Can I return multiple content types per one http request?

Question

Reporting system has list of available reports on a web page. When user clicks on a report new browser window opens, server starts to prepare report (winword document) and then sends it back after 2-10 seconds.

Code in the handler looks like the following:

 context.Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", 
   "attachment;filename=report.doc");
 context.Response.BinaryWrite(reportDocument);

I want to show "please wait" in this new window. Is it possible to prepare html content immediately ("please wait") send it back and then continue with time-consuming report preparation not closing connection?

What do you suggest if it's not possible to return multiple content types per one http request?

Thank you in advance!

Answer 1

One HttpResponse can only have sigle MIME type. You can pop-up another window which in turn can call the server which will respond with winword report document.

Answer 2

You could create an html Loading page with a redirect to the binary content.

The redirect could be done using meta redirect

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url=http://example.com/" />

More info at wikipedia

Answer 3

You cannot send 2 types of content per response. What you can do is render a "Please wait" page which contains a request (like an iframe) to the binary content.