Annotation of html5/workers/Overview.html, revision 1.362

1.327     ihickson    1: <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"><html lang="en-US-x-Hixie"><title>Web Workers</title><style type="text/css">
1.82      ihickson    2:    pre { margin-left: 2em; white-space: pre-wrap; }
                      3:    h2 { margin: 3em 0 1em 0; }
                      4:    h3 { margin: 2.5em 0 1em 0; }
                      5:    h4 { margin: 2.5em 0 0.75em 0; }
                      6:    h5, h6 { margin: 2.5em 0 1em; }
                      7:    h1 + h2, h1 + h2 + h2 { margin: 0.75em 0 0.75em; }
                      8:    h2 + h3, h3 + h4, h4 + h5, h5 + h6 { margin-top: 0.5em; }
                      9:    p { margin: 1em 0; }
                     10:    hr:not(.top) { display: block; background: none; border: none; padding: 0; margin: 2em 0; height: auto; }
                     11:    dl, dd { margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; }
                     12:    dt { margin-top: 0.75em; margin-bottom: 0.25em; clear: left; }
                     13:    dt + dt { margin-top: 0; }
                     14:    dd dt { margin-top: 0.25em; margin-bottom: 0; }
                     15:    dd p { margin-top: 0; }
                     16:    dd dl + p { margin-top: 1em; }
                     17:    dd table + p { margin-top: 1em; }
                     18:    p + * > li, dd li { margin: 1em 0; }
                     19:    dt, dfn { font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; }
1.300     ihickson   20:    i, em { font-style: italic; }
1.82      ihickson   21:    dt dfn { font-style: italic; }
                     22:    pre, code { font-size: inherit; font-family: monospace; font-variant: normal; }
                     23:    pre strong { color: black; font: inherit; font-weight: bold; background: yellow; }
                     24:    pre em { font-weight: bolder; font-style: normal; }
1.89      ihickson   25:    @media screen { code { color: orangered; } code :link, code :visited { color: inherit; } }
1.82      ihickson   26:    var sub { vertical-align: bottom; font-size: smaller; position: relative; top: 0.1em; }
                     27:    table { border-collapse: collapse; border-style: hidden hidden none hidden; }
1.249     ihickson   28:    table thead, table tbody { border-bottom: solid; }
1.82      ihickson   29:    table tbody th:first-child { border-left: solid; }
1.180     ihickson   30:    table tbody th { text-align: left; }
1.82      ihickson   31:    table td, table th { border-left: solid; border-right: solid; border-bottom: solid thin; vertical-align: top; padding: 0.2em; }
                     32:    blockquote { margin: 0 0 0 2em; border: 0; padding: 0; font-style: italic; }
                     33: 
                     34:    .bad, .bad *:not(.XXX) { color: gray; border-color: gray; background: transparent; }
                     35:    .matrix, .matrix td { border: none; text-align: right; }
                     36:    .matrix { margin-left: 2em; }
                     37:    .dice-example { border-collapse: collapse; border-style: hidden solid solid hidden; border-width: thin; margin-left: 3em; }
                     38:    .dice-example caption { width: 30em; font-size: smaller; font-style: italic; padding: 0.75em 0; text-align: left; }
                     39:    .dice-example td, .dice-example th { border: solid thin; width: 1.35em; height: 1.05em; text-align: center; padding: 0; }
                     40: 
                     41:    .toc dfn, h1 dfn, h2 dfn, h3 dfn, h4 dfn, h5 dfn, h6 dfn { font: inherit; }
1.305     ihickson   42:    img.extra, p.overview { float: right; }
1.304     ihickson   43:    pre.idl { border: solid thin; background: #EEEEEE; color: black; padding: 0.5em 1em; position: relative; }
1.82      ihickson   44:    pre.idl :link, pre.idl :visited { color: inherit; background: transparent; }
1.304     ihickson   45:    pre.idl::before { content: "IDL"; font: bold small sans-serif; padding: 0.5em; background: white; position: absolute; top: 0; margin: -1px 0 0 -4em; width: 1.5em; border: thin solid; border-radius: 0 0 0 0.5em }
1.82      ihickson   46:    pre.css { border: solid thin; background: #FFFFEE; color: black; padding: 0.5em 1em; }
                     47:    pre.css:first-line { color: #AAAA50; }
1.231     ihickson   48:    dl.domintro { color: green; margin: 2em 0 2em 2em; padding: 0.5em 1em; border: none; background: #DDFFDD; }
1.82      ihickson   49:    hr + dl.domintro, div.impl + dl.domintro { margin-top: 2.5em; margin-bottom: 1.5em; }
                     50:    dl.domintro dt, dl.domintro dt * { color: black; text-decoration: none; }
                     51:    dl.domintro dd { margin: 0.5em 0 1em 2em; padding: 0; }
                     52:    dl.domintro dd p { margin: 0.5em 0; }
1.310     ihickson   53:    dl.domintro:before { display: table; margin: -1em -0.5em -0.5em auto; width: auto; content: 'This box is non-normative. Implementation requirements are given below this box.'; color: black; font-style: italic; border: solid 2px; background: white; padding: 0 0.25em; }
1.82      ihickson   54:    dl.switch { padding-left: 2em; }
                     55:    dl.switch > dt { text-indent: -1.5em; }
                     56:    dl.switch > dt:before { content: '\21AA'; padding: 0 0.5em 0 0; display: inline-block; width: 1em; text-align: right; line-height: 0.5em; }
1.121     ihickson   57:    dl.triple { padding: 0 0 0 1em; }
                     58:    dl.triple dt, dl.triple dd { margin: 0; display: inline }
                     59:    dl.triple dt:after { content: ':'; }
                     60:    dl.triple dd:after { content: '\A'; white-space: pre; }
1.82      ihickson   61:    .diff-old { text-decoration: line-through; color: silver; background: transparent; }
                     62:    .diff-chg, .diff-new { text-decoration: underline; color: green; background: transparent; }
                     63:    a .diff-new { border-bottom: 1px blue solid; }
                     64: 
                     65:    h2 { page-break-before: always; }
1.139     ihickson   66:    h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 { page-break-after: avoid; }
1.82      ihickson   67:    h1 + h2, hr + h2.no-toc { page-break-before: auto; }
                     68: 
1.267     ihickson   69:    p  > span:not([title=""]):not([class="XXX"]):not([class="impl"]):not([class="note"]),
                     70:    li > span:not([title=""]):not([class="XXX"]):not([class="impl"]):not([class="note"]), { border-bottom: solid #9999CC; }
1.82      ihickson   71: 
                     72:    div.head { margin: 0 0 1em; padding: 1em 0 0 0; }
                     73:    div.head p { margin: 0; }
                     74:    div.head h1 { margin: 0; }
                     75:    div.head .logo { float: right; margin: 0 1em; }
                     76:    div.head .logo img { border: none } /* remove border from top image */
                     77:    div.head dl { margin: 1em 0; }
1.212     ihickson   78:    div.head p.copyright, div.head p.alt { font-size: x-small; font-style: oblique; margin: 0; }
1.82      ihickson   79: 
                     80:    body > .toc > li { margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; }
                     81:    body > .toc.brief > li { margin-top: 0.35em; margin-bottom: 0.35em; }
                     82:    body > .toc > li > * { margin-bottom: 0.5em; }
                     83:    body > .toc > li > * > li > * { margin-bottom: 0.25em; }
                     84:    .toc, .toc li { list-style: none; }
                     85: 
                     86:    .brief { margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; line-height: 1.1; }
                     87:    .brief li { margin: 0; padding: 0; }
                     88:    .brief li p { margin: 0; padding: 0; }
                     89: 
1.137     ihickson   90:    .category-list { margin-top: -0.75em; margin-bottom: 1em; line-height: 1.5; }
                     91:    .category-list::before { content: '\21D2\A0'; font-size: 1.2em; font-weight: 900; }
                     92:    .category-list li { display: inline; }
                     93:    .category-list li:not(:last-child)::after { content: ', '; }
                     94:    .category-list li > span, .category-list li > a { text-transform: lowercase; }
                     95:    .category-list li * { text-transform: none; } /* don't affect <code> nested in <a> */
                     96: 
1.82      ihickson   97:    .XXX { color: #E50000; background: white; border: solid red; padding: 0.5em; margin: 1em 0; }
                     98:    .XXX > :first-child { margin-top: 0; }
                     99:    p .XXX { line-height: 3em; }
1.158     ihickson  100:    .annotation { border: solid thin black; background: #0C479D; color: white; position: relative; margin: 8px 0 20px 0; }
                    101:    .annotation:before { position: absolute; left: 0; top: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 6px -6px -6px 6px; background: #333333; z-index: -1; content: ''; }
                    102:    .annotation :link, .annotation :visited { color: inherit; }
                    103:    .annotation :link:hover, .annotation :visited:hover { background: transparent; }
                    104:    .annotation span { border: none ! important; }
1.82      ihickson  105:    .note { color: green; background: transparent; font-family: sans-serif; }
                    106:    .warning { color: red; background: transparent; }
                    107:    .note, .warning { font-weight: bolder; font-style: italic; }
1.300     ihickson  108:    .note em, .warning em, .note i, .warning i { font-style: normal; }
1.82      ihickson  109:    p.note, div.note { padding: 0.5em 2em; }
                    110:    span.note { padding: 0 2em; }
                    111:    .note p:first-child, .warning p:first-child { margin-top: 0; }
                    112:    .note p:last-child, .warning p:last-child { margin-bottom: 0; }
                    113:    .warning:before { font-style: normal; }
                    114:    p.note:before { content: 'Note: '; }
                    115:    p.warning:before { content: '\26A0 Warning! '; }
                    116: 
                    117:    .bookkeeping:before { display: block; content: 'Bookkeeping details'; font-weight: bolder; font-style: italic; }
                    118:    .bookkeeping { font-size: 0.8em; margin: 2em 0; }
                    119:    .bookkeeping p { margin: 0.5em 2em; display: list-item; list-style: square; }
1.262     ihickson  120:    .bookkeeping dt { margin: 0.5em 2em 0; }
                    121:    .bookkeeping dd { margin: 0 3em 0.5em; }
1.82      ihickson  122: 
                    123:    h4 { position: relative; z-index: 3; }
                    124:    h4 + .element, h4 + div + .element { margin-top: -2.5em; padding-top: 2em; }
                    125:    .element {
1.88      ihickson  126:      background: #EEEEFF;
1.82      ihickson  127:      color: black;
                    128:      margin: 0 0 1em 0.15em;
                    129:      padding: 0 1em 0.25em 0.75em;
1.88      ihickson  130:      border-left: solid #9999FF 0.25em;
1.82      ihickson  131:      position: relative;
                    132:      z-index: 1;
                    133:    }
                    134:    .element:before {
                    135:      position: absolute;
                    136:      z-index: 2;
                    137:      top: 0;
                    138:      left: -1.15em;
                    139:      height: 2em;
                    140:      width: 0.9em;
1.88      ihickson  141:      background: #EEEEFF;
1.82      ihickson  142:      content: ' ';
                    143:      border-style: none none solid solid;
1.88      ihickson  144:      border-color: #9999FF;
1.82      ihickson  145:      border-width: 0.25em;
                    146:    }
                    147: 
1.156     ihickson  148:    .example { display: block; color: #222222; background: #FCFCFC; border-left: double; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 1em; }
                    149:    td > .example:only-child { margin: 0 0 0 0.1em; }
1.82      ihickson  150: 
1.131     ihickson  151:    ul.domTree, ul.domTree ul { padding: 0 0 0 1em; margin: 0; }
                    152:    ul.domTree li { padding: 0; margin: 0; list-style: none; position: relative; }
                    153:    ul.domTree li li { list-style: none; }
                    154:    ul.domTree li:first-child::before { position: absolute; top: 0; height: 0.6em; left: -0.75em; width: 0.5em; border-style: none none solid solid; content: ''; border-width: 0.1em; }
                    155:    ul.domTree li:not(:last-child)::after { position: absolute; top: 0; bottom: -0.6em; left: -0.75em; width: 0.5em; border-style: none none solid solid; content: ''; border-width: 0.1em; }
                    156:    ul.domTree span { font-style: italic; font-family: serif; }
                    157:    ul.domTree .t1 code { color: purple; font-weight: bold; }
                    158:    ul.domTree .t2 { font-style: normal; font-family: monospace; }
                    159:    ul.domTree .t2 .name { color: black; font-weight: bold; }
                    160:    ul.domTree .t2 .value { color: blue; font-weight: normal; }
                    161:    ul.domTree .t3 code, .domTree .t4 code, .domTree .t5 code { color: gray; }
                    162:    ul.domTree .t7 code, .domTree .t8 code { color: green; }
                    163:    ul.domTree .t10 code { color: teal; }
                    164: 
1.225     ihickson  165:    body.dfnEnabled dfn { cursor: pointer; }
                    166:    .dfnPanel {
                    167:      display: inline;
                    168:      position: absolute;
                    169:      z-index: 10;
                    170:      height: auto;
                    171:      width: auto;
                    172:      padding: 0.5em 0.75em;
                    173:      font: small sans-serif, Droid Sans Fallback;
                    174:      background: #DDDDDD;
                    175:      color: black;
                    176:      border: outset 0.2em;
                    177:    }
                    178:    .dfnPanel * { margin: 0; padding: 0; font: inherit; text-indent: 0; }
                    179:    .dfnPanel :link, .dfnPanel :visited { color: black; }
                    180:    .dfnPanel p { font-weight: bolder; }
                    181:    .dfnPanel * + p { margin-top: 0.25em; }
                    182:    .dfnPanel li { list-style-position: inside; }
                    183: 
1.207     ihickson  184:    #configUI { position: absolute; z-index: 20; top: 10em; right: 1em; width: 11em; font-size: small; }
                    185:    #configUI p { margin: 0.5em 0; padding: 0.3em; background: #EEEEEE; color: black; border: inset thin; }
                    186:    #configUI p label { display: block; }
                    187:    #configUI #updateUI, #configUI .loginUI { text-align: center; }
                    188:    #configUI input[type=button] { display: block; margin: auto; }
1.260     ihickson  189: 
1.268     ihickson  190:    fieldset { margin: 1em; padding: 0.5em 1em; }
                    191:    fieldset > legend + * { margin-top: 0; }
1.266     ihickson  192:    fieldset > :last-child { margin-bottom: 0; }
1.268     ihickson  193:    fieldset p { margin: 0.5em 0; }
1.266     ihickson  194: 
1.329     ihickson  195:   </style><link href="http://www.w3.org/StyleSheets/TR/W3C-ED" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"><meta content="noindex" name="robots"><script type="text/javascript">
1.271     ihickson  196:    function getCookie(name) {
                    197:      var params = location.search.substr(1).split("&");
                    198:      for (var index = 0; index < params.length; index++) {
                    199:        if (params[index] == name)
                    200:          return "1";
                    201:        var data = params[index].split("=");
                    202:        if (data[0] == name)
                    203:          return unescape(data[1]);
                    204:      }
                    205:      var cookies = document.cookie.split("; ");
                    206:      for (var index = 0; index < cookies.length; index++) {
                    207:        var data = cookies[index].split("=");
                    208:        if (data[0] == name)
                    209:          return unescape(data[1]);
                    210:      }
                    211:      return null;
                    212:    }
1.327     ihickson  213:   </script><body>
                    214:   <div class="head" id="head">
1.115     ihickson  215:    <p><a href="http://www.w3.org/"><img alt="W3C" height="48" src="http://www.w3.org/Icons/w3c_home" width="72"></a></p>
1.271     ihickson  216: 
1.54      ihickson  217:    <h1>Web Workers</h1>
1.281     ihickson  218:    
1.359     ihickson  219:    <h2 class="no-num no-toc" id="editor-s-draft-5-february-2013">Editor's Draft 5 February 2013</h2>
1.218     ihickson  220:    <dl><dt>Latest Published Version:</dt>
1.115     ihickson  221:     <dd><a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/workers/">http://www.w3.org/TR/workers/</a></dd>
1.109     ihickson  222:     <dt>Latest Editor's Draft:</dt>
1.260     ihickson  223:     <dd><a class="latest-link" href="http://dev.w3.org/html5/workers/">http://dev.w3.org/html5/workers/</a></dd>
1.284     ihickson  224: 
1.318     ihickson  225: 
1.2       ihickson  226:     <dt>Previous Versions:</dt>
1.279     ihickson  227:     <dd><a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2011/WD-workers-20110310/">http://www.w3.org/TR/2011/WD-workers-20110310/</a></dd>
                    228:     <dd><a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2011/WD-workers-20110208/">http://www.w3.org/TR/2011/WD-workers-20110208/</a></dd>
1.198     ihickson  229:     <dd><a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/WD-workers-20091029/">http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/WD-workers-20091029/</a></dd>
1.279     ihickson  230:     <dd><a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/WD-workers-20090423/">http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/WD-workers-20090423/</a></dd>
1.117     ihickson  231: <!-- :ZZZ -->
1.271     ihickson  232:     <dt>Editor:</dt>
1.115     ihickson  233:     <dd><a href="mailto:ian@hixie.ch">Ian Hickson</a>, Google, Inc.</dd>
1.155     ihickson  234:    </dl><p class="copyright"><a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ipr-notice#Copyright">Copyright</a>
1.328     ihickson  235:    &copy; 2012 <a href="http://www.w3.org/"><abbr title="World Wide
1.155     ihickson  236:    Web Consortium">W3C</abbr></a><sup>&reg;</sup> (<a href="http://www.csail.mit.edu/"><abbr title="Massachusetts
1.297     ihickson  237:    Institute of Technology">MIT</abbr></a>, <a href="http://www.ercim.eu/"><abbr title="European Research
1.115     ihickson  238:    Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics">ERCIM</abbr></a>, <a href="http://www.keio.ac.jp/">Keio</a>), All Rights Reserved. W3C
                    239:    <a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ipr-notice#Legal_Disclaimer">liability</a>,
                    240:    <a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ipr-notice#W3C_Trademarks">trademark</a>
                    241:    and <a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/copyright-documents">document
1.81      ihickson  242:    use</a> rules apply.</p>
1.201     ihickson  243: 
1.254     ihickson  244: 
1.252     ihickson  245:    <!-- UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES IS THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH TO BE REMOVED OR EDITED WITHOUT TALKING TO IAN FIRST -->
1.255     ihickson  246:    <p class="alt">The bulk of the text of this specification is also
1.254     ihickson  247:    available in the WHATWG <a href="http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/complete.html#workers">Web Applications 1.0</a> specification, under a license that permits
                    248:    reuse of the specification text.</p>
1.252     ihickson  249:    <!-- UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES IS THE PRECEDING PARAGRAPH TO BE REMOVED OR EDITED WITHOUT TALKING TO IAN FIRST -->
                    250: 
1.254     ihickson  251: 
1.327     ihickson  252:   </div>
                    253: 
                    254:   <hr class="top"><h2 class="no-num no-toc" id="abstract">Abstract</h2>
                    255: 
                    256:   <p>This specification defines an API that allows Web application
1.81      ihickson  257:   authors to spawn background workers running scripts in parallel to
                    258:   their main page. This allows for thread-like operation with
1.327     ihickson  259:   message-passing as the coordination mechanism.</p>
                    260: 
                    261:   <h2 class="no-num no-toc" id="status-of-this-document">Status of This document</h2>
                    262: 
                    263:   
                    264:   
                    265: 
                    266:   <p><em>This section describes the status of this document at the
1.81      ihickson  267:   time of its publication. Other documents may supersede this
1.297     ihickson  268:   document. A list of current W3C publications and the
                    269: 
                    270:   most recently formally published <!-- DO NOT CHANGE THIS BACK TO THE STANDARD BOILERPLATE, AS IT IS INACCURATE -->
                    271: 
                    272:   revision of this technical report can be found in the <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/">W3C technical reports index</a> at
1.327     ihickson  273:   http://www.w3.org/TR/.</em></p>
                    274: 
                    275: 
                    276:   
                    277: 
1.345     ihickson  278:   <p>If you wish to make comments regarding this document, you can
1.327     ihickson  279:   enter feedback using this form:</p>
                    280: 
                    281:   <form action="http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/file-spam.cgi" method="post">
1.271     ihickson  282:    <fieldset><legend>Feedback Comments</legend>
                    283:     <input name="id" type="hidden" value="top"><input name="component" type="hidden" value="Web Workers (editor: Ian Hickson)"><input name="response" type="hidden" value="html"><p><label for="feedbackBox">Please enter your feedback, carefully
                    284:     indicating the title of the section for which you are submitting
                    285:     feedback, quoting the text that's wrong today if appropriate. If
                    286:     you're suggesting a new feature, it's really important to say
                    287:     <em>what</em> the problem you're trying to solve is. That's more
                    288:     important than the solution, in fact.</label></p>
                    289:     <p><textarea cols="79" id="feedbackBox" name="text" rows="10"></textarea></p>
                    290:     <p class="note">Please don't use section numbers as these tend to
                    291:     change rapidly and make your feedback harder to understand.</p>
                    292:     <script type="text/javascript">
1.287     ihickson  293:     function checkFeedbackForm(form) {
                    294:       if (form.elements.text.value.match(/^ *</)) {
                    295:         alert('Please don\'t start your feedback with an angle bracket, instead explain what topic your feedback is about first.');
                    296:         return true;
                    297:       } else if (form.elements.text.value.match(/ [^ ]+ [^ ]+ [^ ]+ [^ ]+ /)) {
                    298:         if (form.elements.text.value.match(/^Please enter your feedback, carefully/)) {
                    299:           alert('Please enter your feedback, explaining what is wrong, and without repeating the instructions. Thanks!');
                    300:           return true;
                    301:         } else if (form.elements.text.value.match(/ [^ ]+ [^ ]+ [^ ]+ [^ ]+ /)) {
                    302:           form.action = "http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/file-bug.cgi";
                    303:           return true;
                    304:         } else {
                    305:           alert('Please include significantly more detail about exactly what problem you are trying to solve.');
                    306:           return false;
                    307:         }
                    308:       }
                    309:     }
1.271     ihickson  310:     </script><p>
1.277     ihickson  311:      <input onclick="return checkFeedbackForm(form)" type="submit" value="Submit feedback"><small>(Note: Your IP address and user agent will be publicly recorded for spam prevention purposes.)</small>
1.271     ihickson  312:     </p>
1.327     ihickson  313:    </fieldset></form>
                    314: 
                    315:   
                    316:   <p>You can also e-mail feedback to <a href="mailto:public-webapps@w3.org">public-webapps@w3.org</a> (<a href="mailto:public-webapps-request@w3.org?subject=subscribe">subscribe</a>,
1.271     ihickson  317:   <a href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-webapps/">archives</a>),
1.115     ihickson  318:   or <a href="mailto:whatwg@whatwg.org">whatwg@whatwg.org</a> (<a href="http://lists.whatwg.org/listinfo.cgi/whatwg-whatwg.org">subscribe</a>,
                    319:   <a href="http://lists.whatwg.org/pipermail/whatwg-whatwg.org/">archives</a>).
