Develop Reference

calling a function object to load your js

function FriendlyChat() {
// statements
}
FriendlyChat.protoype.somemethod = function() {
// statements
};
FriendlyChat.protoype.somemethod2 = function() {
//statements
};
window.onload = function() {
window.friendlyChat = new FriendlyChat();
};
So i noticed the above structure for js while working on a google codelab.
And I have two ques.
in normal objects you have to call the function i.e Object.somemethod()
How does this structure call the methods assigned to it.
From my limited understanding, Firendlychat.protoype.the method treats the
function as an object and the methods are passed to the new object created on
window.onload.Via
inheritance, The object created i.e friendlychat has all these methods.
Yet none of the methods are called in any way. How does this work?
Is there any advantage to structuring your code in this way other than
readability
Note :
Main function
function FriendlyChat() {
this.checkSetup();
// Shortcuts to DOM Elements.
this.messageList = document.getElementById('messages');
this.messageForm = document.getElementById('message-form');
// Saves message on form submit.
this.messageForm.addEventListener('submit', this.saveMessage.bind(this));
this.signOutButton.addEventListener('click', this.signOut.bind(this));
this.signInButton.addEventListener('click', this.signIn.bind(this));
// Toggle for the button.
var buttonTogglingHandler = this.toggleButton.bind(this);
this.messageInput.addEventListener('keyup', buttonTogglingHandler);
this.messageInput.addEventListener('change', buttonTogglingHandler);
// Events for image upload.
this.submitImageButton.addEventListener('click', function(e) {
e.preventDefault();
this.mediaCapture.click();
}.bind(this));
this.mediaCapture.addEventListener('change',
this.saveImageMessage.bind(this));
this.initFirebase();
}
//the methods are setup here
// Sets up shortcuts to Firebase features and initiate firebase auth.
FriendlyChat.prototype.initFirebase = function() {
this.auth = firebase.auth();
this.database = firebase.database();
this.storage = firebase.storage();
// Initiates Firebase auth and listen to auth state changes.
this.auth.onAuthStateChanged(this.onAuthStateChanged.bind(this));
};
// Saves a new message on the Firebase DB.
FriendlyChat.prototype.saveMessage = function(e) {
e.preventDefault();
}
};
FriendlyChat.prototype.setImageUrl = function(imageUri, imgElement) {
imgElement.src = imageUri;
};
// Saves a new message containing an image URI in Firebase.
// This first saves the image in Firebase storage.
FriendlyChat.prototype.saveImageMessage = function(event) {
event.preventDefault();
var file = event.target.files[0];
// Clear the selection in the file picker input.
this.imageForm.reset();
// Check if the file is an image.
if (!file.type.match('image.*')) {
var data = {
message: 'You can only share images',
timeout: 2000
};
this.signInSnackbar.MaterialSnackbar.showSnackbar(data);
return;
}
// Check if the user is signed-in
if (this.checkSignedInWithMessage()) {
// TODO(DEVELOPER): Upload image to Firebase storage and add message.
}
};
// Signs-in Friendly Chat.
FriendlyChat.prototype.signIn = function() {
var provider = new firebase.auth.GoogleAuthProvider();
this.auth.signInWithRedirect(provider);
};
// Signs-out of Friendly Chat.
FriendlyChat.prototype.signOut = function() {
this.auth.signOut();
};

One of the advantages I've seen when using prototype inheritance was that you can control all instances of an object. For ex:
function FriendlyChat() {
this.chatIsActive = true;
}
FriendlyChat.prototype.deactivateChat = function(...rooms) {
for (chatRoom of rooms) {
chatRoom.chatIsActive = false;
}
};
var chat1 = new FriendlyChat();
var chat2 = new FriendlyChat();
var chatController = new FriendlyChat();
chatController.deactivateChat(chat1, chat2)
console.log(chat1.chatIsActive)
In ES6, however, you can do it:
class FriendlyChat {
constructor() {
this.chatIsActive = true;
}
static deactivateChat(...rooms) {
for (let chatRoom of rooms) {
chatRoom.chatIsActive = false;
}
}
}
var chat1 = new FriendlyChat();
var chat2 = new FriendlyChat();
FriendlyChat.deactivateChat(chat1, chat2)
console.log(chat1.chatIsActive)
And the another advantage of using prototype is that you can save memory spaces when you make an object from new keyword. For instance, the code in ES5 above, you can see chat1 and chat2 I've made by using new. Then chat1 and chat2 will be able to access deactivateChat() method which is in a sharing-space. It's because of the concept, called prototype-chaining.
And the next ES6 version is just a syntactic sugar - under the hood it does the same as ES5 version

I post this as a reference to others who have been faced with this dilemma.
First of all, ONe of the core issues for me was migrating from java, I seemed to be familiar territory but things work a bit different in js.I strongly recommend these links:
Objects in Detail
js Prototype
So the key to why this method works is due to the
window.friendlyapp =new friendlychat()
Now normally in most languages you have an object
obj() {
attr : value
method: function() {}
}
And then to use the method you do
var child = new obj();
child.method();
but in this method the var is made an instance of the window object and thats why none of the methods of the app need to be explicitly called.

