I just stumbled accross the Mozilla Service Worker Cookbook, which includes more or less what I wanted: https://serviceworke.rs/strategy-cache-update-and-refresh.html
Here are the relevant parts (not my code: copied here for convenience).
Fetch methods for the worker
// On fetch, use cache but update the entry with the latest contents from the server.
self.addEventListener('fetch', function(evt) {
console.log('The service worker is serving the asset.');
// You can use respondWith() to answer ASAP…
evt.respondWith(fromCache(evt.request));
// ...and waitUntil() to prevent the worker to be killed until the cache is updated.
evt.waitUntil(
update(evt.request)
// Finally, send a message to the client to inform it about the resource is up to date.
.then(refresh)
);
});
// Open the cache where the assets were stored and search for the requested resource. Notice that in case of no matching, the promise still resolves but it does with undefined as value.
function fromCache(request) {
return caches.open(CACHE).then(function (cache) {
return cache.match(request);
});
}
// Update consists in opening the cache, performing a network request and storing the new response data.
function update(request) {
return caches.open(CACHE).then(function (cache) {
return fetch(request).then(function (response) {
return cache.put(request, response.clone()).then(function () {
return response;
});
});
});
}
// Sends a message to the clients.
function refresh(response) {
return self.clients.matchAll().then(function (clients) {
clients.forEach(function (client) {
// Encode which resource has been updated. By including the ETag the client can check if the content has changed.
var message = {
type: 'refresh',
url: response.url,
// Notice not all servers return the ETag header. If this is not provided you should use other cache headers or rely on your own means to check if the content has changed.
eTag: response.headers.get('ETag')
};
// Tell the client about the update.
client.postMessage(JSON.stringify(message));
});
});
}
Handling of the "resource was updated" message
navigator.serviceWorker.onmessage = function (evt) {
var message = JSON.parse(evt.data);
var isRefresh = message.type === 'refresh';
var isAsset = message.url.includes('asset');
var lastETag = localStorage.currentETag;
// ETag header usually contains the hash of the resource so it is a very effective way of check for fresh content.
var isNew = lastETag !== message.eTag;
if (isRefresh && isAsset && isNew) {
// Escape the first time (when there is no ETag yet)
if (lastETag) {
// Inform the user about the update.
notice.hidden = false;
}
//For teaching purposes, although this information is in the offline cache and it could be retrieved from the service worker, keeping track of the header in the localStorage keeps the implementation simple.
localStorage.currentETag = message.eTag;
}
};
