you'll probably want to use the technique described in merlyn's column column (updated per merlyn's reply)

I think you meant this column instead. I really gotta tag that other one on my website with "see this instead".

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker
Be sure to read my standard disclaimer if this is a reply.

Yes, you're right. I just did a search for long CGI and found that other one (in a reply by you), so I assumed it was the one I thought it was, without really looking.

--
edan

You really need to read the Perl Advent Calendar - Term::ProgressBar.

Update: Ah. But, of course, that's for console-based applications and you're looking for a browser-based solution.

#!/usr/bin/perl -wT
use strict;
use CGI;
$|=1; # turn of output buffering..

# do some setup stuff, and print HTML headers here

# display a simple (looped & animated) "loading" image
print <<ENDHTML;
<img src="loading.gif" name="loading">
ENDHTML

# load stuff from the database...

print <<ENDHTML;
<script language="JavaScript">
<!--
  document.images['loading'].src = 'empty.gif';
//-->
</script>
ENDHTML

# print output
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Since JS tends to be problematic -- my current client requires it be turned off, for example -- here's an idea of how to acccomplish this with CSS.

/* Stylesheet Snippet */

.pbcont {
   background-color: #000;
   height: 20px;
   width: 250px;
   border: 1px solid #00c;
   margin: 0;
   padding: 0;
}

.pbarchunk {
   margin: 0;
   margin-right: 2px;
   padding: 0;
   background-color: #00c;
   width: 23px;
   height: 20px;
}
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---

#!/usr/bin/perl

use CGI; 
# Do CGI stuff
# Print a lot of the HTML;

print "<div class='pbcont'>";
while ($new_val < 100) {
   $new_val = &update();  # get the updated progress
   next unless $new_val > $old_val;
   print "<div class='pbar'> </div>";
}
print "</div>\n";
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This is untested, but the basic idea is that writing the DIVs will cause colored blocks to appear inside a bordered bar. One could also get a lot more complicated, dealing with fractional percentages, absolute CSS positioning to make the progress bar go away, and other neat little tricks.

Of course, if all you're interested in is letting the user know "something is happenning", you can use the parent post's idea with an animated GIF. This is basically what sites like PriceLine and the like use.

radiantmatrix
require General::Disclaimer;
s//2fde04abe76c036c9074586c1/; while(m/(.)/g){print substr(' ,JPacehklnorstu',hex($1),1)}

A related technique is to have the initial request not actually do any work but just return a page with the animated "loading..." image and a refresh header/metatag that causes the browser to issue another request for the "real" page; that second page can take as long as needed to generate the results which will then replace the first page.

Actually the trick here worked with out a problem, and with out any complexity, just needed a little work.
Thank you!

I would love to see your final version. I am looking for a simple (and actual) upload progress bar for a working group that exchanges large jpg's and cad files.

A nice sharing.

    use Smart::Comments;

    for my $j (1..500) {      ### Compiling===[%]  done
        select undef, undef, undef, 0.01;
    }
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