About

The iframe element permits to embed another HTML page in a page creating a new browsing context (ie a new environment is created for the loading of this page).

This new environment is nested (meaning that it's inside the environment of the page where the iframe appears) creating a hierarchy of environment (known also as browsing context).

Example

  • The Iframe will download the below HTML code
<iframe 
   src="https://datacadamia.com/_export/code/web/html/iframe?codeblock=1">
</iframe>
  • The page that will load the html page above
<p>Iframe !</p>
  • Output:
Rendered by WebCode

Usage

Third-party context

Iframe are used mostly to embed third-party content such as:

  • Embedded content shared from other sites, such as videos, maps, code samples, and social posts.
  • Widgets from external services such as payments, calendars, booking, and reservation functionality.
  • Widgets such as social buttons or anti-fraud services (that create less obvious iframes).

Syntax

Height

The default height is the default height of the html element which is 150px

Sandbox

You can sandbox an iframe. 

<iframe  sandbox="allow-same-origin allow-forms allow-scripts allow-downloads"> </iframe>

Why is there a margin between the body and html element for the document inside the iframe

The padding of the first descendant phrasing element (such as p or pre but not div) are added to the HTML element in a iframe context.

Example: 

<p style="padding:10px">A div with a padding that will be propagated to the HTML element</p>
Rendered by WebCode

Javascript

Get the content of an iframe as a document

iFrameElement.contentWindow.document
// Note that iframe.contentDocument == iframe.contentWindow.document

Get the parent document

let parentDocument = parent.document

Get the iframe element that renders the window

let iframeElement = window.frameElement;

Detect the code is running into an iframe

let isIframe = window.self !== window.top;
console.log(isIframe);
Rendered by WebCode

Detect the frame index in the stack

for (var i = 0; i < window.parent.frames.length; i++) {
    let currentFrame = window.parent.frames[i];
    if (currentFrame === window.self) {
        console.log(`This window is the frame at the index (${i}) in the stack`);
    }
}
Rendered by WebCode

Javascript Snippet

Set the height of the iframe to the height of its window after loading to avoid overflow

This demo updates the height of the iframe to the height of the internal window.

This example is just for demonstration purpose because you can also achieve the same with the height css attribute, namely. 

height:auto;

window.addEventListener("load", function () {

    // Select the iframe element with the class webCode
    const webCodeIFrames = document.querySelectorAll("iframe.webcode-combo");

    // Set the height of the iframe to be the height of the internal iframe
    if (webCodeIFrames != null) {
        for (let i = 0; i < webCodeIFrames.length; i++) {
            const webCodeIFrame = webCodeIFrames[i];
            const height = webCodeIFrame.getAttribute('height');
            if (height == null) {
                let htmlIFrameElement = webCodeIFrame.contentWindow.document.querySelector("html");
                let calculatedHeight = htmlIFrameElement.offsetHeight;
                let defaultHtmlElementHeight = 150;
                if (calculatedHeight === defaultHtmlElementHeight) {
                    // body and not html because html has a default minimal height of 150
                    calculatedHeight = webCodeIFrame.contentWindow.document.querySelector("body").offsetHeight;
                    // After setting the height, there is a recalculation and the padding of a descendant phrasing content element
                    // may ends up in the html element. The below code corrects that
                    requestAnimationFrame(function() {
                        if (calculatedHeight !== htmlIFrameElement.offsetHeight) {
                            webCodeIFrame.height = htmlIFrameElement.offsetHeight;
                        }
                    });
                }
                webCodeIFrame.height = calculatedHeight;
            }
        }
    }


});

Documentation / Reference