FazBrowse GitHub Viewer | Trending |
URL:
| Home
Tools: [Download Repo ZIP]   [Original HTTPS Page]

Add warning about using this package to send arbitrary data to worker threads by valadaptive · Pull Request #200 · yahoo/serialize-javascript · GitHub

/ serialize-javascript Public

Add warning about using this package to send arbitrary data to worker threads #200

New issue

Have a question about this project? Sign up for a free GitHub account to open an issue and contact its maintainers and the community.

Sign up for GitHub

By clicking “Sign up for GitHub”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy statement. We’ll occasionally send you account related emails.

Already on GitHub? Sign in to your account

Merged
okuryu merged 2 commits into from
Nov 27, 2025
Conversation 2 Commits 2 Checks 3 Files changed
Merged

Add warning about using this package to send arbitrary data to worker threads #200

Changes from all commits
Commits
Show all changes
2 commits
Select commit Hold shift + click to select a range
c254b4c
Add warning about using this for worker threads
valadaptive Nov 24, 2025
cb95ca8
Referenceify links
valadaptive Nov 26, 2025
File filter

Filter by extension

Filter by extension .md  (1) All 1 file type selected
Viewed files
Conversations
Failed to load comments.
Loading
Jump to
Jump to file
Failed to load files.
Loading
Diff view
Unified
Split
Hide whitespace
Diff view
Unified
Split
Hide whitespace
11 changes: 10 additions & 1 deletion README.md
Show comments
View file
Open in desktop
This file contains hidden or bidirectional Unicode text that may be interpreted or compiled differently than what appears below. To review, open the file in an editor that reveals hidden Unicode characters. Learn more about bidirectional Unicode characters
Show hidden characters
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -11,14 +11,21 @@ Serialize JavaScript to a _superset_ of JSON that includes regular expressions,

The code in this package began its life as an internal module to [express-state][]. To expand its usefulness, it now lives as `serialize-javascript` — an independent package on npm.

You're probably wondering: **What about `JSON.stringify()`!?** We've found that sometimes we need to serialize JavaScript **functions**, **regexps**, **dates**, **sets** or **maps**. A great example is a web app that uses client-side URL routing where the route definitions are regexps that need to be shared from the server to the client. But this module is also great for communicating between node processes.
You're probably wondering: **What about `JSON.stringify()`!?** We've found that sometimes we need to serialize JavaScript **functions**, **regexps**, **dates**, **sets** or **maps**. A great example is a web app that uses client-side URL routing where the route definitions are regexps that need to be shared from the server to the client.

The string returned from this package's single export function is literal JavaScript which can be saved to a `.js` file, or be embedded into an HTML document by making the content of a `<script>` element.

> **HTML characters and JavaScript line terminators are escaped automatically.**

Please note that serialization for ES6 Sets & Maps requires support for `Array.from` (not available in IE or Node < 0.12), or an `Array.from` polyfill.

> [!WARNING]
> It may be tempting to use this package as a way to pass arbitrary functions into [worker threads][], since you cannot pass them directly via `postMessage()`. However, passing functions between worker threads is not possible in the general case. This package lets you serialize *some* functions, but it has limitations.
>
> For instance, if a function references something from outside the function body, it will not run properly if serialized and deserialized. This could include [closed-over variables][] or imports from other packages. For a serialized function to run properly, it must be entirely self-contained.
>
> In general, it is not possible to send arbitrary JavaScript to a worker thread, and pretend it's running the same way it would run on the main thread. This package doesn't let you do that.

## Installation

Install using npm:
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -141,3 +148,5 @@ See the [LICENSE file][LICENSE] for license text and copyright information.
[express-state]: https://github.com/yahoo/express-state
[JSON.stringify]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/JSON/stringify
[LICENSE]: https://github.com/yahoo/serialize-javascript/blob/main/LICENSE
[worker threads]: https://nodejs.org/api/worker_threads.html
[closed-over variables]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Guide/Closures
Back | FazBrowse Home | New Git URL