Are iframes considered bad practice

Question

Somewhere along the line I picked up the notion that using iframes is  bad practice     Is this true  What are the pros cons of using them

User · Answer

I have seen IFRAMEs applied very successfully as an easy way to make dynamic context menus, but the target audience of that web-app was only Internet Explorer users.

I would say that it all depends on your requirements. If you wish to make sure your page works equally well on every browser, avoid IFRAMEs. If you are targeting a narrow and well-known audience (eg. on the local Intranet) and you see a benefit in using IFRAMEs then I would say it's OK to do so.

User · Answer

They are not bad  but actually helpful  I had a huge problem some time ago where I had to embed my twitter feed and it just wouldn t let md do it on the same page  so I set it on a different page  and put it in as an iframe   They are also good because all browsers  and phone browsers  support them  They can not be considered a bad practice  as long as you use them correctly

User · Answer

Having worked with them in many circumstances  I ve really come to think that iframe s are the web programming equivalent of the goto statement   That is  something to be generally avoided   Within a site they can be somewhat useful   However  cross-site  they are almost always a bad idea for anything but the simplest of content   Consider the possibilities     if used for parameterized content  they ve created an interface   And in a professional site  that interface requires an SLA and version management - which are almost always ignored in rush to get online   If used for active content - frames that host script - then there are the  different  cross domain script restrictions   Some can be hacked  but rarely consistently   And if your framed content has a need to be interactive  it will struggle to do so beyond the frame   If used with licensed content  then the participating sites are burdened by the need to move entitlement information out of band between the hosts   So  although  occaisionally useful within a site  they are rather unsuited to mashups   You re far better looking at real portals and portlets   Worse  they are a darling of every web amateur - many a tech manager has siezed on them as a solution to many problems   In fact  they create more

User · Answer

As with all technologies  it has its ups and downs  If you are using an iframe to get around a properly developed site  then of course it is bad practice  However sometimes an iframe is acceptable    One of the main problems with an iframe has to do with bookmarks and navigation  If you are using it to simply embed a page inside your content  I think that is fine  That is what an iframe is for   However I ve seen iframes abused as well  It should never be used as an integral part of your site  but as a piece of content within a site   Usually  if you can do it without an iframe  that is a better option  I m sure others here may have more information or more specific examples  it all comes down to the problem you are trying to solve   With that said  if you are limited to HTML and have no access to a backend like PHP or ASP NET etc  sometimes an iframe is your only option

User · Answer

I have seen IFRAMEs applied very successfully as an easy way to make dynamic context menus, but the target audience of that web-app was only Internet Explorer users.

I would say that it all depends on your requirements. If you wish to make sure your page works equally well on every browser, avoid IFRAMEs. If you are targeting a narrow and well-known audience (eg. on the local Intranet) and you see a benefit in using IFRAMEs then I would say it's OK to do so.

User · Answer

It s worth noting that iframes will  regardless of the speed of your users  internet connection or the contents of the iframe  cause a small  0 3s or so  but noticeable slowdown in the speed your page downloads   This is not something you ll see when testing it locally   Actually  this is true for any element added to a page  but iframes seem to be worse

User · Answer

I have seen IFRAMEs applied very successfully as an easy way to make dynamic context menus, but the target audience of that web-app was only Internet Explorer users.

I would say that it all depends on your requirements. If you wish to make sure your page works equally well on every browser, avoid IFRAMEs. If you are targeting a narrow and well-known audience (eg. on the local Intranet) and you see a benefit in using IFRAMEs then I would say it's OK to do so.

