Refresh Browser (VS Code extension)

Refresh your web-browser with a ⌘R shortcut without switching from VS Code. Only works on macOS!

🔥 NEW FEATURE IN VERSION 1.1.0: enable refreshBrowser.runBuildTask setting if you want to run the build task of your project before refreshing the browser.

FAQ

Why macOS only? This extension relies on AppleScript to communicate with the browser.
Which browsers are supported? Safari, Chrome and Chromium-based browsers, such as Edge, Opera etc. Firefox is not supported, because it lacks the AppleScript API. For Firefox and other browsers, use @fabiospampinatoʼs Browser Refresh extension.
How is this extension different to @fabiospampinatoʼs Browser Refresh? Refresh Browser (this extension) communicates with the browser directly via the browserʼs AppleScript API. For this reason:
- it works slightly faster;
- Code always stays in focus;
- it can find a tab to refresh by URL (configure this behavior using the refreshBrowser.findTabByUrlStartingWith setting).
At the same time, it has limited browser support and is unable to send a “force refresh” command to the browser.

@fabiospampinatoʼs Browser Refresh uses AppleScript to simulate the ⌘R keystroke in the browser window, resulting in Code window losing focus for a fraction of a second. Such method has its advantages: it can be used to simulate the “force refresh” keystroke (Cmd-Shift-R), and it is more universal in terms of browser support.
I need “force refresh”. What can I do? Keep your browser console always open and disable caching.

Installation

Click Install on the Marketplace, or run from the command palette (Cmd-Shift-P):

ext install dae.vscode-refresh-browser

Usage

Press Cmd-R or run Refresh Browser from the command palette (Cmd-Shift-P).

Command ID: extension.refreshBrowser

Settings

{
    "refreshBrowser.browser": "Google Chrome", // the browser to refresh
    "refreshBrowser.urlPrefixes": [] // refresh the tab whose URL starts with one of the specified prefixes
    "refreshBrowser.runBuildTask": false // if enabled, run the build task and wait for its completion before refreshing the browser (if the build task is not available, simply refresh the browser)
}

A note regarding refreshBrowser.urlPrefixes: if you add https://localhost, a tab whose URL is https://localhost/website/index.html will be refreshed. If there are multiple tabs with matching URLs, only the first one will be refreshed. If there are no tabs with a matching URL, the active tab will be refreshed.

Feedback

If you have a problem or a suggestion, please open an issue on GitHub.

EugeneDae/vscode-refresh-browser