Does anyone know of an extension for Firefox, or a script or some other mechanism, that can monitor one or more local files. Firefox would auto-refresh or otherwise update its canvas when it detected a change (of timestamp) in the files(s).
For editing CSS, it would be ideal if just the CSS could be reloaded, rather than a full HTML re-render.
Effectively it would enable similar behaviour to Firebug with its dynamic HTML/CSS editing, only through external files.
Live.js
From the website:
How?
Just include Live.js and it will monitor the current page including local CSS and Javascript by sending consecutive HEAD requests to the server. Changes to CSS will be applied dynamically and HTML or Javascript changes will reload the page. Try it!
Where?
Live.js works in Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera and IE6+ until proven otherwise. Live.js is independent of the development framework or language you use, whether it be Ruby, Handcraft, Python, Django, NET, Java, Php, Drupal, Joomla or what-have-you.
It has the huge benefit of working with IETester, dynamically refreshing each open IE tab.
Try it out by adding the following to your <head>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://livejs.com/live.js"></script>
Have a look at FileWatcher extension:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/filewatcher/
it's a WebExtension, so it works with the latest Firefox
it has a native app (to be installed locally) that monitors watched files for changes using native OS calls (no polling!) and notifies the WebExtension to let it reload the web page
reload is driven by rules: a rule contains the page URL (with regular expression support) and its included/excluded local source files
open source: https://github.com/coolsoft-ita/filewatcher
DISCLAIMER: I'm the author of the extension ;)
I would recommend livejs
But it has following Advantages and Disadvantages
Advantages:
1. Easy setup
2. Works seamlessly on different browsers (Live.js works in Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera and IE6+)
3. Don't add irritating interval for refreshing browser specially when you want to debug along with designing
4. Only refreshing when you save change ctrl + S
5. Directly saves CSS etc from firebug I have not used that feature but read on their site http://livejs.com/ that they support it too!!!
Disadvantages:
1. It will not work on file protocol file:///C:/Users/Admin/Desktop/livejs/live.html
2. You need to have server to run it like http://localhost
3. You have to remove it while deploying on staging/production
4. Doesn't serves CDN I have tried cheating & applying direct link http://livejs.com/live.js but it will not work you have to download and keep on local to work.
Xrefresh with firebug.
Firefox has an extension called mozRepl.
Emacs can plug into this, with moz-reload-on-save-mode.
when it's set up, saving the file forces a refresh of the browser window.
There are some IDE's that contain this ability (They'll have a pane within them or some other means to auto-refresh a page on save).
If you want to do this yourself a quick hack is to set the meta refresh on the page to a low value - one or two seconds.
# Will refresh the page content every second
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="1" />
You could just place a javascript interval on your page, have it query a local script which checks the last date modified of the css file, and refreshes it if it changed.
jQuery Example:
var modTime = 0;
setInterval(function(){
$.post("isModified.php", {"file":"main.css", "time":modTime}, function(rst) {
if (rst.time != modTime) {
modTime = rst.time;
// reload style tag
$("head link[rel='stylesheet']:eq(0)").remove();
$("head").prepend($(document.createElement("link")).attr({
"rel":"stylesheet",
"href":"http://sstatic.net/mso/all.css?v=4372"
})
);
}
});
}, 5000);
Browsersync can do this from the server side / outside of the browser.
This can achieve more repeatable results / things that don't require so much clicking.
This will serve a page and refresh on change
cd static_content
browser-sync start --server --files .
It also allows a scripting mode.
This is certainly hacky, but if you want to work locally without making any external request (to live.js, for example), or run any local server, I think this might be useful. This is not specific to web development, you can adopt similar strategy to any other workflow.
You will need two tiny tools (which are present in almost all distribution repos): inotify-tools and xdotool.
First get the ID of your Firefox and your editor window using xdotool.
$ xdotool search --name "Mozilla Firefox"
60817411
60817836
$ xdotool search --name "Pluma" # Pluma is my editor
94371842
Depending on the number of processes running, you will get one or more window ID. Use xdotool windowactivate <ID> to know which one you want (the focus changes to the respective window).
