Auto Tab Refresher - Advanced Cross-Browser Extension

           

🚀 Overview

Auto Tab Refresher is a powerful and highly customizable cross-browser web extension designed to automatically refresh your browser tabs. Whether you need to keep an eye on live dashboards, monitor stock prices, or simply ensure a webpage stays updated, this extension provides a seamless and intelligent solution. With support for individual tab refreshing, bulk refreshing, random intervals, specific time refreshes, and much more, it's the ultimate tool for maintaining fresh content in your browser.

This extension is built with modern web technologies, ensuring it's lightweight, efficient, and compatible with popular browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and Edge.

✨ Features

• Individual Tab Refreshing: Set unique refresh intervals and options for each tab independently.
• Refresh All Tabs: Apply the same refresh settings to all currently open tabs simultaneously.
• Customizable Refresh Intervals:
  • Set a fixed interval (in seconds).
  • Use a Random Interval between a specified minimum and maximum (e.g., refresh every 30-90 seconds).
  • Schedule a One-Time Refresh at a Specific Time (e.g., refresh at 10:30 AM).
• Hostname Filtering: Limit refreshes to pages on a specific hostname (e.g., example.com), ignoring others.
• Clear Cache on Refresh: Option to bypass the browser's cache, ensuring you always get the latest content.
• Desktop Notifications: Receive a notification when a tab is refreshed.
• Click Element Before Refresh: Specify a CSS selector (e.g., #myButton, .refresh-link) to automatically click an element on the page before refreshing. Ideal for interacting with "refresh" buttons or dynamic content loaders.
• Refresh to URL from a List: Provide a list of URLs, and the extension will cycle through them on each refresh, navigating the tab to the next URL in the list.
• Persistent Settings: Your refresh configurations are saved and restored across browser sessions.
• Background Refreshing: Tabs that are not in focus will refresh in the background without stealing your attention. Only the actively focused tab (if being refreshed individually) will be brought to the foreground upon refresh.
• Real-time Timer Label: The extension's toolbar icon displays a live countdown to the next refresh, formatted concisely (e.g., "05s", "12m", "01h", "3d", "1M", "2y"). When multiple tabs are refreshing, it shows the earliest upcoming refresh.
• Active Refreshes List: The popup provides a clear list of all tabs currently being refreshed, showing their title, URL, and the time until their next refresh, along with a dedicated "Stop" button for each.
• Cross-Browser Compatibility: Designed to work seamlessly across Chrome, Firefox, and Edge.

🛠️ Installation

Since this is a web extension, you'll need to load it as an "unpacked" or "temporary" add-on.

1. Clone the Repository:

   git clone https://github.com/momedul/auto-tab-refresher.git
   cd auto-tab-refresher

2. Download Tailwind CSS (Crucial Step!): The extension uses a local copy of Tailwind CSS.

   • Go to https://cdn.tailwindcss.com in your browser.
   • Right-click on the page and select "Save as..." or "View Page Source" and copy the entire content.
   • Create a new file named tailwind-browser@4.js inside your auto-tab-refresher project folder (the same folder as popup.html, background.js, etc.).
   • Paste the copied Tailwind CSS content into tailwind-browser@4.js.

3. Prepare Icons (Optional but Recommended): Ensure you have an icons folder in the root directory, containing icon16.png, icon48.png, and icon128.png. If you don't have them, you can create simple placeholder images or use default ones.

4. Load the Extension in Your Browser:

   Google Chrome

   • Open Chrome and navigate to chrome://extensions.
   • Enable "Developer mode" (usually a toggle in the top right corner).
   • Click on "Load unpacked" button.
   • Select the auto-tab-refresher folder you cloned.

   Mozilla Firefox

   • Open Firefox and navigate to about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox.
   • Click on "Load Temporary Add-on..." button.
   • Navigate to your auto-tab-refresher folder and select any file inside it (e.g., manifest.json).
     • Note: Firefox temporary add-ons are removed when the browser is closed. For persistent use, you'd need to sign and distribute it, but for development, this works.

   Microsoft Edge

   • Open Edge and navigate to edge://extensions.
   • Enable "Developer mode" (toggle on the left sidebar).
   • Click on "Load unpacked" button.
   • Select the auto-tab-refresher folder you cloned.

🚀 Usage

Once installed, you'll see the Auto Tab Refresher icon in your browser's toolbar. Click on it to open the popup.

1. Current Tab Refresh:

   • Set your desired Refresh every (seconds) interval.
   • Optionally, enable Random interval and set min/max seconds.
   • Optionally, enable Refresh at specific time (one-time) and select a time.
   • Configure Advanced Options like Hostname filtering, Clear cache, Show notification, Refresh to URL from a list, or Click element before refresh.
   • Click Start Refresh Current Tab. The extension will now refresh only the active tab according to your settings.

2. Refresh All Tabs:

   • Configure your desired refresh settings as above.
   • Check the Refresh all currently open tabs (with current settings) checkbox.
   • Click Start Refresh All Tabs. The extension will start independent refreshes for all open tabs that are valid (e.g., http:// or https:// URLs), applying the chosen settings to each.

3. Managing Active Refreshes:

   • The Active Refreshes section in the popup will list all tabs currently being refreshed.
   • Each listed tab will show its title, URL, and the time until its next refresh.
   • Click the Stop button next to any listed tab to stop its individual refresh.

4. Extension Badge Timer:

   • When a refresh is active, the extension icon in your toolbar will display a live countdown (e.g., "05s", "12m", "01h", "3d"). If multiple tabs are refreshing, it shows the time remaining for the next earliest refresh.

📸 Screenshots

(Screenshot1: Main)

(Screenshot2: Active Tabs)

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! If you have suggestions for improvements, new features, or bug fixes, please feel free to:

1. Fork the repository.
2. Create a new branch (git checkout -b feature/YourFeature or fix/BugFix).
3. Make your changes and commit them (git commit -m 'Add YourFeature').
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/YourFeature).
5. Open a Pull Request.

Please ensure your code adheres to the existing style and includes relevant comments.

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

🙏 Credits

This extension was Designed, Developed & Maintained by:

MAMEDUL ISLAM

👨‍💻 Author & Hire Me

Hi! I'm Mamedul Islam, a passionate Web Developer who builds modern web applications, E-commerce, PWAs, and fast, static, dynamic, responsive websites. Specializing in WooCommerce, Wordpress, PHP, MySQL, and modern web development. Creating exceptional digital experiences since 2017.

📬 Connect With Me:

📱 WhatsApp  •  💼 Fiverr  •  👔 LinkedIn  •  💻 GitHub  •  🐦 X (Twitter)

I'm open for freelance work, Woocommerce, E-commerce, Wordpress, PWA development, speed test apps, Firebase projects, websocket, PHP, MySQL and more. Hire me to bring your ideas to life with clean, modern code!

⭐ Show Your Support

If you find this extension useful, please consider giving it a star on GitHub! Your support helps motivate further development and improvements.