If you're clients are all on Windows, you can display the progress bar when performing a long calculation. There are two types of progress bars -- one large graphical (like when you're copying a database) and one through the status bar at the bottom of the screen (like when you open a very large document over a dial-up connection).
For an example of the large graphical progress bar, build an agent with this code:
Const NPB_TWOLINE% = 1
Declare Function NEMProgressBegin Lib "nnotesws.dll" ( Byval wFlags As Integer ) As Long
Declare Sub NEMProgressEnd Lib "nnotesws.dll" ( Byval hwnd As Long )
Declare Sub NEMProgressSetBarPos Lib "nnotesws.dll" ( Byval hwnd As Long, Byval dwPos As Long)
Declare Sub NEMProgressSetBarRange Lib "nnotesws.dll" ( Byval hwnd As Long, Byval dwMax As Long )
Declare Sub NEMProgressSetText Lib "nnotesws.dll" ( Byval hwnd As Long, Byval pcszLine1 As String, Byval pcszLine2 As String )
Sub Initialize
Dim hwnd As Long
Dim i As Long
Dim j As Long
hwnd = NEMProgressBegin( NPB_TWOLINE )
' Set the bar range - the default is 100
NEMProgressSetBarRange hwnd, 200
' Display text on the dialog.
NemProgressSetText hwnd, "Calculating ...", "Start"
For i = 0 To 200
For j = 0 To 9000
' artificial delay for the example !!
Next j
' Update the bar position
NEMProgressSetBarPos hwnd, i
' Update the text at twenty five percent
If i = 50 Then
NEMProgressSetText hwnd, "Calculating ....", "25%"
End If
' Update the text at fifty percent
If i = 100 Then
NEMProgressSetText hwnd, "Calculating .....", "50 %"
End If
' Update the text at seventy five percent
If i = 150 Then
NEMProgressSetText hwnd, "Calculating ......", "75 %"
End If
Next
' Destroy the dialog when we're done
NEMProgressEnd hwnd
End Sub
Run the agent and you will see the status bar.