Web/API/WorkerGlobalScope

The WorkerGlobalScope interface of the Web Workers API is an interface representing the scope of any worker. Workers have no browsing context; this scope contains the information usually conveyed by Window objects — in this case event handlers, the console or the associated WorkerNavigator object. Each WorkerGlobalScope has its own event loop.

This interface is usually specialized by each worker type: DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope for dedicated workers, SharedWorkerGlobalScope for shared workers, and ServiceWorkerGlobalScope for ServiceWorker. The self property returns the specialized scope for each context.

Properties

This interface inherits properties from the EventTarget interface and WindowOrWorkerGlobalScope and WindowEventHandlers mixins.

Standard properties

WorkerGlobalScope.navigator Read only

Returns the WorkerNavigator associated with the worker. It is a specific navigator object, mostly a subset of the Navigator for browsing scopes, but adapted to workers.

WorkerGlobalScope.self Read only

Returns a reference to the WorkerGlobalScope itself. Most of the time it is a specific scope like DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope, SharedWorkerGlobalScope or ServiceWorkerGlobalScope.

WorkerGlobalScope.location Read only

Returns the WorkerLocation associated with the worker. It is a specific location object, mostly a subset of the Location for browsing scopes, but adapted to workers.

Non-standard properties

WorkerGlobalScope.performance Read only ': Returns the Performance associated with the worker. It is a regular performance object, except that only a subset of its property and methods are available to workers.
WorkerGlobalScope.console Read only ': Returns the Console associated with the worker.

Properties implemented from elsewhere

WindowOrWorkerGlobalScope.caches Read only: Returns the CacheStorage object associated with the current context. This object enables functionality such as storing assets for offline use, and generating custom responses to requests.
WindowOrWorkerGlobalScope.indexedDB Read only: Provides a mechanism for applications to asynchronously access capabilities of indexed databases; returns an IDBFactory object.
WindowOrWorkerGlobalScope.isSecureContext Read only: Returns a boolean indicating whether the current context is secure (true) or not (false).
WindowOrWorkerGlobalScope.origin Read only: Returns the global object's origin, serialized as a string. (This does not yet appear to be implemented in any browser.)

Events

error: Fired when an error occured. Also available via the WorkerGlobalScope.onerror property.
offline: Fired when the browser has lost access to the network and the value of navigator.onLine switched to false. Also available via the WorkerGlobalScope.onoffline property.
online: Fired when the browser has gained access to the network and the value of navigator.onLine switched to true. Also available via the WorkerGlobalScope.ononline property.
languagechange: Fired at the global/worker scope object when the user's preferred languages change. Also available via the WorkerGlobalScope.onlanguagechange property.

close ' ': Is an EventHandler representing the code to be called when the close event is raised. Also available via the WorkerGlobalScope.onclose property.
rejectionhandled ': An event handler for handled Promise rejection events. Also available via the WorkerGlobalScope.onrejectionhandled property.
unhandledrejection ': An event handler for unhandled Promise rejection events. Also available via the WorkerGlobalScope.onunhandledrejection property.

Methods

This interface inherits methods from the EventTarget interface and WindowOrWorkerGlobalScope and WindowEventHandlers mixins.

Standard methods

WorkerGlobalScope.importScripts(): Imports one or more scripts into the worker's scope. You can specify as many as you'd like, separated by commas. For example: importScripts('foo.js', 'bar.js');

Non-standard methods

WorkerGlobalScope.dump() ': Allows you to write a message to stdout — i.e. in your terminal. This is the same as Firefox's window.dump, but for workers.

Methods implemented from elsewhere

WindowOrWorkerGlobalScope.atob(): Decodes a string of data which has been encoded using base-64 encoding.
WindowOrWorkerGlobalScope.btoa(): Creates a base-64 encoded ASCII string from a string of binary data.
WindowOrWorkerGlobalScope.clearInterval(): Cancels the repeated execution set using WindowOrWorkerGlobalScope.setInterval().
WindowOrWorkerGlobalScope.clearTimeout(): Cancels the delayed execution set using WindowOrWorkerGlobalScope.setTimeout().
WindowOrWorkerGlobalScope.createImageBitmap(): Accepts a variety of different image sources, and returns a Promise which resolves to an ImageBitmap. Optionally the source is cropped to the rectangle of pixels originating at (sx, sy) with width sw, and height sh.
WindowOrWorkerGlobalScope.fetch(): Starts the process of fetching a resource from the network.
WindowOrWorkerGlobalScope.setInterval(): Schedules a function to execute every time a given number of milliseconds elapses.
WindowOrWorkerGlobalScope.setTimeout(): Schedules a function to execute in a given amount of time.

Deprecated methods

WorkerGlobalScope.close(): Discards any tasks queued in the WorkerGlobalScope's event loop, effectively closing this particular scope. In newer browser versions, close() is available on DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope and SharedWorkerGlobalScope instead. This change was made to stop close() being available on service workers, as it isn't supposed to be used there and always throws an exception when called (see bug 1336043).

Example

You won't access WorkerGlobalScope directly in your code; however, its properties and methods are inherited by more specific global scopes such as DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope and SharedWorkerGlobalScope. For example, you could import another script into the worker and print out the contents of the worker scope's navigator object using the following two lines:

importScripts('foo.js');
console.log(navigator);

Since the global scope of the worker script is effectively the global scope of the worker you are running (DedicatedWorkerGlobalScope or whatever) and all worker global scopes inherit methods, properties, etc. from WorkerGlobalScope, you can run lines such as those above without specifying a parent object.

