Background process

Full Title

A Background process is a computer program that has no User Experience components.

Context

• Computer systems typically interact with users (or with other process) as the primary function of the system. The part of the system that is reacting to these external events it typically called the Foreground process while the other parts of the system are referred to as the Background process.

Problems

Until 2017 JavaScript did not have the await function. Now that it is implemented in all Browsers the decision to use a separate background process is dependent on the application goals.

Solutions

• See the page on Service Workers for a discussion of how background process work in a Web App. The Service Worker is delivered with the Web App but runs independently by the device's operating system. The Web App is run within the browser.
• For a purely back ground functionality the web worker might be sufficient functionality.
• In a Native App multitasking is provided natively and the Foreground processes and Background processes can be bundled into a single app.

Smartphones

Most current versions of Smart Phones now include the ability to start background processes. Due to hardware limits, background processes on mobile operating systems are often restricted to certain tasks or consumption levels. On Android, CPU use for background processes is bounded at 5 - 10%. Third-party applications on Apple's iOS are limited to a subset of functions while running in the background. On both iOS and Android, background processes can be killed by the system if they are using too much memory.