) .  Once created, make sure it has the runat="server" attribute and a unique id attribute so that it can be accessed by the code-behind file.  Mine looks something like this:
  

One thing that the VS.NET IDE does not do for you here is provide the control definition, like it does for ASP.NET controls.  So, we'll have to do this manually.  Go into the codebehind file, and place the following definition to a generic HTML control where other ASP.NET controls would normally be:
  Protected WithEvents pagestats As _
    System.Web.UI.HtmlControls.HtmlGenericControl

The next thing we need to do is override the page's Render() method so that we can do our processing here. If we do it before the render, then we don't have the opportunity to force status out at-will.  Within the Render() method, we can check to what operation is causing a postback, so we know what operations to do.  Our event handlers that require real-time status, will merely set flags for the Render() method to react to.  Since we all write modular code (right?  :), it should be pretty easy to make calls to our business logic functions from within Render() instead of our event handlers.  Keep in mind that this is only necessary for those events that require real-time status (which shouldn't be every one).

OK, so here's what a sample Render() method would look like that has 2 sections of code that just wait for 10 seconds (which is where a normally long running operation requiring real-time status would be).  Our single button event handler just sets the flag boolStartEvent for us.

Protected Overrides Sub Render(ByVal writer As System.Web.UI.HtmlTextWriter)
' Call the parent render and then flush the contents to get them to the browser quickly
MyBase.Render(writer)
writer.Flush()
Response.Flush()

' Check to see if btnClear was clicked and that's why we're rendering
If boolStartEvent Then

' Send a "starting operation" message
WriteStatusUpdate(writer, "Waiting for 10 seconds ...", False)

' Do your long running operation here - provide status at will
Dim TimerEnd As Long = Now().Ticks + 100000000
While Now().Ticks <= TimerEnd
End While

' Send a "completed operation" message
WriteStatusUpdate(writer, "Done", True)

' Send a "starting operation" message
WriteStatusUpdate(writer, "Waiting for another 10 seconds ...", False)

' Do your long running operation here - provide status at will
TimerEnd = Now().Ticks + 100000000
While Now().Ticks <= TimerEnd
End While

' Send a "completed operation" message
WriteStatusUpdate(writer, "Done", True)

' Clear flag
boolStartEvent = False
End If

End Sub

The first thing our overridden Render needs to do is make a call back to the MyBase.Render() method so that all of the child controls and other HTML get rendered. Since there's no long-running business logic (anymore), this should be a quick render.

So, what's this function WriteStatusUpdate? Well, its one of my common library functions that I use.  What it does is use the Writer object of the Render() method to push out new HTML to the innerHTML attribute of the status object (in this case the