Re: [slightlyoff/ServiceWorker] Expose GeoLocation to workers (#745)

Agree very much with the use-case scenario's described by @ManuelB and @RichardMaher.

There are dozens of use-cases for being able to receive and record geo position updates, whereby the initiating (web)app may or may not run in the background, as the user is temporarily on another tab, or app, and/or has put their mobile device in (s)low-CPU/low-power mode.

With Progressive Web Apps touted as the new way to go and ServiceWorker being one of the mandatory components of PWA, ServiceWorker seems a natural fit. 
If not ServiceWorker, then something else. Please redirect me if there is a better place where I should state my case.

But somewhere in PWA we need to be able to receive position (lat/lon) updates from the mobile device's hardware and pass these on to the page that originally activated it. 
As I understand it, currently ServiceWorker does not have access to navigator.geolocation, let alone navigator.geolocation.watchPosition(), so in this respect PWA cannot offer what native apps can.

Sure, we must be prudent when it comes to power/battery requirements and privacy issues. 
But when I can start a native app on my phone, fully warned & aware that it will use a lot of battery power and that it is recording position updates (because I want it too), then why, should we not have that same functionality under PWA?

As a lover of maps and entrepreneur in the market segment of geolocation-based mobile solutions, this feature, more than any other, is holding PWA back from being something truly great. 

 


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