updaterefresh

Updaterefresh is a software design concept describing a pattern in which a data update is immediately followed by a refresh of the user interface or cached view to reflect the new state. It aims to maintain consistency between the data model and its presentation while minimizing user-perceived latency.

In practice, the update operation writes to a database, API, or local store. The refresh is triggered by change notifications, event streams, cache invalidation, or a deliberate re-query. Refreshes can be full (redrawing the entire view) or partial (updating only changed fields or components).

Common use cases include real-time dashboards, collaborative editors, content management systems, and mobile apps that synchronize data after reconnecting.

Implementation considerations include ensuring acceptable atomicity between update and refresh when strong consistency is required, handling failures, and providing rollback paths. Decisions about push versus pull refresh, synchronous versus asynchronous refresh, and batching impact latency and complexity. Performance and user experience should be weighed, for example by using optimistic updates combined with subsequent confirmation.

Variants include optimistic updaterefresh, where the UI reflects changes immediately before server confirmation; batched refresh to reduce the number of refresh cycles; and incremental refresh, which targets only touched components.

See also: data binding, reactive programming, cache invalidation, event-driven architecture.