Two auto_refresh extensions

[stephan-buckmaster]

Hey, I use frank for turning results of my computations into HTML which I look at in my browser.

I put computation code in the lib directory, and place display in dynamic templates. I work by making small changes to the inputs, or extend the computation code. The auto_refresh feature makes it so that a file-save becomes similar to a "return" in a terminal: the results of the computation, from new code or display-changes, show up in my browser immediately.

This works all very nice. I ran into two issues though, and am submitting the changes that fix them:

1. The watch_dir which is used for Frank::Middleware::Refresh did not allow any configuration (couldn't watch for changes in my lib directory)
2. When computations take a while (>20 sec), the auto_refresh javascript would send multiple refresh requests.

For (1) I allowed configuration by reading an environment variable "FRANK_REFRESH_DIRS" the contents of which are appended to the "watch_dirs" variable

For (2) I added a javascript variable "loading" which is set when the page is reloaded, and prevents any further reloads. While the new page is loading, a more-or-less fancy loading indicator section is displayed on the page. Automatic refresh can be disabled through simple javascript "window.stop_refresh_check = true"

Spec changes cover (2). Couldn't find a way to add specs for (1). Might be better to provide for a hook to use in setup.rb (Frank::Middleware::Refresh.add_watch_directory 'lib') anyway

Cheers!

[trvsdnn]

Still thinking on this one. I like the idea of configuring the refresh directories... do think it would be better in setup.rb.

I like the addition of stopping the reload if one is pending, don't know if I like the loading indicator though... Haven't had a chance to see it in action yet though.

[stephan-buckmaster]

The loading indicator is not graphical, as it may sound. Kind of nice to include a time stamp.

I realized it may be better to have it controlled by an option (enable, disable, how-does-it-work), with disabled by default.