Update HTML object with node.js and javascript

I'm new to nodejs and jquery, and I'm trying to update one single html object using a script.
I am using a Raspberry pi 2 and a ultrasonic sensor, to measure distance. I want to measure continuous, and update the html document at the same time with the real time values.
When I try to run my code it behaves like a server and not a client. Everything that i console.log() prints in the cmd and not in the browesers' console. When I run my code now i do it with "sudo node surveyor.js", but nothing happens in the html-document. I have linked it properly to the script. I have also tried document.getElementsByTagName("h6").innerHTML = distance.toFixed(2), but the error is "document is not defiend".
Is there any easy way to fix this?
My code this far is:
var statistics = require('math-statistics');
var usonic = require('r-pi-usonic');
var fs = require("fs");
var path = require("path");
var jsdom = require("jsdom");
var htmlSource = fs.readFileSync("../index.html", "utf8");
var init = function(config) {
usonic.init(function (error) {
if (error) {
console.log('error');
} else {
var sensor = usonic.createSensor(config.echoPin, config.triggerPin, config.timeout);
//console.log(config);
var distances;
(function measure() {
if (!distances || distances.length === config.rate) {
if (distances) {
print(distances);
}
distances = [];
}
setTimeout(function() {
distances.push(sensor());
measure();
}, config.delay);
}());
}
});
};
var print = function(distances) {
var distance = statistics.median(distances);
process.stdout.clearLine();
process.stdout.cursorTo(0);
if (distance < 0) {
process.stdout.write('Error: Measurement timeout.\n');
} else {
process.stdout.write('Distance: ' + distance.toFixed(2) + ' cm');
call_jsdom(htmlSource, function (window) {
var $ = window.$;
$("h6").replaceWith(distance.toFixed(2));
console.log(documentToSource(window.document));
});
}
};
function documentToSource(doc) {
// The non-standard window.document.outerHTML also exists,
// but currently does not preserve source code structure as well
// The following two operations are non-standard
return doc.doctype.toString()+doc.innerHTML;
}
function call_jsdom(source, callback) {
jsdom.env(
source,
[ 'jquery-1.7.1.min.js' ],
function(errors, window) {
process.nextTick(
function () {
if (errors) {
throw new Error("There were errors: "+errors);
}
callback(window);
}
);
}
);
}
init({
echoPin: 15, //Echo pin
triggerPin: 14, //Trigger pin
timeout: 1000, //Measurement timeout in µs
delay: 60, //Measurement delay in ms
rate: 5 //Measurements per sample
});

Node.js is a server-side implementation of JavaScript. It's ok to do all the sensors operations and calculations on server-side, but you need some mechanism to provide the results to your clients. If they are going to use your application by using a web browser, you must run a HTTP server, like Express.js, and create a route (something like http://localhost/surveyor or just http://localhost/) that calls a method you have implemented on server-side and do something with the result. One possible way to return this resulting data to the clients is by rendering an HTML page that shows them. For that you should use a Template Engine.
Any DOM manipulation should be done on client-side (you could, for example, include a <script> tag inside your template HTML just to try and understand how it works, but it is not recommended to do this in production environments).
Try searching google for Node.js examples and tutorials and you will get it :)

Javascript testing with mocha the html5 file api?

I have simple image uploader in a website and a javascript function which uses FileReader and converts image to base64 to display it for user without uploading it to actual server.
function generateThumb(file) {
var fileReader = new FileReader();
fileReader.readAsDataURL(file);
fileReader.onload = function (e) {
// Converts the image to base64
file.dataUrl = e.target.result;
};
}
Now I am trying to write tests for this method using Mocha and Chai. My thinking is that I want to check if the file.dataUrl was successfully created and it is base64. So I would like to mock the local file somehow in testing environment (not sure how to do this). Or I should not test this at all and assume that this is working ?