User · Answer

It s  bad practice  to use them without understanding their drawbacks  Adzm s post sums them up very well   On the flipside  gmail makes heavy use of iFrames in the background for some of it s cooler features  like the automatic file upload   If you re aware of the limitations of iFrames I don t believe you should feel any compunction about using them

User · Answer

As with all technologies  it has its ups and downs  If you are using an iframe to get around a properly developed site  then of course it is bad practice  However sometimes an iframe is acceptable    One of the main problems with an iframe has to do with bookmarks and navigation  If you are using it to simply embed a page inside your content  I think that is fine  That is what an iframe is for   However I ve seen iframes abused as well  It should never be used as an integral part of your site  but as a piece of content within a site   Usually  if you can do it without an iframe  that is a better option  I m sure others here may have more information or more specific examples  it all comes down to the problem you are trying to solve   With that said  if you are limited to HTML and have no access to a backend like PHP or ASP NET etc  sometimes an iframe is your only option

User · Answer

They are not bad  but actually helpful  I had a huge problem some time ago where I had to embed my twitter feed and it just wouldn t let md do it on the same page  so I set it on a different page  and put it in as an iframe   They are also good because all browsers  and phone browsers  support them  They can not be considered a bad practice  as long as you use them correctly

User · Answer

It s worth noting that iframes will  regardless of the speed of your users  internet connection or the contents of the iframe  cause a small  0 3s or so  but noticeable slowdown in the speed your page downloads   This is not something you ll see when testing it locally   Actually  this is true for any element added to a page  but iframes seem to be worse

User · Answer

Having worked with them in many circumstances  I ve really come to think that iframe s are the web programming equivalent of the goto statement   That is  something to be generally avoided   Within a site they can be somewhat useful   However  cross-site  they are almost always a bad idea for anything but the simplest of content   Consider the possibilities     if used for parameterized content  they ve created an interface   And in a professional site  that interface requires an SLA and version management - which are almost always ignored in rush to get online   If used for active content - frames that host script - then there are the  different  cross domain script restrictions   Some can be hacked  but rarely consistently   And if your framed content has a need to be interactive  it will struggle to do so beyond the frame   If used with licensed content  then the participating sites are burdened by the need to move entitlement information out of band between the hosts   So  although  occaisionally useful within a site  they are rather unsuited to mashups   You re far better looking at real portals and portlets   Worse  they are a darling of every web amateur - many a tech manager has siezed on them as a solution to many problems   In fact  they create more

User · Answer

When your main page loads in HTTP protocol and parts of your page need to work in HTTPS protocol  iFrame can beat jsonp hands down    Especially  if your dataType is not natively json and needs to be translated on server into json and translated on client back into  e g  complex html   So nope - iFrame is not evil

User · Answer

They re not bad practice  they re just another tool and they add flexibility   For use as a standard page element    they re good  because they re a simple and reliable way to separate content onto several pages   Especially for user-generated content  it may be useful to  sandbox  internal pages into an iframe so poor markup doesn t affect the main page   The downside is that if you introduce multiple layers of scrolling  one for the browser  one for the iframe  your users will get frustrated   Like adzm said  you don t want to use an iframe for primary navigation  but think about them as a text markup equivalent to the way a video or another media file would be embedded   For scripting background events  the choice is generally between a hidden iframe and XmlHttpRequest to load content for the current page   The difference there is that an iframe generates a page load  so you can move back and forward in browser cache with most browsers   Notice that Google  who uses XmlHttpRequest all over the place  also uses iframes in certain cases to allow a user to move back and forward in browser history

User · Answer

Based on my experience a positive side for iframe are when calling third party codes  that may involve calling a javascript that calls a has a Document write    command  As you may know  these commands cannot be called asynchronously due to how it is parsed  DOM Parser etc   An example of this is http   sourceforge net projects phpadsnew  I ve made use of iframes to help speed up our site as there were multiple calls to phpadsnews and the site was waiting for the response before proceeding to render different parts of the page  with an iframe I was able to allow the site to render other parts of the page and still call the Document write   command of phpads asynchronously  Preventing and js locking

User · Answer

I have seen IFRAMEs applied very successfully as an easy way to make dynamic context menus, but the target audience of that web-app was only Internet Explorer users.

I would say that it all depends on your requirements. If you wish to make sure your page works equally well on every browser, avoid IFRAMEs. If you are targeting a narrow and well-known audience (eg. on the local Intranet) and you see a benefit in using IFRAMEs then I would say it's OK to do so.

