Can you store a JS object in a SharedArrayBuffer?

Question

I need to share an object between a client side application and a web worker and I heard about SharedArrayBuffers. This is what I'd like to do.

main.js

let myWorker = new Worker('/worker.js')
let mySab = new SharedArrayBuffer(1024)
let myObj = { foo: 'bar', bar: 'foo' }
// Save 'myObj' to 'mySab'
worker.postMessage(sab)

worker.js

self.onmessage = (e) => {
    let myObj = BLANK // Get 'myObj' from SharedArrayBuffer
}

Is this possible? The examples I've seen of ShareArrayBuffers only ever save numbers in the buffer. Any help is appreciated!

"I need to share an object" - what exactly do you mean by that? You can easily send the object to the web worker, who will receive a clone of the data. — Bergi
– Bergi, Commented Mar 16, 2022 at 21:44
You would use a SharedArrayBuffer only when you really need multi-threaded access to shared memory. With all the problems that can cause. — Bergi
– Bergi, Commented Mar 16, 2022 at 21:47
@Bergi Thanks, I know about sending it as a clone, just wondering if sharing was possible with an object or not. Makes sense that it only holds binary. — zlowe
– zlowe, Commented Mar 16, 2022 at 21:57

zlowe · Accepted Answer · 2022-03-17 14:20:34Z

2

No, SharedArrayBuffers only store binary data. You can only send copies of objects via the built-in postMessage function.

Sources:

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/SharedArrayBuffer

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Web_Workers_API/Using_web_workers

edited Mar 17, 2022 at 14:20

answered Mar 16, 2022 at 22:05

zlowe

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3 Comments

João Pimentel Ferreira Over a year ago

can't you convert the Object to binary and vice-versa in the Worker?

Pete Over a year ago

I'm very confused as well. You'd thin kyou can JSON stringify and then TextEncode it to a binary array. I'm just not sure how to do this...

mark d drake Over a year ago

@Pete. 0 At this point you've serialized the object, so the main and worker threads are not SHARING the same object. Changes on one side will not be visable on the other side

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