The answer here depends a little. Does your "generateThumbs" method have other logic than loading a files contents and assign that to a property of a passed in object? Or does it have other logic such as generating the thumbnail from the image data, reading out file properties and assigning them to the file object? and so on?
If so then I would infact suggest you mock out the FileReader object with your own, so that you can control your test results. However, it isn't the FileReaders functionality you want to test, it is your own logic. So you should assume that FileReader works and test that your code that depends upon it works.
Now since the method you posted was a bit on the small side, In that case I would just assume it works, rename the method and work on testing the rest of your code. But there is a place for having such a mock, and I must admit it was quite fun to figure out how to mock the event target, so I will give an example here, using your method as a basis:
//This implements the EventTarget interface
//and let's us control when, where and what triggers events
//and what they return
//it takes in a spy and some fake return data
var FakeFileReader = function(spy, fakeData) {
this.listeners = {};
this.fakeData = fakeData;
this.spy = spy;
this.addEventListener('load', function () {
this.spy.loaded = true;
});
};
//Fake version of the method we depend upon
FakeFileReader.prototype.readAsDataURL = function(file){
this.spy.calledReadAsDataURL = true;
this.spy.file = file;
this.result = this.fakeData;
this.dispatchEvent({type:'load'}); //assume file is loaded, and send event
};
FakeFileReader.prototype.listeners = null;
FakeFileReader.prototype.addEventListener = function(type, callback) {
if(!(type in this.listeners)) {
this.listeners[type] = [];
}
this.listeners[type].push(callback);
};
FakeFileReader.prototype.removeEventListener = function(type, callback) {
if(!(type in this.listeners)) {
return;
}
var stack = this.listeners[type];
for(var i = 0, l = stack.length; i < l; i++) {
if(stack[i] === callback){
stack.splice(i, 1);
return this.removeEventListener(type, callback);
}
}
};
FakeFileReader.prototype.dispatchEvent = function(event) {
if(!(event.type in this.listeners)) {
return;
}
var stack = this.listeners[event.type];
event.target = this;
for(var i = 0, l = stack.length; i < l; i++) {
stack[i].call(this, event);
}
};
// Your method
function generateThumb(file, reader){
reader.readAsDataURL(file);
reader.addEventListener('load', function (e) {
file.dataUrl = base64(e.target.result);
});
}
Now we have a nice little object that behaves like a FileReader, but we control it's behavior, and we can now use our method and inject it into, thus enabling us to use this mock for testing and the real thing for production.
So we can now write nice unit tests to test this out:
I assume you have mocha and chai setup
describe('The generateThumb function', function () {
var file = { src: 'image.file'};
var readerSpy = {};
var testData = 'TESTDATA';
var reader = new FakeFileReader(readerSpy, testData);
it('should call the readAsDataURL function when given a file name and a FileReader', function () {
generateThumb(file, reader);
expect(readerSpy.calledReadAsDataURL).to.be.true;
expect(readerSpy.loaded).to.be.true;
});
it('should load the file and convert the data to base64', function () {
var expectedData = 'VEVTVERBVEE=';
generateThumb(file, reader);
expect(readerSpy.file.src).to.equal(file.src);
expect(readerSpy.file.dataUrl).to.equal(expectedData);
});
});
Here is a working JSFiddle example:
https://jsfiddle.net/workingClassHacker/jL4xpwwv/2/
The benefits here are you can create several versions of this mock:
what happens when correct data is given?
what happens when incorrect data is given?
what happens when callback is never called?
what happens when too large of a file is put in?
what happens when a certain mime type is put in?
You can offcourse massively simplify the mock if all you need is that one event:
function FakeFileReader(spy, testdata){
return {
readAsDataURL:function (file) {
spy.file = file;
spy.calledReadAsDataURL = true;
spy.loaded = true;
this.target = {result: testdata};
this.onload(this);
}
};
}
function generateThumb(file, reader){
reader.onload = function (e) {
file.dataUrl = base64(e.target.result);
};
reader.readAsDataURL(file);
}
Which is how I would actually do this. And create several of these for different purposes.
Simple version:
https://jsfiddle.net/workingClassHacker/7g44h9fj/3/

Extend node application with new actions

I've created application which is handle some basic actions like save(e.g. saving a file in file system) edit etc ,now I want that some users will have the ability to extend this functionality with new actions,for example user
will clone the application and add additional file with new actions (and some callback) and then register on some event
I should this new actions under the hood,my question is how can I take this new actions from new file and run then in my process,simple example will be very helpful
UPDATE
lets assume that this is my file that handle the action and user want to add additional action like delete
var fs = require('fs');
module.exports = {
fileAction: function (req, res, filePath) {
var urlAction = urlPath.substr(urlPath.lastIndexOf("/") + 1);
if (urlAction === 'save') {
this.save(req,res,filePath);
} else
this.delete(req,res,filePath);
},
save: function (req,res,filePath) {
var writeStream = fs.createWriteStream(filePath, {flags: 'w'});
req.pipe(writeStream);
res.writeHead(200, { 'Content-Type': 'text/plain' });
},
delete: function (req,res,filePath) {
},
}
and the delete code should be something like this
filePath = 'C://test.txt';
fs.unlinkSync(filePath);
Now as lordvlad suggest user should have a new file with his specific implementation which should be used by lordvlad suggestion design flow,my question is how to add this delete functionality(which is very simple) and make it work,like some POC for this.

I could imagine some plugin system like so:
main.js
// some setup
var EE = require('events').EventEmitter;
var glob = require('glob');
var eventBus = new EE();
// find plugins
glob("plugins/*.js", function(err, files) {
if (err) {
// some error handling here
}
files.forEach(function(file) {
var plugin = require(file);
plugin(eventBus);
});
});
plugins/my-plugin.js
module.exports = function(eventBus) {
// do something interesting
// listen for events on the event bus
eventBus.on("foo", function(e){
// do something
});
eventEmitter.emit("pluginReady", "my-plugin");
};
Of course you could substitute the event emitter with some global object, or make the plugin handle callbacks by passing a callback instead of an event bus. I think the key aspect is to load plugins (done within the glob ... require block) and and to make them fit into your system (which you will need to figure out yourself or provide some code samples of what you already have so somebody can give you another hint).
UPDATE after OPs update
main.js
var glob = require('glob');
var xtend = require('xtend');
module.exports = {
save: function(..){..},
load: function(..){..},
}
// typeof module.exports.delete === 'undefined',
// so you cannot call module.exports delete or similar
glob("plugins/*.js", function(err, files) {
files.forEach(function(file){
var plugin = require(file);
// call plugin initializer if available
if (typeof plugin.init === "function")
plugin.init();
xtend(module.exports, plugin);
});
// here all plugins are loaded and can be used
// i.e. you can do the following
module.exports.delete(...);
});
plugins/my-plugin.js
module.exports = {
delete: function(..){..},
init: function() {
// do something when the plugin loads
}
}
Mind though, that any plugin could overwrite another plugin's methods.

