WebGLProgram

The WebGLProgram is part of the WebGL API and is a combination of two compiled WebGLShaders consisting of a vertex shader and a fragment shader (both written in GLSL). These are then linked into a usable program.

var program = gl.createProgram();
// Attach pre-existing shaders
gl.attachShader(program, vertexShader);
gl.attachShader(program, fragmentShader);
gl.linkProgram(program);
if ( !gl.getProgramParameter( program, gl.LINK_STATUS) ) {
  var info = gl.getProgramInfoLog(program);
  throw 'Could not compile WebGL program. \n\n' + info;
}

See WebGLShader for information on creating the vertexShader and fragmentShader in the above example.

Examples

Using the program

The steps to actually do some work with the program involve telling the GPU to use the program, bind the appropriate data and configuration options, and finally draw something to the screen.

// Use the program
gl.useProgram(program);
// Bind existing attribute data
gl.bindBuffer(gl.ARRAY_BUFFER, buffer);
gl.enableVertexAttribArray(attributeLocation);
gl.vertexAttribPointer(attributeLocation, 3, gl.FLOAT, false, 0, 0);
// Draw a single triangle
gl.drawArrays(gl.TRIANGLES, 0, 3);

Deleting the program

If there is an error linking the program or you wish to delete an existing program, then it is as simple as running WebGLRenderingContext.deleteProgram(). This frees the memory of the linked program.

gl.deleteProgram(program);

Specifications

Browser compatibility

The compatibility table in this page is generated from structured data. If you'd like to contribute to the data, please check out https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data and send us a pull request.

1. From version 44.0, this feature is behind the gfx.offscreencanvas.enabled preference (needs to be set to true). To change preferences in Firefox, visit about:config.

See also

• WebGLShader
• WebGLRenderingContext.attachShader()
• WebGLRenderingContext.compileShader()
• WebGLRenderingContext.createProgram()
• WebGLRenderingContext.createShader()
• WebGLRenderingContext.deleteProgram()
• WebGLRenderingContext.deleteShader()
• WebGLRenderingContext.detachShader()
• WebGLRenderingContext.getAttachedShaders()
• WebGLRenderingContext.getProgramParameter()
• WebGLRenderingContext.getProgramInfoLog()
• WebGLRenderingContext.getShaderParameter()
• WebGLRenderingContext.getShaderPrecisionFormat()
• WebGLRenderingContext.getShaderInfoLog()
• WebGLRenderingContext.getShaderSource()
• WebGLRenderingContext.isProgram()
• WebGLRenderingContext.isShader()
• WebGLRenderingContext.linkProgram()
• WebGLRenderingContext.shaderSource()
• WebGLRenderingContext.useProgram()
• WebGLRenderingContext.validateProgram()