Werker

werker is a module that helps in the managing and using of worker processes in node, letting you focus on getting things done.

werker is useful if you have CPU intensive tasks that block your node process from doing handling other tasks you can easily push it off to a worker process and let werker manage it.

Here is a brief screen cast showing werker managing a pool of processes.

Notice how once the request stop werker automatically cleans up processes. The code for the screen cast is in the examples directory and at the bottom of this page.

Installation

npm install werker

Usage

Writing a worker

The werker API has two aspects to it, the worker API and the pool API. In order to create a worker pool lets create a worker!

worker()

The entry point to writing a worker the worker function which returns a worker builder that allows you to define messages that your worker accepts from the parent process.

var werker = require("werker");

var worker = werker.worker();

module.exports = worker;

Note Exporting your worker as the module is required.

worker.method(name, fn, async?)

Ok that is the base for all workers in worker, but right now it doesnt do anything so lets add some handlers to our worker.

worker.method("sayHello", function () {
    return "Hello World!";
});

So in the above scode snippet we added a method to our worker which says whenever the parent process invokes the sayHello method run this function.

Well thats great but my code is async! Well we have a solution for that also!

worker.method("sayHelloAsync", function (cb) {
    process.nextTick(function(){
        cb(null, "Hello World!");
    });
}, true);

Ok so notice how we passed in true as the last argument to the method method so now a cb is passed in which you call when all processing is done.

worker.methods(methods, async?)

You can also specify a group of methods when creating your worker.

worker.methods({
    sayHello : function sayHello(){
        return "Hello World!";
    },

    add : function add(one, two){
        return one + two;
    }
};)

So in the above snippet we define two methods sayHello and add.

You can also pass in true as the last argument to make the group of methods async

worker.methods({
    sayHelloAsync : function sayHello(cb){
        process.nextTick(function(){
            cb(null, "Hello World!");
        });
    },

    addAsync : function add(one, two, cb){
        process.nextTick(function(){
            cb(null, one + two);
        });
    }
}, true);

worker.handler(fn, async?)

Well I just want a default handler similar to process.on("message") ok to do that you can create a default handler that handles all methods that do not match any methods invoked.

worker.handler(function(message){
    //do something with your message
});

Or alternatively the async version.

worker.handler(function(message, done){
    //do something with your message
}, true);

In the above snippets message will be whatever arguments that are passed into the handler, which we will see in the pool.

worker.tearDown(fn)

If you have logic that you need to run before your worker is stopped either by the pool or the stop method you can specify a tear down function to run.

worker.tearDown(function(){
    console.log("tear down");
});

worker.start()

To start your worker (i.e. ensure that it is listening and routing messages) use the start method.

worker.start(); //now your worker is listening for incoming messages and routing to your messages

worker.stop()

To stop your worker from listening to incoming messages use the stop() method.

All Together

var werker = require("werker");


module.exports = werker.worker()
    .method("sayHello", function () {
        return "Hello World!";
    })
    .method("add", function (one, two) {
        return one + two;
    })
    .method("asyncAdd",function (one, two, done) {
        process.nextTick(function () {
            done(null, one + two);
        });
    }, true)
    .tearDown(function(){
        console.log("tear down");
    }).start();

Creating a Pool

Ok so we have created a worker so lets create a pool to use our worker with.

werker.pool(pathToWorker)

To create a pool use the werker.pool method.

var werker = require("werker");

var werkers = werker.pool(__dirname + "/myWorker.js");

pool.ttl(timeToLive)

Ok so you setup your pool but you dont want all your workers sitting around forever, so you can specify a ttl on your worker. This will ensure that the pool cleans up any workers that have not been used for the ttl limit.

werkers.ttl(10000);

So now our workers will sit around for a max time of 10 seconds.

Note By default werker has a ttl of 1 minute. If you do not want your workers cleanup up set your ttl to -1.

pool.max(maxNumberOfWorkers)

By default werker will allow up to 10 worker processes if you wish to increase/lower this limit use the max method.

werkers.max(100); //now I can get up to 100 workers

pool.workerArgs(workerArguments)

The werker pool lets specify arguments to pass to the worker process when forking a new one.

pool.workerArgs(["hello", "world"]);

You can access the arguments by using process.argv in the worker.

pool.workerOptions(options)

By defualt the only option set on a worker when forking is the env which is set to the current processes env. You can override this by using the workerOptions method. For more options click here.

Getting a worker.

This is where werker is different just managing your worker processes manually. werker manages the creation/destryoing of worker processes internally allowing you to focus on the task at hand.

var myWorker = werkers.worker();

myWorker.sayHello(function(err, response){
    console.log(response);
});

Or use the promise API

myWorker.sayHello().then(function(response){
    console.log(repsonse);
});

Notice how the sayHello method that we defined in the worker is avaiable to use. All actions defined with the werker API are automatically added to the worker that you get from the pool.

Example

So lets create a web server that returns fibonacci numbers.

The worker

var werker = require("werker");

function fibonacci(n) {
    return n < 2 ? n : fibonacci(n - 1) + fibonacci(n - 2);
}

module.exports = werker.worker()
    .method("fibonacci", fibonacci)
    .start();

The server.

var http = require("http"),
    werker = require("werker"),
    url = require('url');

var pool = werker.pool(__dirname + "/fibonacciWorker.js").max(5).ttl(5000);

http.createServer(function (req, res) {
    var query = url.parse(req.url, true).query;
    var num = query.number || 40;
    pool.worker().fibonacci(num, function (err, fib) {
        if (err) {
            console.error(err.stack);
            res.writeHead(500, {'Content-Type': 'text/plain'});
            res.end(err.stack || err);
        } else {
            res.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/plain'});
            res.end(fib + "");
        }
    });

}).listen(3000, "127.0.0.1");

The video at the top is a demonstration of this sample code.

Meta

Code: git clone git://github.com/C2FO/werker.git JsDoc: http://c2fo.github.com/werker Website: http://c2fo.com - Twitter: http://twitter.com/c2fo - 877.465.4045