1.327     ihickson  320:   All feedback is welcome.</p>
                    321: 
                    322:   
                    323:   <p>Implementors should be aware that this specification is not
1.81      ihickson  324:   stable. <strong>Implementors who are not taking part in the
                    325:   discussions are likely to find the specification changing out from
                    326:   under them in incompatible ways.</strong> Vendors interested in
                    327:   implementing this specification before it eventually reaches the
                    328:   Candidate Recommendation stage should join the aforementioned
1.327     ihickson  329:   mailing lists and take part in the discussions.</p>
                    330: 
                    331:   <div id="multipage-common">
                    332:   </div>
                    333: 
                    334:    <p>The latest
1.271     ihickson  335:   stable version of the editor's draft of this specification is always
                    336:   available on <a href="http://dev.w3.org/html5/workers/">the W3C CVS server</a>
                    337:   and in the <a href="http://svn.whatwg.org/webapps/">WHATWG
                    338:   Subversion repository</a>. The <a href="http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/complete.html">latest
                    339:   editor's working copy</a> (which may contain unfinished text in the
                    340:   process of being prepared) contains the latest draft text of this
                    341:   specification (amongst others). For more details, please see the <a href="http://wiki.whatwg.org/wiki/FAQ#What_are_the_various_versions_of_the_spec.3F">WHATWG
1.327     ihickson  342:   FAQ</a>.</p>
                    343: 
                    344:   <p>Notifications of changes to this specification are sent along
1.271     ihickson  345:   with notifications of changes to related specifications using the
1.327     ihickson  346:   following mechanisms:</p>
                    347:   <dl><dt>E-mail notifications of changes</dt>
1.271     ihickson  348:    <dd>Commit-Watchers mailing list (complete source diffs): <a href="http://lists.whatwg.org/listinfo.cgi/commit-watchers-whatwg.org">http://lists.whatwg.org/listinfo.cgi/commit-watchers-whatwg.org</a></dd>
                    349:    <dt>Browsable version-control record of all changes:</dt>
                    350:    <dd>CVSWeb interface with side-by-side diffs: <a href="http://dev.w3.org/cvsweb/html5/">http://dev.w3.org/cvsweb/html5/</a></dd>
                    351:    <dd>Annotated summary with unified diffs: <a href="http://html5.org/tools/web-apps-tracker">http://html5.org/tools/web-apps-tracker</a></dd>
                    352:    <dd>Raw Subversion interface: <code>svn checkout http://svn.whatwg.org/webapps/</code></dd>
                    353:   </dl><p>The W3C <a href="http://www.w3.org/2008/webapps/">Web Applications
1.81      ihickson  354:   Working Group</a> is the W3C working group responsible for this
                    355:   specification's progress along the W3C Recommendation track.
1.359     ihickson  356:   This specification is the 5 February 2013 Editor's Draft.
1.327     ihickson  357:   </p>
                    358: 
                    359:   
                    360:   
                    361:   <p>This document was produced by a group operating under the <a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Patent-Policy-20040205/">5
1.115     ihickson  362:   February 2004 W3C Patent Policy</a>. W3C maintains a <a href="http://www.w3.org/2004/01/pp-impl/42538/status" rel="disclosure">public list of
1.81      ihickson  363:   any patent disclosures</a> made in connection with the deliverables
                    364:   of the group; that page also includes instructions for disclosing a
                    365:   patent. An individual who has actual knowledge of a patent which the
1.115     ihickson  366:   individual believes contains <a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Patent-Policy-20040205/#def-essential">Essential
                    367:   Claim(s)</a> must disclose the information in accordance with <a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Patent-Policy-20040205/#sec-Disclosure">section
1.327     ihickson  368:   6 of the W3C Patent Policy</a>.</p>
                    369: 
                    370: 
                    371:   <h2 class="no-num no-toc" id="contents">Table of Contents</h2>
                    372:   
1.318     ihickson  373: 
1.115     ihickson  374: <ol class="toc">
                    375:  <li><a href="#introduction"><span class="secno">1 </span>Introduction</a>
1.81      ihickson  376:   <ol>
1.115     ihickson  377:    <li><a href="#scope"><span class="secno">1.1 </span>Scope</a></li>
1.303     ihickson  378:    <li><a href="#examples"><span class="secno">1.2 </span>Examples</a>
1.81      ihickson  379:     <ol>
1.115     ihickson  380:      <li><a href="#a-background-number-crunching-worker"><span class="secno">1.2.1 </span>A background number-crunching worker</a></li>
1.323     ihickson  381:      <li><a href="#worker-used-for-background-i-o"><span class="secno">1.2.2 </span>Worker used for background I/O</a></li>
                    382:      <li><a href="#shared-workers-introduction"><span class="secno">1.2.3 </span>Shared workers introduction</a></li>
                    383:      <li><a href="#shared-state-using-a-shared-worker"><span class="secno">1.2.4 </span>Shared state using a shared worker</a></li>
                    384:      <li><a href="#delegation"><span class="secno">1.2.5 </span>Delegation</a></ol></li>
1.303     ihickson  385:    <li><a href="#tutorials"><span class="secno">1.3 </span>Tutorials</a>
                    386:     <ol>
                    387:      <li><a href="#creating-a-dedicated-worker"><span class="secno">1.3.1 </span>Creating a dedicated worker</a></li>
                    388:      <li><a href="#communicating-with-a-dedicated-worker"><span class="secno">1.3.2 </span>Communicating with a dedicated worker</a></li>
                    389:      <li><a href="#shared-workers"><span class="secno">1.3.3 </span>Shared workers</a></ol></ol></li>
1.148     ihickson  390:  <li><a href="#conformance-requirements"><span class="secno">2 </span>Conformance requirements</a>
1.82      ihickson  391:   <ol>
1.148     ihickson  392:    <li><a href="#dependencies"><span class="secno">2.1 </span>Dependencies</a></ol></li>
                    393:  <li><a href="#terminology"><span class="secno">3 </span>Terminology</a></li>
                    394:  <li><a href="#infrastructure"><span class="secno">4 </span>Infrastructure</a>
                    395:   <ol>
1.301     ihickson  396:    <li><a href="#dependencies-0"><span class="secno">4.1 </span>Dependencies</a></li>
                    397:    <li><a href="#the-global-scope"><span class="secno">4.2 </span>The global scope</a>
1.81      ihickson  398:     <ol>
1.316     ihickson  399:      <li><a href="#the-workerglobalscope-common-interface"><span class="secno">4.2.1 </span>The <code>WorkerGlobalScope</code> common interface</a></li>
1.301     ihickson  400:      <li><a href="#dedicated-workers-and-the-dedicatedworkerglobalscope-interface"><span class="secno">4.2.2 </span>Dedicated workers and the <code>DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope</code> interface</a></li>
                    401:      <li><a href="#shared-workers-and-the-sharedworkerglobalscope-interface"><span class="secno">4.2.3 </span>Shared workers and the <code>SharedWorkerGlobalScope</code> interface</a></ol></li>
1.339     ihickson  402:    <li><a href="#the-event-loop"><span class="secno">4.3 </span>The event loop</a></li>
                    403:    <li><a href="#the-worker-s-lifetime"><span class="secno">4.4 </span>The worker's lifetime</a></li>
                    404:    <li><a href="#processing-model"><span class="secno">4.5 </span>Processing model</a></li>
                    405:    <li><a href="#runtime-script-errors"><span class="secno">4.6 </span>Runtime script errors</a></li>
                    406:    <li><a href="#creating-workers"><span class="secno">4.7 </span>Creating workers</a>
1.81      ihickson  407:     <ol>
1.339     ihickson  408:      <li><a href="#the-abstractworker-abstract-interface"><span class="secno">4.7.1 </span>The <code>AbstractWorker</code> abstract interface</a></li>
                    409:      <li><a href="#dedicated-workers-and-the-worker-interface"><span class="secno">4.7.2 </span>Dedicated workers and the <code>Worker</code> interface</a></li>
                    410:      <li><a href="#shared-workers-and-the-sharedworker-interface"><span class="secno">4.7.3 </span>Shared workers and the <code>SharedWorker</code> interface</a></ol></ol></li>
1.148     ihickson  411:  <li><a href="#apis-available-to-workers"><span class="secno">5 </span>APIs available to workers</a>
1.81      ihickson  412:   <ol>
1.148     ihickson  413:    <li><a href="#importing-scripts-and-libraries"><span class="secno">5.1 </span>Importing scripts and libraries</a></li>
1.210     ihickson  414:    <li><a href="#the-workernavigator-object"><span class="secno">5.2 </span>The <code>WorkerNavigator</code> object</a></li>
1.272     ihickson  415:    <li><a href="#interface-objects-and-constructors"><span class="secno">5.3 </span>Interface objects and constructors</a></li>
                    416:    <li><a href="#worker-locations"><span class="secno">5.4 </span>Worker locations</a></ol></li>
1.115     ihickson  417:  <li><a class="no-num" href="#references">References</a></li>
                    418:  <li><a class="no-num" href="#acknowledgements">Acknowledgements</a></ol>
1.327     ihickson  419: 
                    420:   <hr><h2 id="introduction"><span class="secno">1 </span>Introduction</h2>
                    421: 
                    422:   <h3 id="scope"><span class="secno">1.1 </span>Scope</h3>
                    423: 
                    424:   <p><i>This section is non-normative.</i></p>
                    425: 
                    426:   <p>This specification defines an API for running scripts in the
                    427:   background independently of any user interface scripts.</p>
                    428: 
                    429:   <p>This allows for long-running scripts that are not interrupted by
1.81      ihickson  430:   scripts that respond to clicks or other user interactions, and
                    431:   allows long tasks to be executed without yielding to keep the page
1.327     ihickson  432:   responsive.</p>
                    433: 
                    434:   <p>Workers (as these background scripts are called herein) are
1.81      ihickson  435:   relatively heavy-weight, and are not intended to be used in large
                    436:   numbers. For example, it would be inappropriate to launch one worker
                    437:   for each pixel of a four megapixel image. The examples below show
1.327     ihickson  438:   some appropriate uses of workers.</p>
                    439: 
                    440:   <p>Generally, workers are expected to be long-lived, have a high
                    441:   start-up performance cost, and a high per-instance memory cost.</p>
                    442: 
                    443: 
                    444:   <h3 id="examples"><span class="secno">1.2 </span>Examples</h3>
                    445: 
                    446:   <p><i>This section is non-normative.</i></p>
                    447: 
                    448:   <p>There are a variety of uses that workers can be put to. The
                    449:   following subsections show various examples of this use.</p>
                    450: 
                    451:   <h4 id="a-background-number-crunching-worker"><span class="secno">1.2.1 </span>A background number-crunching worker</h4>
                    452: 
                    453:   <p><i>This section is non-normative.</i></p>
                    454: 
                    455:   <p>The simplest use of workers is for performing a computationally
                    456:   expensive task without interrupting the user interface.</p>
                    457: 
                    458:   <p>In this example, the main document spawns a worker to
1.155     ihickson  459:   (na&iuml;vely) compute prime numbers, and progressively displays the
1.327     ihickson  460:   most recently found prime number.</p>
                    461: 
                    462:   <p>The main page is as follows:</p>
                    463: 
                    464:   <pre>&lt;!DOCTYPE HTML&gt;
1.81      ihickson  465: &lt;html&gt;
                    466:  &lt;head&gt;
                    467:   &lt;title&gt;Worker example: One-core computation&lt;/title&gt;
                    468:  &lt;/head&gt;
                    469:  &lt;body&gt;
                    470:   &lt;p&gt;The highest prime number discovered so far is: &lt;output id="result"&gt;&lt;/output&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
                    471:   &lt;script&gt;
1.50      ihickson  472:    var worker = new Worker('worker.js');
                    473:    worker.onmessage = function (event) {
1.54      ihickson  474:      document.getElementById('result').textContent = event.data;
1.29      ihickson  475:    };
1.81      ihickson  476:   &lt;/script&gt;
                    477:  &lt;/body&gt;
1.327     ihickson  478: &lt;/html&gt;</pre>
                    479: 
                    480:   <p>The <code title="dom-Worker"><a href="#dom-worker">Worker()</a></code> constructor call
1.115     ihickson  481:   creates a worker and returns a <code><a href="#worker">Worker</a></code> object
1.81      ihickson  482:   representing that worker, which is used to communicate with the
1.327     ihickson  483:   worker. That object's <code title="handler-Worker-onmessage"><a href="#handler-worker-onmessage">onmessage</a></code> event handler allows the code to receive messages from the worker.</p>
                    484: 
                    485:   <p>The worker itself is as follows:</p>
                    486: 
                    487:   <pre>var n = 1;
1.29      ihickson  488: search: while (true) {
                    489:   n += 1;
                    490:   for (var i = 2; i &lt;= Math.sqrt(n); i += 1)
                    491:     if (n % i == 0)
                    492:      continue search;
                    493:   // found a prime!
1.50      ihickson  494:   postMessage(n);
1.327     ihickson  495: }</pre>
                    496: 
                    497:   <p>The bulk of this code is simply an unoptimized search for a prime
1.295     ihickson  498:   number. The <code title="dom-DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope-postMessage"><a href="#dom-dedicatedworkerglobalscope-postmessage">postMessage()</a></code>
                    499:   method is used to send a message back to the page when a prime is
1.327     ihickson  500:   found.</p>
                    501: 
                    502:   <p><a href="http://www.whatwg.org/demos/workers/primes/page.html">View this example online</a>.</p>
                    503: 
                    504: 
                    505: 
                    506: 
                    507:   <h4 id="worker-used-for-background-i-o"><span class="secno">1.2.2 </span>Worker used for background I/O</h4>
                    508: 
                    509:   <p><i>This section is non-normative.</i></p>
                    510: 
1.351     ihickson  511:   <p>In this example, the main document uses two workers, one for fetching stock updates at regular
                    512:   intervals, and one for performing search queries that the user requests.</p>
1.327     ihickson  513: 
                    514:   <p>The main page is as follows:</p>
                    515: 
                    516:   <pre>&lt;!DOCTYPE HTML&gt;
1.81      ihickson  517: &lt;html&gt;
                    518:  &lt;head&gt;
                    519:   &lt;title&gt;Worker example: Stock ticker&lt;/title&gt;
                    520:   &lt;script&gt;
1.33      ihickson  521:    // TICKER
                    522:    var symbol = 'GOOG'; // default symbol to watch
1.50      ihickson  523:    var ticker = new Worker('ticker.js');
1.33      ihickson  524: 
                    525:    // SEARCHER
1.50      ihickson  526:    var searcher = new Worker('searcher.js');
1.33      ihickson  527:    function search(query) {
1.50      ihickson  528:      searcher.postMessage(query);
1.33      ihickson  529:    }
                    530: 
                    531:    // SYMBOL SELECTION UI
                    532:    function select(newSymbol) {
                    533:      symbol = newSymbol;
1.50      ihickson  534:      ticker.postMessage(symbol);
1.33      ihickson  535:    }
1.81      ihickson  536:   &lt;/script&gt;
                    537:  &lt;/head&gt;
1.122     ihickson  538:  &lt;body onload="search('')"&gt;
1.81      ihickson  539:   &lt;p&gt;&lt;output id="symbol"&gt;&lt;/output&gt; &lt;output id="value"&gt;&lt;/output&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
                    540:   &lt;script&gt;
1.50      ihickson  541:    ticker.onmessage = function (event) {
1.54      ihickson  542:      var data = event.data.split(' ');
1.33      ihickson  543:      document.getElementById('symbol').textContent = data[0];
                    544:      document.getElementById('value').textContent = data[1];
                    545:    };
1.50      ihickson  546:    ticker.postMessage(symbol);
1.81      ihickson  547:   &lt;/script&gt;
1.122     ihickson  548:   &lt;p&gt;&lt;label&gt;Search: &lt;input type="text" autofocus oninput="search(this.value)"&gt;&lt;/label&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
1.81      ihickson  549:   &lt;ul id="results"&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;
                    550:   &lt;script&gt;
1.50      ihickson  551:    searcher.onmessage = function (event) {
1.54      ihickson  552:      var data = event.data.split(' ');
1.33      ihickson  553:      var results = document.getElementById('results');
                    554:      while (results.hasChildNodes()) // clear previous results
                    555:        results.removeChild(results.firstChild);
                    556:      for (var i = 0; i &lt; data.length; i += 1) {
                    557:        // add a list item with a button for each result
                    558:        var li = document.createElement('li');
                    559:        var button = document.createElement('button');
                    560:        button.value = data[i];
                    561:        button.type = 'button';
                    562:        button.onclick = function () { select(this.value); };
                    563:        button.textContent = data[i];
                    564:        li.appendChild(button);
                    565:        results.appendChild(li);
                    566:      }
                    567:    };
1.81      ihickson  568:   &lt;/script&gt;
                    569:   &lt;p&gt;(The data in this example is not real. Try searching for "Google" or "Apple".)&lt;/p&gt;
                    570:  &lt;/body&gt;
1.327     ihickson  571: &lt;/html&gt;</pre>
                    572: 
1.351     ihickson  573:   <p>The two workers use a common library for performing the actual network calls. This library is
                    574:   as follows:</p>
1.327     ihickson  575: 
                    576:   <pre>function get(url) {
1.50      ihickson  577:   try {
                    578:     var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
                    579:     xhr.open('GET', url, false);
                    580:     xhr.send();
                    581:     return xhr.responseText;
                    582:   } catch (e) {
                    583:     return ''; // turn all errors into empty results
                    584:   }
1.327     ihickson  585: }</pre>
                    586: 
                    587:   <p>The stock updater worker is as follows:</p>
                    588: 
                    589:   <pre>importScripts('io.js');
1.33      ihickson  590: var timer;
                    591: var symbol;
                    592: function update() {
1.50      ihickson  593:   postMessage(symbol + ' ' + get('stock.cgi?' + symbol));
1.33      ihickson  594:   timer = setTimeout(update, 10000);
                    595: }
1.50      ihickson  596: onmessage = function (event) {
1.33      ihickson  597:   if (timer)
                    598:     clearTimeout(timer);
1.54      ihickson  599:   symbol = event.data;
1.33      ihickson  600:   update();
1.327     ihickson  601: };</pre>
                    602: 
                    603:   <p>The search query worker is as follows:</p>
                    604: 
                    605:   <pre>importScripts('io.js');
1.50      ihickson  606: onmessage = function (event) {
1.54      ihickson  607:   postMessage(get('search.cgi?' + event.data));
1.327     ihickson  608: };</pre>
                    609: 
                    610:   <p><a href="http://www.whatwg.org/demos/workers/stocks/page.html">View this example online</a>.</p>
                    611: 
                    612: 
                    613:   <h4 id="shared-workers-introduction"><span class="secno">1.2.3 </span>Shared workers introduction</h4>
                    614: 
                    615:   <p><i>This section is non-normative.</i></p>
                    616: 
                    617:   <p>This section introduces shared workers using a Hello World
1.238     ihickson  618:   example. Shared workers use slightly different APIs, since each
1.327     ihickson  619:   worker can have multiple connections.</p>
                    620: 
                    621:   <p>This first example shows how you connect to a worker and how a
1.238     ihickson  622:   worker can send a message back to the page when it connects to
1.327     ihickson  623:   it. Received messages are displayed in a log.</p>
                    624: 
                    625:   <p>Here is the HTML page:</p>
                    626: 
                    627:   <pre>&lt;!DOCTYPE HTML&gt;
1.239     ihickson  628: &lt;title&gt;Shared workers: demo 1&lt;/title&gt;
                    629: &lt;pre id="log"&gt;Log:&lt;/pre&gt;
                    630: &lt;script&gt;
                    631:   var worker = new SharedWorker('test.js');
                    632:   var log = document.getElementById('log');
                    633:   worker.port.onmessage = function(e) { // note: not worker.onmessage!
