display processing image

[Anon]

How would you show a processing image while a page is being built and on completion show the page. I'm trying to do it without generating an extra file and doing a redirect to that file. Anyone have any ideas?

[pnoeric]

you could use DHTML... not easily, though.

your best bet is to make an interstitial page... with a meta-refresh of 3 seconds or something... and just start the processing and check each time the page reloads so you know when you escape out to the final results page (using a Location: header, most likely)

and don't forget, animated GIFs can go a long way toward making the user think something is happening :-)