Add a loading spin for document bulk actions

[PeterKvayt]

Which Umbraco version are you using?

16

Bug summary

We have an ability to create notification handlers. In notification handler we can do anything. For instance we can do some heavy tasks which might take a while.
Can we add a spin for bulk actions to show users that there is something in progress?
I think it should be native behaviour because the bulk action means that there is a lot of work to do and it might take a while to complete it.

Here is an example of the current behavior:

2025-07-04.12-40-41.mp4

Specifics

No response

Steps to reproduce

• create the following notification handler:

public class DelayedNotificationHandler : INotificationAsyncHandler<ContentPublishedNotification>, IComposer
{
    public void Compose(IUmbracoBuilder builder)
    {
        builder.AddNotificationAsyncHandler<ContentPublishedNotification, DelayedNotificationHandler>();
    }

    public async Task HandleAsync(ContentPublishedNotification notification, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
    {
        await Task.Delay(7_000);

        notification.Messages.Add(new EventMessage("", "Delayed"));
    }
}

• publish a document

Expected result / actual result

Expected: user can see that there is something in progress
Actual: there is some confusing "freezing" user experience in the case of long-running bulk actions.

[iOvergaard]

Yes, great suggestion. We want to enable users to see long-running tasks "somewhere else" in the UI, for example, in a global-style "tasks" or "notifications" icon in the top bar. This is not only for bulk actions, but for any action that takes a while, which could be the regular Publish, Publish with Descendants, and any other action that impacts the database directly.

I will convert this to a discussion as the right focus is really around the global style UI to accomplish this in general.