Console-ish output in a browser, how?

[gnewsgroup]

In my web application, I would like to dynamically display the
progress of a process, something like:

Collecting user input ...
Saving user profile ...
Generating report in PDF ...
Dispatching report to user email ...

This is something like the installation progress display of DotNetNuke
or the Oracle's web-based enterprise manager.

Any idea about how this is implemented? I sorta think it is a iframe,
but just a wild guess.

Thanks.

[=?Utf-8?B?YnJ1Y2UgYmFya2Vy?=]

its done with server push. turn off page bufferring

DoSomeWork();
Response.Write("working 1...<br>");
Rsponse.Flush();
DoSomeWork();
Response.Write("working 2...<br>");
Rsponse.Flush();

the markup must be simple or the browser will not render it until all of it
is recieved.

-- bruce (sqlwork.com)
"gnewsgroup" wrote:

In my web application, I would like to dynamically display the
progress of a process, something like:

Collecting user input ...
Saving user profile ...
Generating report in PDF ...
Dispatching report to user email ...

This is something like the installation progress display of DotNetNuke
or the Oracle's web-based enterprise manager.

Any idea about how this is implemented? I sorta think it is a iframe,
but just a wild guess.

Thanks.

[David R. Longnecker]

My recommendation would be to use a ListBox control and insert items into
it as you return out messages to the user.

Using .Insert() at the zero index ensures that the newest messages show up
at the top...

Here's an example:

On your ASPX page:

<div>
<asp:ListBox ID="ConsoleOutput" runat="server" />
</div>

In your code-behind, classes, etc:

// Put an "item" for each line in the "console" output.
ConsoleOutput.Items.Insert(0, "Collecting user input ...");
ConsoleOutput.Items.Insert(0, "Saving user profile ...");
ConsoleOutput.Items.Insert(0, "Generating report in PDF ...");
ConsoleOutput.Items.Insert(0, "Dispatching report to user email
....");

ConsoleOutput.Items.Insert(0, "Collecting user input again... ");
ConsoleOutput.Items.Insert(0, "Saving another user profile ...");
ConsoleOutput.Items.Insert(0, "Generating another report in PDF
....");
ConsoleOutput.Items.Insert(0, "Dispatching the final report to
user email ...");

Events could fire off the control updating and/or placing it in an UpdatePanel
so your users can see it "scroll"...

HTH!

-dl

--
David R. Longnecker
http://blog.tiredstudent.com

In my web application, I would like to dynamically display the
progress of a process, something like:

Collecting user input ...
Saving user profile ...
Generating report in PDF ...
Dispatching report to user email ...
This is something like the installation progress display of DotNetNuke
or the Oracle's web-based enterprise manager.

Any idea about how this is implemented? I sorta think it is a iframe,
but just a wild guess.

Thanks.

[gnewsgroup]

On Dec 20, 11:45 am, bruce barker
<[e-mail]:

its done with server push. turn off page bufferring

DoSomeWork();
Response.Write("working 1...<br>");
Rsponse.Flush();
DoSomeWork();
Response.Write("working 2...<br>");
Rsponse.Flush();

I had thought that it must be something trickier than this. Will
Thread.Sleep(2000) work in a webpage? In other words, will the next
output appear after 2 seconds' elapse like so?

DoSomeWork();

Thread.Sleep(2000);

Response.Write("working 1...<br>");
Rsponse.Flush();
DoSomeWork();

Thread.Sleep(2000);

Response.Write("working 2...<br>");
Rsponse.Flush();

I tried Thread.Sleep before in a webpage, it does not seem to work.

[gnewsgroup]

On Dec 20, 11:51 am, David R. Longnecker
<[e-mail]:

My recommendation would be to use a ListBox control and insert items into
it as you return out messages to the user.

Using .Insert() at the zero index ensures that the newest messages show up
at the top...

Here's an example:

On your ASPX page:

<div>
<asp:ListBox ID="ConsoleOutput" runat="server" />
</div>

In your code-behind, classes, etc:

// Put an "item" for each line in the "console" output.
ConsoleOutput.Items.Insert(0, "Collecting user input ...");
ConsoleOutput.Items.Insert(0, "Saving user profile ...");
ConsoleOutput.Items.Insert(0, "Generating report in PDF ...");
ConsoleOutput.Items.Insert(0, "Dispatching report to user email
...");

ConsoleOutput.Items.Insert(0, "Collecting user input again... ");
ConsoleOutput.Items.Insert(0, "Saving another user profile ...");
ConsoleOutput.Items.Insert(0, "Generating another report in PDF
...");
ConsoleOutput.Items.Insert(0, "Dispatching the final report to
user email ...");

Events could fire off the control updating and/or placing it in an UpdatePanel
so your users can see it "scroll"...

HTH!

-dl

Thanks, I think your idea is absolutely cool. But, I guess it is then
necessary to CSS-format your listbox and make the frame and scroll bar
invisible. What do you think?