                    634:     log.textContent += '\n' + e.data;
                    635:   }
                    636: &lt;/script&gt;
1.327     ihickson  637: </pre>
                    638: 
                    639:   <p>Here is the JavaScript worker:</p>
                    640: 
                    641:   <pre>onconnect = function(e) {
1.239     ihickson  642:   var port = e.ports[0];
                    643:   port.postMessage('Hello World!');
                    644: }
1.327     ihickson  645: </pre>
                    646: 
                    647:   <p><a href="http://www.whatwg.org/demos/workers/shared/001/test.html">View this example online</a>.</p>
                    648: 
                    649:   <hr><p>This second example extends the first one by changing two things:
1.238     ihickson  650:   first, messages are received using <code title="">addEventListener()</code> instead of an <span title="event
                    651:   handler IDL attributes">event handler IDL attribute</span>, and
                    652:   second, a message is sent <em>to</em> the worker, causing the worker
                    653:   to send another message in return. Received messages are again
1.327     ihickson  654:   displayed in a log.</p>
                    655: 
                    656:   <p>Here is the HTML page:</p>
                    657: 
                    658:   <pre>&lt;!DOCTYPE HTML&gt;
1.240     ihickson  659: &lt;title&gt;Shared workers: demo 2&lt;/title&gt;
1.239     ihickson  660: &lt;pre id="log"&gt;Log:&lt;/pre&gt;
                    661: &lt;script&gt;
                    662:   var worker = new SharedWorker('test.js');
                    663:   var log = document.getElementById('log');
1.240     ihickson  664:   worker.port.addEventListener('message', function(e) {
1.239     ihickson  665:     log.textContent += '\n' + e.data;
1.240     ihickson  666:   }, false);
                    667:   worker.port.start(); // note: need this when using addEventListener
                    668:   worker.port.postMessage('ping');
1.239     ihickson  669: &lt;/script&gt;
1.327     ihickson  670: </pre>
                    671: 
                    672:   <p>Here is the JavaScript worker:</p>
                    673: 
                    674:   <pre>onconnect = function(e) {
1.239     ihickson  675:   var port = e.ports[0];
                    676:   port.postMessage('Hello World!');
1.240     ihickson  677:   port.onmessage = function(e) {
                    678:     port.postMessage('pong'); // not e.ports[0].postMessage!
                    679:     // e.target.postMessage('pong'); would work also
                    680:   }
1.239     ihickson  681: }
1.327     ihickson  682: </pre>
                    683: 
                    684:   <p><a href="http://www.whatwg.org/demos/workers/shared/002/test.html">View this example online</a>.</p>
                    685: 
                    686:   <hr><p>Finally, the example is extended to show how two pages can
1.238     ihickson  687:   connect to the same worker; in this case, the second page is merely
                    688:   in an <code>iframe</code> on the first page, but the same principle
                    689:   would apply to an entirely separate page in a separate
1.327     ihickson  690:   <span>top-level browsing context</span>.</p>
                    691: 
                    692:   <p>Here is the outer HTML page:</p>
                    693: 
                    694:   <pre>&lt;!DOCTYPE HTML&gt;
1.239     ihickson  695: &lt;title&gt;Shared workers: demo 3&lt;/title&gt;
                    696: &lt;pre id="log"&gt;Log:&lt;/pre&gt;
                    697: &lt;script&gt;
                    698:   var worker = new SharedWorker('test.js');
                    699:   var log = document.getElementById('log');
                    700:   worker.port.addEventListener('message', function(e) {
                    701:     log.textContent += '\n' + e.data;
                    702:   }, false);
                    703:   worker.port.start();
                    704:   worker.port.postMessage('ping');
                    705: &lt;/script&gt;
                    706: &lt;iframe src="inner.html"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;
1.327     ihickson  707: </pre>
                    708: 
                    709:   <p>Here is the inner HTML page:</p>
                    710: 
                    711:   <pre>&lt;!DOCTYPE HTML&gt;
1.239     ihickson  712: &lt;title&gt;Shared workers: demo 3 inner frame&lt;/title&gt;
                    713: &lt;pre id=log&gt;Inner log:&lt;/pre&gt;
                    714: &lt;script&gt;
                    715:   var worker = new SharedWorker('test.js');
                    716:   var log = document.getElementById('log');
                    717:   worker.port.onmessage = function(e) {
                    718:    log.textContent += '\n' + e.data;
                    719:   }
                    720: &lt;/script&gt;
1.327     ihickson  721: </pre>
                    722: 
                    723:   <p>Here is the JavaScript worker:</p>
                    724: 
                    725:   <pre>var count = 0;
1.239     ihickson  726: onconnect = function(e) {
                    727:   count += 1;
                    728:   var port = e.ports[0];
                    729:   port.postMessage('Hello World! You are connection #' + count);
                    730:   port.onmessage = function(e) {
                    731:     port.postMessage('pong');
                    732:   }
                    733: }
1.327     ihickson  734: </pre>
                    735: 
                    736:   <p><a href="http://www.whatwg.org/demos/workers/shared/003/test.html">View this example online</a>.</p>
                    737: 
                    738: 
                    739:   <h4 id="shared-state-using-a-shared-worker"><span class="secno">1.2.4 </span>Shared state using a shared worker</h4>
                    740: 
                    741:   <p><i>This section is non-normative.</i></p>
                    742: 
                    743:   <p>In this example, multiple windows (viewers) can be opened that
1.81      ihickson  744:   are all viewing the same map. All the windows share the same map
                    745:   information, with a single worker coordinating all the viewers. Each
                    746:   viewer can move around independently, but if they set any data on
1.327     ihickson  747:   the map, all the viewers are updated.</p>
                    748: 
                    749:   <p>The main page isn't interesting, it merely provides a way to open
                    750:   the viewers:</p>
                    751: 
                    752:   <pre>&lt;!DOCTYPE HTML&gt;
1.81      ihickson  753: &lt;html&gt;
                    754:  &lt;head&gt;
                    755:   &lt;title&gt;Workers example: Multiviewer&lt;/title&gt;
                    756:   &lt;script&gt;
1.36      ihickson  757:    function openViewer() {
                    758:      window.open('viewer.html');
                    759:    }
1.81      ihickson  760:   &lt;/script&gt;
                    761:  &lt;/head&gt;
                    762:  &lt;body&gt;
                    763:   &lt;p&gt;&lt;button type=button onclick="openViewer()"&gt;Open a new
                    764:   viewer&lt;/button&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
                    765:   &lt;p&gt;Each viewer opens in a new window. You can have as many viewers
                    766:   as you like, they all view the same data.&lt;/p&gt;
                    767:  &lt;/body&gt;
1.327     ihickson  768: &lt;/html&gt;</pre>
                    769: 
                    770:   <p>The viewer is more involved:</p>
                    771: 
                    772:   <pre>&lt;!DOCTYPE HTML&gt;
1.81      ihickson  773: &lt;html&gt;
                    774:  &lt;head&gt;
                    775:   &lt;title&gt;Workers example: Multiviewer viewer&lt;/title&gt;
                    776:   &lt;script&gt;
1.50      ihickson  777:    var worker = new SharedWorker('worker.js', 'core');
1.36      ihickson  778: 
                    779:    // CONFIGURATION
                    780:    function configure(event) {
1.54      ihickson  781:      if (event.data.substr(0, 4) != 'cfg ') return;
                    782:      var name = event.data.substr(4).split(' ', 1);
1.36      ihickson  783:      // update display to mention our name is name
                    784:      document.getElementsByTagName('h1')[0].textContent += ' ' + name;
                    785:      // no longer need this listener
1.43      ihickson  786:      worker.port.removeEventListener('message', configure, false);
1.36      ihickson  787:    }
1.53      ihickson  788:    worker.port.addEventListener('message', configure, false);
1.36      ihickson  789: 
                    790:    // MAP
                    791:    function paintMap(event) {
1.54      ihickson  792:      if (event.data.substr(0, 4) != 'map ') return;
                    793:      var data = event.data.substr(4).split(',');
1.36      ihickson  794:      // display tiles data[0] .. data[8]
                    795:      var canvas = document.getElementById('map');
                    796:      var context = canvas.getContext('2d');
                    797:      for (var y = 0; y &lt; 3; y += 1) {
                    798:        for (var x = 0; x &lt; 3; x += 1) {
                    799:          var tile = data[y * 3 + x];
                    800:          if (tile == '0')
                    801:            context.fillStyle = 'green';
                    802:          else 
                    803:            context.fillStyle = 'maroon';
                    804:          fillRect(x * 50, y * 50, 50, 50);
                    805:        }
                    806:      }
                    807:    }
1.53      ihickson  808:    worker.port.addEventListener('message', paintMap, false);
1.36      ihickson  809: 
                    810:    // PUBLIC CHAT
                    811:    function updatePublicChat(event) {
1.54      ihickson  812:      if (event.data.substr(0, 4) != 'txt ') return;
                    813:      var name = event.data.substr(4).split(' ', 1);
                    814:      var message = event.data.substr(4 + length(name) + 1);
1.81      ihickson  815:      // display "&lt;name&gt; message" in public chat
1.36      ihickson  816:      var dialog = document.getElementById('public');
                    817:      var dt = document.createElement('dt');
                    818:      dt.textContent = name;
                    819:      dialog.appendChild(dt);
                    820:      var dd = document.createElement('dd');
                    821:      dd.textContent = message;
                    822:      dialog.appendChild(dd);
                    823:    }
1.53      ihickson  824:    worker.port.addEventListener('message', updatePublicChat, false);
1.36      ihickson  825: 
                    826:    // PRIVATE CHAT
                    827:    function startPrivateChat(event) {
1.54      ihickson  828:      if (event.data.substr(0, 4) != 'msg ') return;
                    829:      var name = event.data.substr(4).split(' ', 1);
1.84      ihickson  830:      var port = event.ports[0];
1.36      ihickson  831:      // display a private chat UI
                    832:      var ul = document.getElementById('private');
                    833:      var li = document.createElement('li');
                    834:      var h3 = document.createElement('h3');
                    835:      h3.textContent = 'Private chat with ' + name;
                    836:      li.appendChild(h3);
                    837:      var dialog = document.createElement('dialog');
                    838:      var addMessage = function(name, message) {
                    839:        var dt = document.createElement('dt');
                    840:        dt.textContent = name;
                    841:        dialog.appendChild(dt);
                    842:        var dd = document.createElement('dd');
                    843:        dd.textContent = message;
                    844:        dialog.appendChild(dd);
                    845:      };
                    846:      port.onmessage = function (event) {
1.54      ihickson  847:        addMessage(name, event.data);
1.36      ihickson  848:      };
                    849:      li.appendChild(dialog);
                    850:      var form = document.createElement('form');
                    851:      var p = document.createElement('p');
                    852:      var input = document.createElement('input');
                    853:      input.size = 50;
                    854:      p.appendChild(input);
                    855:      p.appendChild(document.createTextNode(' '));
                    856:      var button = document.createElement('button');
                    857:      button.textContent = 'Post';
                    858:      p.appendChild(button);
                    859:      form.onsubmit = function () {
                    860:        port.postMessage(input.value);
                    861:        addMessage('me', input.value);
                    862:        input.value = '';
                    863:        return false;
                    864:      };
                    865:      form.appendChild(p);
                    866:      li.appendChild(form);
                    867:    }
1.53      ihickson  868:    worker.port.addEventListener('message', startPrivateChat, false);
1.188     ihickson  869: 
                    870:    worker.port.start();
1.81      ihickson  871:   &lt;/script&gt;
                    872:  &lt;/head&gt;
                    873:  &lt;body&gt;
                    874:   &lt;h1&gt;Viewer&lt;/h1&gt;
                    875:   &lt;h2&gt;Map&lt;/h2&gt;
                    876:   &lt;p&gt;&lt;canvas id="map" height=150 width=150&gt;&lt;/canvas&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
                    877:   &lt;p&gt;
                    878:    &lt;button type=button onclick="worker.port.postMessage('mov left')"&gt;Left&lt;/button&gt;
                    879:    &lt;button type=button onclick="worker.port.postMessage('mov up')"&gt;Up&lt;/button&gt;
                    880:    &lt;button type=button onclick="worker.port.postMessage('mov down')"&gt;Down&lt;/button&gt;
                    881:    &lt;button type=button onclick="worker.port.postMessage('mov right')"&gt;Right&lt;/button&gt;
                    882:    &lt;button type=button onclick="worker.port.postMessage('set 0')"&gt;Set 0&lt;/button&gt;
                    883:    &lt;button type=button onclick="worker.port.postMessage('set 1')"&gt;Set 1&lt;/button&gt;
                    884:   &lt;/p&gt;
                    885:   &lt;h2&gt;Public Chat&lt;/h2&gt;
                    886:   &lt;dialog id="public"&gt;&lt;/dialog&gt;
                    887:   &lt;form onsubmit="worker.port.postMessage('txt ' + message.value); message.value = ''; return false;"&gt;
                    888:    &lt;p&gt;
                    889:     &lt;input type="text" name="message" size="50"&gt;
                    890:     &lt;button&gt;Post&lt;/button&gt;
                    891:    &lt;/p&gt;
                    892:   &lt;/form&gt;
                    893:   &lt;h2&gt;Private Chat&lt;/h2&gt;
                    894:   &lt;ul id="private"&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;
                    895:  &lt;/body&gt;
                    896: &lt;/html&gt;
1.327     ihickson  897: </pre>
                    898: 
                    899:   <p>There are several key things worth noting about the way the
                    900:   viewer is written.</p>
                    901: 
                    902:   <p><strong>Multiple listeners</strong>. Instead of a single message
1.81      ihickson  903:   processing function, the code here attaches multiple event
                    904:   listeners, each one performing a quick check to see if it is
                    905:   relevant for the message. In this example it doesn't make much
                    906:   difference, but if multiple authors wanted to collaborate using a
                    907:   single port to communicate with a worker, it would allow for
                    908:   independent code instead of changes having to all be made to a
1.327     ihickson  909:   single event handling function.</p>
                    910: 
                    911:   <p>Registering event listeners in this way also allows you to
1.81      ihickson  912:   unregister specific listeners when you are done with them, as is
                    913:   done with the <code title="">configure()</code> method in this
1.327     ihickson  914:   example.</p>
                    915: 
                    916:   <p>Finally, the worker:</p>
                    917: 
                    918:   <pre>
1.155     ihickson  919: var nextName = 0;
1.36      ihickson  920: function getNextName() {
                    921:   // this could use more friendly names
                    922:   // but for now just return a number
                    923:   return nextName++;
                    924: }
                    925: 
                    926: var map = [
                    927:  [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0],
                    928:  [1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1],
                    929:  [0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0],
                    930:  [0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1],
                    931:  [0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0],
                    932:  [1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1],
                    933:  [1, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1],
                    934: ];
                    935: 
                    936: function wrapX(x) {
                    937:   if (x &lt; 0) return wrapX(x + map[0].length);
1.81      ihickson  938:   if (x &gt;= map[0].length) return wrapX(x - map[0].length);
1.36      ihickson  939:   return x;
                    940: }
                    941: 
                    942: function wrapY(y) {
                    943:   if (y &lt; 0) return wrapY(y + map.length);
1.81      ihickson  944:   if (y &gt;= map[0].length) return wrapY(y - map.length);
1.36      ihickson  945:   return y;
                    946: }
                    947: 
1.50      ihickson  948: function sendMapData(callback) {
1.36      ihickson  949:   var data = '';
                    950:   for (var y = viewer.y-1; y &lt;= viewer.y+1; y += 1) {
                    951:     for (var x = viewer.x-1; x &lt;= viewer.x+1; x += 1) {
                    952:       if (data != '')
                    953:         data += ',';
                    954:       data += map[y][x];
                    955:     }
                    956:   }
1.50      ihickson  957:   callback('map ' + data);
1.36      ihickson  958: }
                    959: 
                    960: var viewers = {};
                    961: onconnect = function (event) {
1.84      ihickson  962:   event.ports[0]._name = getNextName();
                    963:   event.ports[0]._data = { port: event.port, x: 0, y: 0, };
                    964:   viewers[event.ports[0]._name] = event.port._data;
                    965:   event.ports[0].postMessage('cfg ' + name);
                    966:   event.ports[0].onmessage = getMessage;
                    967:   sendMapData(event.ports[0].postMessage);
1.36      ihickson  968: };
                    969: 
                    970: function getMessage(event) {
1.54      ihickson  971:   switch (event.data.substr(0, 4)) {
1.36      ihickson  972:     case 'mov ':
1.54      ihickson  973:       var direction = event.data.substr(4);
1.36      ihickson  974:       var dx = 0;
                    975:       var dy = 0;
                    976:       switch (direction) {
                    977:         case 'up': dy = -1; break;
                    978:         case 'down': dy = 1; break;
                    979:         case 'left': dx = -1; break;
                    980:         case 'right': dx = 1; break;
                    981:       }
                    982:       event.target._data.x = wrapX(event.target._data.x + dx);
                    983:       event.target._data.y = wrapY(event.target._data.y + dy);
1.50      ihickson  984:       sendMapData(event.target.postMessage);
1.36      ihickson  985:       break;
                    986:     case 'set ':
1.54      ihickson  987:       var value = event.data.substr(4);
1.36      ihickson  988:       map[event.target._data.y][event.target._data.x] = value;
                    989:       for (var viewer in viewers)
1.50      ihickson  990:         sendMapData(viewers[viewer].port.postMessage);
1.36      ihickson  991:       break;
                    992:     case 'txt ':
                    993:       var name = event.target._name;
1.54      ihickson  994:       var message = event.data.substr(4);
1.36      ihickson  995:       for (var viewer in viewers)
                    996:         viewers[viewer].port.postMessage('txt ' + name + ' ' + message);
                    997:       break;
                    998:     case 'msg ':
                    999:       var party1 = event._data;
1.54      ihickson 1000:       var party2 = viewers[event.data.substr(4).split(' ', 1)];
1.36      ihickson 1001:       if (party2) {
                   1002:         var channel = new MessageChannel();
1.84      ihickson 1003:         party1.port.postMessage('msg ' + party2.name, [channel.port1]);
                   1004:         party2.port.postMessage('msg ' + party1.name, [channel.port2]);
1.36      ihickson 1005:       }
                   1006:       break;
                   1007:   }
1.327     ihickson 1008: }</pre>
                   1009: 
                   1010:   <p><strong>Connecting to multiple pages</strong>. The script uses
1.115     ihickson 1011:   the <code title="handler-SharedWorkerGlobalScope-onconnect"><a href="#handler-sharedworkerglobalscope-onconnect">onconnect</a></code>
1.327     ihickson 1012:   event listener to listen for multiple connections.</p>
                   1013: 
                   1014:   <p><strong>Direct channels</strong>. When the worker receives a
1.81      ihickson 1015:   "msg" message from one viewer naming another viewer, it sets up a
                   1016:   direct connection between the two, so that the two viewers can
                   1017:   communicate directly without the worker having to proxy all the
1.327     ihickson 1018:   messages.</p>
                   1019: 
                   1020:   <p><a href="http://www.whatwg.org/demos/workers/multiviewer/page.html">View this example online</a>.</p>
                   1021: 
                   1022: 
                   1023:   <h4 id="delegation"><span class="secno">1.2.5 </span>Delegation</h4>
                   1024: 
                   1025:   <p><i>This section is non-normative.</i></p>
                   1026: 
                   1027:   <p>With multicore CPUs becoming prevalent, one way to obtain better
1.81      ihickson 1028:   performance is to split computationally expensive tasks amongst
                   1029:   multiple workers. In this example, a computationally expensive task
                   1030:   that is to be performed for every number from 1 to 10,000,000 is
1.327     ihickson 1031:   farmed out to ten subworkers.</p>
                   1032: 
                   1033:   <p>The main page is as follows, it just reports the result:</p>
                   1034: 
                   1035:   <pre>&lt;!DOCTYPE HTML&gt;
1.81      ihickson 1036: &lt;html&gt;
                   1037:  &lt;head&gt;
1.203     ihickson 1038:   &lt;title&gt;Worker example: Multicore computation&lt;/title&gt;
1.81      ihickson 1039:  &lt;/head&gt;
                   1040:  &lt;body&gt;
1.203     ihickson 1041:   &lt;p&gt;Result: &lt;output id="result"&gt;&lt;/output&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
1.81      ihickson 1042:   &lt;script&gt;
1.50      ihickson 1043:    var worker = new Worker('worker.js');
                   1044:    worker.onmessage = function (event) {
1.54      ihickson 1045:      document.getElementById('result').textContent = event.data;
1.40      ihickson 1046:    };
1.81      ihickson 1047:   &lt;/script&gt;
                   1048:  &lt;/body&gt;
1.327     ihickson 1049: &lt;/html&gt;</pre>
                   1050: 
                   1051:   <p>The worker itself is as follows:</p>
                   1052: 
                   1053:   <pre>// settings
1.40      ihickson 1054: var num_workers = 10;
                   1055: var items_per_worker = 1000000;
                   1056: 
                   1057: // start the workers
                   1058: var result = 0;
                   1059: var pending_workers = num_workers;
                   1060: for (var i = 0; i &lt; num_workers; i += 1) {
1.50      ihickson 1061:   var worker = new Worker('core.js');
                   1062:   worker.postMessage(i * items_per_worker);
                   1063:   worker.postMessage((i+1) * items_per_worker);
                   1064:   worker.onmessage = storeResult;
1.40      ihickson 1065: }
                   1066: 
                   1067: // handle the results
                   1068: function storeResult(event) {
1.54      ihickson 1069:   result += 1*event.data;
1.40      ihickson 1070:   pending_workers -= 1;
                   1071:   if (pending_workers &lt;= 0)
1.50      ihickson 1072:     postMessage(result); // finished!
