Auto-Refreshing InDesign Extension?

Ok, so you might have a chance. Once an extension is loaded, it becomes…a panel. And panel has a read/write property "visible".

So basically=

var p = app.panels.itemByName("the name of my panel");

if(p.isValid){

p.visible=!p.visible;

}

 Now you need an async routine to make the panel open/close. That can be done with a startup script and an idleEvent Handler:

#targetengine "session"

main();

function main(){
    var tasks = app.idleTasks;
    var name = "RelaunchPanel";
    var rate = 5000;

    var callback = function(e){
        var p = app.panels.itemByName("test 1");
        if(p.isValid){
            if(p.visible) p.visible = false;
            p.visible = true;
        }
    }

    var t = tasks.itemByName(name);
    if(t.isValid){
        t.eventListeners.everyItem().remove();
        t.remove();
    }
    t = tasks.add({name:name, sleep:rate});
    t.addEventListener(IdleEvent.ON_IDLE, callback, false);
}

Simply change the panel name, save this snippet as a js(x) file, put it into the startup scripts folder, restart InDesign and you should be fine.

Hope that helps,

Loic