Options for testing service workers via HTTP

Question

I want to test service workers but I have a virtual host setup and I can't seem to be able to enable https on localhost.

How can I whitelist my local virtual host url to test service workers whenever I try and register for the service worker on the localhost? Chrome says https is required to enable service worker. How can I get past this restriction at least for local testing.

Answer 1

In general, you need to serve both your page and your service worker script via HTTPS in order to use service workers. The rationale is described at Prefer Secure Origins For Powerful New Features.

There's an exception to the HTTPS requirement in place to facilitate local development: if you access your page and service worker script via http://localhost[:port], or via http://127.x.y.z[:port], then service workers should be enabled without any further actions.

In recent versions of Chrome, you can work around this requirement duriing local development via chrome://flags/#unsafely-treat-insecure-origin-as-secure, as explained in this answer.

Firefox offers similar functionality, via the devtools.serviceWorkers.testing.enabled setting.

Please note that this functionality is only meant to facilitate testing that wouldn't otherwise be able to take place, and you should always plan on using HTTPS when serving the production version of your site. Don't ask real users to go through the steps of enabling those flags!