MUCH more difficult unless you fake this.

So, for a simple example, lets say we have a button that takes a long time (say 4 seconds).

So, we have say this button:

        <asp:Button ID="cmdProcess" runat="server" Text="Big process" 
            CssClass="btn"
            OnClick="cmdProcess_Click"
            OnClientClick="showwait()" />

        <script>
            function showwait() {
                $("#MyProgress").show()
            }
        </script>

        <div id="MyProgress" style="display:none">
            <h2>Working</h2>
            <img src="../Content/wait2.gif" style="height: 67px; width: 80px" />
        </div>

So, when you click the above button, it will run BOTH a client side routine (that shows our div), and then the server side code, say this:

    protected void cmdProcess_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        Thread.Sleep(4000);
    }

So, you have this:

When you click the button, then you would see this say for 4 seconds:

So, this is easy, since we just display that div.

And bonus? Well, since the button is a post-back, then when the button code is done then of course client side will re-fresh, and now our "delay div" does not display anymore.

However, if you wanted say the message to change, say like :

Working part 1 …….

Then Working part 2 …..

Then I would start that "long" process as a web method. This can be difficult, since any web method you call does NOT have use of all the page controls.

often, you can (could) on the post back, fire off a new thread, and pass values, and then have a timer (client side) that calls a web method that returns the status.

And that timer would have to "check" some status value (say every one second), and get some value from the server. Since we don’t have (and really can’t have) additonal post-backs, then that web method will have to get that status message. That web method will have to return some status PROBABLY from session().

So display of "one" message when you click a button?
Very easy.