asp.net - How can I update a text box asynchronously during a long process.

Question

I'm using MS Ajax toolkit and would like to be able to display status messages back to my user asynchronously. I have an update panel wrapped around a text box, this is the desired destination for any update message. Inside the update panel I have a trigger pointing to the click event of the only button on the page. I'm able to make the call to the method without a problem aber when I do something silly like

thisTextbox.text = "I know this is silly";

at the beginning of my long process...I don't get any update on the page. I'm missing something obviously, any help you can give would be appreciated. Thanks

on a side note, it it easy to get JQuery working in an ASP.net website? I tried with DOJO a few years ago and abandoned it for the pure asp "solution"

Jim

Answer 1

A synchronous status updates can be tricky. It typically involves creating a separate thread to perform the long operation and building in a machanism for that thread to report its progress. The GUI can then poll the thread via a timed refresh to get the status. Using the update panel makes this timed refresh appear a bit more smooth, but the same could be accomplished by refreshing the page or using an XMLHTTP request to poll the server for progress.

Answer 2

Maybe I'm getting it wrong, but have you tried to say

thisTextbox.text = "I know this is silly";
UpdatePanel1.Update();