I'm sure this has been asked before, but I can't find any reference to it anywhere. Is there any way to avoid having to run a module update if I've just tweaked the template file and want to view the changes.

This is the full situation. I'm working on building a new module and I hate having to run update after any changes to the template file. What should be a save and refresh turns into a 30 second switch to Firefox tab with admin module page open, scroll down, click update, wait for load, click yes, wait for whole module to update, click done, switch back to tab, refresh page. This is highly annoying when I'm tweaking CSS settings trying to get alignment just right.

I looked at footer.php and it seems to force using the template stored in the database. So from my limited knowledge of XOOPS architecture, it seems that the only choice is to somehow run the method that updates the template. I'm not sure how to do this without tearing into more of the architecture which I can do, but I'm hoping someone already has the answer available.

Thank you for any help,
Leo

You can make a copy of the template set in the admin section. Use that copy as your template set in your preferences. With that copy it will be possible to edit your templates using the templates management feature in your admin section. Any changes will immediately be visible then.

Thanks for the suggestion. That works, but it is a less than ideal situation trying to edit large templates in that little text area.
When I'm doing development it's nice to have full syntax coloring and automatic indentation and all the other things in the most basic of editors. Maybe I'm stuck with just running the update until I have time to hack together an autoupdater.

Be easier and - try RTFM! at least once
You can download any tempate as file, edit with your preferred editor, upload back

Okay, what was that rabid response about? How about reading and understanding what I'm asking for?
Do as wtravel and just give the suggestion without insulting.
RTFM doesn't help anybody except when they keep coming back (that would be more than one topic) and attempting to find answers to simple things. If you want to be helpful, post the link to TFM article.

Okay, just to make myself very clear.
I edit files using an editor via SFTP so that when I save, they are automatically uploaded to the development server.
I would like for the next step to be 'Refresh'. Not upload again or hit a bunch of buttons to update.

I'm asking if there is any way to do this. By looking at the code, I gathered that some kind of hack would have to be done. However, I was hoping that this functionality was built-in. I'm not looking for an easy solution, just the end result being easy development.