Use inotifywait -e close_write to monitor changes to your local file and when you save the file using your editor, change focus to your browser, reload xdotool key CTRL+R and focus back to your editor. This is so instantaneous you will not notice nothing.
Also, inotifywait exits on change, so you might have to do it in a loop. Here is a minimum working example (in Bash in your working directory).
while /usr/bin/true
do
inotifywait -e close_write index.html;
xdotool windowactivate 60917411; # Switch to Firefox
xdotool key CTRL+R; # Reload Firefox
xdotool windowactivate 94371842 # Switch back to Pluma
done
You can use inotifywait to watch for the entire directory or some selected files in your directory.
You can write a script that can automate is easily.
This works on Linux (I've tested this on Void Linux.)
You can use live.js with a tampermonkey script to avoid having to include https://livejs.com/live.js in your HTML file.
// ==UserScript==
// #name Auto reload
// #author weirane
// #version 0.1
// #match http://127.0.0.1/*
// #grant none
// ==/UserScript==
(function() {
'use strict';
if (Number(window.location.port) === 8000) {
const script = document.createElement('script');
script.src = 'https://livejs.com/live.js';
document.body.appendChild(script);
}
})();
With this tampermonkey script, the live.js script will be automatically inserted to pages whose address matches http://127.0.0.1:8000/*. You can change the port according to your need.
I think that you can solve it by using some ajax requests after a determinate interval. You can do a request to CSS files and then if you don't get the "not modified" header you delete your css and load it again. For dynamic files you do a request and store the response and then every time you make a request to that file you compare the response to the latest.
Related
I have a basic Angular webapp running on ec2 ubuntu 16.04, using routing($routeProvider). When I open the application home page say example.com, instead of opening http://example.com/#/ it opens http://example.com/#!/ there is an extra ! which is messing up the whole url/routing structure. Not sure what I am doing wrong, Please advice.
Angular version 1.6 adds a "!" to $location.. check the angular page below...
https://docs.angularjs.org/guide/migration#commit-aa077e8
$location:
Due to aa077e8, the default hash-prefix used for $location hash-bang
URLs has changed from the empty string ('') to the bang ('!'). If your
application does not use HTML5 mode or is being run on browsers that
do not support HTML5 mode, and you have not specified your own
hash-prefix then client side URLs will now contain a ! prefix. For
example, rather than mydomain.com/#/a/b/c the URL will become
mydomain.com/#!/a/b/c.
If you actually want to have no hash-prefix, then you can restore the
previous behavior by adding a configuration block to you application:
appModule.config(['$locationProvider', function($locationProvider) {
$locationProvider.hashPrefix('');
}]);
I just updated my Chrome browser (Version 50.0.2661.75) and have found that the chrome://downloads page has changed such that my automated tests can no longer interact with it. Previously, I had been using Watir-Webdriver to clear the downloads page, delete files from my machine, etc, without too much difficulty.
It looks like Google is using Polymer on this page, and
there are new (to me) elements like paper-button that Watir-Webdriver doesn't recognize
even browser.img(:id, 'file-icon').present? returns false when I
can clearly see that the image is on the page.
Is automating a page made with Polymer (specifically the chrome://downloads page) a lost cause until changes are made to Watir-Webdriver, or is there a solution to this problem?
Given that the download items are accessible in Javascript and that Watir allows Javascript execution (as #titusfortner pointed out), it's possible to automate the new Downloads page with Watir.
Note the shadow root elements (aka "local DOM" in Polymer) can be queried with $$.
Here's an example Javascript that logs the icon presence and filename of each download item and removes the items from the list. Copy and paste the snippet into Chrome's console to test (verified in Chrome 49.0.2623.112 on OS X El Capitan).
