Auto-reload browser when I save changes to html file, in Chrome?

vim google-chrome automation
Kevin Burke picture Kevin Burke · Apr 8, 2011 · Viewed 79k times · Source

I'm editing an HTML file in Vim and I want the browser to refresh whenever the file underneath changes.

Is there a plugin for Google Chrome that will listen for changes to the file and auto refresh the page every time I save a change to the file? I know there's XRefresh for Firefox but I could not get XRefresh to run at all.

How hard would it be to write a script to do this myself?

Answer

leekaiinthesky picture leekaiinthesky · Apr 6, 2015

Pure JavaScript solution!

Live.js

Just add the following to your <head>:

<script type="text/javascript" src="https://livejs.com/live.js"></script>

How? Just include Live.js and it will monitor the current page including local CSS and Javascript by sending consecutive HEAD requests to the server. Changes to CSS will be applied dynamically and HTML or Javascript changes will reload the page. Try it!

Where? Live.js works in Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera and IE6+ until proven otherwise. Live.js is independent of the development framework or language you use, whether it be Ruby, Handcraft, Python, Django, NET, Java, Php, Drupal, Joomla or what-have-you.

I copied this answer almost verbatim from here, because I think it's easier and more general than the currently accepted answer here.

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