Timely update of information displayed within a portal

A function is added to a Web page that communicates with a refresh control helper. The Web page is associated with a session identifier. If an information update that affects the Web page occurs, an update notification is associated with the session identifier. Periodically, the function in the Web page sends the session identifier to the refresh control helper. The refresh control helper calls a refresh controller and passes the session identifier. The refresh controller checks a data store to determine if update notifications associated with the session identifier have been received. If updates are available for the page, the refresh controller informs the refresh control helper that new data is available and removes any update notifications for the session identifier from the data store. The refresh control helper then informs the function in the Web page that new data is available and the function requests a page reload.