Customizing Channel Refresh Times and Container Caching

The refreshTime property controls how often a channel’s content is reloaded. When refreshTime is set to 0 (the default) for the container, the browser refresh (or reload) causes the page to be reloaded and the getContent() method is called again for every channel.

The following applies to a single channel:

• It is not possible to refresh only the content of the single channel within a container because a channel is an HTML table cell.

• It is possible to use the DesktopURL() method in the PAPI. The provider can use getDesktopURL() to get the Desktop servlet’s URL, append arguments to it, and generate a new URL (or link).

The following applies to controlling and configuring container caching:

• Use the refreshTime property for the container along with the refreshTime for individual channels within the container.

• If the refreshTime for the container is blank, it is calculated to be the minimum time for all of the contained channels. If you want to override that calculated time, set a refreshTime for the container and then the content for the whole container will be cached.

If you have a large number of channels, utilize the provider caching by setting the refreshTime to a large number so that the portal page can use cached content. This makes sense when most of your channels have static content. The way the refreshTime works is if the container’s refreshTime is set, it will use it. If refreshTime is set to an empty string, it will try to get and use the minimum of the refreshTime of its selected channels.