About HTML5 web worker using in 1 single js file [duplicate]

As far as I can tell, web workers need to be written in a separate JavaScript file, and called like this:
new Worker('longrunning.js')
I'm using the closure compiler to combine and minify all my JavaScript source code, and I'd rather not have to have my workers in separate files for distribution. Is there some way to do this?
new Worker(function() {
//Long-running work here
});
Given that first-class functions are so crucial to JavaScript, why does the standard way to do background work have to load a whole other JavaScript file from the web server?

http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/workers/basics/#toc-inlineworkers
What if you want to create your worker script on the fly, or create a self-contained page without having to create separate worker files? With Blob(), you can "inline" your worker in the same HTML file as your main logic by creating a URL handle to the worker code as a string
Full example of BLOB inline worker:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<script id="worker1" type="javascript/worker">
// This script won't be parsed by JS engines because its type is javascript/worker.
self.onmessage = function(e) {
self.postMessage('msg from worker');
};
// Rest of your worker code goes here.
</script>
<script>
var blob = new Blob([
document.querySelector('#worker1').textContent
], { type: "text/javascript" })
// Note: window.webkitURL.createObjectURL() in Chrome 10+.
var worker = new Worker(window.URL.createObjectURL(blob));
worker.onmessage = function(e) {
console.log("Received: " + e.data);
}
worker.postMessage("hello"); // Start the worker.
</script>

The html5rocks solution of embedding the web worker code in HTML is fairly horrible.
And a blob of escaped JavaScript-as-a-string is no better, not least because it complicates work-flow (Closure compiler can't operate on strings).
Personally I really like the toString methods, but #dan-man THAT regex!
My preferred approach:
// Build a worker from an anonymous function body
var blobURL = URL.createObjectURL( new Blob([ '(',
function(){
//Long-running work here
}.toString(),
')()' ], { type: 'application/javascript' } ) ),
worker = new Worker( blobURL );
// Won't be needing this anymore
URL.revokeObjectURL( blobURL );
Support is the intersection of these three tables:
http://caniuse.com/#feat=webworkers
http://caniuse.com/#feat=blobbuilder
http://caniuse.com/#feat=bloburls
This won't work for a SharedWorker however, because the URL must be an exact match, even if the optional 'name' parameter matches. For a SharedWorker, you'll need a separate JavaScript file.
2015 update - The ServiceWorker singularity arrives
Now there's an even more powerful way of solving this problem.
Again, store the worker code as a function, (rather than a static string) and convert using .toString(), then insert the code into CacheStorage under a static URL of your choice.
// Post code from window to ServiceWorker...
navigator.serviceWorker.controller.postMessage(
[ '/my_workers/worker1.js', '(' + workerFunction1.toString() + ')()' ]
);
// Insert via ServiceWorker.onmessage. Or directly once window.caches is exposed
caches.open( 'myCache' ).then( function( cache )
{
cache.put( '/my_workers/worker1.js',
new Response( workerScript, { headers: {'content-type':'application/javascript'}})
);
});
There are two possible fall-backs. ObjectURL as above, or more seamlessly, put a real JavaScript file at /my_workers/worker1.js
Advantages of this approach are:
SharedWorkers can also be supported.
Tabs can share a single cached copy at a fixed address. The blob approach proliferates random objectURLs for every tab.

You can create a single JavaScript file that is aware of its execution context and can act as both a parent script and a worker. Let's start off with a basic structure for a file like this:
(function(global) {
var is_worker = !this.document;
var script_path = is_worker ? null : (function() {
// append random number and time to ID
var id = (Math.random()+''+(+new Date)).substring(2);
document.write('<script id="wts' + id + '"></script>');
return document.getElementById('wts' + id).
previousSibling.src;
})();
function msg_parent(e) {
// event handler for parent -> worker messages
}
function msg_worker(e) {
// event handler for worker -> parent messages
}
function new_worker() {
var w = new Worker(script_path);
w.addEventListener('message', msg_worker, false);
return w;
}
if (is_worker)
global.addEventListener('message', msg_parent, false);
// put the rest of your library here
// to spawn a worker, use new_worker()
})(this);
As you can see, the script contains all code for both the parent's and the worker's point of view, checking if its own individual instance is a worker with !document. The somewhat unwieldy script_path computation is used to accurately calculate the script's path relative to the parent page, as the path supplied to new Worker is relative to the parent page, not the script.

