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
– ManuParra, Commented May 6, 2013 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
– foosion, Commented May 6, 2013 at 17:26

Tonechas · Accepted Answer · 2021-01-23 23:08:46Z

9

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

edited Jan 23, 2021 at 23:08

Tonechas

13.8k16 gold badges52 silver badges85 bronze badges

answered Sep 24, 2014 at 12:28

Prasanth Louis

5,1263 gold badges40 silver badges49 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

StockB · Accepted Answer · 2019-07-07 19:32:01Z

4

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 7, 2019 at 19:32

StockB

7621 gold badge16 silver badges35 bronze badges

answered Jul 7, 2019 at 16:57

PSP2019

512 bronze badges

1 Comment

Mohseen Mulla Over a year ago

Does it refreshes one singular tab or all the tabs in the browser?

P_n · Accepted Answer · 2018-06-01 20:16:09Z

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 1, 2018 at 20:16

P_n

1,0122 gold badges14 silver badges31 bronze badges

1 Comment

Jatin Chaturvedi Over a year ago

How to refresh localhost in Chrome?

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:16:29Z

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, 2017 at 12:16

CommunityBot

11 silver badge

answered May 6, 2013 at 13:06

Dan K

4093 silver badges12 bronze badges

2 Comments

foosion Over a year ago

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?

Tony Over a year ago

neither here. it opens up a new tab everytime.

Reece · Accepted Answer · 2018-09-20 22:08:04Z

0

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.)

answered Sep 20, 2018 at 22:08

Reece

8,1684 gold badges34 silver badges48 bronze badges

Comments

Aj463 · Accepted Answer · 2021-01-24 02:33:27Z

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, 2021 at 2:33

Aj463

312 bronze badges

Comments

sharveen · Accepted Answer · 2022-02-25 23:12:52Z

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, 2022 at 23:12

sharveen

1

1 Comment

Community Over a year ago

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.

PaoloChreif · Accepted Answer · 2022-04-26 08:41:05Z

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, 2022 at 8:41

PaoloChreif

11 bronze badge

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Refresh a local web page using Python

8 Answers 8

Comments

1 Comment

1 Comment

2 Comments

Comments

Comments

1 Comment

Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

8 Answers 8

Comments

1 Comment

1 Comment

2 Comments

Comments

Comments

1 Comment

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related