Automatically Refresh a Page Using JavaScript or Meta Tags

By  on  

I try to steer clear of modifying a page without the user triggering the change, much less automatically refresh or redirect a page. There are times when automatically refreshing the page is important, like when you pull up game play-by-play pages on NFL.com or ESPN.com. Whatever your reason for automatically refreshing the page, keep one thing in mind: auto-refresh only pages that have little interaction -- nothing more than a click.

The JavaScript Method

var timer = null;
function auto_reload()
{
	window.location = 'http://domain.com/page.php';
}
	
	 <body onload="timer = setTimeout('auto_reload()',10000);">

The META Tag Method

The following refreshes the page every 30 seconds.

<head>
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="30" />
</head>

Recent Features

  • By
    Responsive and Infinitely Scalable JS Animations

    Back in late 2012 it was not easy to find open source projects using requestAnimationFrame() - this is the hook that allows Javascript code to synchronize with a web browser's native paint loop. Animations using this method can run at 60 fps and deliver fantastic...

  • By
    Responsive Images: The Ultimate Guide

    Chances are that any Web designers using our Ghostlab browser testing app, which allows seamless testing across all devices simultaneously, will have worked with responsive design in some shape or form. And as today's websites and devices become ever more varied, a plethora of responsive images...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    Instagram For MooTools

    If you're still rocking an iPhone and fancy taking a photo every now and then, you'd be crazy not to be using an app called Instagram.  With Instagram you take the photos just as you would with your native iPhone camera app, but Instagram...

  • By
    TextboxList for MooTools and jQuery by Guillermo Rauch

    I'll be honest with you: I still haven't figured out if I like my MooTools teammate Guillermo Rauch. He's got a lot stacked up against him. He's from Argentina so I get IM'ed about 10 times a day about how great Lionel...

Discussion

  1. Ed Burrow

    I use a refresh feature in Firefox 3.0 (it’s an add-in) that allows me to set a refresh time for a page from 30 secs to unlimited minutes. I was wondering if you know of a program or add-in for IE7 (and now IE8) that would allow me to do same kind of thing.

    Thanks

    WldHogn

  2. vishal

    hi i am trying to reset counter after time interval and restart automatically. your code runs properly but it will post back if i want to avoid postback then what to do…
    thanku

  3. Mounica

    hi…..

    In my project the cascading style sheet is not working properly. So i thought of onload page refresh . So, can u please help me out with some code or any other stuff that gonna work properly please……….

    thank you…

  4. wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

  5. Wow. Simple and works fine.

    Thanks a lot

  6. Nice and gud ……… ur code is working ……
    thanksssssss

  7. Could this script to change alexa rank ?

  8. Sachin

    How to reload page only one time on timer using jquery

  9. Eruanion

    Would this work to have the browser return to the home page? I need something that will time out and reset the broser back to homepage after a search or other actions on the system

Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!