MessagePort: message event

Available in workers

The message event is fired on a MessagePort object when a message arrives on that channel.

This event is not cancellable and does not bubble.

Syntax

Use the event name in methods like addEventListener(), or set an event handler property.

addEventListener("message", (event) => { })

onmessage = (event) => { }

Event type

A MessageEvent. Inherits from Event.

Examples

Suppose a script creates a MessageChannel and sends one of the ports to a different browsing context, such as another <iframe>, using code like this:

const channel = new MessageChannel();
const myPort = channel.port1;
const targetFrame = window.top.frames[1];
const targetOrigin = "https://example.org";

const messageControl = document.querySelector("#message");
const channelMessageButton = document.querySelector("#channel-message");

channelMessageButton.addEventListener("click", () => {
  myPort.postMessage(messageControl.value);
});

targetFrame.postMessage("init", targetOrigin, [channel.port2]);

The target can receive the port and start listening for messages and message errors on it using code like this:

window.addEventListener("message", (event) => {
  const myPort = event.ports[0];

  myPort.addEventListener("message", (event) => {
    received.textContent = event.data;
  });

  myPort.addEventListener("messageerror", (event) => {
    console.error(event.data);
  });

  myPort.start();
});

Note that the listener must call MessagePort.start() before any messages will be delivered to this port. This is only needed when using the addEventListener() method: if the receiver uses onmessage instead, start() is called implicitly:

window.addEventListener("message", (event) => {
  const myPort = event.ports[0];

  myPort.onmessage = (event) => {
    received.textContent = event.data;
  };

  myPort.onmessageerror = (event) => {
    console.error(event.data);
  };
});

Specifications

Browser compatibility

See also

• Related events: messageerror.
• Using channel messaging