Iframes and jQuery - Working with an embedded iframe

IFrames, while they can be bad for accessibility (i.e. bookmarking), can also be very handy.

What I found was that working with iframes proved troublesome. I initially thought it would be as simple as this:

JavaScript
$( function() {
 $("#myiframe").load( function(){
  alert("Number of anchors: " + this.$("a").size());
  alert("Document title: " + this.document.title);
 });
});
HTML 
<iframe src="myiframe.html" id="myiframe" name="myiframe"></iframe>

However, this caused several errors: this.document has no properties (i.e. this.document is undefined) and this.$ is not a function, so I had to find another way. After some trial and error in Internet Explorer and Firebug in Firefox, I found a way (which also works in Opera 9 as well, unsure about Safari though). 

$( function() {
   var myiframe = $($.browser.msie ? frames["myiframe"] : "#myiframe");
   // doesn't work in Opera < 9
   myiframe.load( function() {
       var w = this.contentWindow;
       if(!w) w = myiframe[0]; // IE
       alert("Number of anchors: " + w.$("a").size());
       alert("Document title: " + w.document.title);
   })
})

Several things to note:

  • In Internet Explorer, if you navigate to a different page in the iframe, the load event is not fired again.
  • The iframe needs the id and name attributes to both be present and the same.
  • The iframe page also needs to include jQuery

Comments

Anonymous said…
Using jQuery 1.2.3 and Firefox 2, I encounter an unfortunate exception of

[Exception... "'Permission denied to get property Window.jQuery' when calling method: [nsIDOMEventListener::handleEvent]" nsresult: "0x8057001e (NS_ERROR_XPC_JS_THREW_STRING)" location: "<unknown>" data: no]

when attempting to execute merely


myiframe.load( function() {
var w = this.contentWindow;
console.log("Number of anchors: " + w.jQuery("a").size());
})
1:44 pm, March 04, 2008
Anonymous said…
Yea, I don't believe this method works anymore. I'm getting the same issue using jquery 1.2.6 and FF 3 with firebug debugging.
8:27 pm, October 03, 2008
Anonymous said…
added a line

w = w.document;

after


if(!w) w = myiframe[0]; // IE

Firefox 3.0.9
jQuery 1.3.2

works like a charm in FF
not so god in IE (as in... not at all)
11:49 am, April 28, 2009
Anonymous said…
Understand that iFrame structure is unavailable, if the source of iFrame is called from external server...
7:20 pm, June 30, 2009
Anonymous said…
Initailly i was using this piece of jquery code and it was working fine with in Firefox. But i encounter problem with IE.
$('#my_iframe').load( function(){

Now with this line of code
var myiframe = $($.browser.msie ? frames["my_iframe"] : "#my_iframe");

it work in both Firefix and IE.

Thankx a lot.
1:40 pm, September 09, 2009
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Select box manipulation with jQuery

If you read the jQuery mailing list , you may be aware that I have updated my plugins for working with select boxes . Summary of changes: addOption replaces any options with the same value (so think of it as an add/replace options plugin selectOptions selected options in addition to what was already selected, but there is now an option for it not to do this There are two new methods: copyOptions which is for copying options between select boxes ajaxAddOption allows you to add options via AJAX (i.e. could be used for create options dynamically from a server script)
Read more

iTextSharp: Generating a Basic PDF file (ASP.NET/C#)

iTextSharp is free library for .NET that allows you to create PDF documents. It can be used to dynamically create PDF's which can be streamed to the user. As there is no HTML being sent to the user, a WebHandler (ashx file) is a more appropriate way to generate your PDF than an aspx page. Download itextsharp-3.0.10-dll.zip (latest version as of 08 Feb 2006) and save the dll in the archive to your websites bin directory. Here is a basic sample of creating a PDF (more complex samples may follow in future posts). BasicPDF.ashx <%@ WebHandler Language="C#" Class="MyNamespace.BasicPDF" %> using System; using System.IO; using System.Web; using iTextSharp.text; using iTextSharp.text.pdf; namespace MyNamespace { public class BasicPDF: IHttpHandler { public bool IsReusable { get { return true; } } /// <summary> /// Font used for any hyperlinks added to the PDF /// </summary> private Font LinkFont { get
Read more

Popup Window Countdown (JavaScript)

This code opens a new popup window that contains a timer that counts down, then closes the window when it reaches 0. Will not work if user has a popup blocker blocking the page. <html> <head> <title>Popup Timer</title> <script language="JavaScript" type="text/JavaScript"> // popup window var var popup; // At what number shall the countdown counter start? CounterStart = 10; // This function CustomAction() can be modified to do // whatever you want done every second. function CustomAction() { popup.document.timer.timeleft.value = CounterStart; } // end of function CustomAction() // end of JavaScript customization function Decrement() { CounterStart--; CustomAction(); if(CounterStart <= 0) { popup.close(); alert('Timer reached 0'); } else { setTimeout('Decrement()',1000); } } function StartTheCounter() { openPopup(120,100); setTimeout('Decrement()',1000); } f
Read more