title: Getting CruiseControl.NET to use output from long-running task when displaying "Activity"
body: <p>In <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CruiseControl" rel="nofollow">CruiseControl.NET</a>, I have two projects set up, one for building and one for deploying build packages.</p>
  
  <p>Our build is largely based around <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSBuild" rel="nofollow">MSBuild</a>, and as it runs the dashboard constantly updates with the latest output from the build. This means that even though a full build may take 15 minutes, you can see exactly where it is, and that it's making progress.</p>
  
  <p>The deploy is run using another tool (VisualBuild, though I'm see the same basic behaviour with other tools like PowerShell).  This is another long-running task, but in this case the dashboard is <em>not</em> updated with its output as it progresses.  Since a deploy may take a long time, it's hard to tell whether things are progressing or if things have stalled.  The output is getting logged to the CruiseControl.NET log, and will display on the dashboard once things are done, but not while the deploy is in progress.</p>
  
  <p>Is there a way to get output from other arbitrary long-running tasks updated on the dashboard in something resembling real time? What makes MSBuild special in this regard?</p>