Live reload clarification about vue-cli-plugin-browser-extension HOT 1 CLOSED

Simple answer: The webpack extensions used in this plugin claim livereload, but not Hot module reload. Nothing automatically refreshes your browser view for you when you make code changes.

More complicated answer: At present, nothing will reload the extension popup, options, or other pages. The webpack extension author does a good job explaining at a high level what it does.

So, if it doesn't refresh the page for you, then what is it doing?

If you were to remove the webpack-extention-reloader plugin, here are the manual steps you would have to take every time you made a change to your code:

1. vue-cli/webpack already handle the rebuild of your application
2. go to the extensions page
3. locate your extension
4. click refresh (in chrome it is available at a top level as a circular arrow)
5. resume what you were doing, presumably in a separate tab

It doesn't seem like much, but by removing the need to constantly refresh the extension in the browser the development process is a little more streamlined, time will overall be saved, and it is easier for developers to develop browser extensions.

I do think you're right that the docs can be updated to clarify this better. Even though I wrote them, it took me a while to find the footnote about HMR not being supported. Some of my regular work is ramping down and I think I can dedicate some more time to maintenance here, as it looks like there are a few places for improvement, as well as much more community feedback than when I originally started.

from vue-cli-plugin-browser-extension.