Using the Blob method, how about this for a worker factory:
var BuildWorker = function(foo){
var str = foo.toString()
.match(/^\s*function\s*\(\s*\)\s*\{(([\s\S](?!\}$))*[\s\S])/)[1];
return new Worker(window.URL.createObjectURL(
new Blob([str],{type:'text/javascript'})));
}
So you could use it like this...
var myWorker = BuildWorker(function(){
//first line of worker
self.onmessage(){....};
//last line of worker
});
EDIT:
I've just extended this idea further to make it easier to do cross-thread communication: bridged-worker.js.
EDIT 2:
The above link is to a gist I created. Someone else later turned it into an actual repo.

Web workers operate in entirely separate contexts as individual Program's.
This means that code cannot be moved from one context to another in object form, as they would then be able to reference objects via closures belonging to the other context.
This is especially crucial as ECMAScript is designed to be a single threaded language, and since web workers operate in separate threads, you would then have the risk of non-thread-safe operations being performed.
This again means that web workers need to be initialized with code in source form.
The spec from WHATWG says
If the origin of the resulting
absolute URL is not the same as the
origin of the entry script, then throw
a SECURITY_ERR exception.
Thus, scripts must be external files
with the same scheme as the original
page: you can't load a script from a
data: URL or javascript: URL, and an
https: page couldn't start workers
using scripts with http: URLs.
but unfortunately it doesn't really explain why one couldn't have allowed passing a string with source code to the constructor.

Recent answer (2018)
You can use Greenlet:
Move an async function into its own thread. A simplified single-function version of Workerize.
Example:
import greenlet from 'greenlet'
const getName = greenlet(async username => {
const url = `https://api.github.com/users/${username}`
const res = await fetch(url)
const profile = await res.json()
return profile.name
})
console.log(await getName('developit'))

a better to read way for a inline worker..
var worker_fn = function(e)
{
self.postMessage('msg from worker');
};
var blob = new Blob(["onmessage ="+worker_fn.toString()], { type: "text/javascript" });
var worker = new Worker(window.URL.createObjectURL(blob));
worker.onmessage = function(e)
{
alert(e.data);
};
worker.postMessage("start");

Taking Adria's response and putting it in a copy-pastable function which works with current Chrome and FF but not IE10 (worker from blob causes a security error).
var newWorker = function (funcObj) {
// Build a worker from an anonymous function body
var blobURL = URL.createObjectURL(new Blob(
['(', funcObj.toString(), ')()'],
{type: 'application/javascript'}
));
var worker = new Worker(blobURL);
// Won't be needing this anymore
URL.revokeObjectURL(blobURL);
return worker;
}
And here's a working example http://jsfiddle.net/ubershmekel/YYzvr/

A simple promisified version, Function#callAsWorker, that takes a thisArg and arguments (just like call), and returns a promise:
Function.prototype.callAsWorker = function (...args) {
return new Promise( (resolve, reject) => {
const code = `self.onmessage = e => self.postMessage((${this.toString()}).call(...e.data));`,
blob = new Blob([code], { type: "text/javascript" }),
worker = new Worker(window.URL.createObjectURL(blob));
worker.onmessage = e => (resolve(e.data), worker.terminate());
worker.onerror = e => (reject(e.message), worker.terminate());
worker.postMessage(args);
});
}
// Demo
function add(...nums) {
return nums.reduce( (a,b) => a+b );
}
// Let the worker execute the above function, with the specified arguments
add.callAsWorker(null, 1, 2, 3).then(function (result) {
console.log('result: ', result);
});

So I think we have another cool option for this now, thanks to template literals in ES6. That allows us to dispense with the extra worker function (and its weird scope) and just write the code that's intended for the worker as multiline text, much like the case where we were using to store text, but without actually needing a document or DOM to do that in. Example:
const workerScript = `
self.addEventListener('message', function(e) {
var data = e.data;
console.log('worker recieved: ',data);
self.postMessage('worker added! :'+ addOne(data.value));
self.close();//kills the worker
}, false);
`;
Here's a gist of the rest of that approach.
Note that we can pull in any extra function dependencies we want into the worker just by collecting them into an array and running .toString on each of them to reduce them down into strings as well (should work as long as they are function declarations) and then just prepending that to the script string. That way we don't have to importScripts that we might already have bundled into the scope of the code we're writing.
The only real downside to this particular version is that linters won't be able to lint the service worker code (since it's just a string), which is an advantage for the "separate worker function approach."

Depending on your use case you can use something like
task.js Simplified interface for getting CPU intensive code to run on all cores (node.js, and web)
A example would be
function blocking (exampleArgument) {
// block thread
}
// turn blocking pure function into a worker task
const blockingAsync = task.wrap(blocking);
// run task on a autoscaling worker pool
blockingAsync('exampleArgumentValue').then(result => {
// do something with result
});

Take a look at the vkThread plugin. With htis plugin you can take any function in your main code and execute it in a thread (web worker). So, you don't need to create a special "web-worker file".
http://www.eslinstructor.net/vkthread/
--Vadim