1.327     ihickson 1073: }</pre>
                   1074: 
                   1075:   <p>It consists of a loop to start the subworkers, and then a handler
                   1076:   that waits for all the subworkers to respond.</p>
                   1077: 
                   1078:   <p>The subworkers are implemented as follows:</p>
                   1079: 
                   1080:   <pre>var start;
1.41      ihickson 1081: onmessage = getStart;
1.40      ihickson 1082: function getStart(event) {
1.54      ihickson 1083:   start = 1*event.data;
1.40      ihickson 1084:   onmessage = getEnd;
                   1085: }
                   1086: 
                   1087: var end;
                   1088: function getEnd(event) {
1.54      ihickson 1089:   end = 1*event.data;
1.40      ihickson 1090:   onmessage = null;
1.66      ihickson 1091:   work();
1.40      ihickson 1092: }
                   1093: 
1.66      ihickson 1094: function work() {
1.40      ihickson 1095:   var result = 0;
                   1096:   for (var i = start; i &lt; end; i += 1) {
                   1097:     // perform some complex calculation here
                   1098:     result += 1;
                   1099:   }
1.50      ihickson 1100:   postMessage(result);
                   1101:   close();
1.327     ihickson 1102: }</pre>
                   1103: 
                   1104:   <p>They receive two numbers in two events, perform the computation
1.81      ihickson 1105:   for the range of numbers thus specified, and then report the result
1.327     ihickson 1106:   back to the parent.</p>
                   1107: 
                   1108:   <p><a href="http://www.whatwg.org/demos/workers/multicore/page.html">View this example online</a>.</p>
                   1109: 
                   1110: 
                   1111: 
                   1112: 
                   1113:   <h3 id="tutorials"><span class="secno">1.3 </span>Tutorials</h3>
                   1114: 
                   1115:   <h4 id="creating-a-dedicated-worker"><span class="secno">1.3.1 </span>Creating a dedicated worker</h4>
                   1116: 
                   1117:   <p><i>This section is non-normative.</i></p>
                   1118: 
                   1119:   <p>Creating a worker requires a URL to a JavaScript file. The <code title="dom-Worker"><a href="#dom-worker">Worker()</a></code> constructor is invoked with the
1.303     ihickson 1120:   URL to that file as its only argument; a worker is then created and
1.327     ihickson 1121:   returned:</p>
                   1122: 
                   1123:   <pre>var worker = new Worker('helper.js');</pre>
                   1124: 
                   1125: 
                   1126:   <h4 id="communicating-with-a-dedicated-worker"><span class="secno">1.3.2 </span>Communicating with a dedicated worker</h4>
                   1127: 
                   1128:   <p><i>This section is non-normative.</i></p>
                   1129: 
                   1130:   <p>Dedicated workers use <code><a href="#messageport">MessagePort</a></code> objects behind the
1.303     ihickson 1131:   scenes, and thus support all the same features, such as sending
                   1132:   structured data, transferring binary data, and transferring other
1.327     ihickson 1133:   ports.</p>
                   1134: 
                   1135:   <p>To receive messages from a dedicated worker, use the <code title="handler-worker-onmessage"><a href="#handler-worker-onmessage">onmessage</a></code> <span title="event
1.303     ihickson 1136:   handler IDL attributes">event handler IDL attribute</span> on the
1.327     ihickson 1137:   <code><a href="#worker">Worker</a></code> object:</p>
                   1138: 
                   1139:   <pre>worker.onmessage = function (event) { ... };</pre>
                   1140: 
                   1141:   <p>You can also use the <code title="dom-EventTarget-addEventListener">addEventListener()</code> method.</p>
                   1142: 
                   1143:   <p class="note">The implicit <code><a href="#messageport">MessagePort</a></code> used by
1.303     ihickson 1144:   dedicated workers has its <span>port message queue</span> implicitly
1.336     ihickson 1145:   enabled when it is created, so there is no equivalent to the
1.303     ihickson 1146:   <code><a href="#messageport">MessagePort</a></code> interface's <code title="dom-MessagePort-start">start()</code> method on the
1.327     ihickson 1147:   <code><a href="#worker">Worker</a></code> interface.</p>
                   1148: 
                   1149:   <p>To <em>send</em> data to a worker, use the <code title="dom-Worker-postMessage"><a href="#dom-worker-postmessage">postMessage()</a></code> method.
1.303     ihickson 1150:   Structured data can be sent over this communication channel. To send
                   1151:   <code>ArrayBuffer</code> objects efficiently (by transferring them
                   1152:   rather than cloning them), list them in an array in the second
1.327     ihickson 1153:   argument.</p>
                   1154: 
                   1155:   <pre>worker.postMessage({
1.303     ihickson 1156:   operation: 'find-edges',
                   1157:   input: buffer, // an ArrayBuffer object
                   1158:   threshold: 0.6,
1.327     ihickson 1159: }, [buffer]);</pre>
                   1160: 
                   1161:   <p>To receive a message inside the worker, the <code title="handler-DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope-onmessage"><a href="#handler-dedicatedworkerglobalscope-onmessage">onmessage</a></code>
1.303     ihickson 1162:   <span title="event handler IDL attributes">event handler IDL
1.327     ihickson 1163:   attribute</span> is used.</p>
                   1164: 
                   1165:   <pre>onmessage = function (event) { ... };</pre>
                   1166: 
                   1167:   <p>You can again also use the <code title="dom-EventTarget-addEventListener">addEventListener()</code>
                   1168:   method.</p>
                   1169: 
                   1170:   <p>In either case, the data is provided in the event object's <code title="dom-MessageEvent-data">data</code> attribute.</p>
                   1171: 
                   1172:   <p>To send messages back, you again use <code title="dom-DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope-postMessage"><a href="#dom-dedicatedworkerglobalscope-postmessage">postMessage()</a></code>.
                   1173:   It supports the structured data in the same manner.</p>
                   1174: 
                   1175:   <pre>postMessage(event.data.input, [event.data.input]); // transfer the buffer back</pre>
                   1176: 
                   1177: 
                   1178:   <h4 id="shared-workers"><span class="secno">1.3.3 </span>Shared workers</h4>
                   1179: 
                   1180:   <p><i>This section is non-normative.</i></p>
                   1181: 
1.356     ihickson 1182:   <p>Shared workers are identified by the URL of the script used to create it, optionally with an
                   1183:   explicit name. The name allows multiple instances of a particular shared worker to be started.</p>
                   1184: 
                   1185:   <p>Shared workers are scoped by <span>origin</span>. Two different sites using the same names will
                   1186:   not collide. However, if a page tries to use the same shared worker name as another page on the
                   1187:   same site, but with a different script URL, it will fail.</p>
1.327     ihickson 1188: 
                   1189:   <p>Creating shared workers is done using the <code title="dom-SharedWorker"><a href="#dom-sharedworker">SharedWorker()</a></code> constructor. This
1.303     ihickson 1190:   constructor takes the URL to the script to use for its first
                   1191:   argument, and the name of the worker, if any, as the second
1.327     ihickson 1192:   argument.</p>
                   1193: 
                   1194:   <pre>var worker = new SharedWorker('service.js');</pre>
                   1195: 
                   1196:   <p>Communicating with shared workers is done with explicit
1.303     ihickson 1197:   <code><a href="#messageport">MessagePort</a></code> objects. The object returned by the <code title="dom-SharedWorker"><a href="#dom-sharedworker">SharedWorker()</a></code> constructor holds a
1.327     ihickson 1198:   reference to the port on its <code title="dom-SharedWorker-port"><a href="#dom-sharedworker-port">port</a></code> attribute.</p>
                   1199: 
                   1200:   <pre>worker.port.onmessage = function (event) { ... };
1.303     ihickson 1201: worker.port.postMessage('some message');
1.327     ihickson 1202: worker.port.postMessage({ foo: 'structured', bar: ['data', 'also', 'possible']});</pre>
                   1203: 
                   1204:   <p>Inside the shared worker, new clients of the worker are announced
1.303     ihickson 1205:   using the <code title="event-connect">connect</code> event. The port
1.330     ihickson 1206:   for the new client is given by the event object's <code title="dom-messageevent-source">source</code> attribute.</p>
1.327     ihickson 1207: 
                   1208:   <pre>onconnect = function (event) {
1.330     ihickson 1209:   var newPort = event.source;
1.303     ihickson 1210:   // set up a listener
                   1211:   newPort.onmessage = function (event) { ... };
                   1212:   // send a message back to the port
                   1213:   newPort.postMessage('ready!'); // can also send structured data, of course
1.327     ihickson 1214: };</pre>
                   1215: 
                   1216: 
                   1217: 
                   1218: 
                   1219:   
                   1220: 
                   1221:   <h2 id="conformance-requirements"><span class="secno">2 </span>Conformance requirements</h2>
                   1222: 
                   1223:   <p>All diagrams, examples, and notes in this specification are
1.81      ihickson 1224:   non-normative, as are all sections explicitly marked non-normative.
1.327     ihickson 1225:   Everything else in this specification is normative.</p>
                   1226: 
                   1227:   <p>The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED",  "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
1.81      ihickson 1228:   "OPTIONAL" in the normative parts of this document are to be
                   1229:   interpreted as described in RFC2119. For readability, these words do
1.327     ihickson 1230:   not appear in all uppercase letters in this specification. <a href="#refsRFC2119">[RFC2119]</a></p>
                   1231: 
                   1232:   <p>Requirements phrased in the imperative as part of algorithms
1.81      ihickson 1233:   (such as "strip any leading space characters" or "return false and
                   1234:   abort these steps") are to be interpreted with the meaning of the
                   1235:   key word ("must", "should", "may", etc) used in introducing the
1.327     ihickson 1236:   algorithm.</p>
                   1237: 
                   1238:   <p>Some conformance requirements are phrased as requirements on
1.81      ihickson 1239:   attributes, methods or objects. Such requirements are to be
1.327     ihickson 1240:   interpreted as requirements on user agents.</p>
                   1241: 
                   1242:   <p>Conformance requirements phrased as algorithms or specific steps
1.81      ihickson 1243:   may be implemented in any manner, so long as the end result is
                   1244:   equivalent. (In particular, the algorithms defined in this
                   1245:   specification are intended to be easy to follow, and not intended to
1.327     ihickson 1246:   be performant.)</p>
                   1247: 
                   1248:   <p>The only conformance class defined by this specification is user
                   1249:   agents.</p>
                   1250: 
                   1251:   <p>User agents may impose implementation-specific limits on
1.81      ihickson 1252:   otherwise unconstrained inputs, e.g. to prevent denial of service
                   1253:   attacks, to guard against running out of memory, or to work around
1.327     ihickson 1254:   platform-specific limitations.</p>
                   1255: 
                   1256:   <p>When support for a feature is disabled (e.g. as an emergency
1.229     ihickson 1257:   measure to mitigate a security problem, or to aid in development, or
                   1258:   for performance reasons), user agents must act as if they had no
                   1259:   support for the feature whatsoever, and as if the feature was not
                   1260:   mentioned in this specification. For example, if a particular
                   1261:   feature is accessed via an attribute in a Web IDL interface, the
                   1262:   attribute itself would be omitted from the objects that implement
                   1263:   that interface &mdash; leaving the attribute on the object but
1.327     ihickson 1264:   making it return null or throw an exception is insufficient.</p>
                   1265: 
                   1266: 
                   1267:   <h3 id="dependencies"><span class="secno">2.1 </span>Dependencies</h3>
                   1268: 
                   1269:   <p>This specification relies on several other underlying
                   1270:   specifications.</p>
                   1271: 
                   1272:   <dl><dt>HTML</dt>
1.49      ihickson 1273: 
1.81      ihickson 1274:    <dd>
1.49      ihickson 1275: 
1.226     ihickson 1276:     <p>Many fundamental concepts from HTML are used by this
                   1277:     specification. <a href="#refsHTML">[HTML]</a></p>
1.49      ihickson 1278: 
1.81      ihickson 1279:    </dd>
1.1       ihickson 1280: 
1.81      ihickson 1281:    <dt>WebIDL</dt>
1.1       ihickson 1282: 
                   1283:    <dd>
                   1284: 
1.81      ihickson 1285:     <p>The IDL blocks in this specification use the semantics of the
1.153     ihickson 1286:     WebIDL specification. <a href="#refsWEBIDL">[WEBIDL]</a></p>
1.1       ihickson 1287: 
1.81      ihickson 1288:    </dd>
1.1       ihickson 1289: 
1.327     ihickson 1290:   </dl><h2 id="terminology"><span class="secno">3 </span>Terminology</h2>
                   1291: 
                   1292:   <p>The construction "a <code title="">Foo</code> object", where
1.81      ihickson 1293:   <code title="">Foo</code> is actually an interface, is sometimes
                   1294:   used instead of the more accurate "an object implementing the
1.327     ihickson 1295:   interface <code title="">Foo</code>".</p>
                   1296: 
                   1297:   <p>The term DOM is used to refer to the API set made available to
1.81      ihickson 1298:   scripts in Web applications, and does not necessarily imply the
                   1299:   existence of an actual <code>Document</code> object or of any other
1.353     ihickson 1300:   <code>Node</code> objects as defined in the DOM specifications. <a href="#refsDOM">[DOM]</a></p>
1.327     ihickson 1301: 
                   1302:   <p>An IDL attribute is said to be <em>getting</em> when its value is
1.81      ihickson 1303:   being retrieved (e.g. by author script), and is said to be
1.327     ihickson 1304:   <em>setting</em> when a new value is assigned to it.</p>
                   1305: 
                   1306:   
                   1307:   <p>The term "JavaScript" is used to refer to ECMA262, rather than
1.103     ihickson 1308:   the official term ECMAScript, since the term JavaScript is more
1.327     ihickson 1309:   widely known. <a href="#refsECMA262">[ECMA262]</a></p>
                   1310: 
                   1311: 
                   1312: 
                   1313:   <h2 id="infrastructure"><span class="secno">4 </span>Infrastructure</h2>
                   1314: 
                   1315:   <p>There are two kinds of workers; dedicated workers, and shared
1.81      ihickson 1316:   workers. Dedicated workers, once created, and are linked to their
                   1317:   creator; but message ports can be used to communicate from a
                   1318:   dedicated worker to multiple other browsing contexts or
                   1319:   workers. Shared workers, on the other hand, are named, and once
                   1320:   created any script running in the same <span>origin</span> can
1.327     ihickson 1321:   obtain a reference to that worker and communicate with it.</p>
                   1322: 
                   1323:   
                   1324:   <h3 id="dependencies-0"><span class="secno">4.1 </span>Dependencies</h3>
                   1325:   <p>The <dfn id="messageport"><code>MessagePort</code></dfn> interface is defined in
                   1326:   the HTML specification. <a href="#refsHTML">[HTML]</a></p>
                   1327:   
                   1328: 
                   1329: 
                   1330:   <h3 id="the-global-scope"><span class="secno">4.2 </span>The global scope</h3>
                   1331: 
                   1332:   <p>The global scope is the "inside" of a worker.</p>
                   1333: 
                   1334:   <h4 id="the-workerglobalscope-common-interface"><span class="secno">4.2.1 </span>The <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> common interface</h4>
                   1335: 
                   1336:   <pre class="idl">interface <dfn id="workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</dfn> : <span>EventTarget</span> {
1.115     ihickson 1337:   readonly attribute <a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a> <a href="#dom-workerglobalscope-self" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-self">self</a>;
                   1338:   readonly attribute <a href="#workerlocation">WorkerLocation</a> <a href="#dom-workerglobalscope-location" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-location">location</a>;
                   1339: 
                   1340:   void <a href="#dom-workerglobalscope-close" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-close">close</a>();
1.332     ihickson 1341:            attribute <span>EventHandler</span> <a href="#handler-workerglobalscope-onerror" title="handler-WorkerGlobalScope-onerror">onerror</a>;
                   1342:            attribute <span>EventHandler</span> <a href="#handler-workerglobalscope-onoffline" title="handler-WorkerGlobalScope-onoffline">onoffline</a>;
                   1343:            attribute <span>EventHandler</span> <a href="#handler-workerglobalscope-ononline" title="handler-WorkerGlobalScope-ononline">ononline</a>;
1.357     ihickson 1344: };</pre>
1.327     ihickson 1345: 
1.362   ! ihickson 1346:   <p>The <dfn id="dom-workerglobalscope-self" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-self"><code>self</code></dfn> attribute must return the
        !          1347:   <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object itself.</p>
1.327     ihickson 1348: 
1.362   ! ihickson 1349:   <p>The <dfn id="dom-workerglobalscope-location" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-location"><code>location</code></dfn> attribute must
        !          1350:   return the <code><a href="#workerlocation">WorkerLocation</a></code> object created for the <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code>
        !          1351:   object when the worker was created. It represents the <span>absolute URL</span> of the script that
        !          1352:   was used to initialize the worker, after any redirects.</p>
1.327     ihickson 1353: 
                   1354:   <hr><p>When a script invokes the <dfn id="dom-workerglobalscope-close" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-close"><code>close()</code></dfn>
1.362   ! ihickson 1355:   method on a <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object, the user agent must run the following steps
        !          1356:   (atomically):</p>
1.327     ihickson 1357: 
1.362   ! ihickson 1358:   <ol><li><p>Discard any <span title="concept-task">tasks</span> that have been added to the
        !          1359:    <span>event loop</span>'s <span title="task queue">task queues</span>.</p>
1.123     ihickson 1360: 
1.81      ihickson 1361: 
1.318     ihickson 1362: 
1.362   ! ihickson 1363:    <li><p>Set the worker's <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object's <a href="#dom-workerglobalscope-closing" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-closing">closing</a> flag to true. (This prevents any further
        !          1364:    tasks from being queued.)</li>
1.81      ihickson 1365: 
1.362   ! ihickson 1366:   </ol><hr><p>The following are the <span>event handlers</span> (and their corresponding <span title="event
        !          1367:   handler event type">event handler event types</span>) that must be supported, as IDL attributes,
        !          1368:   by objects implementing the <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> interface:</p>
1.327     ihickson 1369: 
                   1370:   <table><thead><tr><th><span title="event handlers">Event handler</span> <th><span>Event handler event type</span>
