I have to design and implement a way to deal with long running processes in a client/server application. A typical long running process would/could take 2-3 minutes. I also need to report progress to the UI in the meantime and keep the UI responsive.
Having these in my mind I though of a few solutions:
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One async request to start the process which starts the server-side process and returns an assigned LRPID (Long Running Process ID) then poll periodically from the client using that LRPID. (Pro: simple to deploy, no firewall messing around Con: Unelegant, resource consuming etc.)
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Use a duplex binding (such as NetTcpBinding) and initiate callbacks from the server as progress is being made (Pro: Elegant, efficient, Con: Deployment nightmare)
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[Your suggestion???]
What would be your take on this?
Here is a post by Dan Wahlin about how to create a WCF Progress Indicator for a Silverlight Application. This should be of some help.