Via.js: use the DOM in a Web Worker (and vice versa)

Via.js lets you write JavaScript code that runs in a different context. The two main uses for this are:

• Use the DOM in a Web Worker: write DOM calls in a worker and have them run on the main thread
• Write code that conveniently calls Web Worker code on the DOM: write calls that automatically happen on a Web Worker, helping prevent heavy JavaScript calls janking the main thread. This is similar in spirit to ComLink, although Via.js does it differently.

Note Via.js requires WeakRefs to clean up memory and avoid memory leaks. This is supported in Chrome 84+, Firefox 79+, and Safari 14.1+. (If WeakRefs are not supported Via.js will continue to work, but will unavoidably leak memory.)

Examples

Using the DOM in a Web Worker

Web Workers have a few APIs, but most web APIs are still only available in the main thread. This makes it harder to use workers when you need access to features like document, CSS styles, input events like "click", video, WebRTC, Web Audio, etc.

Here are some DOM calls that work in a Web Worker using Via.js:

const document = via.document;
const button = document.createElement("button");
button.textContent = "Click me";
button.style.fontWeight = "bold";
button.addEventListener("click", () =>
{
	console.log("[Worker] Click event");
});
document.body.appendChild(button);

The only difference is accessing the document object with via.document (via representing the remote global object) - all other code is identical to what you'd use on the DOM.

Using Web Workers conveniently from the DOM

Via.js works the other way round too: you can write code that makes the calls on a Web Worker instead of the DOM. This provides a convenient way to have expensive JavaScript calls done off the main thread, without having to write a message-passing system.

Here is some JavaScript code that works on the DOM, but does the expensive calculation in a worker, based on the worker-calls demo:

const primeCalculator = new via.PrimeCalculator();
const result = primeCalculator.IsPrime(98245166901019);
const isPrime = await get(result);

Note again the use of via to create a PrimeCalculator on the worker. IsPrime() is automatically run on the worker, even though it looks like a normal call. Finally because Via.js uses placeholder objects instead of real values, await get() will retrieve the actual return value from the worker. (More on how it works below.) This is all processed in a single postMessage round trip.

Live demos

Using the DOM in a Web Worker

A basic demo showing DOM interactions and use of the Web Audio API from a worker is hosted here: via.js/demos/dom-in-worker

This works in Chrome, Firefox and Edge. Safari works but doesn't play audio since the demo only uses AudioContext, not webkitAudioContext, other than that it works fine.

Using Web Workers conveniently from the DOM

A basic demo of controlling a Web Worker from the DOM is hosted here: via.js/demos/worker-calls

How it works

JavaScript's Proxy objects allow object sets, gets, calls etc. to be intercepted. Via.js uses an arrangement of Proxy objects that simply records all operations and builds a queue of commands. Function return values are also represented by a placeholder so you can continue making calls on them. This means so long as you don't need information back from the DOM (i.e. a get() call), you can make an arbitrary number of calls and it will only take a single postMessage to the main thread.

This approach is notable in that it doesn't post strings of JavaScript code and eval() them (which is a pretty ugly hack), and is also relatively low-overhead. In particular it doesn't create lots of MessageChannels like ComLink does.

Via.js commands are automatically submitted at the next microtask to be processed on the main thread, which also posts back any results to get() calls. (You can also force submission in long-running code with Via.Flush(), which returns a promise resolving when the main thread has finished executing all commands up to that point.) Via.js also handles callbacks by creating a shim that forwards the callback to the worker, as in the "click" event in the earlier example.

For example consider the following lines:

const div = via.document.createElement("div");
div.textContent = "Hello world";

Via.js builds a command queue roughly similar to:

1. call window.document.createElement with argument "div"
2. return a placeholder object with id 1
3. assign object id 1 property "textContent" value "Hello world"

At the next microtask these commands are submitted to the main thread via postMessage(), and they are carried out with real DOM calls.

Whilst this example is straightforward, there are many details to be worked out for aspects like passing placeholder objects as function arguments, forwarding callbacks, returning values from get() calls, and so on. However the result is a surprisingly usable way to write code that runs somewhere else, allowing full access to remote APIs, e.g. using any part of the DOM APIs in a Web Worker.

