rokid / node-webworker

Threads in Node.js with Web Worker

node-webworker

Web Worker implementation for Node.js. This module provides multi-threads programming for Node.js user-land by borrowing the concept of the standard Web Worker.

Get Started

'use strict';
const WebWorker = require('webworker-ng').WebWorker;
const worker = new WebWorker((self) => {
  self.postMessage('foobar', {yorkie: true});
  self.on('message', (data) => {
    console.log(data);
  });
}, {
  timeout: 5000,  // terminate after timeout
  defines: [],    // the parameters/objects passing to Worker
});

worker.postMessage({foo: 'bar'});
worker.onmessage = function(data) {
  // get message from worker
};

APIs

The node-webworker provides the class WebWorker for creating a separate worker.

Creating a webworker script

A WebWorker instance is corresponding a script to run, in low-level implementation, it creates a thread to sperate the v8 stack from the main.

The constructor WebWorker(script, options) accepts:

• {Function} script the source code function which runs in worker. Will support the path to run.
• {Object} options the options to config the worker
  • {Number} options.timeout the microsecond number to terminate forcily.
  • {Array} options.define the array of parameters to pass in worker context.

Messaging

In host environment, namely the Node.js, every WebWorker instance owns the method postMessage and the listener onmessage.

worker.postMessage('some data');
worker.onmessage = function(data) {
  // TODO
};

Correspondingly, in every worker context, it owns the same like the following:

const worker = new WebWorker(function(self) {
  self.onmessage = function(data) { .. };
  self.postMessage('some data sent from worker');
});

Collecting stdout and stderr

In worker context, the methods under console as console.log() and console.error are delegated by node-webworker which allows user to collect worker logs by worker as the following:

const worker = new WebWorker(function(self) {
  console.log('this sent to stdout');
  console.error('this sent to stderr');
});
worker.onstdout = function(msg) { ... };
worker.onstderr = function(msg) { ... };

Modular worker

In web worker, you can use the following builtin modules:

• events - the Node.js official events mirror module
• path - the Node.js official path mirror module

The other hand, you can also load your CommonJS file into your worker:

const worker = new WebWorker(function(self) {
  require('./tests/load-worker.js');
});

Note: The default path routing is from the process.cwd().

Installation

$ npm install webworker-ng --save

Tests

$ npm test

License

Apache License 2.0