Making a POST to a remote web server and waiting for a response

[Dylan Parry]

Hi,

I'm working on a project that involves the company I work for and
another company that we have been working with. Part of the project
involves passing an XML file between two servers when a user clicks a
button within a CMS.

I'm told, by the other company, that the time taken to process the XML
at their end can be 2-3 minutes. Now obviously this is an issue as it
would cause both our server and the user's browser to timeout before the
operation is finished.

So, my question is, how can I ensure that the server doesn't timeout
whilst waiting for the remote server to respond, and how do I ensure
that the user's browser also does not timeout?

I presume that the secret to stopping the browser from timing out is to
send it some sort of progress report and have it update the display
every /x/ seconds - however I am not at all sure how to achieve this.

Thanks in advance,

--
Dylan Parry
http://electricfreedom.org | http://webpageworkshop.co.uk

The opinions stated above are not necessarily representative of
those of my cats. All opinions expressed are entirely your own.

[=?Utf-8?B?UGV0ZXIgQnJvbWJlcmcgW0MjIE1WUF0=?=]

At the server, you can set the timeout property for the page, or set the
httpRuntime settings:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/e1f13641.aspx

On the browser, you can use a variety of techniques to indicate "progress",
such as:

http://www.eggheadcafe.com/tutorials...-gifs-and.aspx
-- Peter
Recursion: see Recursion
site: http://www.eggheadcafe.com
unBlog: http://petesbloggerama.blogspot.com
BlogMetaFinder: http://www.blogmetafinder.com

"Dylan Parry" wrote:

Hi,

I'm working on a project that involves the company I work for and
another company that we have been working with. Part of the project
involves passing an XML file between two servers when a user clicks a
button within a CMS.

I'm told, by the other company, that the time taken to process the XML
at their end can be 2-3 minutes. Now obviously this is an issue as it
would cause both our server and the user's browser to timeout before the
operation is finished.

So, my question is, how can I ensure that the server doesn't timeout
whilst waiting for the remote server to respond, and how do I ensure
that the user's browser also does not timeout?

I presume that the secret to stopping the browser from timing out is to
send it some sort of progress report and have it update the display
every /x/ seconds - however I am not at all sure how to achieve this.

Thanks in advance,

--
Dylan Parry
http://electricfreedom.org | http://webpageworkshop.co.uk

The opinions stated above are not necessarily representative of
those of my cats. All opinions expressed are entirely your own.

[Dylan Parry]

Peter Bromberg [C# MVP] wrote:

At the server, you can set the timeout property for the page, or set the
httpRuntime settings:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/e1f13641.aspx

Oh of course :)

On the browser, you can use a variety of techniques to indicate "progress",
such as:

http://www.eggheadcafe.com/tutorials...-gifs-and.aspx

Thanks. That looks to be exactly what I am after. I was a bit dubious at
first, but the logic behind that solution seems to make sense.

Cheers,

--
Dylan Parry
http://electricfreedom.org | http://webpageworkshop.co.uk

The opinions stated above are not necessarily representative of
those of my cats. All opinions expressed are entirely your own.