How can I add hotkeys mapped to items of the context (right-click) menu of several different web browsers?

Question

I do web development, and need to switch between coding and refreshing the browser. The webapp I'm working on uses frames, so hitting F5 won't work, as I need to refresh a specific frame in the window instead.

In Opera, this is ALT+F5. In every other browser I'm testing against (Firefox, Chrome, IE7-9) You need to rightclick and navigate a different context menu to get to the right command. This inconsistency in interface has left me just getting the basics working in Opera first (because it's faster for me to jump back and forth, like a REPL) and then do browser-specific tweaking afterwards since Opera renders pages differently from all other browsers.

It would be awesome for my sanity and productivity to be able to hit ALT+F5 in any browser to get it to refresh the last focused subframe of a browser.

I'm on Windows 7.

Any advice for what tool to try and how to use it would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

Answer 1

For Google Chrome

Since you need this for refreshing a predictable frame on a specific website for work, you can use the Shortcut Manager extension to add the functionality you need. After installing the app you can setup a hotkey to refresh the specific frame you need in your development environment.

1. Install the plugin
2. Go to the page you want to use the custom refresh hotkey
3. Click See all settings/Add new shortcuts
4. Click in the Shortcut key field and hit ALT+F5 so it's the same key as in Opera.
5. In URL patterns paste the site's url and substitue the * character where appropriate to get the right site coverage for your development environment.
6. Find the exact name of the frame you wish to reload. This depends on the site, but looking through Chrome's DOM inspector should be enough with a little time.
7. Under Action click Execute Javascript and use this: top.frames["view"].location.reload(); where "view" was the name of the frame you need to reload.

And now hitting ALT+F5 while visiting that site will simulate the frame-targeted refresh you need in Chrome!