Getting Started
Workbox is a massive package with many modules to make service worker development more enjoyable and remove the need to deal with the low-level service worker API.
In this document, we focus only on the workbox-build module from Workbox.
WARNING
From version 0.16.0, vite-plugin-pwa has been updated to use latest workbox version 7.0.0 that requires Node 16 or above.
TIP
From version 0.20.2, the plugin will throw an error if the maximumFileSizeToCacheInBytes warning is present when building the service worker.
workbox-build module
This module is for build process purposes (a node module); that is, Vite Plugin PWA will use it to build your service-worker.
We focus on 2 methods of this module:
- generateSW: for generating the service worker.
- injectManifest: for when you need more control over your service worker.
You should read Which Mode to Use before deciding which strategy to use.
In short, the generateSW function abstracts away the need to work directly with the service worker API when building the service worker. This method can be configured using plugins instead of writing your own service worker code (generateSW will generate the code for you).
While the injectManifest method will use your existing service worker and build/compile it.
How is workbox-build related to vite-plugin-pwa?
vite-plugin-pwa uses generateSW and injectManifest Workbox methods internally when the strategies option is set to generateSW and injectManifest respectively.
When you configure strategies: 'generateSW' option (the default value) in your vite.config.* file, the plugin invokes workbox' generateSW method. The options passed to the workbox-build method will be those provided via the workbox option of the plugin configuration.
When you configure strategies: 'injectManifest' option, the plugin will first build your custom service worker via custom Vite build. With the build result, vite-plugin-pwa will call Workbox's injectManifest method passing those options provided via the injectManifest option of the plugin configuration.