javascript reload page every 5 seconds when browser is minimized

Question

Actually we Play a notification sound when some update happens in database, so I am trying to reload page every 5 seconds when browser in minimized, this works fine in Firefox , but in Chrome this doesn't work.

Scenario:

Minimize the browser and leave the computer idle.

I have tried two methods:

Method 1:

   <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="5;URL=http://example.com/" />

Method 2:

 <script>

   $(document).ready(function () {

   setTimeout(function(){
    window.location.reload(1);
    }, 5000);

    });

 </script>

Any help would be great.

Armor

You can't identify from client javascript that the browser window is minimised. – Hic

@Vision , But auto reload works in Firefox even when browser window minimised, why not in Chrome ? – Armor

Why do you reload the whole page when you can just get the updated data itself from the server? Anyway wouldn't window.location.href = window.location.href; work? – Benefit

Chrome behaves differently with timed events when the browser does not have focus. I haven't tried this with Firefox on the desktop, but both Firefox and Chrome on a mobile device stop firing multiple timed events. – Marga

Answer 1

The window blur and focus events can detect the view state of the window .

Example :

 var timer = null;

 //when the window is minimized or when user is in different tab . 
    window.addEventListener('blur', function(){

       timer = setInterval(function(){

          window.location.reload(1);

       },5000)

    }, false);


//when user is back to window
    window.addEventListener('focus', function(){

        //stop the page reload once 

        if(timer != null){

        clearInterval(timer);

      }
    }, false);

Hope this helps.

Hiramhirasuna