Well, you have write the "..." javascript -- the elipsis was just a place holder (and note that we want to add javascript code by using the <body onLoad=""> attribute, NOT embed the body tag inside script tags). Also, note the clunkiness of print statements for this.. (and this is pretty general advice) at the minimum, at least use here-docs, and also keep in mind a more robust solution like Template::Toolkit or HTML::Template. So, back to the problem at hand, this is what i was envisioning: 
print <<EOF;
<html>
<head>
  <title>ntop startup script</title>
  <STYLE TYPE='text/css'>
    h3 { color: red }
    a { text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt/16pt Ariel, serif }
    a:hover { color: red } /* when mouse is over link */
  </style>
  <script language="javascript">
    function hideWaitMsg(){
      var obj = getElementById('wait_msg_text');
      obj.visible = false;
    }
  </script>
</head>
<body bgcolor='#c0c0d0' onLoad="hideWaitMsg()">
  <center>
  <p><br></p>
  <p><br></p>

  <div id="wait_msg_text">pls wait, ntop will be started</div>
EOF

[download]
That's the basic setup .. note that i just guessed at the javascript code in the hideWaitMsg() function -- that part is left as an excercise for the reader.

In reply to Re^3: show a message only during the sleep time by davidrw
in thread show a message only during the sleep time by cc

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