How to identify if a webpage is being loaded inside an iframe or directly into the browser window

Question

I am writing an iframe based facebook app  Now I want to use the same html page to render the normal website as well as the canvas page within facebook  I want to know if I can determine whether the page has been loaded inside the iframe or directly in the browser

User · Answer

if   window location     window parent location               The page is in an iframe       else                  The page is not in an iframe

User · Answer

I m not sure how this example works for older Web browsers but I use this for IE  Firefox and Chrome without an issue  var iFrameDetection    window     window parent    false   true

User · Answer

Use this javascript function as an example on how to accomplish this   function isNoIframeOrIframeInMyHost        Validation  it must be loaded as the top page  or if it is loaded in an iframe     then it must be embedded in my own domain     Info  IF top location href is not accessible THEN it is embedded in an iframe     and the domains are different  var myresult   true  try       var tophref   top location href      var tophostname   top location hostname toString        var myhref   location href      if  tophref     myhref            myresult   true        else if  tophostname      www yourdomain com             myresult   false          catch  error          error is a permission error that top location href is not accessible        which means parent domain  lt  gt  iframe domain       myresult   false    return myresult

User · Answer

Use this javascript function as an example on how to accomplish this   function isNoIframeOrIframeInMyHost        Validation  it must be loaded as the top page  or if it is loaded in an iframe     then it must be embedded in my own domain     Info  IF top location href is not accessible THEN it is embedded in an iframe     and the domains are different  var myresult   true  try       var tophref   top location href      var tophostname   top location hostname toString        var myhref   location href      if  tophref     myhref            myresult   true        else if  tophostname      www yourdomain com             myresult   false          catch  error          error is a permission error that top location href is not accessible        which means parent domain  lt  gt  iframe domain       myresult   false    return myresult

User · Answer

Following on what  magnoz was saying  here is a code implementation of his answer  constructor         let windowLen   window frames length      let parentLen   parent frames length       if  windowLen    0  amp  amp  parentLen  gt   1            this isInIframe   true         console log  Is in Iframe          else           console log  Is in main window

User · Answer

Since you are asking in the context of a facebook app  you might want to consider detecting this at the server when the initial request is made  Facebook will pass along a bunch of querystring data including the fb sig user key if it is called from an iframe   Since you probably need to check and use this data anyway in your app  use it to determine the the appropriate context to render

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It s an ancient piece of code that I ve used a few times   if  parent location href    self location href        window location href    https   www facebook com pagename v app 1357902468

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Browsers can block access to window top due to same origin policy  IE bugs also take place  Here s the working code   function inIframe          try           return window self     window top        catch  e            return true            top and self are both window objects  along with parent   so you re seeing if your window is the top window

User · Answer

Browsers can block access to window top due to same origin policy  IE bugs also take place  Here s the working code   function inIframe          try           return window self     window top        catch  e            return true            top and self are both window objects  along with parent   so you re seeing if your window is the top window

User · Answer

I m using this   var isIframe    self frameElement  amp  amp   self frameElement     indexOf  HTMLIFrameElement    gt  -1

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When in an iframe on the same origin as the parent  the window frameElement method returns the element  e g  iframe or object  in which the window is embedded  Otherwise  if browsing in a top-level context  or if the parent and the child frame have different origins  it will evaluate to null   window frameElement      embedded in iframe or object       not embedded or cross-origin    This is an HTML Standard with basic support in all modern browsers

User · Answer

Since you are asking in the context of a facebook app  you might want to consider detecting this at the server when the initial request is made  Facebook will pass along a bunch of querystring data including the fb sig user key if it is called from an iframe   Since you probably need to check and use this data anyway in your app  use it to determine the the appropriate context to render

User · Answer

Best-for-now Legacy Browser Frame Breaking Script The other solutions did not worked for me  This one works on all browsers  One way to defend against clickjacking is to include a  quot frame-breaker quot  script in each page that should not be framed  The following methodology will prevent a webpage from being framed even in legacy browsers  that do not support the X-Frame-Options-Header  In the document HEAD element  add the following   lt style id  quot antiClickjack quot  gt body display none  important   lt  style gt   First apply an ID to the style element itself   lt script type  quot text javascript quot  gt     if  self     top           var antiClickjack   document getElementById  quot antiClickjack quot           antiClickjack parentNode removeChild antiClickjack        else          top location   self location        lt  script gt   This way  everything can be in the document HEAD and you only need one method taglib in your API  Reference  https   www codemagi com blog post 194

User · Answer

Following on what  magnoz was saying  here is a code implementation of his answer  constructor         let windowLen   window frames length      let parentLen   parent frames length       if  windowLen    0  amp  amp  parentLen  gt   1            this isInIframe   true         console log  Is in Iframe          else           console log  Is in main window

User · Answer

Browsers can block access to window top due to same origin policy  IE bugs also take place  Here s the working code   function inIframe          try           return window self     window top        catch  e            return true            top and self are both window objects  along with parent   so you re seeing if your window is the top window

User · Answer

I actually used to check window parent and it worked for me  but lately window is a cyclic object and always has a parent key  iframe or no iframe   As the comments suggest hard comparing with window parent works  Not sure if this will work if iframe is exactly the same webpage as parent   window     window parent

