javascript web workers - how do I pass arguments?

Question

Found the answer some some of my problems, html5 web workers!!!

How do I pass an argument to a web worker though using this basic example?

contents of worker.js:

function doSomething() {
    postMessage( ' done');
}
setTimeout ( "doSomething()", 3000 );

js code:

 var worker = new Worker('worker.js');
  worker.onmessage = function (event) {
    alert(event.data);
  };

Answer 1

As you can see you have the same mechanism for both worker-to-main and main-to-worker messages.

• the postMessage method for sending messages
• the onmessage member for defining the handler that receives the messages

In the main script:

worker.postMessage(data);

In the worker script:

self.addEventListener("message", function(e) {
    // the passed-in data is available via e.data
}, false);

... or just...

onmessage = function(e) {
    // the passed-in data is available via e.data
};

It may be that data has to be a string... (Firefox 3.5+ supports passing in JSON-compatible objects)