NoF5 Web Development Tool
No longer wear out your F5 key! This simple PHP script will let you avoid refreshing the browser each time you change a file!
Pre-requisites
- Linux server (but you can view the page in a Windows/Mac browser)
- The strace utility (included with almost every Linux distribution)
- The user running PHP must have access to run strace
- A browser that supports server-side events e.g. Chromium or Firefox
Usage
1) Include nof5.phar at the top of your script.
require_once 'nof5.phar';
2) Save a file on the server and your browser will be updated as long as the page you're viewing has a <head> tag!
Features
- For CSS and JavaScript files, the CSS will be reloaded without refreshing the page. If you have any JavaScript created elements/menus visible they will just be styled with the updated CSS without needing to be regenerated
- For JavaScript files, the javascript is reloaded in-place meaning the entire browser isn't refreshed!
- Any server-side file used by the page (Which includes any xml files, template files or any other file the script has opened), when written to will trigger a browser refresh.
Download NoF5.phar or View the source code on GitHub
Windows support?
It would be good if this supported windows, however I don't have a Windows PC to test on. If anyone knows of an equivalent utility to Linux's strace for monitoring file access, it could be used to implement a Windows version.