I think the better way to do this is using a Blob object, below you can see a simple example.
// create a Blob object with a worker code
var blob = new Blob(["onmessage = function(e) { postMessage('msg from worker'); }"]);
// Obtain a blob URL reference to our worker 'file'.
var blobURL = window.URL.createObjectURL(blob);
// create a Worker
var worker = new Worker(blobURL);
worker.onmessage = function(e) {
console.log(e.data);
};
worker.postMessage("Send some Data");

Try to use jThread. https://github.com/cheprasov/jThread
// You can use simple calling like this
jThread(
function(arr){
//... some code for Worker
return arr;
}
,function(arr){
//... done code
}
)( [1,2,3,4,5,6,7] ); // some params

here console:
var worker=new Worker(window.URL.createObjectURL(new Blob([function(){
//Long-running work here
postMessage('done');
}.toString().split('\n').slice(1,-1).join('\n')],{type:'text/javascript'})));
worker.addEventListener('message',function(event){
console.log(event.data);
});

https://developer.mozilla.org/es/docs/Web/Guide/Performance/Using_web_workers
// Syntax: asyncEval(code[, listener])
var asyncEval = (function () {
var aListeners = [], oParser = new Worker("data:text/javascript;charset=US-ASCII,onmessage%20%3D%20function%20%28oEvent%29%20%7B%0A%09postMessage%28%7B%0A%09%09%22id%22%3A%20oEvent.data.id%2C%0A%09%09%22evaluated%22%3A%20eval%28oEvent.data.code%29%0A%09%7D%29%3B%0A%7D");
oParser.onmessage = function (oEvent) {
if (aListeners[oEvent.data.id]) { aListeners[oEvent.data.id](oEvent.data.evaluated); }
delete aListeners[oEvent.data.id];
};
return function (sCode, fListener) {
aListeners.push(fListener || null);
oParser.postMessage({
"id": aListeners.length - 1,
"code": sCode
});
};
})();

Use my tiny plugin https://github.com/zevero/worker-create
var worker_url = Worker.createURL(function(e){
self.postMessage('Example post from Worker'); //your code here
});
var worker = new Worker(worker_url);

This is just an addition to above - I have a nice templates for testing web workers in jsFiddle. Rather than Blob it uses jsFiddles ?js api:
function workerFN() {
self.onmessage = function(e) {
switch(e.data.name) {
case "" :
break;
default:
console.error("Unknown message:", e.data.name);
}
}
}
// This is a trick to generate real worker script that is loaded from server
var url = "/echo/js/?js="+encodeURIComponent("("+workerFN.toString()+")()");
var worker = new Worker(url);
worker.addEventListener("message", function(e) {
switch(e.data.name) {
case "" :
break;
default:
console.error("Unknown message:", e.data.name);
}
})
Normal web worker and shared worker templates are available.

I discovered that CodePen currently does not syntax-highlight inline <script> tags that are not type="text/javascript" (or which have no type attribute).
So I devised a similar but slightly different solution using labeled blocks with break, which is the only way you can bail from a <script> tag without creating a wrapper function (which is unnecessary).
<!DOCTYPE html>
<script id="worker1">
worker: { // Labeled block wrapper
if (typeof window === 'object') break worker; // Bail if we're not a Worker
self.onmessage = function(e) {
self.postMessage('msg from worker');
};
// Rest of your worker code goes here.
}
</script>
<script>
var blob = new Blob([
document.querySelector('#worker1').textContent
], { type: "text/javascript" })
// Note: window.webkitURL.createObjectURL() in Chrome 10+.
var worker = new Worker(window.URL.createObjectURL(blob));
worker.onmessage = function(e) {
console.log("Received: " + e.data);
}
worker.postMessage("hello"); // Start the worker.
</script>

One-liner for running functions in workers:
const FunctionalWorker = fn => new Worker(window.URL.createObjectURL(new Blob(["(" + fn.toString() + ")()"], {type: "text/javascript"})));
Example usage:
let fn = FunctionalWorker(() => {
self.postMessage("hi");
});
fn.onmessage = msg => {
console.log(msg);
};

my take on it:
function BuildWorker(fn){
var str = fn.toString().match(/^[^{]+{([\s\S]+)}\s*$/m)[1];
return new Worker(window.URL.createObjectURL(
new Blob([str],{type:'text/javascript'})));
}
function createAsyncWorker(fn){
// asyncworker=createAsyncWorker(function(){
// importScripts('my_otherscript.js');
// self.onmessage = function([arg1,arg2]) {
// self.postMessage('msg from worker');
// };
// })
// await asyncworker.postMessage('arg1','value')
// await asyncworker.postMessage('arg1','value')
// asyncworker.worker.terminate()
var worker = BuildWorker(fn);
function postMessage(...message){
let external={}, promise= new Promise((resolve,reject)=>{external.resolve=resolve;external.reject=reject;})
worker.onmessage = function(message){ external.resolve(message.data)};
worker.postMessage(message); // Start the worker.
return promise;
}
return {worker,postMessage};
}
usage example:
autoarima = createAsyncWorker(function(){
importScripts("https://127.0.0.1:11000/arima.js")
self.onmessage=(message)=>{
let [action,arg1,arg2]=message.data
if(action=='load')
{
ARIMAPromise.then(ARIMA1 => {
ARIMA=ARIMA1
autoarima = new ARIMA({ auto: true });
// const ts = Array(10).fill(0).map((_, i) => i + Math.random() / 5)
// const arima = new ARIMA({ p: 2, d: 1, q: 2, P: 0, D: 0, Q: 0, S: 0, verbose: false }).train(ts)
// const [pred, errors] = arima.predict(10)
postMessage('ok')
});
}
if(action=='fit')
{
autoarima.fit(arg1)
postMessage('ok')
}
if(action=='predict')
{
postMessage(autoarima.predict(arg1,arg2))
}
};
})
autoarima.terminate=function(){ this.worker.terminate(); }
autoarima.load=async function(...args){return await this.postMessage('load',...args)}
autoarima.fit=async function(...args){return await this.postMessage('fit',...args)}
autoarima.predict=async function(...args){return await this.postMessage('predict',...args)}
await autoarima.load()
await autoarima.fit(b_values)
await autoarima.predict(1)