Memory management

The main difficulty with implementing this approach is memory management. Each Proxy representing a remote object is assigned an ID, and the remote (receiver) side keeps a map of ID to object so it can access them by the IDs in command messages. However once the controller side is done with the Proxy and it gets garbage collected, the ID map needs to be updated as well since it keeps strong references to objects, and would otherwise leak memory for unused objects.

Until recently this was impossible to achieve in JavaScript. However the WeakRefs proposal makes GC observable, making it possible to identify when Proxys are collected and post a cleanup message to the receiver side, which then deletes unused map entries.

WeakRefs are enabled by default in Chrome 84+, and support in other browsers should come soon. This should make Via.js ready for use in production, since it can be used in long-running apps without leaking memory.

API

Via.js needs you to set up a messaging bridge. In theory you could do something crazy like use a WebSocket or DataChannel bridge and run remote code over a network link! Normally you'd just wrap postMessage though. For real code see how the examples do this. However assuming you're controlling the DOM from a Worker, then the controller (worker) side does this along the lines of:

Via.postMessage = (data => self.postMessage(data));
self.addEventListener("message", e => Via.OnMessage(e.data));

And the receiver (DOM) side does this along the lines of:

worker.onmessage = (e => ViaReceiver.OnMessage(e.data));
ViaReceiver.postMessage = (data => worker.postMessage(data));

In other words, very straightforward, but highly customisable. For example you could adapt this to allow iframes to control each other. You could also wrap the messaging functions to tag Via.js messages a certain way, so you can still send your own separate messages without them interfering with Via.js or vice versa.

Once you have the message bridge set up, you can then just use the via object on the controller side as if it's the global object in the other context. For example the following creates an AudioContext (for the Web Audio API) in the global scope on the main thread (still assuming the DOM-in-worker setup):

via.audioContext = new via.AudioContext();

which is equivalent to the following main thread call:

window.audioContext = new window.AudioContext();

Then you can make further calls pretty much identically, e.g.:

via.audioContext.decodeAudioData(arrayBuffer, audioBuffer =>
{
	self.audioBuffer = audioBuffer;
});

This posts the arguments to the DOM, performs the decodeAudioData call, and shims the callback to post back to the worker where your worker's callback will be invoked. This code is exactly what you'd write on the DOM, except for the use of via. for the global object.

Retrieving values from the DOM

Via.js returns Proxy wrapper objects from any calls. This lets you keep making calls without having to wait for any results, and Via.js can post all the commands in one go, reducing the postMessage overhead. However it means that the return values of any calls are actually Proxy wrapper objects, even if they're a simple value like a number or boolean.

If you want to retrieve the real value from the other context, it must be accessed asynchronously, since it requires a postMessage round-trip. Via.js provides a global get() function which returns a promise that resolves with the requested value, e.g.:

const docTitle = await get(via.document.title);

You can look up multiple values in parallel, which is more efficient than waiting for each property one at a time, e.g.:

const [docTitle, docUrl] = await Promise.all([
	get(via.document.title),
	get(via.document.URL)
]);

This processes both gets with a single postMessage round-trip.

Performance

I last did performance tests about 2 years ago, so this section needs updating. However the conclusion last time was that Via.js has a pretty low overhead and is usable even on mobile devices. Performance benchmarks seemed to be mainly bottlenecked on GC (probably collecting the command list), which can probably be improved.

There are also major performance benefits to running code in a worker instead of a DOM. For example significant DOM updates can involve long layout times (e.g. >100ms). When running code in a worker with Via.js, the synchronous layout work the browser does in response to DOM changes can run in parallel to the worker, which wins you a lot more time for running JavaScript.

Further work

Performance could still be improved. The postMessage() overhead is still relatively high. Using a binary format and transferring an ArrayBuffer, or using shared memory (SharedArrayBuffer), may be able to more or less completely eliminate this overhead.

JavaScript engines could try to further optimise the code to build command lists. It looks like there is some amount of GC thrashing happening.

Some APIs must be called synchronously in callbacks, e.g. e.preventDefault(). Currently these don't work with Via.js, because it must do a postMessage round-trip to invoke the callback and then send back new commands, by which time the event handler has finished. Browsers need to provide a deferral mechanism to work around this, which in turn would need to be integrated in to Via.js somehow.

There probably needs to be more work done to identify gaps in things Via.js supports, fix any bugs, and improve the developer experience, in particular ensuring good error messages can be produced when making mistakes using placeholder objects.