ASP.NET: UpdateProgress for long running process on Redirected page, need help

Question

I have a query page with a huge form that is filled out by the user. A button is clicked, and then the user waits for the process on the next page to finish running, and then is redirected to the new page. This is typical behavior if a long running process is running on the next page.

I want to run some sort of UpdateProgress in some manner to let the user know that there is a process running on the next page.

I tried doing some delay loading, but I'm not exactly sure why it isn't working. It's a simple ASPX page with a table, FormView to show data, all within an update panel. Anybody have any suggestions?

Answer 1

The only reliable way I got this to work for me was to create a worker thread that performed the unit of work. I then used the polling page to request an update on the threads progress and keep it redirecting to itself until the work was done.

It worked for me but I don't have any snippets to hand to help (sorry). I would point out, though, that you have to be pretty careful about how you setup your threads should you try out this approach. For a start, if memory serves me correctly you shouldn't use the backgroundworker as that will starve the asp.net thread pool (potentially).

In my code I created my own thread and handled all the polling, joining (etc) myself.

If need be, I can update this answer with some extra data unless other folk have better answers or snippets :).

HTH!