web-streams-polyfill

What is web-streams-polyfill?

The web-streams-polyfill package is a polyfill for the Streams API, which provides a standard interface for representing and handling a sequence of data in JavaScript. This polyfill allows developers to use the Streams API in environments where it is not natively supported.

What are web-streams-polyfill's main functionalities?

ReadableStream

This feature allows you to create a stream of data that can be read in chunks. The code sample demonstrates how to create a simple ReadableStream that enqueues two chunks of data and then closes the stream.

const readableStream = new ReadableStream({
  start(controller) {
    controller.enqueue('Hello, ');
    controller.enqueue('World!');
    controller.close();
  }
});

readableStream.getReader().read().then(({ value, done }) => {
  if (!done) console.log(value);
});

WritableStream

This feature allows you to create a stream where data can be written. The code sample shows how to create a WritableStream and write a chunk of data to it, then close the stream.

const writableStream = new WritableStream({
  write(chunk) {
    console.log(chunk);
  },
  close() {
    console.log('Stream closed');
  }
});

const writer = writableStream.getWriter();
writer.write('Hello, World!').then(() => writer.close());

TransformStream

This feature allows you to create a stream that transforms data as it passes through. The code sample demonstrates how to create a TransformStream that converts chunks of text to uppercase and then pipes data from a ReadableStream through it to a WritableStream.

const uppercaseTransform = new TransformStream({
  transform(chunk, controller) {
    controller.enqueue(chunk.toUpperCase());
  }
});

const readable = new ReadableStream({
  start(controller) {
    controller.enqueue('hello');
    controller.enqueue('world');
    controller.close();
  }
});

const writable = new WritableStream({
  write(chunk) {
    console.log(chunk);
  }
});

readable.pipeThrough(uppercaseTransform).pipeTo(writable);

Other packages similar to web-streams-polyfill

stream-browserify

This package is a browserify version of the Node.js core streams module. It provides similar functionality for handling streams of data but is designed to mimic Node.js streams specifically, rather than implementing the Web Streams API.

readable-stream

This package is a mirror of the Streams API from Node.js for use in browsers and other environments. It is similar to web-streams-polyfill but focuses on Node.js compatibility and may have differences in API and behavior compared to the Web Streams API.

blob-polyfill

While not a direct alternative to web-streams-polyfill, blob-polyfill provides Blob support in browsers that do not natively support the Blob constructor. It can be used in conjunction with streams to handle binary data.

README

web-streams-polyfill

Web Streams, based on the WHATWG spec reference implementation.

Links

• Official spec
• Reference implementation

Usage

This library comes in multiple variants:

• web-streams-polyfill: a ponyfill that provides the stream implementations without replacing any globals, targeting ES2015+ environments.
  • ✅ Node 6+ through import or require()
  • ✅ Modern web browsers through import/export or <script type="module">
  • ✅ Web apps for modern browsers using a bundler (like webpack or Rollup)
• web-streams-polyfill/es5: a ponyfill targeting ES5+ environments.
  • ✅ Legacy Node through require()
  • ✅ Legacy web browsers through AMD
  • ✅ Web apps for legacy browsers using a bundler (like webpack or Rollup)
• web-streams-polyfill/polyfill: a polyfill that replaces the native stream implementations, targeting ES2015+ environments.
  • ✅ Modern web browsers through regular <script>
• web-streams-polyfill/polyfill/es5: a polyfill targeting ES5+ environments.
  • ✅ Legacy web browsers through regular <script>

Each variant also includes TypeScript type definitions, compatible with the DOM type definitions for streams included in TypeScript.

In version 4, the list of variants was reworked to have more modern defaults and to reduce the download size of the package. See the migration guide for more information.

Usage as a polyfill:

<!-- option 1: hosted by unpkg CDN -->
<script src="https://unpkg.com/web-streams-polyfill/dist/polyfill.js"></script>
<!-- option 2: self hosted -->
<script src="/path/to/web-streams-polyfill/dist/polyfill.js"></script>
<script>
var readable = new ReadableStream();
</script>

Usage as a Node module:

var streams = require("web-streams-polyfill");
var readable = new streams.ReadableStream();

Usage as a ponyfill from within a ES2015 module:

import { ReadableStream } from "web-streams-polyfill";
const readable = new ReadableStream();

Usage as a polyfill from within an ES2015 module:

import "web-streams-polyfill/polyfill";
const readable = new ReadableStream();

Compatibility

The default and polyfill variants work in any ES2015-compatible environment.

The es5 and polyfill/es5 variants work in any ES5-compatible environment that has a global Promise. If you need to support older browsers or Node versions that do not have a native Promise implementation (check the support table), you must first include a Promise polyfill (e.g. promise-polyfill).

Async iterable support for ReadableStream is available in all variants, but requires an ES2018-compatible environment or a polyfill for Symbol.asyncIterator.

WritableStreamDefaultController.signal is available in all variants, but requires a global AbortController constructor. If necessary, consider using a polyfill such as abortcontroller-polyfill.

Compliance

The polyfill implements version e9355ce (18 Apr 2022) of the streams specification.

The polyfill is tested against the same web platform tests that are used by browsers to test their native implementations. It aims to pass all tests, although it allows some exceptions for practical reasons:

• The default (ES2015) variant passes all of the tests, except for:
  • The "bad buffers and views" tests for readable byte streams. These tests require the implementation to synchronously transfer the contents of an ArrayBuffer, which is not yet possible from JavaScript (although there is a proposal to make it possible). The reference implementation "cheats" on these tests by making a copy instead, but that is unacceptable for the polyfill's performance (#3).
  • The test for the prototype of ReadableStream's async iterator. Retrieving the correct %AsyncIteratorPrototype% requires using an async generator (async function* () {}), which is invalid syntax before ES2018. Instead, the polyfill creates its own version which is functionally equivalent to the real prototype.
  • The tests with patched globals and with Object.prototype.then. These tests are meant for browsers to ensure user-land modifications cannot affect the internal logic of pipeTo() and tee(). However, it's not reasonable or desirable for a user-land polyfill to try and isolate itself completely from using the global Object.
  • Certain pipeTo() tests that require synchronous inspection of the stream's state (1, 2). Because the polyfill uses the public getReader() and getWriter() API to implement pipeTo(), it can only asynchronously observe if and when a stream becomes closed or errored. Therefore, when the readable and the writable end become errored at the exact same time, it's difficult for the polyfill to observe these state changes in exactly the same order.
• The ES5 variant passes the same tests as the ES2015 variant, except for various tests about specific characteristics of the constructors, properties and methods. These test failures do not affect the run-time behavior of the polyfill. For example:
  • The name property of down-leveled constructors is incorrect.
  • The length property of down-leveled constructors and methods with optional arguments is incorrect.
  • Not all properties and methods are correctly marked as non-enumerable.
  • Down-leveled class methods are not correctly marked as non-constructable.

The type definitions are compatible with the built-in stream types of TypeScript 3.3 and higher.

Contributors

Thanks to these people for their work on the original polyfill:

• Diwank Singh Tomer (creatorrr)
• Anders Riutta (ariutta)