Loading files at runtime without freezing UI

I know there are a lot of posts talking about how to load a lot of images/files at runtime but none seem to clear up what I want to do. My project loads a few xml files at runtime that will be stored on the user's local storage. The files will take about 1-2 minutes to read. The load time is not the problem, but I can't update the UI at all while it loads.

What I would like to do is have some sort of progress bar or loading % update in the UI so the user can see the progress. It seems that the UI just freezes while I load and read the files. Even just adding a spinner so the user knows the application is working would be great.

I am reading the XML files like this:

Code (CSharp):

1. private void addActiveItems()
2.     {
3.         XmlDocument xmlDoc = new XmlDocument(); // xmlDoc is the new xml document.
4.         xmlDoc.Load(SD.UserDataPath + "frames.xml"); // load the file.
5.         XmlNodeList framesList = xmlDoc.GetElementsByTagName("frames"); // array of the level nodes.
6.         int totalFramesInList = framesList.Count;
7.         foreach (XmlNode frames in framesList)
8.         {
9.             count++
10.             //Here I do the work of adding items to lists.
11.             //Would like to update the UI to show progress i.e. "Loading progress: count/totalFramesInList"
12.         }
13.     }

Is there any way to do this either on a background thread or some way to update the UI while loading?

 

Honestly the more I think about this it seems impossible on a background thread. With each item in the list I am creating a UI element to interact with, meaning I need to use the main UI thread.

I don't think I can delete this thread, I'd be ok with moderators deleting it if needed.