User · Answer

They re not bad practice  they re just another tool and they add flexibility   For use as a standard page element    they re good  because they re a simple and reliable way to separate content onto several pages   Especially for user-generated content  it may be useful to  sandbox  internal pages into an iframe so poor markup doesn t affect the main page   The downside is that if you introduce multiple layers of scrolling  one for the browser  one for the iframe  your users will get frustrated   Like adzm said  you don t want to use an iframe for primary navigation  but think about them as a text markup equivalent to the way a video or another media file would be embedded   For scripting background events  the choice is generally between a hidden iframe and XmlHttpRequest to load content for the current page   The difference there is that an iframe generates a page load  so you can move back and forward in browser cache with most browsers   Notice that Google  who uses XmlHttpRequest all over the place  also uses iframes in certain cases to allow a user to move back and forward in browser history

User · Answer

It s  bad practice  to use them without understanding their drawbacks  Adzm s post sums them up very well   On the flipside  gmail makes heavy use of iFrames in the background for some of it s cooler features  like the automatic file upload   If you re aware of the limitations of iFrames I don t believe you should feel any compunction about using them

User · Answer

The original frameset model  Frameset and Frame-elements  were very bad from a usability standpoint  IFrame vas a later invention which didn t have as many problems as the original frameset model  but it does have its drawback   If you allow the user to navigate inside the IFrame  then links and bookmarks will not work as expected  because you bookmark the URL of the outer page  but not the URL of the iframe

User · Answer

Based on my experience a positive side for iframe are when calling third party codes  that may involve calling a javascript that calls a has a Document write    command  As you may know  these commands cannot be called asynchronously due to how it is parsed  DOM Parser etc   An example of this is http   sourceforge net projects phpadsnew  I ve made use of iframes to help speed up our site as there were multiple calls to phpadsnews and the site was waiting for the response before proceeding to render different parts of the page  with an iframe I was able to allow the site to render other parts of the page and still call the Document write   command of phpads asynchronously  Preventing and js locking

User · Answer

It s  bad practice  to use them without understanding their drawbacks  Adzm s post sums them up very well   On the flipside  gmail makes heavy use of iFrames in the background for some of it s cooler features  like the automatic file upload   If you re aware of the limitations of iFrames I don t believe you should feel any compunction about using them

User · Answer

The original frameset model  Frameset and Frame-elements  were very bad from a usability standpoint  IFrame vas a later invention which didn t have as many problems as the original frameset model  but it does have its drawback   If you allow the user to navigate inside the IFrame  then links and bookmarks will not work as expected  because you bookmark the URL of the outer page  but not the URL of the iframe

User · Answer

It s worth noting that iframes will  regardless of the speed of your users  internet connection or the contents of the iframe  cause a small  0 3s or so  but noticeable slowdown in the speed your page downloads   This is not something you ll see when testing it locally   Actually  this is true for any element added to a page  but iframes seem to be worse

User · Answer

It s worth noting that iframes will  regardless of the speed of your users  internet connection or the contents of the iframe  cause a small  0 3s or so  but noticeable slowdown in the speed your page downloads   This is not something you ll see when testing it locally   Actually  this is true for any element added to a page  but iframes seem to be worse

User · Answer

There are definitely uses for iframes folks  How else would you put the weather networks widget on your page  The only other way is to grab their XML and parse it  but then of course you need conditions to throw up the pertenant weather graphics    not really worth it  but way cleaner if you have the time

User · Answer

The original frameset model  Frameset and Frame-elements  were very bad from a usability standpoint  IFrame vas a later invention which didn t have as many problems as the original frameset model  but it does have its drawback   If you allow the user to navigate inside the IFrame  then links and bookmarks will not work as expected  because you bookmark the URL of the outer page  but not the URL of the iframe

User · Answer

There are definitely uses for iframes folks  How else would you put the weather networks widget on your page  The only other way is to grab their XML and parse it  but then of course you need conditions to throw up the pertenant weather graphics    not really worth it  but way cleaner if you have the time

