How to delay a long running tasks start until display is updated?

Question

I am having a problem in that a progress bar I want to use to show progress of a long running background process is not showing up for a long time (up to 10 seconds) after the long running process is started. This is in an AIR application and the background process is an external native process, so once it is launched the UI thread is free to run, but the launch of the process can take time.
Below is the current state of the relevant code.
In addition to the current format I have also tried using the CREATION_COMPLETE, EXIT_FRAME and RENDER events with the same results.
If I up the value in setTimeout to 500ms the progress bar displays quickly, but I would prefer to not delay the launch of the background process for no reason.
If I comment out the loadPorject call the progress bar is displayed instantly.
Any help is appreciated.
private function continueLoad(evt:Event):void
     // We are about to start some potentially long running process
     CursorManager.setBusyCursor();
     curPopup = new SyncProgress();
     curPopup.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, popupLoadedHandler);
     PopUpManager.addPopUp(curPopup, parentView, true);
     PopUpManager.centerPopUp(curPopup);
     curPopup.stage.invalidate();
private function popupLoadedHandler(event:Event):void
     curPopup.removeEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, popupLoadedHandler);
     setTimeout(function():void{syncManager.loadProject(mainViewModel.selectedUserItem.id,proj ectFile.nativePath,overwrite);},0);

Answer 1

DBMS_SCHEDULER is very powerful and can be a bit unwieldy. I tend to use DBMS_SCHEDULER for jobs which are purely 'in the database' i.e. not specifically APEX-related - in addition, I find it's better for stuff that needs to be run regularly without human intervention (some sort of refresh process, daily cleanup etc).
If you are intending to run this process from APEX as a pseudo "on demand" process (i.e. generated by a user request) and have quite simple requirements (e.g. there's no dependencies on other jobs), it might be worth checking out the apex scheduling API - namely the package APEX_PLSQL_JOB:
http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E14373_01/apirefs.32/e13369/apex_plsql_job.htm#BGBCJIJI
It generates a unique job number which you can use to reference its progress - plus it's much simpler to use.
p.s. using DBMS_SCHEDULER, yes the job name has to be unique but you can generate one by either using a sequence or data not likely to be repeated, like the current timestamp.