Improve fast refresh simulation to use timer-based approach instead of user interaction

Co-authored-by: chiaramooney <34109996+chiaramooney@users.noreply.github.com>

Author: Copilot

packages/@react-native-windows/tester/src/js/examples/View/ViewExample.windows.js

@@ -673,10 +673,11 @@ function BoxSizingExample(): React.Node {
 
 class FastRefreshStyleExample extends React.Component<
   $ReadOnly<{}>,
-  {currentStyle: number},
+  {currentStyle: number, isAutoRefreshing: boolean},
 > {
-  state: {currentStyle: number} = {
+  state: {currentStyle: number, isAutoRefreshing: boolean} = {
     currentStyle: 0,
+    isAutoRefreshing: false,
   };
 
   styles = [
@@ -686,13 +687,32 @@ class FastRefreshStyleExample extends React.Component<
     {backgroundColor: '#96ceb4', padding: 10, borderRadius: 20},
   ];
 
+  intervalId: ?IntervalID = null;
+
+  componentDidMount() {
+    // Start auto-refresh after a short delay to simulate fast refresh behavior
+    this.intervalId = setInterval(() => {
+      if (this.state.isAutoRefreshing) {
+        this.setState({
+          currentStyle: (this.state.currentStyle + 1) % this.styles.length,
+        });
+      }
+    }, 2000);
+  }
+
+  componentWillUnmount() {
+    if (this.intervalId) {
+      clearInterval(this.intervalId);
+    }
+  }
+
   render(): React.Node {
     return (
       <View testID="view-test-fast-refresh" accessible accessibilityLabel="Fast Refresh Example">
         <Pressable onPress={this._handlePress}>
           <View style={this.styles[this.state.currentStyle]}>
             <RNTesterText style={{color: 'white', fontSize: 14, textAlign: 'center'}}>
-              Tap to change style (simulates fast refresh)
+              {this.state.isAutoRefreshing ? 'Auto-refreshing styles...' : 'Tap to start fast refresh simulation'}
             </RNTesterText>
             <RNTesterText style={{color: 'white', fontSize: 12, textAlign: 'center', marginTop: 5}}>
               Style: {this.state.currentStyle + 1} of {this.styles.length}
@@ -705,7 +725,7 @@ class FastRefreshStyleExample extends React.Component<
 
   _handlePress = () => {
     this.setState({
-      currentStyle: (this.state.currentStyle + 1) % this.styles.length,
+      isAutoRefreshing: !this.state.isAutoRefreshing,
     });
   };
 }

packages/e2e-test-app-fabric/test/ViewComponentTest.test.ts

@@ -208,22 +208,22 @@ describe('View Tests', () => {
     const initialDump = await dumpVisualTree('view-test-fast-refresh');
     expect(initialDump).toMatchSnapshot('initial-state');
 
-    // Click to change style (simulating fast refresh behavior)
+    // Click to start auto-refresh (simulating fast refresh activation)
     await componentsTab.click();
 
-    // Wait a moment for the style change to apply
+    // Wait for automatic style changes to occur (simulating fast refresh)
     await app.waitUntil(
       async () => {
         const currentDump = await dumpVisualTree('view-test-fast-refresh');
         return currentDump !== initialDump;
       },
       {
-        timeout: 3000,
-        timeoutMsg: 'View style did not update after interaction',
+        timeout: 5000,
+        timeoutMsg: 'View style did not auto-update during fast refresh simulation',
       }
     );
 
-    // Take snapshot after style change
+    // Take snapshot after automatic style change
     const updatedDump = await dumpVisualTree('view-test-fast-refresh');
     expect(updatedDump).toMatchSnapshot('updated-state');
   });