# Background processing using web workers

[Web workers](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Web_Workers_API) allow you to run CPU-intensive computations in a background thread,
freeing the main thread to update the user interface.
If you find your application performs a lot of computations, such as generating CAD drawings or doing heavy geometrical calculations, using web workers can help increase your application's performance.

<div class="alert is-helpful">

The CLI does not support running Angular itself in a web worker.

</div>

## Adding a web worker

To add a web worker to an existing project, use the Angular CLI `ng generate` command.

```bash
ng generate web-worker <location>
```

You can add a web worker anywhere in your application.
For example, to add a web worker to the root component, `src/app/app.component.ts`, run the following command.

```bash
ng generate web-worker app
```

The command performs the following actions.

- Configures your project to use web workers, if it isn't already.
- Adds the following scaffold code to `src/app/app.worker.ts` to  receive messages.

  <code-example language="typescript" header="src/app/app.worker.ts">
  addEventListener('message', ({ data }) => {
    const response = `worker response to ${data}`;
    postMessage(response);
  });
 </code-example>

- Adds the following scaffold code to `src/app/app.component.ts` to use the worker.

  <code-example language="typescript" header="src/app/app.component.ts">
  if (typeof Worker !== 'undefined') {
    // Create a new
    const worker = new Worker('./app.worker', { type: 'module' });
    worker.onmessage = ({ data }) => {
      console.log(`page got message: ${data}`);
    };
    worker.postMessage('hello');
  } else {
    // Web workers are not supported in this environment.
    // You should add a fallback so that your program still executes correctly.
  }
  </code-example>

After you generate this initial scaffold, you must refactor your code to use the web worker by sending messages to and from the worker.

<div class="alert is-important">

Some environments or platforms, such as `@angular/platform-server` used in [Server-side Rendering](guide/universal), don't support web workers. To ensure that your application will work in these environments, you must provide a fallback mechanism to perform the computations that the worker would otherwise perform.

</div>