[David R. Longnecker]

That's a good question--I've never had a great deal of luck styling ListBox
controls. If I need really heavy duty theming, I tend to create composite
controls of my own.

If you wanted the box to expand dynamically (rather than scroll), that's
possible too.. You could refactoring out the .Insert command and do something
like:

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
// Put an "item" for each line in the "console" output.
ConsoleWriter(ConsoleOutput, "Collecting user input ...");
ConsoleWriter(ConsoleOutput, "Saving user profile ...");
ConsoleWriter(ConsoleOutput, "Generating report in PDF ...");
ConsoleWriter(ConsoleOutput, "Dispatching report to user email
....");

ConsoleWriter(ConsoleOutput, "Collecting user input again... ");
ConsoleWriter(ConsoleOutput, "Saving another user profile ...");
ConsoleWriter(ConsoleOutput, "Generating another report in PDF
....");
ConsoleWriter(ConsoleOutput, "Dispatching the final report to
user email ...");
}

protected void ConsoleWriter(ListBox listBox, string textToWrite)
{
listBox.Items.Insert(0, textToWrite);
listBox.Rows = listBox.Items.Count + 1;

}

That'll keep the ListBox 1 line "bigger" (that may not even be necessary,
can try with and without the +1) than the data it's holding. I'm sure others
on here have some creative ideas as well--I've just never sat down and hacked
out the actual ListBox control. :)

Good luck!

-dl

--
David R. Longnecker
http://blog.tiredstudent.com

On Dec 20, 11:51 am, David R. Longnecker
<[e-mail]:

>My recommendation would be to use a ListBox control and insert items
into it as you return out messages to the user.

Using .Insert() at the zero index ensures that the newest messages
show up at the top...

Here's an example:

On your ASPX page:

<div>
<asp:ListBox ID="ConsoleOutput" runat="server" />
</div>
In your code-behind, classes, etc:

// Put an "item" for each line in the "console" output.
ConsoleOutput.Items.Insert(0, "Collecting user input ...");
ConsoleOutput.Items.Insert(0, "Saving user profile ...");
ConsoleOutput.Items.Insert(0, "Generating report in PDF ...");
ConsoleOutput.Items.Insert(0, "Dispatching report to user email
...");

ConsoleOutput.Items.Insert(0, "Collecting user input again... ");
ConsoleOutput.Items.Insert(0, "Saving another user profile ...");
ConsoleOutput.Items.Insert(0, "Generating another report in PDF
...");
ConsoleOutput.Items.Insert(0, "Dispatching the final report to
user email ...");
Events could fire off the control updating and/or placing it in an
UpdatePanel so your users can see it "scroll"...

HTH!

-dl

Thanks, I think your idea is absolutely cool. But, I guess it is then
necessary to CSS-format your listbox and make the frame and scroll bar
invisible. What do you think?

[=?Utf-8?B?TW9oYW1hZCBFbGFyYWJp?=]

You can also set Response.Buffer = False at the top of your page and you
won't have to do all the Response.Flush() commands. Essentially you're
turning off bufferring so all responses are immediately sent to the browser.

tip: This also helps when a part of the page is taking a long time to load
while the rest of the page is fast. Instead of holding everybody hostage
you'd turn off the buffer and the slow image etc would load on its own sweet
time.

--
Mohamad Elarabi
Lead Developer. MCTS, MCPD.
"gnewsgroup" wrote:

On Dec 20, 11:45 am, bruce barker
<[e-mail]:

its done with server push. turn off page bufferring

DoSomeWork();
Response.Write("working 1...<br>");
Rsponse.Flush();
DoSomeWork();
Response.Write("working 2...<br>");
Rsponse.Flush();

I had thought that it must be something trickier than this. Will
Thread.Sleep(2000) work in a webpage? In other words, will the next
output appear after 2 seconds' elapse like so?

DoSomeWork();

Thread.Sleep(2000);

Response.Write("working 1...<br>");
Rsponse.Flush();
DoSomeWork();

Thread.Sleep(2000);

Response.Write("working 2...<br>");
Rsponse.Flush();

I tried Thread.Sleep before in a webpage, it does not seem to work.

[zhaojk]

On Dec 20, 2:14 pm, David R. Longnecker <[e-mail]>
wrote:

That's a good question--I've never had a great deal of luck styling ListBox
controls. If I need really heavy duty theming, I tend to create composite
controls of my own.

