7 LiveReload is a tool for web developers and designers. See [livereload.com](http://livereload.com) for more info.
9 To use LiveReload, you need a client (this script) in your browser and a server running on your development machine.
11 This repository (livereload.js) implements the client side of the protocol. The client connects to a LiveReload server via web sockets and listens for incoming change notifications. When a CSS or an image file is modified, it is live-refreshed without reloading the page. When any other file is modified, the page is reloaded.
13 The server notifies the client whenever a change is made. Available servers are:
15 * [LiveReload app for Mac](http://livereload.com/)
16 * [rack-livereload](https://github.com/johnbintz/rack-livereload)
17 * [guard-livereload](https://github.com/guard/guard-livereload)
18 * [grunt-contrib-watch](https://github.com/gruntjs/grunt-contrib-watch)
19 * more available on Google :-)
20 * you can even write your own; refer to the [LiveReload protocol](http://help.livereload.com/kb/ecosystem/livereload-protocol)
22 If you are a web developer looking to _use_ LiveReload, you should refer to your LiveReload server/app/tool's documentation, rather that this repository. **You should use the copy of livereload.js script bundled with your server**, because it's guaranteed to be compatible, and may be customized for that server.
24 Most LiveReload server vendors will serve livereload.js on the LiveReload port. When your server is running, you can typically access the script at `http://0.0.0.0:35729/livereload.js`.
26 Please read on *only* if you are:
28 * using a server that doesn't document the usage of livereload.js
29 * interested in hacking on livereload.js or want to understand it better
30 * developing a LiveReload server
33 What is livereload.js?
34 ----------------------
36 This repository contains a JavaScript file implementing the client side of the LiveReload protocol. It gets change notifications from a LiveReload server and applies them to the browser.
38 If you are **developing** a LiveReload server, see [dist/livereload.js](https://github.com/livereload/livereload-js/raw/master/dist/livereload.js) for the latest version built using the sources in this repository. We require LiveReload server vendors to distribute livereload.js as part of their apps or tools.
40 An old version of this script is also bundled with the LiveReload browser extensions, but it's not getting updated and only serves for compatibility with very old clients.
46 * Protocol, WebSocket communication
47 * CSS `@import` support
48 * Live image reloading (`<img src="..." />`, `background-image` and `border-image` properties, both inline and in stylesheets)
49 * Live, in-browser LESS.js reloading
51 Would love, but doesn't seem possible:
56 Installing using Bower
57 ----------------------
59 This script is published on Bower. (But, to reiterate: the preferred method is to avoid installing it altogether, and instead use the one bundled with your LiveReload server/app/tool.)
63 bower install livereload-js --save-dev
65 This gives you a component containing a single script file, `dist/livereload.js`.
68 Installing using npm and Browserify
69 -----------------------------------
71 Including livereload.js into your Browserify bundle probably makes no sense, because livereload.js isn't something you would ship to production.
73 But if you insist _and_ you know what you're doing, you can install LiveReload via npm:
75 npm install livereload-js --save
77 and then add this to your bundle:
79 window.LiveReloadOptions = { host: 'localhost' };
80 require('livereload-js');
82 Note that livereload-js package uses `window` and `document` globals, so won't run under Node.js environment.
84 The reason you need to specify `LiveReloadOptions` is that `livereload.js` won't be able to find its `<script>` tag and would normally bail out with an error message.
90 This script is meant to be included into the web pages you want to monitor, like this:
92 <script src="http://localhost:35729/livereload.js"></script>
94 LiveReload 2 server listens on port `35729` and serves livereload.js over HTTP (besides speaking the web socket protocol on the same port).
96 A slightly smarter way is to use the host name of the current page, assuming that it is being served from the same computer. This approach enables LiveReload when viewing the web page from other devices on the network:
99 <script>document.write('<script src="http://'
100 + location.host.split(':')[0]
101 + ':35729/livereload.js"></'
102 + 'script>')</script>
106 However, since `location.host` is empty for `file:` URLs, we need to account for that:
109 <script>document.write('<script src="http://'
110 + (location.host || 'localhost').split(':')[0]
111 + ':35729/livereload.js"></'
112 + 'script>')</script>
116 LiveReload.js finds a `script` tag that includes `…/livereload.js` and uses it to determine the hostname/port to connect to. It also understands some options from the query string: `host`, `port`, `snipver`, `mindelay` and `maxdelay`.