User · Answer

When your main page loads in HTTP protocol and parts of your page need to work in HTTPS protocol  iFrame can beat jsonp hands down    Especially  if your dataType is not natively json and needs to be translated on server into json and translated on client back into  e g  complex html   So nope - iFrame is not evil

User · Answer

The original frameset model  Frameset and Frame-elements  were very bad from a usability standpoint  IFrame vas a later invention which didn t have as many problems as the original frameset model  but it does have its drawback   If you allow the user to navigate inside the IFrame  then links and bookmarks will not work as expected  because you bookmark the URL of the outer page  but not the URL of the iframe

User · Answer

As with all technologies  it has its ups and downs  If you are using an iframe to get around a properly developed site  then of course it is bad practice  However sometimes an iframe is acceptable    One of the main problems with an iframe has to do with bookmarks and navigation  If you are using it to simply embed a page inside your content  I think that is fine  That is what an iframe is for   However I ve seen iframes abused as well  It should never be used as an integral part of your site  but as a piece of content within a site   Usually  if you can do it without an iframe  that is a better option  I m sure others here may have more information or more specific examples  it all comes down to the problem you are trying to solve   With that said  if you are limited to HTML and have no access to a backend like PHP or ASP NET etc  sometimes an iframe is your only option

User · Answer

As with all technologies  it has its ups and downs  If you are using an iframe to get around a properly developed site  then of course it is bad practice  However sometimes an iframe is acceptable    One of the main problems with an iframe has to do with bookmarks and navigation  If you are using it to simply embed a page inside your content  I think that is fine  That is what an iframe is for   However I ve seen iframes abused as well  It should never be used as an integral part of your site  but as a piece of content within a site   Usually  if you can do it without an iframe  that is a better option  I m sure others here may have more information or more specific examples  it all comes down to the problem you are trying to solve   With that said  if you are limited to HTML and have no access to a backend like PHP or ASP NET etc  sometimes an iframe is your only option

User · Answer

They re not bad practice  they re just another tool and they add flexibility   For use as a standard page element    they re good  because they re a simple and reliable way to separate content onto several pages   Especially for user-generated content  it may be useful to  sandbox  internal pages into an iframe so poor markup doesn t affect the main page   The downside is that if you introduce multiple layers of scrolling  one for the browser  one for the iframe  your users will get frustrated   Like adzm said  you don t want to use an iframe for primary navigation  but think about them as a text markup equivalent to the way a video or another media file would be embedded   For scripting background events  the choice is generally between a hidden iframe and XmlHttpRequest to load content for the current page   The difference there is that an iframe generates a page load  so you can move back and forward in browser cache with most browsers   Notice that Google  who uses XmlHttpRequest all over the place  also uses iframes in certain cases to allow a user to move back and forward in browser history

User · Answer

They re not bad practice  they re just another tool and they add flexibility   For use as a standard page element    they re good  because they re a simple and reliable way to separate content onto several pages   Especially for user-generated content  it may be useful to  sandbox  internal pages into an iframe so poor markup doesn t affect the main page   The downside is that if you introduce multiple layers of scrolling  one for the browser  one for the iframe  your users will get frustrated   Like adzm said  you don t want to use an iframe for primary navigation  but think about them as a text markup equivalent to the way a video or another media file would be embedded   For scripting background events  the choice is generally between a hidden iframe and XmlHttpRequest to load content for the current page   The difference there is that an iframe generates a page load  so you can move back and forward in browser cache with most browsers   Notice that Google  who uses XmlHttpRequest all over the place  also uses iframes in certain cases to allow a user to move back and forward in browser history

User · Answer

It s  bad practice  to use them without understanding their drawbacks  Adzm s post sums them up very well   On the flipside  gmail makes heavy use of iFrames in the background for some of it s cooler features  like the automatic file upload   If you re aware of the limitations of iFrames I don t believe you should feel any compunction about using them

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