Programmatically update service worker if update() is not available

Question

How can I programmatically update service worker since ServiceWorkerRegistration.update() has not been implemented in Chrome yet? Is there an alternative?

Answer 1

I assume you got this by now but I think you want serviceWorker.skipWaiting()

Answer 2

From the spec.

if ('serviceWorker' in navigator) {
  navigator.serviceWorker.register('/sw-test/sw.js', {scope: 'sw-test'}).then(function(registration) {
    // registration worked
    console.log('Registration succeeded.');
    button.onclick = function() {
      registration.update();
    }
  }).catch(function(error) {
    // registration failed
    console.log('Registration failed with ' + error);
  });
};

Answer 3

Thr best workaround seems to be to force update by changing checksum of the service worker file by some simple backend code (it can be like last commented line with microtime), which will be detected by browser