1.281     ihickson 1371:    <tbody><tr><td><dfn id="handler-workerglobalscope-onerror" title="handler-WorkerGlobalScope-onerror"><code>onerror</code></dfn> <td> <code title="event-error">error</code>
1.289     ihickson 1372:     <tr><td><dfn id="handler-workerglobalscope-onoffline" title="handler-WorkerGlobalScope-onoffline"><code>onoffline</code></dfn> <td> <code title="event-offline">offline</code> 
                   1373:     <tr><td><dfn id="handler-workerglobalscope-ononline" title="handler-WorkerGlobalScope-ononline"><code>ononline</code></dfn> <td> <code title="event-online">online</code> 
1.339     ihickson 1374:   </table><hr><p>Each <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object has a <dfn id="worker-origin">worker
                   1375:   origin</dfn> that is set when the object is created.</p>
                   1376: 
                   1377:   <p class="note">For <span title="data protocol"><code title="">data:</code> URLs</span>, this is the <span>origin</span>
                   1378:   of the <span>entry script</span> that called the constructor. For
                   1379:   other <span title="URL">URLs</span>, this is the <span>origin</span>
                   1380:   of the value of the <span>absolute URL</span> given in the worker's
                   1381:   <code title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-location"><a href="#dom-workerglobalscope-location"></a></code> attribute.</p>
                   1382: 
                   1383: 
                   1384:   <h4 id="dedicated-workers-and-the-dedicatedworkerglobalscope-interface"><span class="secno">4.2.2 </span>Dedicated workers and the <code><a href="#dedicatedworkerglobalscope">DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope</a></code> interface</h4>
1.327     ihickson 1385: 
                   1386:   <pre class="idl">interface <dfn id="dedicatedworkerglobalscope">DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope</dfn> : <a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a> {
1.318     ihickson 1387:   void <a href="#dom-dedicatedworkerglobalscope-postmessage" title="dom-DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope-postMessage">postMessage</a>(any message, optional sequence&lt;<span>Transferable</span>&gt; transfer);
1.332     ihickson 1388:            attribute <span>EventHandler</span> <a href="#handler-dedicatedworkerglobalscope-onmessage" title="handler-DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope-onmessage">onmessage</a>;
1.327     ihickson 1389: };</pre>
                   1390: 
1.338     ihickson 1391:   <p>The <code><a href="#dedicatedworkerglobalscope">DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope</a></code> interface must only
                   1392:   be <span title="expose">exposed</span> if the <span>JavaScript
                   1393:   global environment</span> is a <span>dedicated worker
                   1394:   environment</span>.</p>
1.327     ihickson 1395: 
                   1396:   <p><code><a href="#dedicatedworkerglobalscope">DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope</a></code> objects act as if they
1.301     ihickson 1397:   had an implicit <code><a href="#messageport">MessagePort</a></code> associated with them. This
1.81      ihickson 1398:   port is part of a channel that is set up when the worker is created,
                   1399:   but it is not exposed. This object must never be garbage collected
1.327     ihickson 1400:   before the <code><a href="#dedicatedworkerglobalscope">DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object.</p>
                   1401: 
                   1402:   <p>All messages received by that port must immediately be retargeted
                   1403:   at the <code><a href="#dedicatedworkerglobalscope">DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object.</p>
                   1404: 
                   1405:   <p>The <dfn id="dom-dedicatedworkerglobalscope-postmessage" title="dom-DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope-postMessage"><code>postMessage()</code></dfn>
1.359     ihickson 1406:   method on <code><a href="#dedicatedworkerglobalscope">DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope</a></code> objects must act as if, when invoked, it
                   1407:   immediately invoked <span title="dom-MessagePort-postMessage">the method of the same name</span>
                   1408:   on the port, with the same arguments, and returned the same return value.</p>
                   1409: 
                   1410: 
1.327     ihickson 1411: 
                   1412:   <p>The following are the <span>event handlers</span> (and their
1.177     ihickson 1413:   corresponding <span title="event handler event type">event handler
                   1414:   event types</span>) that must be supported, as IDL attributes, by
                   1415:   objects implementing the <code><a href="#dedicatedworkerglobalscope">DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope</a></code>
1.327     ihickson 1416:   interface:</p>
                   1417: 
                   1418:   <table><thead><tr><th><span title="event handlers">Event handler</span> <th><span>Event handler event type</span>
1.155     ihickson 1419:    <tbody><tr><td><dfn id="handler-dedicatedworkerglobalscope-onmessage" title="handler-DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope-onmessage"><code>onmessage</code></dfn> <td> <code title="event-message">message</code>
1.191     ihickson 1420:   </table><p>For the purposes of the <span>application cache</span> networking
                   1421:   model, a dedicated worker is an extension of the <span>cache
1.327     ihickson 1422:   host</span> from which it was created.</p>
                   1423: 
                   1424: 
                   1425: 
                   1426:   <h4 id="shared-workers-and-the-sharedworkerglobalscope-interface"><span class="secno">4.2.3 </span>Shared workers and the <code><a href="#sharedworkerglobalscope">SharedWorkerGlobalScope</a></code> interface</h4>
                   1427: 
                   1428:   <pre class="idl">interface <dfn id="sharedworkerglobalscope">SharedWorkerGlobalScope</dfn> : <a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a> {
1.115     ihickson 1429:   readonly attribute DOMString <a href="#dom-sharedworkerglobalscope-name" title="dom-SharedWorkerGlobalScope-name">name</a>;
1.181     ihickson 1430:   readonly attribute <span>ApplicationCache</span> <span title="dom-SharedWorkerGlobalScope-applicationCache">applicationCache</span>;
1.332     ihickson 1431:            attribute <span>EventHandler</span> <a href="#handler-sharedworkerglobalscope-onconnect" title="handler-SharedWorkerGlobalScope-onconnect">onconnect</a>;
1.327     ihickson 1432: };</pre>
                   1433: 
1.338     ihickson 1434:   <p>The <code><a href="#sharedworkerglobalscope">SharedWorkerGlobalScope</a></code> interface must only be
                   1435:   <span title="expose">exposed</span> if the <span>JavaScript global
                   1436:   environment</span> is a <span>shared worker environment</span>.</p>
1.327     ihickson 1437: 
                   1438:   <p>Shared workers receive message ports through <code title="event-WorkerGlobalScope-connect">connect</code> events on
                   1439:   their global object for each connection.</p>
                   1440: 
                   1441:   <p>The <dfn id="dom-sharedworkerglobalscope-name" title="dom-SharedWorkerGlobalScope-name"><code>name</code></dfn>
1.81      ihickson 1442:   attribute must return the value it was assigned when the
1.115     ihickson 1443:   <code><a href="#sharedworkerglobalscope">SharedWorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object was created by the
                   1444:   "<a href="#run-a-worker">run a worker</a>" algorithm. Its value represents the name
1.81      ihickson 1445:   that can be used to obtain a reference to the worker using the
1.327     ihickson 1446:   <code><a href="#sharedworker">SharedWorker</a></code> constructor.</p>
                   1447: 
                   1448:   <p>The following are the <span>event handlers</span> (and their
1.177     ihickson 1449:   corresponding <span title="event handler event type">event handler
                   1450:   event types</span>) that must be supported, as IDL attributes, by
                   1451:   objects implementing the <code><a href="#sharedworkerglobalscope">SharedWorkerGlobalScope</a></code>
1.327     ihickson 1452:   interface:</p>
                   1453: 
                   1454:   <table><thead><tr><th><span title="event handlers">Event handler</span> <th><span>Event handler event type</span>
1.155     ihickson 1455:    <tbody><tr><td><dfn id="handler-sharedworkerglobalscope-onconnect" title="handler-SharedWorkerGlobalScope-onconnect"><code>onconnect</code></dfn> <td> <code title="event-connect">connect</code>
1.191     ihickson 1456:   </table><p>For the purposes of the <span>application cache</span> networking
                   1457:   model, a shared worker is its own <span>cache host</span>. The
                   1458:   <a href="#run-a-worker">run a worker</a> algorithm takes care of associating the
1.327     ihickson 1459:   worker with an <span>application cache</span>.</p>
                   1460: 
                   1461:   <p class="note">The <code title="dom-SharedWorkerGlobalScope-applicationCache">applicationCache</code>
1.123     ihickson 1462:   attribute returns the <code>ApplicationCache</code> object for the
1.327     ihickson 1463:   worker.</p>
                   1464: 
                   1465: 
1.334     ihickson 1466: 
1.339     ihickson 1467:   <h3 id="the-event-loop"><span class="secno">4.3 </span>The event loop</h3>
1.327     ihickson 1468: 
1.362   ! ihickson 1469:   <p>Each <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object has an <span>event loop</span> distinct from those
        !          1470:   defined for <span title="unit of related similar-origin browsing contexts">units of related
        !          1471:   similar-origin browsing contexts</span>. This <span>event loop</span> has no associated
        !          1472:   <span>browsing context</span>, and its <span title="task queue">task queues</span> only have
        !          1473:   events, callbacks, and networking activity as <span title="concept-task">tasks</span>. The
        !          1474:   processing model of these <span title="event loop">event loops</span> is defined below in the
1.327     ihickson 1475:   <a href="#run-a-worker">run a worker</a> algorithm.</p>
                   1476: 
1.362   ! ihickson 1477:   <p>Each <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object also has a <dfn id="dom-workerglobalscope-closing" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-closing">closing</dfn> flag, which must initially be false, but which
        !          1478:   can get set to true by the algorithms in the processing model section below.</p>
        !          1479: 
        !          1480:   <p>Once the <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code>'s <a href="#dom-workerglobalscope-closing" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-closing">closing</a> flag is set to true, the <span>event
        !          1481:   loop</span>'s <span title="task queue">task queues</span> must discard any further <span title="concept-task">tasks</span> that would be added to them (tasks already on the queue are
        !          1482:   unaffected except where otherwise specified). Effectively, once the <a href="#dom-workerglobalscope-closing" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-closing">closing</a> flag is true, timers stop firing,
        !          1483:   notifications for all pending asynchronous operations are dropped, etc.</p>
1.327     ihickson 1484: 
                   1485: 
                   1486: 
1.339     ihickson 1487:   <h3 id="the-worker-s-lifetime"><span class="secno">4.4 </span>The worker's lifetime</h3>
1.327     ihickson 1488: 
1.362   ! ihickson 1489:   <p>Workers communicate with other workers and with <span title="browsing context">browsing
        !          1490:   contexts</span> through <span title="channel messaging">message channels</span> and their
1.327     ihickson 1491:   <code><a href="#messageport">MessagePort</a></code> objects.</p>
                   1492: 
1.362   ! ihickson 1493:   <p>Each <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> <var title="">worker global scope</var> has a list of
        !          1494:   <dfn id="the-worker-s-ports">the worker's ports</dfn>, which consists of all the <code><a href="#messageport">MessagePort</a></code> objects that are
        !          1495:   entangled with another port and that have one (but only one) port owned by <var title="">worker
        !          1496:   global scope</var>. This list includes  the implicit
        !          1497:   <code><a href="#messageport">MessagePort</a></code> in the case of <a href="#dedicatedworkerglobalscope" title="DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope">dedicated
        !          1498:   workers</a>.</p>
        !          1499: 
        !          1500:   <p>Each <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> also has a list of <dfn id="the-worker-s-workers">the worker's workers</dfn>.
        !          1501:   Initially this list is empty; it is populated when the worker creates or obtains further
        !          1502:   workers.</p>
        !          1503: 
        !          1504:   <p>Finally, each <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> also has a list of <dfn id="the-worker-s-documents">the worker's
        !          1505:   <code>Document</code>s</dfn>. Initially this list is empty; it is populated when the worker is
        !          1506:   created.</p>
        !          1507: 
        !          1508:   <p>Whenever a <code>Document</code> <var title="">d</var> is <dfn id="add-a-document-to-the-worker-s-documents" title="add a document to the
        !          1509:   worker's documents">added to the worker's <code>Document</code>s</dfn>, the user agent must, for
        !          1510:   each worker <var title="">q</var> in the list of <a href="#the-worker-s-workers">the worker's workers</a> whose list of
        !          1511:   <a href="#the-worker-s-documents">the worker's <code>Document</code>s</a> does not contain <var title="">d</var>, <a href="#add-a-document-to-the-worker-s-documents" title="add a document to the worker's documents">add <var title="">d</var> to <var title="">q</var>'s <code>WorkerGlobalScope</code> owner's list of <span>the worker's
1.327     ihickson 1512:   <code>Document</code>s</span></a>.</p> 
                   1513: 
1.362   ! ihickson 1514:   <p>Whenever a <code>Document</code> object is <span title="discard a Document">discarded</span>,
        !          1515:   it must be removed from the list of <a href="#the-worker-s-documents">the worker's <code>Document</code>s</a> of each
        !          1516:   worker whose list contains that <code>Document</code>.</p>
        !          1517: 
        !          1518:   <p>Given a <span>script's global object</span> <var title="">o</var> when creating or obtaining a
        !          1519:   worker, the <dfn id="list-of-relevant-document-objects-to-add">list of relevant <code>Document</code> objects to add</dfn> depends on the type
        !          1520:   of <var title="">o</var>. If <var title="">o</var> is a <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object
        !          1521:   (i.e. if we are creating a nested worker), then the relevant <code>Document</code>s are the
        !          1522:   <code>Document</code>s that are in <var title="">o</var>'s own list of <a href="#the-worker-s-documents">the worker's
        !          1523:   <code>Document</code>s</a>. Otherwise, <var title="">o</var> is a <code>Window</code> object,
        !          1524:   and the relevant <code>Document</code> is just the <code>Document</code> that is the <span>active
        !          1525:   document</span> of the <code>Window</code> object <var title="">o</var>.</p>
        !          1526: 
        !          1527:   <hr><p>A worker is said to be a <dfn id="permissible-worker">permissible worker</dfn> if its list of <a href="#the-worker-s-documents">the worker's
        !          1528:   <code>Document</code>s</a> is not empty.</p>
        !          1529: 
        !          1530:   <p>A worker is said to be a <dfn id="protected-worker">protected worker</dfn> if it is a <a href="#permissible-worker">permissible worker</a>
        !          1531:   and either it has outstanding timers, database transactions, or network connections, or its list
        !          1532:   of <a href="#the-worker-s-ports">the worker's ports</a> is not empty, or its <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> is actually
        !          1533:   a <code><a href="#sharedworkerglobalscope">SharedWorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object (i.e. the worker is a shared worker).</p>
        !          1534: 
        !          1535:   <p>A worker is said to be an <dfn id="active-needed-worker">active needed worker</dfn> if any of the <code>Document</code>
        !          1536:   objects in <a href="#the-worker-s-documents">the worker's <code>Document</code>s</a> are <span>fully active</span>.</p>
        !          1537: 
        !          1538:   <p>A worker is said to be a <dfn id="suspendable-worker">suspendable worker</dfn> if it is not an <a href="#active-needed-worker">active needed
        !          1539:   worker</a> but it is a <a href="#permissible-worker">permissible worker</a>.</p>
1.327     ihickson 1540: 
                   1541: 
1.339     ihickson 1542:   <h3 id="processing-model"><span class="secno">4.5 </span>Processing model</h3>
1.327     ihickson 1543: 
1.362   ! ihickson 1544:   <p>When a user agent is to <dfn id="run-a-worker">run a worker</dfn> for a script with <span>URL</span> <var title="">url</var>, a <span>browsing context</span> <var title="">owner browsing context</var>, a
        !          1545:   <code>Document</code> <var title="">owner document</var>, an <span>origin</span> <var title="">owner origin</var>, and with global scope <var title="">worker global scope</var>, it
        !          1546:   must run the following steps:</p>
1.327     ihickson 1547: 
                   1548:   <ol><li>
1.81      ihickson 1549: 
1.362   ! ihickson 1550:     <p>Create a separate parallel execution environment (i.e. a separate thread or process or
        !          1551:     equivalent construct), and run the rest of these steps asynchronously in that context.</p>
1.81      ihickson 1552: 
                   1553:    </li>
1.4       ihickson 1554: 
1.101     ihickson 1555:    <li><p>If <var title="">worker global scope</var> is actually a
1.362   ! ihickson 1556:    <code><a href="#sharedworkerglobalscope">SharedWorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object (i.e. the worker is a shared worker), and there are
        !          1557:    any <span title="relevant application cache">relevant application caches</span> that are
        !          1558:    identified by a manifest URL with the <span>same origin</span> as <var title="">url</var> and
        !          1559:    that have <var title="">url</var> as one of their entries, <em>not</em> excluding entries marked
        !          1560:    as <span title="concept-appcache-foreign">foreign</span>, then associate the <var title="">worker
        !          1561:    global scope</var> with the <span title="concept-appcache-selection">most appropriate application
1.101     ihickson 1562:    cache</span> of those that match.</li>
                   1563: 
1.4       ihickson 1564:    <li>
1.52      ihickson 1565: 
1.362   ! ihickson 1566:     <p>Attempt to <span>fetch</span> the resource identified by <var title="">url</var>,
        !          1567:     from the <var title="">owner origin</var>, using <var title="">owner document</var> as the
        !          1568:     <span>referrer source</span>, with the <i>synchronous flag</i> set and the <i>force same-origin
        !          1569:     flag</i> set.</p> 
        !          1570: 
        !          1571:     <p>If the attempt fails, then for each <code><a href="#worker">Worker</a></code> or <code><a href="#sharedworker">SharedWorker</a></code> object
        !          1572:     associated with <var title="">worker global scope</var>, <span>queue a task</span> to <span>fire
        !          1573:     a simple event</span> named <code title="event-error">error</code> at that object. Abort these
1.256     ihickson 1574:     steps.</p>
1.7       ihickson 1575: 
1.362   ! ihickson 1576:     <p>If the attempt succeeds, then let <var title="">source</var> be the script resource
        !          1577:     <span>decoded as UTF-8, with error handling</span>.
1.264     ihickson 1578:     
                   1579:     <a href="#refsHTML">[HTML]</a>
                   1580:     
                   1581:     </p>
1.81      ihickson 1582: 
1.68      ihickson 1583:     <p>Let <var title="">language</var> be JavaScript.</p>
1.7       ihickson 1584: 
1.362   ! ihickson 1585:     <p class="note">As with <code>script</code> elements, the MIME type of the script is ignored.
