Live Blog Auto-Refresher

WHAT IT DOES

Live Blog Auto-Refresher automatically refreshes live blog pages at user-defined intervals, ensuring you never miss a breaking update. The script detects new content by comparing page snapshots and highlights newly added entries with a subtle fade-in animation and a prominent "NEW" badge. A floating control panel displays a counter showing how many new updates have been added since the last refresh, giving you an immediate sense of activity. Manual refresh controls let you check for updates on demand, and a pause button allows you to temporarily suspend auto-refresh when you need to focus on reading. The script can optionally auto-scroll to new content and show desktop notifications when updates arrive.

WHERE IT RUNS

This script operates as a userscript within the BotGentz extension on any webpage that contains live blog content, including news sites, sports coverage, event updates, and live commentary pages. It functions on any modern browser that supports the BotGentz extension, including Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari, and Opera. The script runs entirely client-side, storing snapshots locally using GM_setValue without sending any information to external servers.

HOW TO USE

After installation, the script automatically starts monitoring the page for new content. A floating control panel appears with a counter showing the number of new updates. The script refreshes the page at your configured interval, compares the current page against a stored snapshot, and highlights any new entries with a "NEW" badge and fade-in animation. Use the "↻" button to manually refresh and check for updates. Click "⏸ Pause" to temporarily stop auto-refresh, or "▶ Resume" to restart. Open the panel to adjust the refresh interval, toggle highlighting, notifications, auto-scroll, or pause-on-scroll behavior. The script automatically saves your progress so you don't lose track of what you've already seen.

THE MECHANISM THAT MAKES IT WORK

Unlike simple page reloaders that discard your place in the article, this script uses a snapshot-based diffing algorithm to identify only new content. It first extracts all article-like elements from the page using a cascading selector strategy that adapts to different site structures. For each element, it generates a content hash by combining a text snippet and the inner HTML, creating a fingerprint that changes when the content changes. The script stores these fingerprints in GM_setValue along with the current URL, then compares them on each refresh cycle. When new hashes appear that weren't in the snapshot, those elements are marked as new. The highlighting system adds a CSS class with a fade-in animation and appends a "NEW" badge element, with a maximum item limit to prevent overwhelming the display. The auto-scroll feature uses smooth scrolling to bring the first new element into view, while the pause-on-scroll option temporarily stops auto-refresh during active reading.

THE PANEL

The script panel is built using BotGentz's BGPanel framework and provides comprehensive control over the refresher's behavior. The panel opens as a floating overlay that can be dragged anywhere on your screen, with a clean dark theme matching the tool's aesthetic. It includes dropdown menus for refresh interval selection (10 seconds to 5 minutes), badge color selection (default red or amber highlight), and maximum new items to track. Toggle switches enable or disable the refresher, highlighting, notifications, auto-scroll, and pause-on-scroll behavior. Action buttons allow you to refresh immediately, save settings, or reset all settings to defaults. The panel collapses to a small icon when not in use and expands when clicked, remaining accessible but unobtrusive. Press the Escape key at any time to close the panel.

PLEASE NOTE

This script requires the free BotGentz extension to be installed and activated in your browser. The extension is available from the official BotGentz website. The script works by refreshing the page in the background and comparing content snapshots; this may cause noticeable page reloads on some sites. The snapshot system uses content hashing to detect changes and may occasionally miss updates if content is loaded dynamically without changing the DOM structure. Notifications require GM_notification permissions and may not appear if your browser or system has notification permissions disabled. All data is stored locally using GM_setValue and is not shared with any third-party services. If a site's HTML structure changes significantly, the script may need updates to maintain compatibility.