Best way to ask the user to wait?

[graham samuel]

On Thu, 31 Mar 2005 12:10:06 -0800, Trevor DeVore 
<lists at mangomultimedia.com> wrote:

> On Mar 31, 2005, at 1:14 AM, graham samuel wrote:
>> I'd like to put up a kind of advisory note to the user saying
>> something like
>>
>> "Please wait while we process your request"
>>
>> I don't want any reaction from the user, such as clicking on "OK" or
>> "Cancel" - I just want to warn her/him that it may take some time to
>> complete the next task. During this period, I have a nice animation
>> for the person to look at, but I don't really want to add my note to
>> the animated display. I suppose the usual thing is to put the cursor
>> into 'hourglass' or 'pizza' mode (according to platform) and of course
>> I can do this, but I just want to show my message first.
>>
>> What's the best way to implement this, do you think?
>
> Graham,
>
> Do you want to keep the user from clicking on other areas of your app
> while this happens?  For some tasks I have a "progress" stack that I
> display as modal (but doesn't block current script execution).  This
> displays a progress bar (or animation) and keeps the user from clicking
> on anything else until the process has completed.
>
> If this would work in your case you can do the following:
>
> 1) Create a stack.  For this example I will name it "myProgress".
> 2) Attach the script I've included below.
> 3) To give a name to the progress stack:  set the uTitle of stack
> "myProgress" to "I'm doing something.  Hold on."
> 3) To show the stack:  set the uShow of stack "myProgress" to true
> 4) To hide the stack:  set the uShow of stack "myProgress" to false
>
> In my script I have additional properties such as uProgress (updates a
> progress bar) and uFeedback (updates text displayed to the user).  This
> script just has the basics included.
>
> Note that if you make a mistake during development and forget to close
> the progress dialog you can hold down the command/control key and click
> on the window to make it disappear (see the mousedown handler).

[code part snipped]

Thanks Trevor, that's what I  need!  I did already try to use a modal 
window and the whole thing seized up, so I was forced to learn how to 
get out of that (it's in the docs). I had not thought out the issue of 
whether I wanted the user to be cut out while progress was being made - 
the answer turns out to be so complex that I think I'll just stop the 
user until the wait is over just to simplify the logic.

I must say I am being given a huge amount of excellent advice by 
members of the list just now. Great, isn't it?

Graham

----------------------------------------
Graham Samuel / The Living Fossil Co. / UK and France