Posted by Jonah Bishop on 09/12/06 01:13

I'm developing a photo album web application for use on a web site, and
I'm running into a problem with lengthy operations. My application
allows the user to import a number of images at once into a photo
album. For each image that gets imported, I create two thumbnail images
(small and medium) and insert some data into a database. The thumbnail
generation process takes some time and, for relatively large amount of
photos, the application apparently times out. For example, if I import
40 pictures at once, 15 or so get imported successfully, but the app
then seems to time out. So I then have to import the images that are
left (that didn't get imported).

How can I properly handle such a lengthy operation? Ideally, I would
like to let the user know what's going on (and how much progress has
been made). And I certainly want all of the photos (no matter how many)
to be imported at once.

Are there programming paradigms that work well for situations like
this? What tips do people here have for such a situation? Any help
would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

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