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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-12T18:10:52+00:00

I have a large excel document that is generated when the user clicks on

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I have a large excel document that is generated when the user clicks on the download link. When the download link is clicked the browser pops up the standard open save cancel dialog. The problem is that the wait time can be really long e.g. 15 seconds or more before the dialog appears. I want to show a busy gif while the request is in progress. How can I accomplish this?

I’m pretty sure I can show a gif easily using jQuery, but I’m not sure how to stop/hide the busy indicator when the new document (excel doc) has finished loading. Is there a javascript event that I could attach a handler to?

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  1. Editorial Team

    Another option is the temporary file method: Is there a way to detect the start of a download in JavaScript?

    Basically:

    1. User clicks on download link/button
    2. An AJAX request is sent to create the excel doc. Show the ‘busy’ indicator.
    3. The excel doc is created and saved to a temporary file on the server. A response is sent containing a unique id that identifies the file.
    4. The AJAX response is handled on the client-side. Hide the ‘busy’ indicator. window.location is changed to something like 'download.aspx?id=###' which prompts the user to save the file.
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