[position] Get position/offset of element relative to a parent container?

I did it like this in Internet Explorer.

function getWindowRelativeOffset(parentWindow, elem) {
    var offset = {
        left : 0,
        top : 0
    };
    // relative to the target field's document
    offset.left = elem.getBoundingClientRect().left;
    offset.top = elem.getBoundingClientRect().top;
    // now we will calculate according to the current document, this current
    // document might be same as the document of target field or it may be
    // parent of the document of the target field
    var childWindow = elem.document.frames.window;
    while (childWindow != parentWindow) {
        offset.left = offset.left + childWindow.frameElement.getBoundingClientRect().left;
        offset.top = offset.top + childWindow.frameElement.getBoundingClientRect().top;
        childWindow = childWindow.parent;
    }

    return offset;
};

=================== you can call it like this

getWindowRelativeOffset(top, inputElement);

I focus on IE only as per my focus but similar things can be done for other browsers.