Retrieve child window reference after refresh

You can obtain the reference of child window simply by following trick.

newWin = window.open("", "child_window_name", "width=...");
if (newWin.location.href === "about:blank") {
    newWin = window.open("a.html", "child_window_name", "width=...");
} else {
    // We've already obtained the reference.
    // However, IE and FireFox won't put focus on an already opened window.
    // So we have to do that explicitly:
    newWin.focus();
}

Note you must have a fixed child window name to make this trick works.

Example URL: http://josephj.com/lab/2011/window-open-reconnect/demo.html

See here: http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/offline.html#dom-appcache-update

applicationCache.addEventListener("updateready", function() {
  applicationCache.swapCache();
  //now reload the body html
}, false);
setInterval(60000, applicationCache.update);//check for updates every minute

(updateready fires every time a new version has been downloaded)

I achieved this scenario using Window.postMessage, which enables cross-origin communication between Window objects. It supports: https://caniuse.com/#feat=mdn-api_window_postmessage

Basic working example for establishing communication between parent and child Window objects

In the parent app,

var childWindow = window.open(CHILD_URL);
setTimeout(() => { // postMessage on some browsers may need setTimout
  childWindow.postMessage( // STEP 1
     "INITIATE_CONNECTION", // message
     CHILD_URL // targetOrigin
  );
}, 500)

function receiveMessageFromChild(event) {
  if (event.origin === CHILD_URL) { // we should always check with the event.origin
    if (event.source) {
      if (event.data === "CONNECTION_SUCCESSFUL") {
        setTimeout(() => {
            event.source.postMessage( // STEP 3 and STEP 7
                "SEND_SOME_DATA_TO_CHILD",
                CHILD_URL);
        }, 500);
      }
      // other messages handling from child
    }
  }
}

if (window.addEventListener) {
  window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessageFromChild, false);
} else if (window.attachEvent) { // for IE
  window.attachEvent("onmessage", receiveMessageFromChild);
}

In the child app,

function receiveMessageFromParent(event) {
  if (event.origin === PARENT_URL) { // we should always check with the event.origin
    var parentWindow = window.opener || event.source;
    if (parentWindow) {
      if (event.data === "INITIATE_CONNECTION" || event.data === "RE_NITIATE_CONNECTION") { // "RE_NITIATE_CONNECTION" msg from parent when parent is refreshed
         setTimeout(() => {
            parentWindow.postMessage( // STEP 2
                "CONNECTION_SUCCESSFUL",
                PARENT_URL);
         }, 500);
      }
      // other messages handling from parent
    }
  }
}

if (window.addEventListener) {
  window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessageFromParent, false);
} else if (window.attachEvent) { // for IE
  window.attachEvent("onmessage", receiveMessageFromParent);
}

To handle parent window refresh and retrieve child window reference after the parent refresh make the following changes in the above codes,

In the parent app,

document.body.onunload = () => { // before refreshing parent, this function will be called
  if (childWindow) {
    setTimeout(() => {
      childWindow.postMessage( // STEP 4
        "PARENT_REFRESHING",
        CHILD_URL
      );
    }, 500);
  }
};

function receiveMessageFromChild(event) {
  // ... above mentioned code in the parent app for this function
  .
  .
  .
  // other messages handling from child
  if (event.data === "PARENT_REFRESHED") {
    setTimeout(() => {
      event.source.postMessage( // STEP 6 - this event.source is a child window reference
        "RE_NITIATE_CONNECTION",
        CHILD_URL
      );
    }, 500);
  }
}

In the child app,

function receiveMessageFromParent(event) {
  // ... above mentioned code in the child app for this function
  .
  .
  .
  // other messages handling from parent
  if (event.data === "PARENT_REFRESHING") {
    setTimeout(() => {
      event.source.postMessage( // STEP 5
        "PARENT_REFRESHED",
        CHILD_URL
      );
    }, 500);
  }
}

In the above example, please refer to the STEPs from 1 to 7. STEP 6 is the child window reference when the parent is refreshed.