worker-timers

What is worker-timers?

The worker-timers npm package provides timer functions (setTimeout, setInterval, and clearTimeout) that run in Web Workers. This allows for more accurate timing and less interference from the main thread, which can be beneficial for performance-sensitive applications.

What are worker-timers's main functionalities?

setTimeout

The setTimeout function schedules a function to be executed after a specified delay, in milliseconds. This is similar to the native setTimeout but runs in a Web Worker for more accurate timing.

const { setTimeout } = require('worker-timers');

setTimeout(() => {
  console.log('This runs after 1000ms');
}, 1000);

setInterval

The setInterval function repeatedly calls a function with a fixed time delay between each call. This is similar to the native setInterval but runs in a Web Worker for more consistent intervals.

const { setInterval } = require('worker-timers');

setInterval(() => {
  console.log('This runs every 1000ms');
}, 1000);

clearTimeout

The clearTimeout function cancels a timeout previously established by calling setTimeout. This is similar to the native clearTimeout but works with the worker-timers setTimeout.

const { setTimeout, clearTimeout } = require('worker-timers');

const timeoutId = setTimeout(() => {
  console.log('This will not run');
}, 1000);

clearTimeout(timeoutId);

clearInterval

The clearInterval function cancels a repeated action which was established by a call to setInterval. This is similar to the native clearInterval but works with the worker-timers setInterval.

const { setInterval, clearInterval } = require('worker-timers');

const intervalId = setInterval(() => {
  console.log('This will not run');
}, 1000);

clearInterval(intervalId);

Other packages similar to worker-timers

worker-timer

The worker-timer package provides similar functionality by running timer functions in Web Workers. It aims to provide more accurate timing and less interference from the main thread, similar to worker-timers.

README

worker-timers

A replacement for setInterval() and setTimeout() which works in unfocused windows.

Motivation

For scripts that rely on WindowTimers like setInterval() or setTimeout() things get confusing when the site which the script is running on loses focus. Chrome, Firefox and maybe others throttle the frequency of firing those timers to a maximum of once per second in such a situation. However this is only true for the main thread and does not affect the behavior of Web Workers. Therefore it is possible to avoid the throttling by using a worker to do the actual scheduling. This is exactly what WorkerTimers do.

Getting Started

WorkerTimers are available as a package on npm. Simply run the following command to install it:

npm install worker-timers

You can then require the workerTimers instance from within your code like this:

import * as workerTimers from 'worker-timers';

The usage is exactly the same as with the corresponding functions on the global scope.

var intervalId = workerTimers.setInterval(() => {
    // do something many times
}, 100);

workerTimers.clearInterval(intervalId);

var timeoutId = workerTimers.setTimeout(() => {
    // do something once
}, 100);

workerTimers.clearTimeout(timeoutId);