How to refresh a webpage embedded in a Teams Tab

Question

How to refresh a webpage embedded in a Teams Tab

41844108 306

I noticed when clicking on a tab it opens a cached website and it's not possible to refresh it. I know Teams is not designed for presenting content, but it's the best tool we have. I know IT can manually clear everyone's cache individually like it's 1999, but does MS offer a way to see content that's not cached like modern web browser technology, or should I be more responsible and not use Teams if I want to have content in a URL that's regularly updated. I'm still working in chaos since the abrupt and shocking death of Wiki, and since OneNote did a terrible job at being a wiki I had to build it in HTML, -- and now I'm realizing Teams can't be relied upon to present any external website content. Seriously a month of lost work because of this anti-design nonsense.

41844108 306 Reputation points

2023-06-27T15:49:05.4033333+00:00

Perhaps the best hack to make this MS product work correctly is to manually replace the tab with a new tab with different URL after each html update. So index.html > index2.html, then write a js redirect from the first to the second just in case someone bookmarked the URL and expects a normal experience. I hate how MS forces me to do 90% more work than should otherwise be necessary.

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41844108 306 Reputation points

2023-06-27T15:49:05.4033333+00:00

Perhaps the best hack to make this MS product work correctly is to manually replace the tab with a new tab with different URL after each html update. So index.html > index2.html, then write a js redirect from the first to the second just in case someone bookmarked the URL and expects a normal experience. I hate how MS forces me to do 90% more work than should otherwise be necessary.

Answer 1

Currently, Microsoft Teams does not provide a built-in feature to disable caching or force a refresh of tab content. The caching is intended to improve performance and reduce the load on external websites.

However, there are a few workarounds you can consider:

Inform users to manually refresh: You can educate your users about the caching behavior and instruct them to manually refresh the tab content by pressing Ctrl+F5 or using the refresh button in their web browser.

Implement an automatic refresh mechanism: You can include JavaScript code within your tab's HTML that periodically refreshes the content. For example, you can use the setTimeout function to refresh the page after a certain interval.

Utilize webhooks or APIs: If the content you want to display in the tab can be fetched dynamically, you can consider using webhooks or APIs to retrieve the latest data and display it in your tab. This way, you can ensure that the content is always up to date.

It's important to note that these workarounds have their limitations and may not provide real-time updates or immediate refreshes. If having regularly updated content is critical for your use case, you might consider exploring other platforms or tools that are more suited for presenting dynamic web content.

41844108 306 Reputation points

2023-06-28T06:52:39.2266667+00:00

I understand the point of caching but this level of aggressive caching and a complete lack of basic browser functionality is downright negligent.

I’m sorry but setTimout is not even related to the problem. The problem is a client side.

Asking users to manually refresh is part of the problem, I know this UX makes sense for MS employees with no UX understanding, but no. That’s wrong, but also there is no manual way to clear the cache, that’s why I’m ridiculing MS for not hiring designers.

And can we take as step back… I just said I have to manually build a simple Wiki and you want me to by a React website. You guys just don’t get it.

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How to refresh a webpage embedded in a Teams Tab

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