[FX.php List] Server is busy...please try again

[Jonathan Schwartz]

Hi folks.

"Server is busy...please try again".

You might see this message on a sophisticated airlines reservation 
web site, but not if a Filemaker web server is too busy or has a 
problem. The browser just times out.  This can be a real problem if a 
multi-step operation fails to finish before the time out.

I need to install a fix for this eventuality for one client. My plan 
is to set a flag in an existing customer record before starting the 
operation and then resetting the flag upon completion.  Any flags 
that remain set indicate a potential problem. This is possible when 
you are editing an existing record.  I am going to do that straight 
away.

NOTE: We have learned (the hard way) that the answer is *not* to 
increase the browser expiration time. When there is a web server 
problem, the last thing you want to do is stack up queries that don't 
expire.  This *will* crash the web server if it hasn't already done 
so.

But back to the "Server is busy...please try again" option....

Would this involve having one server talking to a second server where 
the first server can return the friendly message before the browser 
times out?  Or, is this a job for javascript?  Has anyone done this 
before? I'm sure that it is commonplace in many industries, but is 
not in my bag of tricks yet.

Thanks

Jonathan


-- 
Jonathan Schwartz
Exit 445 Group
jonathan at exit445.com
http://www.exit445.com
415-370-5011