(function() {
var items = document
.querySelector('downloads-manager')
.$$('iron-list')
.querySelectorAll('downloads-item');
Array.from(items).forEach(item => {
let hasIcon = typeof item.$$('#file-icon') !== 'undefined';
console.log('hasIcon', hasIcon);
let filename = item.$$('#file-link').textContent;
console.log('filename', filename);
item.$.remove.click();
});
})();
UPDATE: I verified the Javascript with Watir-Webdriver in OS X (with ChromeDriver 2.21). It works the same as in the console for me (i.e., I see the console logs, and the download items are removed). Here are the steps to reproduce:
Run the following commands in a new irb shell (copy+paste):
require 'watir-webdriver'
b = Watir::Browser.new :chrome
In the newly opened Chrome window, download several files to create some download items, and then open the Downloads tab.
Run the following commands in the irb shell (copy+paste):
script = "(function() {
var items = document
.querySelector('downloads-manager')
.$$('iron-list')
.querySelectorAll('downloads-item');
Array.from(items).forEach(item => {
let hasIcon = typeof item.$$('#file-icon') !== 'undefined';
console.log('hasIcon', hasIcon);
let filename = item.$$('#file-link').textContent;
console.log('filename', filename);
item.$.remove.click();
});
})();"
b.execute_script(script)
Observe the Downloads tab no longer contains download items.
Open the Chrome console from the Downloads tab.
Observe the console shows several lines of hasIcon true and the filenames of the downloaded items.
Looks like Google put the elements inside the Shadow-Dom, which isn't supported by Selenium/Watir/WebDriver spec (yet). There might a way to obtain the element via javascript (browser.execute_script(<...>)), but it is experimental at best still.
Attempting to automated a Polymer page, I found I was able to access the web elements by asking Polymer to use the shady dom by adding ?dom=shady in the URL. Like in the example on this page https://www.polymer-project.org/1.0/docs/devguide/settings:
http://example.com/test-app/index.html?dom=shady
Adding the dom parameter to request Polymer to use the shady dom may be worth a try.
I'm trying an AutoIt script which uses the "Save As" download dialog from a web browser and gives a new name to the page downloaded. The page downloads correctly, but the problem is that it can't rename it, so the default name is used. I used the script whit IE, Chrome and Firefox but none of them worked.
Script:
WinWaitActive("Save As","","20")
If WinExists("Save As") Then
ControlSetText("Save As","","Edit1",$CmdLine[1])
ControlClick("Save As","","&Guardar")
EndIf
Example
When I run it with "script.exe newname", the page should be downloaded as "newname", not "AutoIt simple example bla bla...." (default name)
EDIT: Same code works with notepad save dialog, but It doesn't work on any browser.
Also, I'm not using InetGet because that only downloads plain HTML. I need the complete page with css and images.
EDIT2: I also tried this from java using AutoItX4java but that neither worked.
First, you are missing the WinSearchChildren option. Save/Open file dialogs are children dialogs.
Also no need to &Guardar string. that will make your script depend on the system language.
Here is the working code
#RequireAdmin ;Will give your script a permission elevation (sometimes its needed)
Opt("WinTitleMatchMode", 4) ;1=start, 2=subStr, 3=exact, 4=advanced, -1 to -4=Nocase
Opt("WinSearchChildren", 1) ;0=no, 1=search children also
WinWaitActive("Save As","","20")
If Not #error Then
ControlSetText("Save As","","Edit1",$CmdLine[1])
ControlClick("Save As","","[CLASS:Button; INSTANCE:1]")
EndIf
Is it possible to have a print option that bypasses the print dialog?
I am working on a closed system and would like to be able to pre-define the print dialog settings; and process the print as soon as I click the button.
From what I am reading, the way to do this varies for each browser. For example, IE would use ActiveX. Chrome / Firefox would require extensions. Based on this, it appears I'll have to write an application in C++ that can handle parameters passed by the browser to auto print with proper formatting (for labels). Then i'll have to rewrite it as an extension for Chrome / Firefox. End result being that users on our closed system will have to download / install these features depending on which browser they use.
I'm hoping there is another way to go about this, but this task most likely violates browser security issues.
I ended up implementing a custom application that works very similar to the Nexus Mod Manager. I wrote a C# application that registers a custom Application URI Scheme. Here's how it works:
User clicks "Print" on the website.
