The update method of the ServiceWorkerRegistration interface attempts to update the service worker. It fetches the worker's script URL, and if the new worker is not byte-by-byte identical to the current worker, it installs the new worker. The fetch of the worker bypasses any browser caches if the previous fetch occurred over 24 hours ago.
Web Workers are a mechanism by which a script operation can be made to run in a background thread separate from the main execution thread of a web application. The advantage of this is that laborious processing can be performed in a separate thread, allowing the main (usually the UI) thread to run without being blocked/slowed down.
The ExtendableEvent interface extends the lifetime of the install and activate events dispatched on the global scope as part of the service worker lifecycle. This ensures that any functional events (like FetchEvent) are not dispatched until it upgrades database schemas and deletes the outdated cache entries.
The isReload read-only property of the FetchEvent interface returns true if the event was dispatched by the user attempting to reload the page, and false otherwise. Pressing the refresh button is a reload while clicking a link and pressing the back button is not.