Terminology.md

Worker Terminology

WebWorker

This is a JS primitive with widespread platform support for spinning up extra threads to do some work for your application.

SharedWorker

This is a JS primitive with moderate platform support that allows a WebWorker instance to be created and used by other WebWorkers in conjunction with the main thread.

This may also refer to the extended version of Worker (see Worker below) that works with SharedWorkers.

ServiceWorker

This is a JS primitive with minimal platform support that lets you spin up a single, long lived thread to do work for your application. This thread stays alive even when the browser/tab/window closes and allows you to do things such as deliver push notifications even while the browser is closed. This cannot be polyfilled, but WebViews (such as electron, crosswalk, or cordova) can and have been extended to support it.

This may also refer to the extended version of Worker (see Worker below) that works with a ServiceWorker.

Worker

A worker is a mental construct very similar in nature to a service. It will have long lived state, and can have methods, properties, and events; all of which are accessible via Promises, Observables or other async primitives. A Worker correlates underneath to a WebWorker.

Interface

An interface is a mental construct very similar in nature to a model. It delineates various named properties and methods on a Worker which you will be able to interact with via async Primitives. When you inject.worker('<worker-name>') you are actually injecting the interface to that Worker.

WorkerApplication

This is the complete, compiled JS worker script. This is not ever interacted with directly by an end user, it operates as an application shell binding the Worker to the Interface and instantiating itself. It's similar in nature to an Ember application performing setup and initializing itself.

WorkerShell

Much like WorkerApplication, you won't see or interact with a WorkerShell. The WorkerShell is an isolated scope and interface that mimics the scope and API surface of a WebWorker but runs on the main thread. This allows your worker code to still function on browsers that don't support them.