on home page only projects status is reloaded and its done via ajax

app/controllers/projects_controller.rb

@@ -4,4 +4,9 @@ def build
     Project.find(params[:project_id]).send_later :build
     render :nothing => true
   end
+
+  def status
+    @projects = Project.all
+    render :partial => "shared/projects"
+  end
 end

app/views/projects/index.html.haml

@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
-%meta{'http-equiv' => "Refresh", :content => "5"}
-.projects
-  - for project in @projects do
-    = link_to render(:partial => "shared/project", :locals => {:project => project}), project_path(project)
+.projects= render :partial => "shared/projects"
+
+= periodically_call_remote :url => projects_status_path, :update => '.projects'
 
 = link_to I18n.t(:new_project), new_project_path

app/views/shared/_projects.haml

@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+- for project in @projects do
+  = link_to render(:partial => "shared/project", :locals => {:project => project}), project_path(project)

config/routes.rb

@@ -3,8 +3,10 @@
     project.resources :builds
     project.connect 'build', :controller => 'projects', :action => 'build'
   end
-  map.root :controller => "projects"
+  map.root     :controller => "projects"
   map.metrics  "/projects/:name/tmp/metric_fu/output/index.html", :controller => nil
   map.specs    "/projects/:name/doc/specs.html",                  :controller => nil
   map.features "/projects/:name/doc/features.html",               :controller => nil
+
+  map.projects_status "/projects/status", :controller => :projects, :action => :status
 end

spec/controllers/projects_controller_spec.rb

@@ -10,4 +10,20 @@
       get :build, :project_id => project_id
     end
   end
+
+  context "responding to status" do
+    before :each do
+      Project.stub!(:all).and_return(@projects = [Project.new])
+    end
+
+    it "should return the status html panel for all the projects" do
+      get :status
+      response.should render_template("shared/_projects")
+    end
+
+    it "should assign all the projects to @projects" do
+      get :status
+      assigns[:projects].should eql(@projects)
+    end
+  end
 end