The easy way of using Web Workers in Nuxt.

Base in the Vite documentation:

A web worker script can be directly imported by appending ?worker or ?sharedworker to the import request. The default export will be a custom worker constructor:

import MyWorker from './worker?worker'

const worker = new MyWorker()

The worker script can also use ESM import statements instead of importScripts(). Note: During development this relies on browser native support, but for the production build it is compiled away.

By default, the worker script will be emitted as a separate chunk in the production build. If you wish to inline the worker as base64 strings, add the inline query:

import MyWorker from './worker?worker&inline'

If you wish to retrieve the worker as a URL, add the url query:

import MyWorker from './worker?worker&url'

See Worker Options for details on configuring the bundling of all workers.

---

How to create a web worker in your nuxt project:

Nuxt v4 Example:

1. Create a customWebWorker.js in the app/assets folder, or you can create a folder specifically for the workers : app/assets/workers/customWebWorker.js
2. Create a composable or import the worker in the component, but will recommend to used in a composable app/composables/useCustomWorker.ts
3. import the web worker in the composable

// This assume that you created a folder for all the workers
import customWebWorker from "@/assets/workers/customWebWorker?worker";

1. Now you can create a ref for that worker

//useCustomWorker.ts
import customWebWorker from "@/assets/workers/customWebWorker?worker";

const useCustomWorker = () => {
    //...other functions

    const worker = ref<Worker | null>(null);


    const startWorker = ()=>{
        worker.value = new customWebWorker();
        worker.value.onmessage = (event) => {
                const { 
                type, // -> This will depend on you if you are emmiting from the web worker
                //...other data params emmited from the worker
                } = event.data;

                switch (type) {
                    case 'status':
                        //...Handle something here
                        break;
                    case 'error':
                        //...Handle error here
                        break;
                    case 'result':
                        // ...
                        break;
                }
            };

    }

    const postMessageToWorker = ()  =>{

        //Remember that the object sended to the worker is on you 
        // this is just a example
        worker.value?.postMessage({ type: 'START', payload: { //...payload } });
    }

    return {
        startWorker,
        postMessageToWorker
        //...other exports  
    }
}

Here is an example of web worker that I use for voice to text transcription for https://human-ideas.giessen.dev/tools/audio-text-notes

//...import if you are using a package for some background work

import { pipeline } from "@huggingface/transformers";


const BASE_MODEL = 'Xenova/whisper-tiny.en';
let transcriber = null;
let isEnglishModel = true;

self.onmessage = async (event) => {
    //This will be base on the event that you send 
    const { type, payload } = event.data;

    switch (type) {
        case 'loadModel':
            try {
                self.postMessage({ type: 'status', status: 'loading', progress: 0 });
                if (payload.model.includes('.en')) {
                    isEnglishModel = true;
                }
                else {
                    isEnglishModel = false;
                }
                console.log('Loading model:', payload.model || BASE_MODEL);
                console.log('Is English:', isEnglishModel);

                transcriber = await pipeline('automatic-speech-recognition', payload.model || BASE_MODEL);
                self.postMessage({ type: 'status', status: 'loaded', progress: 100 });
            } catch (error) {
                self.postMessage({ type: 'error', error: error.message });
            }
            break;

        case 'transcribe':
            if (!transcriber) {
                self.postMessage({ type: 'error', error: 'Model not loaded' });
                return;
            }
            try {
                self.postMessage({ type: 'status', status: 'transcribing', progress: 0 });
                const { audio, language, model } = payload;
                console.log('Transcribing audio:', audio, 'with language:', language, 'and model:', model);
                const settings = {
                    language,
                    return_timestamps: true
                };

                const result = await transcriber(audio, !isEnglishModel ? settings : {});
                self.postMessage({ type: 'status', status: 'done', progress: 100 });
                self.postMessage({ type: 'result', result });
            } catch (error) {
                self.postMessage({ type: 'error', error: error.message });
            }
            break;

        case 'unloadModel':
            transcriber = null;
            self.postMessage({ type: 'status', status: 'unloaded', progress: 100 });
            break;

        default:
            self.postMessage({ type: 'error', error: 'Unknown message type' });
            break;
    }
};

---

Happy hacking!

Working on the audio version

The Loop VueJs Podcast

Podcast Episode

---

Projects:

NUXTZZLE

The base for your Nuxt/ BetterAuth &
Drizzle ORM

Must-know resources for devs
Resources to: Learn, Grow,
and Stay Updated as a Developer

Level up your computer science skills with our curated list of top websites for tips, tools, and insights. Got a favorite? Share it and grow our CS resource hub

HUMAN IDEAS

Explore the Best
Ideas created by Humans, not AI BS...

Text behind Image

---