refresh preview on save option

[mattyk]

last feature request from me! I discussed this a little in the support forum but thought it should be here.

I set Webbuilder up so that I have the preview open and make changes on a live server. At the moment I either have to CTRL + S then go to the preview and press the refresh button. Or I can change the settings to refresh every 1 second. The problem with this is that it only refresh after pressing save and then making a further change to the file. I then have to undo the change. Also everytime I write something new it refreshes which in my set up is pointless as unless I have saved the CSS file it doesn't show any changes.

What I'd really love is to have a setting that simply refreshes the preview on save. I write a lot of CSS and need to check after pretty much every line. That's a lot of saving and refreshing and I'm sure this would help me and other people who suffer with a bit of RSI. We'd just press CTRL + S and see the change straight away.

Thanks!

[mattyk]

Just in case anyone is reading this. There is something that might work here: http://xrefresh.binaryage.com/ with this you can just press save and have the browser automatically refresh. So you could leave the preview in Webbuilder closed and have both webbuilder and a browser open next to each other. It would be ideal if you have 2 monitors...

[mattyk]

Maybe its only me that wanted this, but I thought I'd come back on the forum and see if there were any updates.

I used Xrefresh for a while and it was great but doesn't work anymore. I know that using the less.js framework there is an option to "watch" meaning that the page updates on save. This would be great and I even tried to use it but I work mainly on FTP and remote servers. I may be wrong but I think this only works locally. There's some more info here:

http://fadeyev.net/2010/06/19/lessjs-will-obsolete-css/

I thought there may be a way of doing this inside webbuilder itself. Set up a split window, go to the actual live url in the preview, detect save in the open file and refresh. Is that possible?

Also on a small side note, is the preview actually the latest IE / browser that's installed or something that came as part of webbuilder? Could we get support for all browsers that we have installed?

Thanks!

[mattyk]

I'm sure I can't be the only one who wanted this... I've seen other people asking for similar things on other forums.

Actually, I've found a different option that might work better. The problems I've found with editors that have a built in preview that does auto refresh it that you just can't trust the built in preview browser engine. In my experience its never quite the same as a real browser.

Anyway - hopfully someone will find this useful.

Do a search and install autohotkey.

Go to the website page you are editing in firefox/ie. Set the firefox/ie and webbuilder windows next or underneath each other

use this code as your hotkey script:

Code: Select all

Esc::                ; The hotkey I like to use
SetTitleMatchMode, 2 ; Match Partial Title Mode
SetKeyDelay 10, 10   ; Set Keystroke Delays
Send {F5}            ; Save All In Editor / I set to F5 in webbuilder
IfWinExist, Firefox
   WinActivate
Send {F5}            ; Refresh Browser
WinActivate, WeBuilder 2011  ; 

when you are make a change to your file in webbuilder, press esc and it will save the file, refresh firefox and return your cursor where you left it in WeBuilder. Please note in this case I've set WeBuilder to do a save all on F5.

Hope that is clear and saves people so RSI! Should speed things up too!