Refresh a local web page using Python

Question

I'm using Python to gather some information, construct a very simple html page, save it locally and display the page in my browser using webbrowser.open('file:///c:/testfile.html'). I check for new information every minute. If the information changes, I rewrite the local html file and would like to reload the displayed page.

The problem is that webbrowser.open opens a new tab in my browser every time I run it. How do I refresh the page rather than reopen it? I tried new=0, new=1 and new=2, but all do the same thing. Using controller() doesn't work any better.

I suppose I could add something like < META HTTP-EQUIV="refresh" CONTENT="60" > to the < head > section of the html page to trigger a refresh every minute whether or not the content changed, but would prefer finding a better way.

Exact time interval is not important.

Python 2.7.2, chrome 26.0.1410.64 m, Windows 7 64.

But, why do yo do in this way? Why dont you do AJAX or similar to read a chunk of data and parse then in your browser? with jQuery is simple, and dont have to regenerate always the webpage, only have to create a file and then show it with JQuery — ManuParra, May 06 '13 at 13:37
How is AJAX and jQuery easier than adding < META HTTP-EQUIV="refresh" CONTENT="60" > to the generated html file, opening it once with webbbrowser, then letting it refresh every minute (either reading the old file or a newly generated one)? — foosion, May 06 '13 at 17:26

score 9 · Answer 1 · edited Jan 23 '21 at 23:08

If you're going to need a refresh on the same tab, you'll need selenium webdriver. After installing selenium using pip, you can use the following code :

from selenium import webdriver
import time
import urllib
import urllib2
    
x = raw_input("Enter the URL")
refreshrate = raw_input("Enter the number of seconds")
refreshrate = int(refreshrate)
driver = webdriver.Firefox()
driver.get("http://"+x)

while True:
    time.sleep(refreshrate)
    driver.refresh()

This will open the URL and refresh the tab every refreshrate seconds

score 3 · Answer 2 · edited Jul 07 '19 at 19:32

3

I use pyautogui module to refresh the browser page. It's one liner:

import pyautogui

pyautogui.hotkey('f5') #Simulates F5 key press = page refresh

edited Jul 07 '19 at 19:32

StockB

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1
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answered Jul 07 '19 at 16:57

PSP2019

41
2

Does it refreshes one singular tab or all the tabs in the browser? – Mohseen Mulla Jul 08 '21 at 06:13

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 01 '18 at 20:16

1

Keep it very short, as simple as:

from selenium import webdriver
import time

driver = webdriver.Firefox()

driver.get('URL')
while True:
    time.sleep(20)
    driver.refresh()
driver.quit()

answered Jun 01 '18 at 20:16

P_n

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How to refresh localhost in Chrome? – Jatin Chaturvedi Dec 09 '21 at 04:47

score 0 · Answer 4 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:16

0

It looks like several people have asked this in the past but here is a link that sums it up.

Python refresh HTML document

But webbrowser.open( url, new=0 ) should open the page in the current window and not initialize a new one.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:16

Community

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answered May 06 '13 at 13:06

Dan K

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new=0 should work, but it doesn't, at least not for that poster or for me, as mention in my question. That link recommends javascript, which seems like overkill. Meta-refresh would seem like the best alternative? – foosion May 06 '13 at 13:25
neither here. it opens up a new tab everytime. – Tony May 27 '18 at 20:48

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 20 '18 at 22:08

The LivePage extension for Chrome. You can write to a file, then LivePage will monitor it for you. You can also optionally refresh on imported content like CSS. Chrome will require that you grant permissions on local file:// urls.

(I'm unaffiliated with the project.)

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Jan 24 '21 at 02:33

0

Or, you can use the easy auto refresh extension in chrome :D

It allows you to set your own refresh time, fastest being one second!

answered Jan 24 '21 at 02:33

Aj463

31
2

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Feb 25 '22 at 23:12

0

I have had same issues as you for some reason new=1 , new=0 doesn't work. U may try the code below. It simply open the url, waits for 10 sec then kill the process n repeat.

    from subprocess import Popen
    import time

    while True:
       link = ('https://www.google.com/')
       Popen(['start', 'chrome', link], shell=True)
       time.sleep(10)
       Popen('taskkill /F /IM chrome.exe', shell=True)

answered Feb 25 '22 at 23:12

sharveen

1

As it’s currently written, your answer is unclear. Please [edit] to add additional details that will help others understand how this addresses the question asked. You can find more information on how to write good answers [in the help center](/help/how-to-answer). – Community Feb 25 '22 at 23:18

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Apr 26 '22 at 08:41

0

After using pip install to install pyautogui use the following:

import pyautogui
import time

for i in range(number of times you want to refresh):
    time.sleep(refreshrate in seconds)
    pyautogui.hotkey('f5')

answered Apr 26 '22 at 08:41

PaoloChreif

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Refresh a local web page using Python

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