workerize-loader

A webpack loader that moves a module and its dependencies into a Web Worker, automatically reflecting exported functions as asynchronous proxies.

• Bundles a tiny, purpose-built RPC implementation into your app
• If exported module methods are already async, signature is unchanged
• Supports synchronous and asynchronous worker functions
• Works beautifully with async/await
• Imported value is instantiable, just a decorated Worker

Install

npm install -D workerize-loader

Usage

worker.js:

// block for `time` ms, then return the number of loops we could run in that time:
export function expensive(time) {
    let start = Date.now(),
        count = 0
    while (Date.now() - start < time) count++
    return count
}

index.js: (our demo)

import worker from 'workerize-loader!./worker'

let instance = worker()  // `new` is optional

instance.expensive(1000).then( count => {
    console.log(`Ran ${count} loops`)
})

Options

inline

Type: Boolean Default: false

You can also inline the worker as a BLOB with the inline parameter

// webpack.config.js
{
  loader: 'workerize-loader',
  options: { inline: true }
}

or

import worker from 'workerize-loader?inline!./worker'

About Babel

If you're using Babel in your build, make sure you disabled commonJS transform. Otherwize, workerize-loader won't be able to retrieve the list of exported function from your worker script :

{
    test: /\.js$/,
    loader: "babel-loader",
    options: {
        presets: [
            [
                "env",
                {
                    modules: false,
                },
            ],
        ]
    }
}

Polyfill Required for IE11

Workerize-loader supports browsers that support Web Workers - that's IE10+. However, these browsers require a polyfill in order to use Promises, which Workerize-loader relies on. It is recommended that the polyfill be installed globally, since Webpack itself also needs Promises to load bundles.

The smallest implementation is the one we recommend installing:

npm i promise-polyfill

Then, in the module you are "workerizing", just add it as your first import:

import 'promise-polyfill/src/polyfill';

All worker code can now use Promises.

Testing

To test a module that is normally imported via workerize-loader when not using Webpack, import the module directly in your test:

-const worker = require('workerize-loader!./worker.js');
+const worker = () => require('./worker.js');

const instance = worker();

To test modules that rely on workerized imports when not using Webpack, you'll need to dig into your test runner a bit. For Jest, it's possible to define a custom transform that emulates workerize-loader on the main thread:

// in your Jest configuration
{
  "transform": {
    "workerize-loader(\\?.*)?!(.*)": "<rootDir>/workerize-jest.js"
  }
}

... then add the workerize-jest.js shim to your project:

module.exports = {
  process(src, filename, config, options) {
    return 'module.exports = () => require(' + JSON.stringify(filename.replace(/.+!/,'')) + ')';
  },
};

Now your tests and any modules they import can use workerize-loader! prefixes.

Credit

The inner workings here are heavily inspired by worker-loader. It's worth a read!

License

MIT License © Jason Miller