Hi Larry,
Thanks for the input! Scenario 2 is what I was thinking of. I just tried a test of the idea, and it failed. What was happening was I had a do while loop checking the object property that held the status. Before anything showed up on the page, it timed out. I guess it boils down to this: how can you create an ASP page that automatically, periodically makes a request? That way, I don't need to loop.
Mark

>>Hi All,
>>Ok, I have a DCOM server which I use to remotely control a time-consuming process. It is launched and monitored by a simple VFP app (on a remote machine). Can I perform this same task on an ASP page in a browser? IOW, the page creates an object ref, schedules the process, and updates the page with the current status, which it polls from the object ref. If not, are there other ways to do this?
>>TIA!
>>Mark
>
>IMO, I don't think this will work like you want. The sequence of events would be:
>
>ASP is requested from IIS
>ASP instantiates COM object
>
>Two scenarios:
>COM object does all processing and then returns control to what called it
>or
>COM object runs method independently of instantiator and returns control immediately
>
>If scenario 1, the user could wait a long time to view the HTML generated by the ASP page. If scenario 2, the COM object will go out of scope when the ASP page is finished pre-processing and the task may not be complete.
>
>I would think you would have to have your DCOM server running independently of the ASP page. The ASP page would have to send messages to that server using a home-made table approach or MSMQ. The DCOM server would pick up the request and post status messages back to whatever requested the task in the first place.
>
>HTH.