Auto Refresh Post & Page

Maelezo

Auto Refresh Post & Page delivers real-time content delivery without requiring manual user intervention. It is the ideal solution for live blogs, sports scoreboards, analytics dashboards, auction listings, financial tickers, real-time queues, or any dynamic content platform where up-to-the-minute accuracy is critical.

Engineered for performance and a seamless user experience, Version 2.0 introduces a centralized configuration dashboard alongside an enterprise-grade feature set designed to optimize both front-end engagement and back-end efficiency.

Core Features

  • Dual Refresh Architecture
    • Full Page Reload: The dependable fallback that guarantees compatibility across all WordPress themes and hosting environments.
    • Smart Content Refresh (AJAX): Background fetching that dynamically swaps only your designated container element (e.g., #main-content). This eliminates screen flicker, prevents scroll jumps, and heavily reduces bandwidth consumption. If the target element cannot be found, it gracefully degrades to a full reload automatically.
  • Interactive Visual Countdown Timers
    • Deploy an optional progress bar aligned to the top or bottom of the viewport, or use a floating circular widget.
    • Fully customizable branding via custom hex color pickers and localized text labels.
  • Intelligent Behavioral Pausing
    • Activity-Aware: Automatically pauses the refresh sequence while a user is actively typing in a form or hovering over content to prevent lost data or interrupted interactions.
    • Resource-Aware: Automatically pauses executions in background browser tabs to conserve server resources and client battery life, resuming instantly upon focus.
    • Developer/Bypass Friendly: Temporarily suppress refreshing on any frontend URL by simply appending ?no_refresh=true.
  • Granular Access Control & Exclusions
    • Isolate specific user roles (such as Administrators or Editors) to ensure content creation and site management tasks remain uninterrupted.
  • Targeted Rule Engines
    • Global Strategies: Define refreshing intervals globally per custom post type in seconds, minutes, or hours.
    • Granular Overrides: Tailor individual parameters (custom intervals, dedicated modes, or total deactivation) directly inside the WordPress Gutenberg or Classic block editor.

Robust Developer API & Shortcodes

Take localized control of any content block via our powerful shortcode integration:

[auto_refresh interval="30" mode="ajax" target="#main-content" show_timer="true" style="circle" color="#45c4bc"]
  • interval: Refresh frequency value (minimum effective value is 2 seconds).
  • unit: Interval unit — seconds, minutes, or hours (default: seconds).
  • mode: Choose between reload or ajax.
  • target: The target DOM CSS selector for AJAX replacement.
  • show_timer: Toggle visual feedback (true/false).
  • style: Timer display format (bar or circle).
  • color: Hex accent color for the inline timer.
  • label: Optional text label rendered beside the countdown.

Built for Production Environments

  • Security First: Strict WordPress nonce validation and user capability verifications protect every underlying write operation.
  • Data Integrity: Deep sanitization pipelines for all user inputs and proper context-aware escaping on output generation.
  • Zero-Downtime Migration: Legacy 1.x installations are automatically migrated safely to the modern 2.0 schema upon activation.
  • 100% Clean Uninstall: Deactivating the plugin preserves all of your settings, while uninstalling it completely purges database options and post meta, leaving zero footprint.

Screenshots

Installation

  1. Log into your WordPress Dashboard and navigate to Plugins > Add New.
  2. Search for Auto Refresh Post & Page, or upload the .zip archive via the Upload Plugin interface.
  3. Activate the plugin through the Plugins menu.
  4. Access the dedicated Auto Refresh settings page from your admin sidebar menu.
  5. Define your global post types, establish desired refresh intervals, and click Save Changes.
  6. (Optional) Fine-tune specific constraints at the page level via the meta box available directly within your post editor.

FAQ

How exactly does the Smart AJAX Refresh mode operate?

Instead of issuing a destructive browser reload, the plugin asynchronously fetches the current page state in the background. It isolates the matching DOM element based on your specified CSS selector, updates only that section, and maintains the user’s current scroll position. This bypasses white flashes and ensures a smooth user experience.

What happens if an AJAX CSS selector fails to match any elements?

The plugin features a robust error-handling fallback system. If a selector cannot be resolved within the live DOM tree, it automatically initiates a native page reload so your content refresh cycle never fails silently.

Can content managers suppress refreshing during editing sessions?

Yes. You can exempt specific administrative or editorial roles via the Refresh Behavior configurations tab, or append ?no_refresh=true to the destination URL inside the browser.

Will my legacy 1.x configurations be preserved during the 2.0 migration?

Absolutely. Our architecture intercepts older post-type rules and per-post meta, programmatically standardizing and importing them into the new schema on the initial execution loop of v2.0.

Is there a threshold for minimum refresh intervals?

Yes. To avoid localized browser freezing and alleviate extreme server stress, the plugin enforces a safety floor of 2 seconds. Sub-second queries are normalized automatically up to 2 seconds.

Is this solution compatible with WordPress Caching Plugins?

Yes. While Full Page Reload mode cooperates naturally with all standard caching layers, AJAX mode adds an automated cache-busting string parameter to the background query, forcing fresh origin fetches while keeping page speed optimized.

Reviews

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Wachangiaji & Wasanidi

“Auto Refresh Post & Page” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

Changelog

2.0.1

  • Compatibility: Fully verified and tested against WordPress 7.0 core.
  • Maintenance: Restructured plugin header definitions for enhanced metadata readability.

2.0.0

  • Refactor: Complete system architectural rebuild featuring a state-of-the-art tabbed admin dashboard.
  • New Feature: Introduced Smart Content Refresh (AJAX) engine to swap specific DOM nodes seamlessly.
  • New Feature: Added visual countdown animations (including linear progress bar and floating wheel layouts) with direct hex control.
  • New Feature: Implemented User Role Exclusions.
  • New Feature: Created smart pausing hooks linked to focus inputs, element hover states, and hidden browser tabs.
  • New Feature: Built the ?no_refresh=true query parameter exception hook.
  • New Feature: Launched extensible [auto_refresh] shortcode architecture.
  • New Feature: Integrated inline post and page editor overrides for custom workflows.
  • Optimization: Purged legacy database routines to optimize front-end rendering performance.
  • Security: Integrated deep context-specific sanitization, nonce verification, and strict output escaping.
  • Housekeeping: Embedded clean uninstallation schemas to wipe obsolete 1.x entries.

1.0.2

  • Added selective user-role sorting configurations per active post type.
  • Introduced “Last Refreshed” reporting column to administration grids.

1.0.1

  • Added native time-unit selectors accepting Hours, Minutes, and Seconds inputs.