You can use web workers in same javascript file using inline webworkers.
The below article will address you to easily understand the webworkers and their limitations and debugging of webworkers.
Mastering in webworkers

I use code like this, you can define your onmessage as a function other than plain text, so the editor can highlight your code and jshint works.
const worker = createWorker();
createWorker() {
const scriptContent = getWorkerScript();
const blob = new Blob([
scriptContent,
], {
type: "text/javascipt"
});
const worker = new Worker(window.URL.createObjectURL(blob));
return worker;
}
getWorkerScript() {
const script = {
onmessage: function (e) {
console.log(e);
let result = "Hello " + e.data
postMessage(result);
}
};
let content = "";
for (let prop in script){
content += `${prop}=${script[prop].toString()}`;
}
return content;
}

Yes, it is possible, I did it using Blob files and passing a callback
I'll show you what a class I wrote does and how it manages the execution of callbacks in the background.
First you instantiate the GenericWebWorker with whatever data you'd like to pass to callback that'll be executing in the Web Worker, that includes functions you want to use, in this case a number, a date and a function called blocker
var worker = new GenericWebWorker(100, new Date(), blocker)
This blocker function will execute an infinite while for n miliseconds
function blocker (ms) {
var now = new Date().getTime();
while(true) {
if (new Date().getTime() > now +ms)
return;
}
}
and then you use it like this
worker.exec((num, date, fnBlocker) => {
/*Everithing here does not block the main thread
and this callback has access to the number, date and the blocker */
fnBlocker(10000) //All of this run in backgrownd
return num*10
}).then(d => console.log(d)) //Print 1000
Now, time to see the magic in the example below
/*https://github.com/fercarvo/GenericWebWorker*/
class GenericWebWorker {
constructor(...ags) {
this.args = ags.map(a => (typeof a == 'function') ? {type:'fn', fn:a.toString()} : a)
}
async exec(cb) {
var wk_string = this.worker.toString();
wk_string = wk_string.substring(wk_string.indexOf('{') + 1, wk_string.lastIndexOf('}'));
var wk_link = window.URL.createObjectURL( new Blob([ wk_string ]) );
var wk = new Worker(wk_link);
wk.postMessage({ callback: cb.toString(), args: this.args });
var resultado = await new Promise((next, error) => {
wk.onmessage = e => (e.data && e.data.error) ? error(e.data.error) : next(e.data);
wk.onerror = e => error(e.message);
})
wk.terminate(); window.URL.revokeObjectURL(wk_link);
return resultado
}
async parallel(arr, cb) {
var res = [...arr].map(it => new GenericWebWorker(it, ...this.args).exec(cb))
var all = await Promise.all(res)
return all
}
worker() {
onmessage = async function (e) {
try {
var cb = new Function(`return ${e.data.callback}`)();
var args = e.data.args.map(p => (p.type == 'fn') ? new Function(`return ${p.fn}`)() : p);
try {
var result = await cb.apply(this, args); //If it is a promise or async function
return postMessage(result)
} catch (e) { throw new Error(`CallbackError: ${e}`) }
} catch (e) { postMessage({error: e.message}) }
}
}
}
function blocker (ms) {
var now = new Date().getTime();
while(true) {
if (new Date().getTime() > now +ms)
return;
}
}
setInterval(()=> console.log("Not blocked " + Math.random()), 1000)
console.log("\n\nstarting blocking code in Worker\n\n")
var worker = new GenericWebWorker(100, new Date(), blocker)
worker.exec((num, date, fnBlocker) => {
fnBlocker(7000) //All of this run in backgrownd
return num*10
})
.then(d => console.log(`\n\nEnd of blocking code: result ${d}\n\n`)) //Print 1000

You can place the contents of your worker.js file inside backticks (which allows a multiline string constant) and create the worker from a blob like this:
var workerScript = `
self.onmessage = function(e) {
self.postMessage('message from worker');
};
// rest of worker code goes here
`;
var worker =
new Worker(createObjectURL(new Blob([workerScript], { type: "text/javascript" })));
This is handy if for whatever reason you don't want to have separate script tags for the worker.

