Custom Idle Queue

This is a npm-module that lets you optimize the performance of important tasks by delaying background-tasks. It works a bit like requestIdleCallback but instead of fetching idle-time of the CPU, you can use this for any given limited ressource.

Quickstart

In this example we define database-requests as limited ressource. We create an idleQueue arround all calls to the ressource to ensure our importantTask is as fast as possible and the backgroundTask only runs when no importantTask is using the database.

npm install custom-idle-queue --save

// require
const { IdleQueue } = require('custom-idle-queue');

// OR import
import { IdleQueue } from 'custom-idle-queue';

// create a new queue
const myQueue = new IdleQueue();


// wrap all calls to your limited ressource
const readFromDatabase = key => myQueue.wrapCall(
    () => pseudoDatabaseModule.get(key)
);
const writeToDatabase = (key, value) => myQueue.wrapCall(
    () => pseudoDatabaseModule.set(key, value);
);
const deleteFromDatabase = (key) => myQueue.wrapCall(
    () => pseudoDatabaseModule.delete(key, value);
);

// this is the important task
const importantTask = async function increaseClickNumber() {
    const oldNumber = await readFromDatabase('nr');
    const newNumber = oldNumber++;
    await writeToDatabase('nr', newNumber);
    await writeToDatabase('time_' + newNumber, new Date().getTime());
    return newNumber;
};

// this is the background task
const backgroundTask = async function cleanUpOldClicks() {
    const newest = await readFromDatabase('nr');
    const limitDate = new Date().getTime() - 1000*60*60;
    for (let i = 0; i < newest; i++) {
        const date = await readFromDatabase('time_' + i);
        if(date < limitDate){
            await deleteFromDatabase('time_' + i);
        }
    }
}

// we now run the backgroundTask in an intervall without slowing down the importantTask
(async() => {
    while(true){
        await myQueue.requestIdlePromise(); // wait until database-requests in idle
        await backgroundTask();

        await new Promise(res => setTimeout(res, 2000)); // wait 2 seconds
    }
})();

// if we now run the importantTask, it will not be slowed down by the backgroundTask
document
    .querySelector('#myButton')
    .addEventListener('click', () => {
        const newNr = await importantTask();
        labelDomElement.innerHTML = newNr.toString();
    });

// You can find the full documentation here https://github.com/pubkey/custom-idle-queue/blob/master/docs.md

Use cases

This module can be used on any limited ressource like

• HTTP-Requests
• Database-Calls
• Service-Worker-Calls
• Animations

Limitations

• IdleQueue cannot predict the future

When you start a backgroundTask first and the importantTask afterwards, the backgroundTask will slow down the importantTask because it is already running. To prevent this, you should use requestIdlePromise as granular as possible. The backgroundTask-function from the example would be better when it awaits the idle-state before each usage of the limited ressource. This will ensure that the backgroundTask will be paused until the importantTask has finished.

// this is the background task
const backgroundTask = async function cleanUpOldClicks() {
    await myQueue.requestIdlePromise(); // request idle-state each time
    const newest = await readFromDatabase('nr');
    const limitDate = new Date().getTime() - 1000*60*60;
    for (let i = 0; i < newest; i++) {
        await myQueue.requestIdlePromise(); // request idle-state each time
        const date = await readFromDatabase('time_' + i);
        if(date < limitDate){
            await myQueue.requestIdlePromise(); // request idle-state each time
            await deleteFromDatabase('time_' + i);
        }
    }
}

• You cannot optimize CPU-only ressources

Because javascript runs in a single process, it doesn't make sense to define CPU as limited ressource. For example if you have a CPU-only-Function like calculatePrimeNumber, you should not limit the access to the function with an idle-queue because at the time you call idleQueue.lock() or idleQueue.wrapCall(), the process will instantly run calculatePrimeNumber before it even can change the idle-queue state.

Browser-Support

This module is using the Promise- and the Map-Object. If your runtime does not support them, you have to add them via polyfills.

Read the full documentation here