Website links user to "CustomURL://Print/{ID}
Application is launched by windows via the custom uri scheme.
Application communicates with the pre-configured server to confirm the print request and in my case get the actual print command.
The application then uses the C# RawPrinterHelper class to send commands directly to the printer.
This approach required an initial download from the user, and a single security prompt from windows when launching the application the first time. I also implemented some Javascript magic to make it detect whether the print job was handled or not. If it wasn't it asks them to download the application.
I know this is a late reply, but here's a solution I'm using. I have only used this with IE, and have not tested it with any other browser.
This Sub Print blow effectively replaces the default print function.
<script language='VBScript'>
Sub Print()
OLECMDID_PRINT = 6
OLECMDEXECOPT_DONTPROMPTUSER = 2
OLECMDEXECOPT_PROMPTUSER = 1
call WB.ExecWB(OLECMDID_PRINT, OLECMDEXECOPT_DONTPROMPTUSER,1)
End Sub
document.write "<object ID='WB' WIDTH=0 HEIGHT=0 CLASSID='CLSID:8856F961-340A-11D0-A96B-00C04FD705A2'></object>"
</script>
Then use Javascript's window.print(); ties to a hyperlink or a button to execute the print command.
If you want to automatically print when the page loads, then put the code below near tag.
<script type="text/javascript">
window.onload=function(){self.print();}
</script>
I am writing this answer for firefox browser.
Open File > Page Setup
Make all the headers and footers blank
Set the margins to 0 (zero)
In the address bar of Firefox, type about:config
Search for print.always_print_silent and double click it
Change it from false to true
This lets you skip the Print pop up box that comes up, as well as skipping the step where you have to click OK, automatically printing the right sized slip.
If print.always_print_silent does not come up
Right click on a blank area of the preference window
Select new > Boolean
Enter "print.always_print_silent" as the name (without quotes)
Click OK
Select true for the value
You may also want to check what is listed for print.print_printer
You may have to choose Generic/Text Only (or whatever your receipt printer might be named)
The general answer is: NO you cannot do this in the general case but there some cases where you might do it.
Check
http://justtalkaboutweb.com/2008/05/09/javascript-print-bypass-printer-dialog-in-ie-and-firefox/
If you where allowed to do such a thing anyway, it would be a security issue since a malware script could silently sent printing jobs to visitor's printer.
I found a awesome plugin by Firefox which solve this issue. try seamless printing plugin of firefox which will print something from a web application without showing a print dialog.
Open Firefox
Search addon name seamless printing and install it
After successful installation the printing window will get bypassed when user wants to print anything.
I was able to solve the problem with this library: html2pdf.js (https://github.com/eKoopmans/html2pdf.js)
Considering that you have access to it, you could do something like that (taken from the github repository):
var element = document.getElementById('element-to-print');
html2pdf(element);
For an Intranet web application (document management), I want to show a list of files associated with a certain customer. The resulting HTML is like this:
somefile.docx
somefile.pdf
yetanotherfile.txt
This works fine. Unfortunetly, when clicking on a text file (or image file), Internet Explorer (and I guess most other browsers as well) insist on showing it in the browser instead of opening the file with the associated application (e.g. Notepad). In our case, this is undesired behavior, since it does not allow the user to edit the file.
Is there some workaround to this behavior (e.g. something like <a href="file:///..." open="external">)? I'm aware that this is a browser-specific thing, and an IE-only solution would be fine (it's an Intranet application after all).
Do you WANT people to just mess around with things lying on your server? That reeks of lack of security to me...
I'd recommend letting the user check it out locally and using a database or similar to allow people to check in new drafts. Said drafts should be verified and validated somehow before they are actually written to the server's filesystem.
I just tested this and it seems to work (IE6, not in FF or Chrome):
<HTML>
<script language="JavaScript">
function startWord(strFile)
{
var myApp = new ActiveXObject("Word.Application");
if (myApp != null)
{
myApp.Visible = true;
myApp.Documents.Open(strFile);
}
}
</script>
test.doc.
Found it here.