If you wanted the box to expand dynamically (rather than scroll), that's
possible too.. You could refactoring out the .Insert command and do something
like:

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
// Put an "item" for each line in the "console" output.
ConsoleWriter(ConsoleOutput, "Collecting user input ...");
ConsoleWriter(ConsoleOutput, "Saving user profile ...");
ConsoleWriter(ConsoleOutput, "Generating report in PDF ...");
ConsoleWriter(ConsoleOutput, "Dispatching report to user email
...");

ConsoleWriter(ConsoleOutput, "Collecting user input again... ");
ConsoleWriter(ConsoleOutput, "Saving another user profile ...");
ConsoleWriter(ConsoleOutput, "Generating another report in PDF
...");
ConsoleWriter(ConsoleOutput, "Dispatching the final report to
user email ...");
}

protected void ConsoleWriter(ListBox listBox, string textToWrite)
{
listBox.Items.Insert(0, textToWrite);
listBox.Rows = listBox.Items.Count + 1;

}

That'll keep the ListBox 1 line "bigger" (that may not even be necessary,
can try with and without the +1) than the data it's holding. I'm sure others
on here have some creative ideas as well--I've just never sat down and hacked
out the actual ListBox control. :)

Good luck!

-dl

Thank you very much. It's nice, but I still would rather not to see
the frame of the listbox. I believe this can be done through css
formating. I've seen people do similar stuffs with TextBox.

[=?Utf-8?B?YnJ1Y2UgYmFya2Vy?=]

with the minor issuse that it will not appear until all processing is done
(page renders).

while you could use an ajax update panel, you would need to make a
request/postback per step.

a common server push approach is to post to an iframe, then render script to
update the main frame (google does this).

-- bruce (sqlwork.com)
"David R. Longnecker" wrote:

My recommendation would be to use a ListBox control and insert items into
it as you return out messages to the user.

Using .Insert() at the zero index ensures that the newest messages show up
at the top...

Here's an example:

On your ASPX page:

<div>
<asp:ListBox ID="ConsoleOutput" runat="server" />
</div>

In your code-behind, classes, etc:

// Put an "item" for each line in the "console" output.
ConsoleOutput.Items.Insert(0, "Collecting user input ...");
ConsoleOutput.Items.Insert(0, "Saving user profile ...");
ConsoleOutput.Items.Insert(0, "Generating report in PDF ...");
ConsoleOutput.Items.Insert(0, "Dispatching report to user email
....");

ConsoleOutput.Items.Insert(0, "Collecting user input again... ");
ConsoleOutput.Items.Insert(0, "Saving another user profile ...");
ConsoleOutput.Items.Insert(0, "Generating another report in PDF
....");
ConsoleOutput.Items.Insert(0, "Dispatching the final report to
user email ...");

Events could fire off the control updating and/or placing it in an UpdatePanel
so your users can see it "scroll"...

HTH!

-dl

--
David R. Longnecker
http://blog.tiredstudent.com

In my web application, I would like to dynamically display the
progress of a process, something like:

Collecting user input ...
Saving user profile ...
Generating report in PDF ...
Dispatching report to user email ...
This is something like the installation progress display of DotNetNuke
or the Oracle's web-based enterprise manager.

Any idea about how this is implemented? I sorta think it is a iframe,
but just a wild guess.

Thanks.

[gnewsgroup]

On Dec 21, 12:03 pm, bruce barker
<[e-mail]:

with the minor issuse that it will not appear until all processing is done
(page renders).

while you could use an ajax update panel, you would need to make a
request/postback per step.

a common server push approach is to post to an iframe, then render script to
update the main frame (google does this).

-- bruce (sqlwork.com)

I just tried your approach, like what you've said, it will not appear
until all processing is done. In other words, you don't see those
output one after another with some pause in between them, even if you
use Thread.Sleep(5000) after each output. It does not work. You see
them all at once when the page renders.

Not sure how DotNetNuke does it for their installation process.

[=?Utf-8?B?TW9oYW1hZCBFbGFyYWJpIFtNQ1BEXQ==?=]

You must set Response.Buffer = False for response to go to the client
immediately. Please read my previous post.

Thanks,
--
Mohamad Elarabi
MCP, MCTS, MCPD.
"gnewsgroup" wrote:

On Dec 21, 12:03 pm, bruce barker
<[e-mail]:

with the minor issuse that it will not appear until all processing is done
(page renders).

while you could use an ajax update panel, you would need to make a
request/postback per step.

a common server push approach is to post to an iframe, then render script to
update the main frame (google does this).

-- bruce (sqlwork.com)

I just tried your approach, like what you've said, it will not appear
until all processing is done. In other words, you don't see those
output one after another with some pause in between them, even if you
use Thread.Sleep(5000) after each output. It does not work. You see
them all at once when the page renders.

Not sure how DotNetNuke does it for their installation process.

[gnewsgroup]

On Dec 21, 2:57 pm, Mohamad Elarabi [MCPD]
<[e-mail] :

You must set Response.Buffer = False for response to go to the client
immediately. Please read my previous post.

Thanks,
--
Mohamad Elarabi
MCP, MCTS, MCPD.

Yes, Mohamad, thank you. I did set Response.Buffer= false; But it
does not work as expected.