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
HTML Living StandardThe definition of 'WorkerGlobalScope' in that specification.	Living Standard

Browser compatibility

Update compatibility data on GitHub

	Desktop						Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari	Android webview	Chrome for Android	Firefox for Android	Opera for Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet
`WorkerGlobalScope`	Chrome Full support 4	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 3.5	IE Full support 10	Opera Full support 10.6	Safari Full support 4	WebView Android Full support Yes	Chrome Android Full support Yes	Firefox Android Full support 4	Opera Android Full support 11	Safari iOS Full support 3.2	Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes
`close` Deprecated'Non-standard'	Chrome Full support 4	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 3.5	IE Full support Yes	Opera Full support 11.5	Safari Full support 4	WebView Android Full support 37	Chrome Android Full support Yes	Firefox Android Full support 4	Opera Android ?	Safari iOS ?	Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes
`console` Deprecated'Non-standard'	Chrome Full support 4	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 29 Notes' Full support 29 Notes' Notes' Before Firefox 30, the console would be of type `WorkerConsole` instead of `Console`.	IE Full support Yes	Opera Full support Yes	Safari Full support Yes	WebView Android Full support 37	Chrome Android Full support Yes	Firefox Android Full support 29 Notes' Full support 29 Notes' Notes' Before Firefox 30, the console would be of type `WorkerConsole` instead of `Console`.	Opera Android ?	Safari iOS ?	Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes
`dump` Deprecated'Non-standard'	Chrome No support No	Edge No support No	Firefox No support No	IE No support No	Opera No support No	Safari No support No	WebView Android No support No	Chrome Android No support No	Firefox Android Full support 4	Opera Android No support No	Safari iOS No support No	Samsung Internet Android No support No
`importScripts`	Chrome Full support 4	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 4	IE Full support 10	Opera Full support 10.6	Safari Full support 4	WebView Android Full support ≤37	Chrome Android Full support 18	Firefox Android Full support 4	Opera Android Full support 11	Safari iOS Full support 3.2	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0
`languagechange` event	Chrome Full support 4	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 74	IE Full support Yes	Opera Full support 11.5	Safari Full support 4	WebView Android ?	Chrome Android Full support 40	Firefox Android No support No	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS Full support 5.1	Samsung Internet Android Full support 4.0
`location`	Chrome Full support 4	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 3.5	IE Full support Yes	Opera Full support 11.5	Safari Full support 4	WebView Android Full support 37	Chrome Android Full support 40	Firefox Android Full support 4	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS Full support 5.1	Samsung Internet Android Full support 4.0
`navigator`	Chrome Full support 4	Edge Full support 17	Firefox Full support 3.5	IE Full support Yes	Opera Full support 11.5	Safari Full support 4	WebView Android Full support 37	Chrome Android Full support 40	Firefox Android Full support 4	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS Full support 5.1	Samsung Internet Android Full support 4.0
`onclose` Deprecated'Non-standard'	Chrome Full support 4	Edge Full support 12	Firefox No support 3.5 — 50	IE Full support Yes	Opera Full support 11.5	Safari Full support 4	WebView Android Full support 37	Chrome Android Full support 40	Firefox Android No support 4 — 50	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS Full support 5.1	Samsung Internet Android Full support 4.0
`onerror`	Chrome Full support 4	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 3.5	IE Full support Yes	Opera Full support 11.5	Safari Full support 4	WebView Android Full support 37	Chrome Android Full support 40	Firefox Android Full support 4	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS Full support 5.1	Samsung Internet Android Full support 4.0
`onlanguagechange`	Chrome Full support 4	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 74	IE Full support Yes	Opera Full support 11.5	Safari Full support 4	WebView Android Full support 37	Chrome Android Full support 40	Firefox Android No support No	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS Full support 5.1	Samsung Internet Android Full support 4.0
`onoffline`	Chrome Full support 4	Edge Full support ≤79	Firefox Full support 29	IE No support No	Opera ?	Safari ?	WebView Android Full support Yes	Chrome Android Full support 40	Firefox Android Full support 29	Opera Android ?	Safari iOS ?	Samsung Internet Android Full support 4.0
`ononline`	Chrome Full support 4	Edge Full support ≤79	Firefox Full support 29	IE No support No	Opera ?	Safari ?	WebView Android Full support Yes	Chrome Android Full support 40	Firefox Android Full support 29	Opera Android ?	Safari iOS ?	Samsung Internet Android Full support 4.0
`performance`	Chrome Full support Yes	Edge Full support ≤79	Firefox Full support 34	IE No support No	Opera ?	Safari ?	WebView Android Full support Yes	Chrome Android Full support Yes	Firefox Android Full support 34	Opera Android ?	Safari iOS ?	Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes
`self`	Chrome Full support 4	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 3.5	IE Full support Yes	Opera Full support 11.5	Safari Full support 4	WebView Android Full support 37	Chrome Android Full support 40	Firefox Android Full support 34	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS Full support 5.1	Samsung Internet Android Full support 4.0

Legend

Full support: Full support
No support: No support
Compatibility unknown: Compatibility unknown
Non-standard. Expect poor cross-browser support.': Non-standard. Expect poor cross-browser support.
Deprecated. Not for use in new websites.': Deprecated. Not for use in new websites.
See implementation notes.': See implementation notes.