Another solution is just to wrap the Worker in a function, then creating a blob invoking the function like so:
function workerCode() {
self.onmessage = function (e) {
console.log("Got message from parent", e.data);
};
setTimeout(() => {
self.postMessage("Message From Worker");
}, 2000);
}
let blob = new Blob([
"(" + workerCode.toString() + ")()"
], {type: "text/javascript"});
// Note: window.webkitURL.createObjectURL() in Chrome 10+.
let worker = new Worker(window.URL.createObjectURL(blob));
worker.onmessage = function (e) {
console.log("Received: " + e.data);
};
worker.postMessage("hello"); // Start the worker.

there have been a few answers, but here is another inline version.
note: "self" argument is purely cosmetic for linting purposes, actual worker code starts after first brace, self is as normal
inlineWorker (
"hello world",// initial message to send to worker
function(self){
// inline worker code.
self.onmessage = function (e) {
self.postMessage("thinking...");
for (var i=0;i<100000000;i++) {
var r = Math.random();
}
self.postMessage(e.data.toUpperCase());
}
},function(e){
// optional message handler
document.getElementById("log").innerHTML= "from worker:"+e.data;
});
function inlineWorker (msg,fn,onMsg) {
var
w=window,
U=!!w.webkitURL?w.webkitURL:w.URL,
src=fn.toString(),
s=src.indexOf('{'),
e=src.lastIndexOf('}'),
worker = new Worker(U.createObjectURL(
new Blob([ src.substring(s+1,e-1) ], { type: "text/javascript" })
));
if (typeof onMsg==="function") {
worker.addEventListener("message",onMsg);
}
if (msg) {
worker.postMessage(msg);
}
return worker;
}
<div id="log"></div>

For a Node.js implementation, the following adaptation of Trincot's answer can be employed. Note again that Function.prototype.callAsWorker() takes a thisArg and arguments, just like Function.prototype.call(), and returns a promise.
const { Worker } = require ( 'worker_threads' );
Function.prototype.callAsWorker = function ( ...args ) {
return new Promise( ( resolve, reject ) => {
const code = `
const { parentPort, workerData } = require ( 'worker_threads' );
parentPort.postMessage( ( ${this.toString()} ).call( ...workerData ) )
`;
const worker = new Worker( code, { eval: true, workerData: args } );
worker.on('message', ( msg ) => { resolve( msg ), worker.terminate() } );
worker.on('error', ( err ) => { reject( err ), worker.terminate() } );
worker.on('exit', ( code ) => {
if ( code !== 0 ) {
reject( new Error( `Worker stopped with exit code ${code}.` ) );
}
});
});
}
// Demo
function add( ...nums ) {
return nums.reduce( ( a, b ) => a + b );
}
// Let the worker execute the above function, with the specified arguments
let result = await add.callAsWorker( null, 1, 2, 3 );
console.log( 'result: ', result );

I liked the answer that ifbamoq gave but was not able to comment because of stack overflow's points policy. Therefor I'll give an example that shows some intensive work being done - and how it does not lock the main thread.
All without running into CORS problems with the null origin - if you're like me and like double-clicking the html files and treating them like little programs. :-)
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Worker example: One-core computation</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>The highest prime number discovered so far is: <div id="result"></div></p>
</body>
<script>
// let worker = new Worker('WebWorker.js'); // lets skip this to avoid null origin issues
let WorkerFn = (event) =>
{
let isPrime = false;
for (let n = 2; n <= 1_000_000; n++)
{
isPrime = true;
for(let i = 2; i <= Math.sqrt(n); i++)
if (n % i == 0)
isPrime = false; // If you can get thru all this shit and survive, ur prime!
if (isPrime)
postMessage(n);
}
}
let worker = new Worker(window.URL.createObjectURL(new Blob(["(" + WorkerFn.toString() + ")()"], {type: "text/javascript"})));
worker.onmessage = (event) =>
{
result.innerHTML = event.data;
}
</script>
</html>

#Trincot's seems to be the best so far. Yet perhaps we can develop it a little further. So the idea is,
Let's not modify the Function.prototype.
Obtain a promisified / threadable version of a function for threaded operation.
Make sure that the function can still be invoked synchronously if need be.
So we define a Threadable class with a spawn method. Once we make our function a member of this class then it is threadable :)
class Threadable extends Function {
constructor(f){
super("...as",`return ${f.toString()}.apply(this,as)`);
}
spawn(...as){
var code = `self.onmessage = m => self.postMessage((${this.toString()}).apply(self,m.data));`,
blob = new Blob([code], {type: "text/javascript"}),
wrkr = new Worker(window.URL.createObjectURL(blob));
return new Promise( (v,x) => ( wrkr.onmessage = m => (v(m.data), wrkr.terminate())
, wrkr.onerror = e => (x(e.message), wrkr.terminate())
, wrkr.postMessage(as)
)
);
}
}
function add(...nums) {
return nums.reduce((a,b) => a+b);
}
var addT = new Threadable(add);
addT.spawn(1,2,3,4)
.then(m => console.log(`Promisified thread returned ${m}`));
console.log(`Synchronous invocation of addT returned ${addT(1,2,3,4)}`);