I am developing an app that uses Server Sent Events (SSE - basically one-way websockets). If the user uses the site on their mobile chrome browser and then tabs out for about a minute, the SSE connection breaks. If the user then tabs back into the site, it doesn't refresh the page (this is good). But I still need to re-establish the SSE connection so that the server can resume sending messages to them without a refresh.
I'm trying to debug my implementation but having to do it on mobile is very tedious. I have to grab my phone, refresh the page, then tab out, wait 1 minute (so the connection can break), and then tab back in to determine if my code for re-establishing the connection worked properly.
I would much rather be able to debug this on desktop, but I haven't found a way. I have tried the following:
- Tried 5 different Chrome extensions for sleeping a tab. Unfortunately, when you navigate back into the tab it just refreshes the page rather than resumes it.
- Tried using USB Debugging, but the desktop keeps the tab open at all times even if you tab out on mobile, so the tab never sleeps.
- Tried running
debugger;
in the Chrome Developer Tools console, but even if I let the Javascript sit with its execution frozen for 5+ minutes, it never breaks the SSE connection, so I can't test if reconnecting works. - Tried using an extension to kill the internet for Chrome, but miraculously, this still maintains the active websocket/SSE connections. Apparently Google engineers have deprioritized this effort?
Basically, I am looking to simulate the behavior that happens on mobile when you tab out of your web browser, wait a minute, and then tab back in (the Javascript execution is frozen, the SSE connection is broken after a minute or so, and then tabbing back in resumes Javascript and attempts to reconnect the SSE connection).
Is this possible?