Is it possible to save a file directly from a web worker? - file

Question

I have an entirely browser-based (i.e. no backend) application which analyzes XML data in files which average about 250MB each. The actual parsing and analysis happens in a web worker, which is fed data in 64KB chunks by a FileReader instance, and this is all quite performant.
I have a request from the client to expand this application so that it can generate a .zip file containing the original input file and the results of the analysis, and allow the user to save that file to her local machine. Generating a .zip file in memory with those contents isn't a problem. The problem lies in transferring that much data from the web worker which generates it back to the main browser thread, so that it can be saved; attempting to do this invariably provokes a crash or out-of-memory exception. (I've tried transferring strings all at once and a chunk at a time, and I've tried using an ArrayBuffer as a transferable object to avoid copying. All fail in the same fashion.)
Unfortunately, I don't know any way to invoke a file save operation directly from a worker thread. I know several methods of doing so from the main browser thread, but all of them require either the ability to create DOM nodes (which worker threads of course can't do), or the use of interfaces (i.e. msSaveBlob, saveAs) which no browser seems to expose to a worker thread. I've spent a while looking for possibilities on the web, but found nothing usable; FileWriterSync looked good, but only Chrome supports it, and I need to target IE and Firefox as well.
Is there a method I've overlooked for saving files directly from a web worker? If so, what is it? Or am I just out of luck here?

Answer 1

tl;dr demo
You don't need to copy the entire file to the client side at all. You don't even need to transfer it, in fact. First a recap.
This is how to create Blob from some typed array:
// Some arbitrary binary data
const mydata = new Uint16Array([1,2,3,4,5]);
// mydata vs. mydata.buffer does not seem to make any difference
const blob = new Blob([mydata], {type: "octet/stream"});
You can create an object URL, which is a copy of the original Blob managed by the browser and accessible as URL. I have done this with huge files without seeing performance impact:
const url = URL.createObjectURL(blob);
This is how I typically download URLs:
const link = document.createElement("a");
link.download = "data.bin";
link.href = e.data.link;
link.appendChild(new Text("Download data"));
link.addEventListener("click", function() {
this.parentNode.removeChild(this);
// remember to free the object url, but wait until the download is handled
setTimeout(()=>{URL.revokeObjectURL(e.data.link);}, 500)
});
document.body.appendChild(link);
You can trigger the download automatically by invoking click event on that link. I prefer to let the user decide when to download.
So, all together:
worker.js
// Some arbitrary binary data
const mydata = new Uint16Array([1,2,3,4,5]);
self.onmessage = function(e) {
console.log("Message: ",e.data)
switch(e.data.name) {
case "make-download" :
const blob = new Blob([mydata.buffer], {type: "octet/stream"});
const url = URL.createObjectURL(blob);
self.postMessage({name:"download-link", link:url});
break;
default:
console.error("Unknown message:", e.data.name);
}
}
main.js
var worker = new Worker("worker.js");
worker.addEventListener("message", function(e) {
switch(e.data.name) {
case "download-link" : {
if(e.data.error) {
console.error("Download error: ", e.data.error);
}
else {
const link = document.createElement("a");
link.download = "data.bin";
link.href = e.data.link;
link.appendChild(new Text("Download data"));
link.addEventListener("click", function() {
this.parentNode.removeChild(this);
// remember to free the object url, but wait until the download is handled
setTimeout(()=>{URL.revokeObjectURL(e.data.link);}, 500)
});
document.body.appendChild(link);
}
break;
}
default:
console.error("Unknown message:", e.data.name);
}
});
function requestDownload() {
worker.postMessage({name:"make-download"});
}
When I click Download in my demo, I can see this in my HEX editor:
Looks just fine :)