Project: Eclipse_Platform_UI
Bug 41806 Platform mechanism for asynchronous prompts
Reported: 2003-08-21 10:57:35 | Status: closed fixed

In discussions with various teams on the subject of background build, someone suggested that platform UI introduce a mechanism to allow background processes to politely request interaction. Here is the scenario: - There is some long running process that may take several minutes to complete. At some point during that process, it needs to interact with the user (ask a question, show a warning, etc). The only option right now is to pop up a dialog. This is too intrusive in some cases. The user may be in the middle of some other task, and a modal dialog would force them to deal with the background request immediately. A more polite alternative is the Windows flashing button approach (when background shells open a modal dialog). When a background task needs interaction, it could add a blinking button to the status line (or next to the progress animation). The user can then chose to respond to the query when it is convenient for them. Another approach is a non-modal tooltip could pop up near the progress animation icon, saying something like, "A background task needs your input. Click here to respond." (like Windows update). This would look pretty slick, and avoid the user frustration of modal dialogs being thrust in their face from background processes.

Files changed in fix:
bundles/org.eclipse.ui.workbench/Eclipse UI/org/eclipse/ui/internal/progress/ProgressFeedbackManager.java bundles/org.eclipse.ui.workbench/Eclipse UI/org/eclipse/ui/internal/progress/ProgressManager.java