        !          1586:     Unlike with <code>script</code> elements, there is no way to override the type. It's always
1.170     ihickson 1587:     assumed to be JavaScript.</p>
1.81      ihickson 1588: 
                   1589:    </li>
1.7       ihickson 1590: 
1.362   ! ihickson 1591:    <li><p>In the newly created execution environment, create a <span>JavaScript global
        !          1592:    environment</span> whose <i>global object</i> is <var title="">worker global scope</var>. If <var title="">worker global scope</var> is a <code><a href="#dedicatedworkerglobalscope">DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object, then this
        !          1593:    is a <span>dedicated worker environment</span>. Otherwise, <var title="">worker global
        !          1594:    scope</var> is a <code><a href="#sharedworkerglobalscope">SharedWorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object, and this is a <span>shared worker
        !          1595:    environment</span>. (In either case, by definition, it is a <span>worker
        !          1596:    environment</span>.)</li>
1.338     ihickson 1597: 
1.7       ihickson 1598:    <li>
1.68      ihickson 1599: 
1.362   ! ihickson 1600:     <p>A new <span title="concept-script">script</span> is now created, as follows.</p>
        !          1601: 
        !          1602:     <p>Create a new <span>script execution environment</span> set up as appropriate for the
        !          1603:     scripting language <var title="">language</var>.</p>
        !          1604: 
        !          1605:     <p>Parse/compile/initialize <var title="">source</var> using that <span>script execution
        !          1606:     environment</span>, as appropriate for <var title="">language</var>, and thus obtain a
        !          1607:     <span>list of code entry-points</span>; set the <i>initial code entry-point</i> to the
        !          1608:     entry-point for any executable code to be immediately run.</p>
1.81      ihickson 1609: 
                   1610:     <p>Set the <span>script's global object</span> to <var title="">worker global scope</var>.</p>
                   1611: 
1.362   ! ihickson 1612:     <p>Set the <span>script's browsing context</span> to <var title="">owner browsing
        !          1613:     context</var>.</p>
1.81      ihickson 1614: 
1.362   ! ihickson 1615:     <p>Set the <span>script's document</span> to <var title="">owner document</var>.</p>
1.232     ihickson 1616: 
1.341     ihickson 1617:     <p>Set the <span>script's referrer source</span> to <var title="">url</var>.</p>
                   1618: 
1.362   ! ihickson 1619:     <p>Set the <span>script's URL character encoding</span> to UTF-8. (This is just used for
        !          1620:     encoding non-ASCII characters in the query component of URLs.)</p>
1.68      ihickson 1621: 
                   1622:     <p>Set the <span>script's base URL</span> to <var title="">url</var>.</p>
1.4       ihickson 1623: 
1.81      ihickson 1624:    </li>
1.4       ihickson 1625: 
                   1626:    <li>
1.81      ihickson 1627: 
1.362   ! ihickson 1628:     <p><strong>Closing orphan workers</strong>: Start monitoring the worker such that no sooner than
        !          1629:     it stops being either a <a href="#protected-worker">protected worker</a> or a <a href="#suspendable-worker">suspendable worker</a>, and
        !          1630:     no later than it stops being a <a href="#permissible-worker">permissible worker</a>, <var title="">worker global
        !          1631:     scope</var>'s <a href="#dom-workerglobalscope-closing" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-closing">closing</a> flag is set to true.</p>
1.81      ihickson 1632: 
                   1633:    </li>
1.9       ihickson 1634: 
                   1635:    <li>
1.7       ihickson 1636: 
1.362   ! ihickson 1637:     <p><strong>Suspending workers</strong>: Start monitoring the worker, such that whenever <var title="">worker global scope</var>'s <a href="#dom-workerglobalscope-closing" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-closing">closing</a>
        !          1638:     flag is false and the worker is a <a href="#suspendable-worker">suspendable worker</a>, the user agent suspends
        !          1639:     execution of script in that worker until such time as either the <a href="#dom-workerglobalscope-closing" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-closing">closing</a> flag switches to true or the worker stops
        !          1640:     being a <a href="#suspendable-worker">suspendable worker</a>.</p>
1.4       ihickson 1641: 
1.81      ihickson 1642:    </li>
1.68      ihickson 1643: 
                   1644:    <li>
1.4       ihickson 1645: 
1.362   ! ihickson 1646:     <p><span title="jump to a code entry-point">Jump</span> to the <span title="concept-script">script</span>'s <i>initial code entry-point</i>, and let that run until
        !          1647:     it either returns, fails to catch an exception, or gets prematurely aborted by the "<a href="#kill-a-worker">kill a
        !          1648:     worker</a>" or "<a href="#terminate-a-worker">terminate a worker</a>" algorithms defined below.</p>
1.81      ihickson 1649: 
1.4       ihickson 1650: 
1.318     ihickson 1651: 
1.81      ihickson 1652:    </li>
1.4       ihickson 1653: 
1.95      ihickson 1654:    <li><p>If <var title="">worker global scope</var> is actually a
1.362   ! ihickson 1655:    <code><a href="#dedicatedworkerglobalscope">DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object (i.e. the worker is a dedicated worker), then
        !          1656:    enable the <span>port message queue</span> of the worker's implicit port.</li>
1.95      ihickson 1657: 
1.4       ihickson 1658:    <li>
1.68      ihickson 1659: 
1.362   ! ihickson 1660:     <p><i title="">Event loop</i>: Wait until either there is a <span title="concept-task">task</span> in one of the <span>event loop</span>'s <span title="task
        !          1661:     queue">task queues</span> or <var title="">worker global scope</var>'s <a href="#dom-workerglobalscope-closing" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-closing">closing</a> flag is set to true.</p>
1.43      ihickson 1662: 
1.81      ihickson 1663:    </li>
1.4       ihickson 1664: 
                   1665:    <li>
                   1666: 
1.362   ! ihickson 1667:     <p>Run the oldest task on one of the <span>event loop</span>'s <span title="task queue">task
        !          1668:     queues</span>, if any. The user agent may pick any <span>task queue</span>.</p>
1.81      ihickson 1669: 
1.362   ! ihickson 1670:     <p class="note">The handling of events or the execution of callbacks might get prematurely
        !          1671:     aborted by the "<a href="#kill-a-worker">kill a worker</a>" or "<a href="#terminate-a-worker">terminate a worker</a>" algorithms
1.81      ihickson 1672:     defined below.</p>
1.8       ihickson 1673: 
1.81      ihickson 1674:    </li>
1.4       ihickson 1675: 
                   1676:    <li>
                   1677: 
1.362   ! ihickson 1678:     <p>If the <span>storage mutex</span> is now owned by the worker's <span>event loop</span>,
        !          1679:     release it so that it is once again free.</p>
1.248     ihickson 1680: 
                   1681:    </li>
                   1682: 
                   1683:    <li>
                   1684: 
1.362   ! ihickson 1685:     <p>Remove the task just run in the earlier step, if any, from its <span>task queue</span>.</p>
1.4       ihickson 1686: 
1.81      ihickson 1687:    </li>
1.4       ihickson 1688: 
                   1689:    <li>
1.8       ihickson 1690: 
1.362   ! ihickson 1691:     <p>If there are any more events in the <span>event loop</span>'s <span title="task queue">task
        !          1692:     queues</span> or if <var title="">worker global scope</var>'s <a href="#dom-workerglobalscope-closing" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-closing">closing</a> flag is set to false, then jump back to the
        !          1693:     step above labeled <i>event loop</i>.</p>
1.8       ihickson 1694: 
1.81      ihickson 1695:    </li>
1.8       ihickson 1696: 
                   1697:    <li>
1.71      ihickson 1698: 
1.362   ! ihickson 1699:     <p>Empty the <var title="">worker global scope</var>'s <span>list of active timers</span>.</p>
1.50      ihickson 1700: 
1.81      ihickson 1701:    </li>
1.50      ihickson 1702: 
1.247     ihickson 1703:    <li>
                   1704: 
1.362   ! ihickson 1705:     <p>Disentangle all the ports in the list of <a href="#the-worker-s-ports">the worker's ports</a>.</p>
1.247     ihickson 1706: 
                   1707:    </li>
                   1708: 
1.318     ihickson 1709: 
1.362   ! ihickson 1710:   </ol><hr><p>When a user agent is to <dfn id="kill-a-worker">kill a worker</dfn> it must run the following steps in parallel
        !          1711:   with the worker's main loop (the "<a href="#run-a-worker">run a worker</a>" processing model defined above):</p>
1.327     ihickson 1712: 
1.362   ! ihickson 1713:   <ol><li><p>Set the worker's <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object's <a href="#dom-workerglobalscope-closing" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-closing">closing</a> flag to true.</li>
1.81      ihickson 1714: 
                   1715: 
1.318     ihickson 1716: 
1.362   ! ihickson 1717:    <li><p>If there are any <span title="concept-task">tasks</span> queued in the <span>event
        !          1718:    loop</span>'s <span title="task queue">task queues</span>, discard them
        !          1719:    without processing them.</li>
1.281     ihickson 1720: 
1.81      ihickson 1721: 
1.318     ihickson 1722: 
1.81      ihickson 1723:    <li><p>Wait a user-agent-defined amount of time.</li>
                   1724: 
1.281     ihickson 1725:    <li><p>Abort the script currently running in the worker.</li>
1.81      ihickson 1726: 
1.362   ! ihickson 1727:   </ol><p>User agents may invoke the "<a href="#kill-a-worker">kill a worker</a>" processing model on a worker at any
        !          1728:   time, e.g. in response to user requests, in response to CPU quota management, or when a worker
        !          1729:   stops being an <a href="#active-needed-worker">active needed worker</a> if the worker continues executing even after its
        !          1730:   <a href="#dom-workerglobalscope-closing" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-closing">closing</a> flag was set to true.</p>
        !          1731: 
        !          1732:   <hr><p>When a user agent is to <dfn id="terminate-a-worker">terminate a worker</dfn> it must run the following steps in
        !          1733:   parallel with the worker's main loop (the "<a href="#run-a-worker">run a worker</a>" processing model defined
        !          1734:   above):</p>
        !          1735: 
        !          1736:   <ol><li><p>Set the worker's <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object's <a href="#dom-workerglobalscope-closing" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-closing">closing</a> flag to true.</li>
        !          1737: 
        !          1738:    <li><p>If there are any <span title="concept-task">tasks</span> queued in the <span>event
        !          1739:    loop</span>'s <span title="task queue">task queues</span>, discard them without processing
1.81      ihickson 1740:    them.</li>
                   1741: 
                   1742:    <li><p>Abort the script currently running in the worker.</li>
                   1743: 
1.362   ! ihickson 1744:    <li><p>If the worker's <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object is actually a
        !          1745:    <code><a href="#dedicatedworkerglobalscope">DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object (i.e. the worker is a dedicated worker), then
        !          1746:    empty the <span>port message queue</span> of the port that the worker's implicit port is
1.81      ihickson 1747:    entangled with.</li>
                   1748: 
1.362   ! ihickson 1749:   </ol><hr><p>The <span>task source</span> for the tasks mentioned above is the <span>DOM manipulation task
        !          1750:   source</span>.</p>
1.327     ihickson 1751: 
                   1752: 
1.339     ihickson 1753:   <h3 id="runtime-script-errors"><span class="secno">4.6 </span>Runtime script errors</h3>
1.327     ihickson 1754: 
1.352     ihickson 1755:   <p>Whenever an uncaught runtime script error occurs in one of the worker's scripts, if the error
                   1756:   did not occur while handling a previous script error, the user agent must <span>report the
                   1757:   error</span> for that <span title="concept-script">script</span>, with the position (line number
                   1758:   and column number) where the error occurred, using the <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object's
                   1759:   <code title="handler-WorkerGlobalScope-onerror"><a href="#handler-workerglobalscope-onerror">onerror</a></code> attribute.
1.205     ihickson 1760:   
1.226     ihickson 1761:   <a href="#refsHTML">[HTML]</a>
1.205     ihickson 1762:   
1.327     ihickson 1763:   </p>
                   1764: 
1.362   ! ihickson 1765:   <p>For shared workers, if the error is still <i title="concept-error-nothandled">not handled</i>
        !          1766:   afterwards, or if the error occurred while handling a previous script error, the error may be
        !          1767:   reported to the user.
1.205     ihickson 1768:   
1.226     ihickson 1769:   <a href="#refsHTML">[HTML]</a>
1.205     ihickson 1770:   
1.327     ihickson 1771:   </p>
                   1772: 
1.347     ihickson 1773:   <p>For dedicated workers, if the error is still <i title="concept-error-nothandled">not
                   1774:   handled</i> afterwards, or if the error occurred while handling a previous script error, the user
                   1775:   agent must <span>queue a task</span> to <span title="concept-event-fire">fire</span> a <span title="concept-events-trusted">trusted</span> event that uses the <code><a href="#errorevent">ErrorEvent</a></code>
                   1776:   interface, with the name <code title="event-error">error</code>, that doesn't bubble and is
                   1777:   cancelable, with its <code title="dom-ErrorEvent-message"><a href="#dom-errorevent-message">message</a></code>, <code title="dom-ErrorEvent-filename"><a href="#dom-errorevent-filename">filename</a></code>, <code title="dom-ErrorEvent-lineno"><a href="#dom-errorevent-lineno">lineno</a></code>, and <code title="dom-ErrorEvent-column"><a href="#dom-errorevent-column">column</a></code>
                   1778:   attributes initialized appropriately, at the <code><a href="#worker">Worker</a></code> object associated with the
                   1779:   worker. If the event is not canceled, the user agent must act as if the uncaught runtime script
                   1780:   error had occurred in the global scope that the <code><a href="#worker">Worker</a></code> object is in, thus repeating
                   1781:   the entire runtime script error reporting process one level up.</p>
1.327     ihickson 1782: 
1.362   ! ihickson 1783:   <p>If the implicit port connecting the worker to its <code><a href="#worker">Worker</a></code> object has been
        !          1784:   disentangled (i.e. if the parent worker has been terminated), then the user agent must act as if
        !          1785:   the <code><a href="#worker">Worker</a></code> object had no <code title="event-error">error</code> event handler and as
        !          1786:   if that worker's <code title="handler-WorkerGlobalScope-onerror"><a href="#handler-workerglobalscope-onerror">onerror</a></code> attribute was
        !          1787:   null, but must otherwise act as described above.</p>
        !          1788: 
        !          1789:   <p class="note">Thus, error reports propagate up to the chain of dedicated workers up to the
        !          1790:   original <code>Document</code>, even if some of the workers along this chain have been terminated
        !          1791:   and garbage collected.</p>
1.327     ihickson 1792: 
1.362   ! ihickson 1793:   <p>The <span>task source</span> for the task mentioned above is the <span>DOM manipulation task
        !          1794:   source</span>.</p>
1.327     ihickson 1795: 
                   1796:   <hr><pre class="idl">[Constructor(DOMString type, optional <a href="#erroreventinit">ErrorEventInit</a> eventInitDict)]
1.307     ihickson 1797: interface <dfn id="errorevent">ErrorEvent</dfn> : <span>Event</span> {
1.147     ihickson 1798:   readonly attribute DOMString <a href="#dom-errorevent-message" title="dom-ErrorEvent-message">message</a>;
                   1799:   readonly attribute DOMString <a href="#dom-errorevent-filename" title="dom-ErrorEvent-filename">filename</a>;
1.115     ihickson 1800:   readonly attribute unsigned long <a href="#dom-errorevent-lineno" title="dom-ErrorEvent-lineno">lineno</a>;
1.343     ihickson 1801:   readonly attribute unsigned long <a href="#dom-errorevent-column" title="dom-ErrorEvent-column">column</a>;
1.307     ihickson 1802: };
                   1803: 
                   1804: dictionary <dfn id="erroreventinit">ErrorEventInit</dfn> : <span>EventInit</span> {
                   1805:   DOMString message;
                   1806:   DOMString filename;
                   1807:   unsigned long lineno;
1.343     ihickson 1808:   unsigned long column;
1.327     ihickson 1809: };</pre>
                   1810: 
                   1811:   <p>The <dfn id="dom-errorevent-message" title="dom-ErrorEvent-message"><code>message</code></dfn> attribute
1.307     ihickson 1812:   must return the value it was initialized to. When the object is
                   1813:   created, this attribute must be initialized to the empty string. It
1.327     ihickson 1814:   represents the error message.</p>
                   1815: 
                   1816:   <p>The <dfn id="dom-errorevent-filename" title="dom-ErrorEvent-filename"><code>filename</code></dfn>
1.307     ihickson 1817:   attribute must return the value it was initialized to. When the
                   1818:   object is created, this attribute must be initialized to the empty
                   1819:   string. It represents the <span>absolute URL</span> of the script in
1.327     ihickson 1820:   which the error originally occurred.</p>
                   1821: 
                   1822:   <p>The <dfn id="dom-errorevent-lineno" title="dom-ErrorEvent-lineno"><code>lineno</code></dfn>
1.307     ihickson 1823:   attribute must return the value it was initialized to. When the
                   1824:   object is created, this attribute must be initialized to zero. It
                   1825:   represents the line number where the error occurred in the
1.327     ihickson 1826:   script.</p>
                   1827: 
1.343     ihickson 1828:   <p>The <dfn id="dom-errorevent-column" title="dom-ErrorEvent-column"><code>column</code></dfn>
                   1829:   attribute must return the value it was initialized to. When the
                   1830:   object is created, this attribute must be initialized to zero. It
                   1831:   represents the column number where the error occurred in the
                   1832:   script.</p>
                   1833: 
1.327     ihickson 1834: 
                   1835: 
1.339     ihickson 1836:   <h3 id="creating-workers"><span class="secno">4.7 </span>Creating workers</h3>
1.327     ihickson 1837: 
1.339     ihickson 1838:   <h4 id="the-abstractworker-abstract-interface"><span class="secno">4.7.1 </span>The <code><a href="#abstractworker">AbstractWorker</a></code> abstract interface</h4>
1.327     ihickson 1839: 
                   1840:   <pre class="idl">[NoInterfaceObject]
1.317     ihickson 1841: interface <dfn id="abstractworker">AbstractWorker</dfn> {
1.332     ihickson 1842:            attribute <span>EventHandler</span> <a href="#handler-abstractworker-onerror" title="handler-AbstractWorker-onerror">onerror</a>;
1.318     ihickson 1843: 
1.327     ihickson 1844: };</pre>
                   1845: 
                   1846:   <p>The following are the <span>event handlers</span> (and their
1.177     ihickson 1847:   corresponding <span title="event handler event type">event handler
                   1848:   event types</span>) that must be supported, as IDL attributes, by
1.327     ihickson 1849:   objects implementing the <code><a href="#abstractworker">AbstractWorker</a></code> interface:</p>
                   1850: 
                   1851:   <table><thead><tr><th><span title="event handlers">Event handler</span> <th><span>Event handler event type</span>
1.155     ihickson 1852:    <tbody><tr><td><dfn id="handler-abstractworker-onerror" title="handler-AbstractWorker-onerror"><code>onerror</code></dfn> <td> <code title="event-error">error</code>
1.318     ihickson 1853: 
1.339     ihickson 1854:   </table><h4 id="dedicated-workers-and-the-worker-interface"><span class="secno">4.7.2 </span>Dedicated workers and the <code><a href="#worker">Worker</a></code> interface</h4>
1.327     ihickson 1855: 
                   1856:   <pre class="idl">[<a href="#dom-worker" title="dom-Worker">Constructor</a>(DOMString scriptURL)]
1.317     ihickson 1857: interface <dfn id="worker">Worker</dfn> : <span>EventTarget</span> {
1.115     ihickson 1858:   void <a href="#dom-worker-terminate" title="dom-Worker-terminate">terminate</a>();
1.50      ihickson 1859: 
1.318     ihickson 1860:   void <a href="#dom-worker-postmessage" title="dom-Worker-postMessage">postMessage</a>(any message, optional sequence&lt;<span>Transferable</span>&gt; transfer);
1.332     ihickson 1861:            attribute <span>EventHandler</span> <a href="#handler-worker-onmessage" title="handler-Worker-onmessage">onmessage</a>;
1.317     ihickson 1862: };
1.327     ihickson 1863: <a href="#worker">Worker</a> implements <a href="#abstractworker">AbstractWorker</a>;</pre>
                   1864: 
                   1865:   <p>The <dfn id="dom-worker-terminate" title="dom-Worker-terminate"><code>terminate()</code></dfn> method,
1.115     ihickson 1866:   when invoked, must cause the "<a href="#terminate-a-worker">terminate a worker</a>"
1.81      ihickson 1867:   algorithm to be run on the worker with with the object is
1.327     ihickson 1868:   associated.</p>
                   1869: 
                   1870:   <p><code><a href="#worker">Worker</a></code> objects act as if they had an implicit
1.301     ihickson 1871:   <code><a href="#messageport">MessagePort</a></code> associated with them. This port is part of
1.81      ihickson 1872:   a channel that is set up when the worker is created, but it is not
                   1873:   exposed. This object must never be garbage collected before the
1.327     ihickson 1874:   <code><a href="#worker">Worker</a></code> object.</p>
                   1875: 
                   1876:   <p>All messages received by that port must immediately be retargeted