118 `snipver` specifies a version of the snippet, so that we can warn when the snippet needs to be updated. The currently recommended `snipver` is version 1:
121 <script>document.write('<script src="http://'
122 + (location.host || 'localhost').split(':')[0]
123 + ':35729/livereload.js?snipver=1"></'
124 + 'script>')</script>
128 Additionally, you might want to specify `mindelay` and `maxdelay`, which is minimum and maximum reconnection delay in milliseconds (defaulting to `1000` and `60000`).
130 Alternatively, instead of loading livereload.js from the LiveReload server, you might want to include it from a different URL. In this case, add a `host` parameter to override the host name. For example:
133 <script src="https://github.com/livereload/livereload-js/raw/master/dist/livereload.js?host=localhost"></script>
140 Options can either be specified as query parameters of the `<script src="..../livereload.js">` tag's source URL, or as a global `window.LiveReloadOptions` dictionary. If the dictionary is specified, `livereload.js` does not even try looking for its `<script>` tag.
142 The set of supported options is the same for both methods:
144 * `host`: the host that runs a LiveReload server; required if specifying `LiveReloadOptions`, otherwise will be autodetected as the origin of the `<script>` tag
145 * `port`: optional server port override
146 * `mindelay`, `maxdelay`: range of reconnection delays (if `livereload.js` cannot connect to the server, it will attempt to reconnect with increasing delays); defaults to 1,000 ms minimum and 60,000 ms maximum
147 * `handshake_timeout`: timeout for a protocol handshake to be completed after a connection attempt; mostly only needed if you're running an interactive debugger on your web socket server
153 **Serving livereload.js outside of the domain root.** Livereload.js expects to be served from the domain root (i.e. `http://myawesomeblog.com/livereload.js`). Serving from outside the domain root is possible, just add the `host` parameter to the `script` tag (see parameters documentation above).
155 **Live reloading of imported stylesheets has a 200ms lag.** Modifying a CSS `@import` rule to reference a not-yet-cached file causes WebKit to lose all document styles, so we have to apply a workaround that causes a lag.
157 Our workaround is to add a temporary `<link />` element for the imported stylesheet we're trying to reload, wait 200ms to make sure WebKit loads the new file, then remove `<link />` and recreate the `@import` rule. This prevents a flash of unstyled content. (We also wait 200 more milliseconds and recreate the `@import` rule again, in case those initial 200ms were not enough.)
159 **Live image reloading is limited to `<img src="..." />`, `background-image` and `border-image` styles.** Any other places where images can be mentioned?
161 **Live image reloading is limited to `jpg`, `jpeg`, `gif`, and `png` extensions.** Maybe need to add `svg` there? Anything else?
164 Communicating with livereload.js
165 --------------------------------
167 It is possible to communicate with a running LiveReload script using DOM events:
169 * fire `LiveReloadShutDown` event on `document` to make LiveReload disconnect and go away
170 * listen for `LiveReloadConnect` event on `document` to learn when the connection is established
171 * listen for `LiveReloadDisconnect` event on `document` to learn when the connection is interrupted (or fails to be established)
173 The `LiveReload` object is also exposed as `window.LiveReload`, with `LiveReload.disconnect()`, `LiveReload.connect()`, and `LiveReload.shutDown()` available. However, I'm not yet sure if I want to keep this API, so consider it non-contractual. (And please tell me if you have a use for it!)
179 To enable debugging output to console, append `?LR-verbose` to your URL.
182 Hacking on LiveReload.js
183 ------------------------
188 * Grunt (`npm install grunt-cli`)
190 To install additional prerequisites:
202 Manual testing: open files in `test/html/*` in various browsers, make some changes and make sure they are applied.
204 Testing the Browserify usage scenario: `grunt browserify:test`, then perform manual testing of `test/html/browserified/`.
207 Releasing a new version
208 -----------------------
210 1. Update the version number in `package.json`.
212 1. Run `rake version` to update the version numbers in all other files, using the one from `package.json`.
216 1. Do some manual testing.
218 1. Tag the version in Git: `rake tag` then `git push --tags`.
226 livereload-js is available under the MIT license. See the LICENSE file for details.
234 * npm fix: actually include `/lib` in the package
238 * the first version stitched with Browserify; everything seems to work, but 2.1.0 is available just in case
239 * switched the build system to Grunt
243 * use case-insensitive matching for `rel` attribute in `<link rel="stylesheet">` tags, to accomodate legacy Rails versions
244 * avoid usage of `console` when it's not definited
245 * some README changes
249 * Fix live CSS refresh to work with prefixfree
250 * Correctly trigger removal of old `<link>` tags
252 (older history not recorded)