Problems with Ajax timer behavior when switching off of config panel

I am implementing an application that resides in ConfigPanel of the Ignition Gateway and am experiencing problems with displaying the progress bar properly. The application kicks off a thread to what can be a lengthy process and the Ajax progress bar and messages display components work as expected as long as the user stays on the page. If I open a new tab from the browser via a gateway link or more interesting click on another gateway page launched in another window the page stops updating the progress bar although the background thread continues to operate as expected.

To resolve the issue I have attempted to change the timer from using AbstractAjaxTimerBehavior to use a AjaxSelfUpdatingTimerBehavior without success. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.