                   1877:   at the <code><a href="#worker">Worker</a></code> object.</p>
                   1878: 
1.359     ihickson 1879:   <p>The <dfn id="dom-worker-postmessage" title="dom-Worker-postMessage"><code>postMessage()</code></dfn> method on
                   1880:   <code><a href="#worker">Worker</a></code> objects must act as if, when invoked, it immediately invoked <span title="dom-MessagePort-postMessage">the method of the same name</span> on the port, with the same
                   1881:   arguments, and returned the same return value.</p>
                   1882: 
                   1883: 
1.327     ihickson 1884: 
                   1885:   <div class="example">
1.319     ihickson 1886: 
                   1887:    <p>The <code title="dom-Worker-postMessage"><a href="#dom-worker-postmessage">postMessage()</a></code>
                   1888:    method's first argument can be structured data:</p>
                   1889: 
                   1890:    <pre>worker.postMessage({opcode: 'activate', device: 1938, parameters: [23, 102]});</pre>
                   1891: 
1.327     ihickson 1892:   </div>
                   1893: 
                   1894:   <p>The following are the <span>event handlers</span> (and their
1.177     ihickson 1895:   corresponding <span title="event handler event type">event handler
                   1896:   event types</span>) that must be supported, as IDL attributes, by
1.327     ihickson 1897:   objects implementing the <code><a href="#worker">Worker</a></code> interface:</p>
                   1898: 
                   1899:   <table><thead><tr><th><span title="event handlers">Event handler</span> <th><span>Event handler event type</span>
1.155     ihickson 1900:    <tbody><tr><td><dfn id="handler-worker-onmessage" title="handler-Worker-onmessage"><code>onmessage</code></dfn> <td> <code title="event-message">message</code>
                   1901:   </table><hr><p>When the <dfn id="dom-worker" title="dom-Worker"><code>Worker(<var title="">scriptURL</var>)</code></dfn> constructor is invoked, the
1.327     ihickson 1902:   user agent must run the following steps:</p>
                   1903: 
1.349     ihickson 1904:   <ol><li><p>The user agent may throw a <code>SecurityError</code> exception and abort these steps if
                   1905:    the request violates a policy decision (e.g. if the user agent is configured to not allow the
                   1906:    page to start dedicated workers).</li>
                   1907: 
                   1908:    <li><p><span title="resolve a url">Resolve</span> the <var title="">scriptURL</var> argument relative to the <span>entry
1.133     ihickson 1909:    script</span>'s <span title="script's base URL">base URL</span>,
                   1910:    when the method is invoked.</li>
1.9       ihickson 1911: 
1.309     ihickson 1912:    <li><p>If this fails, throw a <code>SyntaxError</code>
1.81      ihickson 1913:    exception.</li>
1.9       ihickson 1914: 
1.167     ihickson 1915:    <li>
                   1916: 
1.339     ihickson 1917:     <p>If the <span title="url-scheme">&lt;scheme&gt;</span> component of
                   1918:     the resulting <span>absolute URL</span> is not "<code title="data-protocol">data</code>", and the <span>origin</span> of
                   1919:     the resulting <span>absolute URL</span> is not the <span title="same origin">same</span> as the origin of the <span>entry
                   1920:     script</span>, then throw a <code>SecurityError</code> exception
                   1921:     and abort these steps.</p>
1.167     ihickson 1922: 
1.334     ihickson 1923:     <p class="note">Thus, scripts must either be external files with
1.339     ihickson 1924:     the same scheme, host, and port as the original page, or <span title="data protocol"><code title="">data:</code> URLs</span>. For
                   1925:     example, you can't load a script from a <span title="javascript
                   1926:     protocol"><code title="">javascript:</code> URL</span>, and an
                   1927:     <code>http:</code> page couldn't start workers using scripts with
                   1928:     <code>http:</code> URLs.</p>
1.167     ihickson 1929: 
                   1930:    </li>
1.9       ihickson 1931: 
1.339     ihickson 1932:    <li><p>Create a new <code><a href="#dedicatedworkerglobalscope">DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object
                   1933:    whose <a href="#worker-origin">worker origin</a> is the origin of the <span>entry
                   1934:    script</span>. Let <var title="">worker global scope</var> be this
                   1935:    new object.</li>
1.9       ihickson 1936: 
1.115     ihickson 1937:    <li><p>Create a new <code><a href="#worker">Worker</a></code> object, associated with
1.81      ihickson 1938:    <var title="">worker global scope</var>. Let <var title="">worker</var> be this new object.</li>
1.50      ihickson 1939: 
1.301     ihickson 1940:    <li><p><span>Create a new <code><a href="#messageport">MessagePort</a></code> object</span>
1.192     ihickson 1941:    owned by the <span title="script's global object">global
                   1942:    object</span> of the <span title="concept-script">script</span> that
1.185     ihickson 1943:    invoked the constructor. Let this be the <var title="">outside
1.81      ihickson 1944:    port</var>.</li>
1.9       ihickson 1945: 
1.81      ihickson 1946:    <li><p>Associate the <var title="">outside port</var> with <var title="">worker</var>.</li>
1.50      ihickson 1947: 
1.301     ihickson 1948:    <li><p><span>Create a new <code><a href="#messageport">MessagePort</a></code> object</span>
1.185     ihickson 1949:    owned by <var title="">worker global scope</var>. Let <var title="">inside port</var> be this new object.</li>
1.50      ihickson 1950: 
1.81      ihickson 1951:    <li><p>Associate <var title="">inside port</var> with <var title="">worker global scope</var>.</li>
1.50      ihickson 1952: 
1.81      ihickson 1953:    <li><p><span>Entangle</span> <var title="">outside port</var> and
                   1954:    <var title="">inside port</var>.</li>
1.50      ihickson 1955: 
1.81      ihickson 1956:    <li><p>Return <var title="">worker</var>, and run the following
                   1957:    steps asynchronously.</li>
1.50      ihickson 1958: 
                   1959: 
1.318     ihickson 1960: 
1.126     ihickson 1961:    <li><p>Enable <var title="">outside port</var>'s <span>port message
1.81      ihickson 1962:    queue</span>.</li>
1.50      ihickson 1963: 
                   1964:    <li>
1.51      ihickson 1965: 
1.123     ihickson 1966:     <p>Let <var title="">docs</var> be the <a href="#list-of-relevant-document-objects-to-add">list of relevant
1.192     ihickson 1967:     <code>Document</code> objects to add</a> given the <span title="script's global object">global object</span> of the <span title="concept-script">script</span> that invoked the
1.123     ihickson 1968:     constructor.</p>
                   1969: 
                   1970:    </li>
                   1971: 
                   1972:    <li>
                   1973: 
                   1974:     <p><a href="#add-a-document-to-the-worker-s-documents" title="add a document to the worker's documents">Add to
                   1975:     <var title="">worker global scope</var>'s list of <span>the
                   1976:     worker's <code>Document</code>s</span></a> the
                   1977:     <code>Document</code> objects in <var title="">docs</var>.</p>
                   1978: 
                   1979:    </li>
                   1980: 
                   1981:    <li>
                   1982: 
1.192     ihickson 1983:     <p>If the <span title="script's global object">global object</span>
1.124     ihickson 1984:     of the <span title="concept-script">script</span> that invoked the
                   1985:     constructor is a <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object (i.e. we
                   1986:     are creating a nested worker), add <var title="">worker global
                   1987:     scope</var> to the list of <a href="#the-worker-s-workers">the worker's workers</a> of the
1.192     ihickson 1988:     <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object that is the <span title="script's global object">global object</span> of the <span title="concept-script">script</span> that invoked the
1.124     ihickson 1989:     constructor.</p>
                   1990: 
                   1991:    </li>
                   1992: 
                   1993:    <li>
                   1994: 
1.115     ihickson 1995:     <p><a href="#run-a-worker">Run a worker</a> for the resulting <span>absolute
1.193     ihickson 1996:     URL</span>, with the <span>script's browsing context</span> of the
1.81      ihickson 1997:     script that invoked the method as the <var title="">owner browsing
1.232     ihickson 1998:     context</var>, with the <span>script's document</span> of the
                   1999:     script that invoked the method as the <var title="">owner
                   2000:     document</var>, with the <span>origin</span> of the <span>entry
1.176     ihickson 2001:     script</span> as the <var title="">owner origin</var>, and with
                   2002:     <var title="">worker global scope</var> as the global scope.</p>
1.9       ihickson 2003: 
1.81      ihickson 2004:    </li>
1.4       ihickson 2005: 
1.155     ihickson 2006:   </ol><p>This constructor must be visible when the <span>script's global
1.192     ihickson 2007:   object</span> is either a <code>Window</code> object or an object
1.357     ihickson 2008:   implementing the <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> interface.</p>
1.327     ihickson 2009: 
                   2010: 
1.339     ihickson 2011:   <h4 id="shared-workers-and-the-sharedworker-interface"><span class="secno">4.7.3 </span>Shared workers and the <code><a href="#sharedworker">SharedWorker</a></code> interface</h4>
1.327     ihickson 2012: 
                   2013:   <pre class="idl">[<a href="#dom-sharedworker" title="dom-SharedWorker">Constructor</a>(DOMString scriptURL, optional DOMString name)]
1.317     ihickson 2014: interface <dfn id="sharedworker">SharedWorker</dfn> : <span>EventTarget</span> {
1.301     ihickson 2015:   readonly attribute <a href="#messageport">MessagePort</a> <a href="#dom-sharedworker-port" title="dom-SharedWorker-port">port</a>;
1.317     ihickson 2016: };
1.327     ihickson 2017: <a href="#sharedworker">SharedWorker</a> implements <a href="#abstractworker">AbstractWorker</a>;</pre>
                   2018: 
                   2019:   <p>The <dfn id="dom-sharedworker-port" title="dom-SharedWorker-port"><code>port</code></dfn>
1.81      ihickson 2020:   attribute must return the value it was assigned by the object's
1.301     ihickson 2021:   constructor. It represents the <code><a href="#messageport">MessagePort</a></code> for
1.327     ihickson 2022:   communicating with the shared worker.</p>
                   2023: 
                   2024:   <p>When the <dfn id="dom-sharedworker" title="dom-SharedWorker"><code>SharedWorker(<var title="">scriptURL</var>, <var title="">name</var>)</code></dfn>
1.81      ihickson 2025:   constructor is invoked, the user agent must run the following
1.327     ihickson 2026:   steps:</p>
                   2027: 
1.349     ihickson 2028:   <ol><li><p>The user agent may throw a <code>SecurityError</code> exception and abort these steps if
                   2029:    the request violates a policy decision (e.g. if the user agent is configured to not allow the
                   2030:    page to start shared workers).</li>
                   2031: 
                   2032:    <li><p><span title="resolve a url">Resolve</span> the <var title="">scriptURL</var> argument.</li>
1.81      ihickson 2033: 
1.309     ihickson 2034:    <li><p>If this fails, throw a <code>SyntaxError</code>
1.81      ihickson 2035:    exception.</li>
                   2036: 
1.159     ihickson 2037:    <li><p>Otherwise, let <var title="">scriptURL</var> be the
                   2038:    resulting <span>absolute URL</span>.</li>
                   2039: 
                   2040:    <li><p>Let <var title="">name</var> be the value of the second
1.164     ihickson 2041:    argument, or the empty string if the second argument was
                   2042:    omitted.</li>
1.159     ihickson 2043: 
1.167     ihickson 2044:    <li>
                   2045: 
1.339     ihickson 2046:     <p>If the <span title="url-scheme">&lt;scheme&gt;</span> component of
                   2047:     <var title="">scriptURL</var> is not "<code title="data-protocol">data</code>", and the <span>origin</span> of
                   2048:     <var title="">scriptURL</var> is not the <span title="same
                   2049:     origin">same</span> as the origin of the <span>entry
                   2050:     script</span>, then throw a <code>SecurityError</code> exception
                   2051:     and abort these steps.</p>
1.167     ihickson 2052: 
1.334     ihickson 2053:     <p class="note">Thus, scripts must either be external files with
1.339     ihickson 2054:     the same scheme, host, and port as the original page, or <span title="data protocol"><code title="">data:</code> URLs</span>. For
                   2055:     example, you can't load a script from a <span title="javascript
                   2056:     protocol"><code title="">javascript:</code> URL</span>, and an
                   2057:     <code>http:</code> page couldn't start workers using scripts with
                   2058:     <code>http:</code> URLs.</p>
1.167     ihickson 2059: 
                   2060:    </li>
1.9       ihickson 2061: 
                   2062:    <li>
                   2063: 
1.123     ihickson 2064:     <p>Let <var title="">docs</var> be the <a href="#list-of-relevant-document-objects-to-add">list of relevant
1.192     ihickson 2065:     <code>Document</code> objects to add</a> given the <span title="script's global object">global object</span> of the <span title="concept-script">script</span> that invoked the
1.123     ihickson 2066:     constructor.</p>
                   2067: 
                   2068:    </li>
                   2069: 
                   2070:    <li>
                   2071: 
1.50      ihickson 2072:     <p>Execute the following substeps atomically:</p>
1.9       ihickson 2073: 
1.155     ihickson 2074:     <ol><li><p>Create a new <code><a href="#sharedworker">SharedWorker</a></code> object, which will
1.115     ihickson 2075:      shortly be associated with a <code><a href="#sharedworkerglobalscope">SharedWorkerGlobalScope</a></code>
                   2076:      object. Let this <code><a href="#sharedworker">SharedWorker</a></code> object be <var title="">worker</var>.</li>
1.81      ihickson 2077: 
1.301     ihickson 2078:      <li><p><span>Create a new <code><a href="#messageport">MessagePort</a></code> object</span>
1.192     ihickson 2079:      owned by the <span title="script's global object">global
                   2080:      object</span> of the script that invoked the method. Let this be
1.123     ihickson 2081:      the <var title="">outside port</var>.</li>
1.81      ihickson 2082: 
1.115     ihickson 2083:      <li><p>Assign <var title="">outside port</var> to the <code title="dom-SharedWorker-port"><a href="#dom-sharedworker-port">port</a></code> attribute of <var title="">worker</var>.</li>
1.81      ihickson 2084: 
1.164     ihickson 2085:      <li><p>Let <var title="">worker global scope</var> be
                   2086:      null.</li>
                   2087: 
1.312     ihickson 2088:      <li>
                   2089: 
                   2090:       <p>If <var title="">name</var> is not the empty string and there
                   2091:       exists a <code><a href="#sharedworkerglobalscope">SharedWorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object whose <a href="#dom-workerglobalscope-closing" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-closing">closing</a> flag is
                   2092:       false, whose <code title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-name">name</code> attribute is
1.339     ihickson 2093:       exactly equal to <var title="">name</var>, and whose
                   2094:       <a href="#worker-origin">worker origin</a> is the <span>same origin</span> as
                   2095:       <var title="">scriptURL</var>, then let <var title="">worker
                   2096:       global scope</var> be that <code><a href="#sharedworkerglobalscope">SharedWorkerGlobalScope</a></code>
                   2097:       object.</p>
1.312     ihickson 2098: 
                   2099:       <p>Otherwise, if <var title="">name</var> is the empty string
                   2100:       and there exists a <code><a href="#sharedworkerglobalscope">SharedWorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object
                   2101:       whose <a href="#dom-workerglobalscope-closing" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-closing">closing</a>
                   2102:       flag is false, whose <code title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-name">name</code> attribute is the
                   2103:       empty string, and whose <code title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-location"><a href="#dom-workerglobalscope-location">location</a></code> attribute
                   2104:       represents an <span>absolute URL</span> that is exactly equal to
                   2105:       <var title="">scriptURL</var>, then let <var title="">worker
                   2106:       global scope</var> be that <code><a href="#sharedworkerglobalscope">SharedWorkerGlobalScope</a></code>
                   2107:       object.</p>
                   2108: 
                   2109:      </li>
                   2110: 
                   2111:      <li>
                   2112: 
                   2113:       <p>If <var title="">worker global scope</var> is not null, but
                   2114:       the user agent has been configured to disallow communication
                   2115:       between the <span title="concept-script">script</span> that
                   2116:       invoked the constructor and the worker represented by the <var title="">worker global scope</var>, then set <var title="">worker global scope</var> to null.</p>
                   2117: 
                   2118:       <p class="note">For example, a user agent could have a
                   2119:       development mode that isolates a particular <span>top-level
                   2120:       browsing context</span> from all other pages, and scripts in
                   2121:       that development mode could be blocked from connecting to shared
                   2122:       workers running in the normal browser mode.</p>
                   2123: 
                   2124:      </li>
1.164     ihickson 2125: 
1.9       ihickson 2126:      <li>
                   2127: 
1.164     ihickson 2128:       <p>If <var title="">worker global scope</var> is not null, then
                   2129:       run these steps:</p>
1.81      ihickson 2130: 
1.164     ihickson 2131:       <ol><li><p>If <var title="">worker global scope</var>'s <code title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-location"><a href="#dom-workerglobalscope-location">location</a></code>
1.81      ihickson 2132:        attribute represents an <span>absolute URL</span> that is not
1.159     ihickson 2133:        exactly equal to <var title="">scriptURL</var>, then throw a
1.309     ihickson 2134:        <code>URLMismatchError</code> exception and abort all these
1.159     ihickson 2135:        steps.</li>
1.81      ihickson 2136: 
                   2137:        <li><p>Associate <var title="">worker</var> with <var title="">worker global scope</var>.</li>
                   2138: 
1.301     ihickson 2139:        <li><p><span>Create a new <code><a href="#messageport">MessagePort</a></code>
1.185     ihickson 2140:        object</span> owned by <var title="">worker global
                   2141:        scope</var>. Let this be the <var title="">inside
                   2142:        port</var>.</li>
1.81      ihickson 2143: 
                   2144:        <li><p><span>Entangle</span> <var title="">outside port</var>
                   2145:        and <var title="">inside port</var>.</li>
                   2146: 
                   2147:        <li><p>Return <var title="">worker</var> and perform the next
                   2148:        step asynchronously.</li>
1.9       ihickson 2149: 
1.344     ihickson 2150:        <li><p>Create a <span title="concept-events-trusted">trusted</span> event that uses the
                   2151:        <code>MessageEvent</code> interface, with the name <code title="event-connect">connect</code>, which does not bubble, is not cancelable, has no
                   2152:        default action, has a <code title="dom-MessageEvent-data">data</code> attribute whose value
                   2153:        is initialized to the empty string, has a <code title="dom-MessageEvent-ports">ports</code>
                   2154:        attribute whose value is initialized to a <span title="dfn-read-only-array">read only</span>
                   2155:        array containing only the newly created port, and has a <code title="dom-MessageEvent-source">source</code> attribute whose value is initialized to the
1.347     ihickson 2156:        newly created port, and <span>queue a task</span> to <span title="concept-event-dispatch">dispatch</span> the event at <var title="">worker global
                   2157:        scope</var>.</li>
1.43      ihickson 2158: 
1.123     ihickson 2159:        <li>
                   2160: 
                   2161:         <p><a href="#add-a-document-to-the-worker-s-documents" title="add a document to the worker's documents">Add to
                   2162:         <var title="">worker global scope</var>'s list of <span>the
                   2163:         worker's <code>Document</code>s</span></a> the
                   2164:         <code>Document</code> objects in <var title="">docs</var>.</p>
                   2165: 
                   2166:        </li>
                   2167: 
1.124     ihickson 2168:        <li>
                   2169: 
1.192     ihickson 2170:         <p>If the <span title="script's global object">global
                   2171:         object</span> of the <span title="concept-script">script</span>
1.124     ihickson 2172:         that invoked the constructor is a
                   2173:         <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object, add <var title="">worker global scope</var> to the list of <a href="#the-worker-s-workers">the
                   2174:         worker's workers</a> of the <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code>
1.192     ihickson 2175:         object that is the <span title="script's global object">global
                   2176:         object</span> of the <span title="concept-script">script</span>
1.124     ihickson 2177:         that invoked the constructor.</p>
