worker

A tiny micro library to help make using web workers easier. Spins up an inline web worker for you with the option of adding a fallback method in case creating the worker fails. The API for interacting with a web worker remains exactly the same, it is just the creation that is more abstracted.

For more info on web workers look here

Install

bower install --save worker

Basic Usage

var myWorker = new $Worker(function(e) {
  var sum = 0;
  
  e.data.forEach(function(int) {
    sum += int;
  });
  
  self.postMessage(sum);
});

myWorker.onmessage = function(data) {
  console.log(data);
};

myWorker.postMessage([1,2,3,4,5]);

API

$Worker

Constructor - creates a new web worker

Arg	Type	description
func	Function	the code to be used in the web worker
fb	Function	the fallback function to use in case of webworker creation failure

Example:

var myWorker = new $Worker(function(e) {
  var sum = 0;
  
  e.data.forEach(function(int) {
    sum += int;
  });
  
  self.postMessage(sum);
});

$Worker.postMessage

Post data for the web worker to use. Runs the web worker

Arg	Type	description
data	*	the data to be posted (cannot be function)

Example:

myWorker.postMessage([1,2,3,4,5]);

$Worker.onmessage

Override this method. This method is called whenever your $worker posts data back.

Arg	Type	description
data	*	the data that is posted back from the worker

Example:

myWorker.onmessage = function(data) {
  console.log(data);
};

$Worker.loadScripts

Sometimes you need to load functions into your worker. $worker.loadScripts loads a list of functions into the web worker that can be used by the worker

Arg	Type	description
*	Object	A map of functions and the name they should be stored under

myWorker.loadScripts({'hello', hello}, {'goodbye': goodbye});

function hello() {
  console.log('Hello World');
}

function goodbye() {
  console.log('Goodbye World');
}

$Worker.removeScripts

Remove injected scripts from the web worker

Arg	Type	description
*	String	A list of function names to be removed.

myWorker.removeScripts('hello', 'goodbye');

Complete Example

var myWorker = new $Worker(function(e) {
  var foo = [], min = e.data.min, max = e.data.max;
  
  for (var i = 0; i < e.data.length; i++) {
    foo.push(Math.floor(Math.random() * (max - min)) + min);
  }
  
  // function passed in from the loadScripts api
  hello();

  self.postMessage(foo);
});

myWorker.loadScripts({'hello', function hello() { console.log('yay')}});

myWorker.onmessage = function(data) {
  result = data;
};

myWorker.postMessage({length: 1024, min: 0, max: 9999});