                   2178: 
                   2179:        </li>
                   2180: 
1.81      ihickson 2181:        <li><p>Abort all these steps.</li>
1.9       ihickson 2182: 
1.155     ihickson 2183:       </ol></li>
1.9       ihickson 2184: 
1.339     ihickson 2185:      <li><p>Create a new <code><a href="#sharedworkerglobalscope">SharedWorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object
                   2186:      whose <a href="#worker-origin">worker origin</a> is the origin of the <span>entry
                   2187:      script</span>. Let <var title="">worker global scope</var> be
                   2188:      this new object.</li>
1.9       ihickson 2189: 
1.81      ihickson 2190:      <li><p>Associate <var title="">worker</var> with <var title="">worker global scope</var>.</li>
1.9       ihickson 2191: 
1.115     ihickson 2192:      <li><p>Set the <code title="dom-SharedWorkerGlobalScope-name"><a href="#dom-sharedworkerglobalscope-name">name</a></code> attribute of
1.81      ihickson 2193:      <var title="">worker global scope</var> to <var title="">name</var>.</li>
1.9       ihickson 2194: 
1.301     ihickson 2195:      <li><p><span>Create a new <code><a href="#messageport">MessagePort</a></code> object</span>
1.81      ihickson 2196:      owned by <var title="">worker global scope</var>. Let <var title="">inside port</var> be this new object.</li>
1.9       ihickson 2197: 
1.81      ihickson 2198:      <li><p><span>Entangle</span> <var title="">outside port</var> and
                   2199:      <var title="">inside port</var>.</li>
1.9       ihickson 2200: 
1.155     ihickson 2201:     </ol></li>
1.28      ihickson 2202: 
1.123     ihickson 2203:    <li><p>Return <var title="">worker</var> and perform the remaining
                   2204:    steps asynchronously.</li>
1.18      ihickson 2205: 
1.344     ihickson 2206:    <li><p>Create a <span title="concept-events-trusted">trusted</span> event that uses the
                   2207:    <code>MessageEvent</code> interface, with the name <code title="event-connect">connect</code>,
                   2208:    which does not bubble, is not cancelable, has no default action, has a <code title="dom-MessageEvent-data">data</code> attribute whose value is initialized to the empty
                   2209:    string, has a <code title="dom-MessageEvent-ports">ports</code> attribute whose value is
                   2210:    initialized to a <span title="dfn-read-only-array">read only</span> array containing only the
                   2211:    newly created port, and has a <code title="dom-MessageEvent-source">source</code> attribute whose
1.347     ihickson 2212:    value is initialized to the newly created port, and <span>queue a task</span> to <span title="concept-event-dispatch">dispatch</span> the event at <var title="">worker global
                   2213:    scope</var>.</li>
1.26      ihickson 2214: 
                   2215:    <li>
1.46      ihickson 2216: 
1.123     ihickson 2217:     <p><a href="#add-a-document-to-the-worker-s-documents" title="add a document to the worker's documents">Add to
                   2218:     <var title="">worker global scope</var>'s list of <span>the
                   2219:     worker's <code>Document</code>s</span></a> the
                   2220:     <code>Document</code> objects in <var title="">docs</var>.</p>
                   2221: 
                   2222:    </li>
                   2223: 
                   2224:    <li>
                   2225: 
1.192     ihickson 2226:     <p>If the <span title="script's global object">global object</span>
1.124     ihickson 2227:     of the <span title="concept-script">script</span> that invoked the
                   2228:     constructor is a <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object, add <var title="">worker global scope</var> to the list of <a href="#the-worker-s-workers">the
                   2229:     worker's workers</a> of the <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code>
1.192     ihickson 2230:     object that is the <span title="script's global object">global
                   2231:     object</span> of the <span title="concept-script">script</span>
1.124     ihickson 2232:     that invoked the constructor.</p>
                   2233: 
                   2234:    </li>
                   2235: 
                   2236:    <li>
                   2237: 
1.159     ihickson 2238:     <p><a href="#run-a-worker">Run a worker</a> for <var title="">scriptURL</var>,
1.193     ihickson 2239:     with the <span>script's browsing context</span> of the script that
1.159     ihickson 2240:     invoked the method as the <var title="">owner browsing
1.232     ihickson 2241:     context</var>, with the <span>script's document</span> of the
                   2242:     script that invoked the method as the <var title="">owner
                   2243:     document</var>, with the <span>origin</span> of the <span>entry
1.176     ihickson 2244:     script</span> as the <var title="">owner origin</var>, and with
                   2245:     <var title="">worker global scope</var> as the global scope.</p>
1.26      ihickson 2246: 
1.60      ihickson 2247:    </li>
1.81      ihickson 2248: 
1.155     ihickson 2249:   </ol><p>This constructor must be visible when the <span>script's global
1.192     ihickson 2250:   object</span> is either a <code>Window</code> object or an object
1.357     ihickson 2251:   implementing the <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> interface.</p>
1.327     ihickson 2252: 
                   2253:   <p>The <span>task source</span> for the tasks mentioned above is the
                   2254:   <span>DOM manipulation task source</span>.</p>
                   2255: 
                   2256: 
                   2257: 
                   2258:   <h2 id="apis-available-to-workers"><span class="secno">5 </span>APIs available to workers</h2>
                   2259: 
                   2260:   <pre class="idl">[NoInterfaceObject]
1.357     ihickson 2261: partial interface <a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a> {
1.306     ihickson 2262:   void <a href="#dom-workerglobalscope-importscripts" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-importScripts">importScripts</a>(DOMString... urls);
1.210     ihickson 2263:   readonly attribute <a href="#workernavigator">WorkerNavigator</a> <a href="#dom-worker-navigator" title="dom-worker-navigator">navigator</a>;
1.150     ihickson 2264: };
1.357     ihickson 2265: <a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a> implements <span>WindowTimers</span>;
                   2266: <a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a> implements <span>WindowBase64</span>;</pre>
1.327     ihickson 2267: 
                   2268:   
                   2269:   <p>The <code>WindowTimers</code> and <code>WindowBase64</code>
                   2270:   interfaces are defined in the HTML specification. <a href="#refsHTML">[HTML]</a></p>
                   2271:   
                   2272: 
1.353     ihickson 2273:   <p>The DOM APIs &mdash; specifically, all the interfaces defind in the DOM specification other
                   2274:   than exceptions &mdash; must not be <span title="expose">exposed</span> if the <span>JavaScript
                   2275:   global environment</span> is a <span>worker environment</span>. <a href="#hrefDOMCORE">[DOMCORE]</a></p>
1.327     ihickson 2276: 
                   2277: 
                   2278:   <h3 id="importing-scripts-and-libraries"><span class="secno">5.1 </span>Importing scripts and libraries</h3>
                   2279: 
                   2280:   <p>When a script invokes the <dfn id="dom-workerglobalscope-importscripts" title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-importScripts"><code>importScripts(<var title="">urls</var>)</code></dfn> method on a
1.115     ihickson 2281:   <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> object, the user agent must run the
1.327     ihickson 2282:   following steps:</p>
                   2283: 
                   2284:   <ol><li><p>If there are no arguments, return without doing
1.81      ihickson 2285:    anything. Abort these steps.</li>
                   2286: 
                   2287:    <li><p><span title="resolve a url">Resolve</span> each
                   2288:    argument.</li>
                   2289: 
1.309     ihickson 2290:    <li><p>If any fail, throw a <code>SyntaxError</code>
1.81      ihickson 2291:    exception.</li>
                   2292: 
1.26      ihickson 2293:    <li>
1.81      ihickson 2294: 
1.341     ihickson 2295:     <p>Attempt to <span>fetch</span> each resource
                   2296:     identified by the resulting <span title="absolute URL">absolute
                   2297:     URLs</span>, from the <span>entry script</span>'s
                   2298:     <span>origin</span>, using the <span>entry script</span>'s <span title="script's referrer source">referrer source</span>, and with
                   2299:     the <i>synchronous flag</i> set.</p> 
1.318     ihickson 2300: 
1.81      ihickson 2301:    </li>
1.26      ihickson 2302: 
                   2303:    <li>
                   2304: 
1.81      ihickson 2305:     <p>For each argument in turn, in the order given, starting with
                   2306:     the first one, run these substeps:</p>
1.26      ihickson 2307: 
1.155     ihickson 2308:     <ol><li>
1.26      ihickson 2309: 
1.81      ihickson 2310:       <p>Wait for the fetching attempt for the corresponding resource
                   2311:       to complete.</p>
1.60      ihickson 2312: 
1.81      ihickson 2313:       <p>If the fetching attempt failed, throw a
1.309     ihickson 2314:       <code>NetworkError</code> exception and abort all these
1.81      ihickson 2315:       steps.</p>
1.45      ihickson 2316: 
1.264     ihickson 2317:       <p>If the attempt succeeds, then let <var title="">source</var> be
                   2318:       the script resource <span>decoded as UTF-8, with error
                   2319:       handling</span>.
                   2320:       
                   2321:       <a href="#refsHTML">[HTML]</a>
                   2322:       
                   2323:       </p>
1.85      ihickson 2324: 
                   2325:       <p>Let <var title="">language</var> be JavaScript.</p>
1.61      ihickson 2326: 
1.115     ihickson 2327:       <p class="note">As with the worker's script, the script here is
1.81      ihickson 2328:       always assumed to be JavaScript, regardless of the MIME
1.170     ihickson 2329:       type.</p>
1.61      ihickson 2330: 
1.81      ihickson 2331:      </li>
1.26      ihickson 2332: 
1.81      ihickson 2333:      <li>
1.26      ihickson 2334: 
1.314     ihickson 2335:       <p><span>Create a script</span>, using <var title="">source</var> as the script source, the <span>URL</span>
                   2336:       from which <var title="">source</var> was obtained, and <var title="">language</var> as the scripting language, using the
1.341     ihickson 2337:       same global object, browsing context, document, referrer source,
                   2338:       URL character encoding, and base URL as the <span title="concept-script">script</span> that was created by the
1.115     ihickson 2339:       worker's <a href="#run-a-worker">run a worker</a> algorithm.</p>
1.81      ihickson 2340: 
1.352     ihickson 2341:       <p>If the script came from a resource whose <span>URL</span> does not have the <span>same
                   2342:       origin</span> as the <a href="#worker-origin">worker origin</a>, then pass the <var title="">muted
                   2343:       errors</var> flag to the <span>create a script from a node</span> algorithm.</p>
                   2344: 
1.115     ihickson 2345:       <p>Let the newly created <span title="concept-script">script</span> run until it either
1.81      ihickson 2346:       returns, fails to parse, fails to catch an exception, or gets
1.115     ihickson 2347:       prematurely aborted by the "<a href="#kill-a-worker">kill a worker</a>" or
                   2348:       "<a href="#terminate-a-worker">terminate a worker</a>" algorithms defined above.</p>
1.26      ihickson 2349: 
1.199     ihickson 2350:       <p>If it failed to parse, then throw an ECMAScript
1.360     ihickson 2351:       <code title="js-SyntaxError">SyntaxError</code> exception and abort all these
1.199     ihickson 2352:       steps. <a href="#refsECMA262">[ECMA262]</a></p>
1.63      ihickson 2353: 
1.320     ihickson 2354:       <p>If an exception was thrown or if the script was prematurely
1.81      ihickson 2355:       aborted, then abort all these steps, letting the exception or
                   2356:       aborting continue to be processed by the script that called the
1.115     ihickson 2357:       <code title="dom-WorkerGlobalScope-importScripts"><a href="#dom-workerglobalscope-importscripts">importScripts()</a></code>
1.81      ihickson 2358:       method.</p>
                   2359: 
1.115     ihickson 2360:       <p>If the "<a href="#kill-a-worker">kill a worker</a>" or "<a href="#terminate-a-worker">terminate a
1.81      ihickson 2361:       worker</a>" algorithms abort the script then abort all these
                   2362:       steps.</p>
                   2363: 
                   2364:      </li>
                   2365: 
1.155     ihickson 2366:     </ol></li>
1.152     ihickson 2367: 
1.327     ihickson 2368:   </ol><h3 id="the-workernavigator-object"><span class="secno">5.2 </span>The <code><a href="#workernavigator">WorkerNavigator</a></code> object</h3>
                   2369: 
                   2370:   <p>The <dfn id="dom-worker-navigator" title="dom-worker-navigator"><code>navigator</code></dfn> attribute
1.357     ihickson 2371:   of the <code><a href="#workerglobalscope">WorkerGlobalScope</a></code> interface must return an instance of
1.210     ihickson 2372:   the <code><a href="#workernavigator">WorkerNavigator</a></code> interface, which represents the
1.327     ihickson 2373:   identity and state of the user agent (the client):</p>
                   2374: 
                   2375:   <pre class="idl">interface <dfn id="workernavigator">WorkerNavigator</dfn> {};
1.210     ihickson 2376: <a href="#workernavigator">WorkerNavigator</a> implements <span>NavigatorID</span>;
1.354     ihickson 2377: <a href="#workernavigator">WorkerNavigator</a> implements <span>NavigatorLanguage</span>;
1.327     ihickson 2378: <a href="#workernavigator">WorkerNavigator</a> implements <span>NavigatorOnLine</span>;</pre>
                   2379: 
1.338     ihickson 2380:   <p>The <code><a href="#workernavigator">WorkerNavigator</a></code> interface must only be <span title="expose">exposed</span> if the <span>JavaScript global
                   2381:   environment</span> is a <span>worker environment</span>.</p>
1.327     ihickson 2382: 
                   2383: 
                   2384: 
                   2385: 
                   2386:   <h3 id="interface-objects-and-constructors"><span class="secno">5.3 </span>Interface objects and constructors</h3>
                   2387: 
1.361     ihickson 2388:   <p>Nothing must be <span title="expose">exposed</span> when the <span>JavaScript global
                   2389:   environment</span> is a <span>worker environment</span> except for the following:</p>
1.119     ihickson 2390: 
1.361     ihickson 2391:   <ul><li><p>The interface objects and constructors defined by this specification, except where is
                   2392:    further restricted by explicit requirements in this specification.</li>
                   2393: 
                   2394:    <li><p>The interface objects of any objects made accessible through interfaces implemented by any
                   2395:    objects that are themselves <span title="expose">exposed</span> (i.e. this requirement is
1.338     ihickson 2396:    transitive).</li>
1.205     ihickson 2397: 
1.361     ihickson 2398:   </ul><p class="note">These requirements do not override the requirements defined by the Web IDL
                   2399:   specification, in particular concerning the visibility of interfaces annotated with the <code title="">[NoInterfaceObject]</code> extended attribute.</p>
1.327     ihickson 2400: 
                   2401: 
                   2402:   <h3 id="worker-locations"><span class="secno">5.4 </span>Worker locations</h3>
                   2403: 
                   2404:   <pre class="idl">interface <dfn id="workerlocation">WorkerLocation</dfn> {
1.263     ihickson 2405:   // <span>URL decomposition IDL attributes</span>
1.294     ihickson 2406:   stringifier readonly attribute DOMString <a href="#dom-workerlocation-href" title="dom-WorkerLocation-href">href</a>;
1.115     ihickson 2407:   readonly attribute DOMString <a href="#dom-workerlocation-protocol" title="dom-WorkerLocation-protocol">protocol</a>;
                   2408:   readonly attribute DOMString <a href="#dom-workerlocation-host" title="dom-WorkerLocation-host">host</a>;
                   2409:   readonly attribute DOMString <a href="#dom-workerlocation-hostname" title="dom-WorkerLocation-hostname">hostname</a>;
                   2410:   readonly attribute DOMString <a href="#dom-workerlocation-port" title="dom-WorkerLocation-port">port</a>;
                   2411:   readonly attribute DOMString <a href="#dom-workerlocation-pathname" title="dom-WorkerLocation-pathname">pathname</a>;
                   2412:   readonly attribute DOMString <a href="#dom-workerlocation-search" title="dom-WorkerLocation-search">search</a>;
                   2413:   readonly attribute DOMString <a href="#dom-workerlocation-hash" title="dom-WorkerLocation-hash">hash</a>;
1.327     ihickson 2414: };</pre>
                   2415: 
1.361     ihickson 2416:   <p>A <code><a href="#workerlocation">WorkerLocation</a></code> object represents an <span>absolute URL</span> set at its
                   2417:   creation.</p>
                   2418: 
                   2419:   <p>The <dfn id="dom-workerlocation-href" title="dom-WorkerLocation-href"><code>href</code></dfn> attribute must return the
                   2420:   <span>absolute URL</span> that the object represents.</p>
1.327     ihickson 2421: 
1.361     ihickson 2422:   <p>The <code><a href="#workerlocation">WorkerLocation</a></code> interface also has the complement of <span>URL decomposition
                   2423:   IDL attributes</span>, <dfn id="dom-workerlocation-protocol" title="dom-WorkerLocation-protocol"><code>protocol</code></dfn>, <dfn id="dom-workerlocation-host" title="dom-WorkerLocation-host"><code>host</code></dfn>, <dfn id="dom-workerlocation-port" title="dom-WorkerLocation-port"><code>port</code></dfn>, <dfn id="dom-workerlocation-hostname" title="dom-WorkerLocation-hostname"><code>hostname</code></dfn>, <dfn id="dom-workerlocation-pathname" title="dom-WorkerLocation-pathname"><code>pathname</code></dfn>, <dfn id="dom-workerlocation-search" title="dom-WorkerLocation-search"><code>search</code></dfn>, and <dfn id="dom-workerlocation-hash" title="dom-WorkerLocation-hash"><code>hash</code></dfn>. These must follow the rules given for
                   2424:   <span>URL decomposition IDL attributes</span>, with the <span title="concept-uda-input">input</span> being the <span>absolute URL</span> that the object
                   2425:   represents (same as the <code title="dom-WorkerLocation-href"><a href="#dom-workerlocation-href">href</a></code> attribute), and the
                   2426:   <span title="concept-uda-setter">common setter action</span> being a no-op, since the attributes
                   2427:   are defined to be readonly.
1.205     ihickson 2428:   
1.226     ihickson 2429:   <a href="#refsHTML">[HTML]</a>
1.205     ihickson 2430:   
1.327     ihickson 2431:   </p>
                   2432: 
1.361     ihickson 2433:   <p>The <code><a href="#workerlocation">WorkerLocation</a></code> interface must only be <span title="expose">exposed</span> if
                   2434:   the <span>JavaScript global environment</span> is a <span>worker environment</span>.</p>
1.327     ihickson 2435: 
                   2436: 
                   2437: 
                   2438: 
                   2439:   <h2 class="no-num" id="references">References</h2>
                   2440: 
                   2441:   <p>All references are normative unless marked "Non-normative".</p>
                   2442: 
                   2443:   
                   2444: 
1.353     ihickson 2445:   <dl><dt id="refsDOM">[DOM]</dt>
                   2446:    <dd><cite><a href="http://dom.spec.whatwg.org/">DOM</a></cite>, A. van Kesteren, A. Gregor, Ms2ger. WHATWG.</dd>
1.153     ihickson 2447: 
1.152     ihickson 2448:    <dt id="refsECMA262">[ECMA262]</dt>
1.335     ihickson 2449:    <dd><cite><a href="http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-262.htm">ECMAScript Language Specification</a></cite>. ECMA.</dd>
1.152     ihickson 2450: 
1.226     ihickson 2451:    <dt id="refsHTML">[HTML]</dt>
1.346     ihickson 2452:    <dd><cite><a href="http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/">HTML</a></cite>, I. Hickson. WHATWG.</dd>
1.315     ihickson 2453: 
1.154     ihickson 2454:    <dt id="refsRFC2119">[RFC2119]</dt>
1.355     ihickson 2455:    <dd><cite><a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2119">Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels</a></cite>, S. Bradner. IETF.</dd>
1.154     ihickson 2456: 
                   2457:    <dt id="refsWEBIDL">[WEBIDL]</dt>
1.355     ihickson 2458:    <dd><cite><a href="http://dev.w3.org/2006/webapi/WebIDL/">Web IDL</a></cite>, C. McCormack. W3C.</dd>
1.154     ihickson 2459: 
1.327     ihickson 2460:   </dl><h2 class="no-num" id="acknowledgements">Acknowledgements</h2> <!-- ACKS -->
                   2461: 
                   2462:   <p>Thanks to
1.81      ihickson 2463: 
                   2464:   Aaron Boodman,
1.155     ihickson 2465:   &#1040;&#1083;&#1077;&#1082;&#1089;&#1077;&#1081; &#1055;&#1088;&#1086;&#1089;&#1082;&#1091;&#1088;&#1103;&#1082;&#1086;&#1074; (Alexey Proskuryakov),
1.81      ihickson 2466:   Anne van Kesteren,
                   2467:   Ben Turner,
                   2468:   Dmitry Titov,
1.96      ihickson 2469:   Drew Wilson,
1.97      ihickson 2470:   Jeremy Orlow,
1.81      ihickson 2471:   Jonas Sicking,
                   2472:   Justin James,
                   2473:   Kevin Hakanson,
                   2474:   Maciej Stachowiak,
                   2475:   Michael Nordman,
                   2476:   Mike Smith,
                   2477: 
                   2478:   and
                   2479: 
                   2480:   Philip Taylor
                   2481: 
1.327     ihickson 2482:   for their useful and substantial comments.</p>
                   2483: 
                   2484:   <p>Huge thanks to the whole Gears team, who pioneered this
1.81      ihickson 2485:   technology and whose experience has been a huge influence on this
1.327     ihickson 2486:   specification.</p>
                   2487: 
                   2488:  

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