User · Answer

RoBorg is correct  but I wanted to add a side note   In IE7 IE8 when Microsoft added Tabs to their browser they broke one thing that will cause havoc with your JS if you are not careful   Imagine this page layout   MainPage html   IframedPage1 html    named  foo     IframedPage2 html    named  bar       IframedPage3 html  named  baz     Now in frame  baz  you click a link  no target  loads in the  baz  frame  it works fine   If the page that gets loaded  lets call it special html  uses JS to check if  it  has a parent frame named  bar  it will return true  expected    Now lets say that the special html page when it loads  checks the parent frame  for existence and its name  and if it is  bar  it reloads itself in the bar frame  e g   if window parent  amp  amp  window parent name     bar      window parent location   self location      So far so good  Now comes the bug   Lets say instead of clicking on the original link like normal  and loading the special html page in the  baz  frame  you middle-clicked it or chose to open it in a new Tab   When that new tab loads  with no parent frames at all   IE will enter an endless loop of page loading  because IE  copies over  the frame structure in JavaScript such that the new tab DOES have a parent  and that parent HAS the name  bar    The good news  is that checking   if self    top       this returns true      in that new tab does return true  and thus you can test for this odd condition

User · Answer

When in an iframe on the same origin as the parent  the window frameElement method returns the element  e g  iframe or object  in which the window is embedded  Otherwise  if browsing in a top-level context  or if the parent and the child frame have different origins  it will evaluate to null   window frameElement      embedded in iframe or object       not embedded or cross-origin    This is an HTML Standard with basic support in all modern browsers

User · Answer

RoBorg is correct  but I wanted to add a side note   In IE7 IE8 when Microsoft added Tabs to their browser they broke one thing that will cause havoc with your JS if you are not careful   Imagine this page layout   MainPage html   IframedPage1 html    named  foo     IframedPage2 html    named  bar       IframedPage3 html  named  baz     Now in frame  baz  you click a link  no target  loads in the  baz  frame  it works fine   If the page that gets loaded  lets call it special html  uses JS to check if  it  has a parent frame named  bar  it will return true  expected    Now lets say that the special html page when it loads  checks the parent frame  for existence and its name  and if it is  bar  it reloads itself in the bar frame  e g   if window parent  amp  amp  window parent name     bar      window parent location   self location      So far so good  Now comes the bug   Lets say instead of clicking on the original link like normal  and loading the special html page in the  baz  frame  you middle-clicked it or chose to open it in a new Tab   When that new tab loads  with no parent frames at all   IE will enter an endless loop of page loading  because IE  copies over  the frame structure in JavaScript such that the new tab DOES have a parent  and that parent HAS the name  bar    The good news  is that checking   if self    top       this returns true      in that new tab does return true  and thus you can test for this odd condition

User · Answer

It s an ancient piece of code that I ve used a few times   if  parent location href    self location href        window location href    https   www facebook com pagename v app 1357902468

User · Answer

Browsers can block access to window top due to same origin policy  IE bugs also take place  Here s the working code   function inIframe          try           return window self     window top        catch  e            return true            top and self are both window objects  along with parent   so you re seeing if your window is the top window

User · Answer

This ended being the simplest solution for me         lt p id  demofsdfsdfs  gt  lt  p gt    lt script gt   if window self     window top       run this code if in an iframe document getElementById  demofsdfsdfs   innerHTML    in frame     else     run code if not in an iframe document getElementById  demofsdfsdfs   innerHTML    no frame       lt  script gt

User · Answer

Since you are asking in the context of a facebook app  you might want to consider detecting this at the server when the initial request is made  Facebook will pass along a bunch of querystring data including the fb sig user key if it is called from an iframe   Since you probably need to check and use this data anyway in your app  use it to determine the the appropriate context to render

User · Answer

I m using this   var isIframe    self frameElement  amp  amp   self frameElement     indexOf  HTMLIFrameElement    gt  -1

User · Answer

RoBorg is correct  but I wanted to add a side note   In IE7 IE8 when Microsoft added Tabs to their browser they broke one thing that will cause havoc with your JS if you are not careful   Imagine this page layout   MainPage html   IframedPage1 html    named  foo     IframedPage2 html    named  bar       IframedPage3 html  named  baz     Now in frame  baz  you click a link  no target  loads in the  baz  frame  it works fine   If the page that gets loaded  lets call it special html  uses JS to check if  it  has a parent frame named  bar  it will return true  expected    Now lets say that the special html page when it loads  checks the parent frame  for existence and its name  and if it is  bar  it reloads itself in the bar frame  e g   if window parent  amp  amp  window parent name     bar      window parent location   self location      So far so good  Now comes the bug   Lets say instead of clicking on the original link like normal  and loading the special html page in the  baz  frame  you middle-clicked it or chose to open it in a new Tab   When that new tab loads  with no parent frames at all   IE will enter an endless loop of page loading  because IE  copies over  the frame structure in JavaScript such that the new tab DOES have a parent  and that parent HAS the name  bar    The good news  is that checking   if self    top       this returns true      in that new tab does return true  and thus you can test for this odd condition

User · Answer

Write this javascript in each page  if  self    top      window location    Home aspx       Then it will automatically redirects to home page

User · Answer

The accepted answer didn t work for me inside the content script of a Firefox 6 0 Extension  Addon-SDK 1 0   Firefox executes the content script in each  the top-level window and in all iframes    Inside the content script I get the following results      window     window top    false    window self     window top    true   The strange thing about this output is that it s always the same regardless whether the code is run inside an iframe or the top-level window   On the other hand Google Chrome seems to execute my content script only once within the top-level window  so the above wouldn t work at all   What finally worked for me in a content script in both browsers is this    console log window frames length         parent frames length     Without iframes this prints 0 0  in a top-level window containing one frame it prints 1 1  and in the only iframe of a document it prints 0 1   This allows my extension to determine in both browsers if there are any iframes present  and additionally in Firefox if it is run inside one of the iframes

User · Answer

if  window frames length    parent frames length    page loaded in iframe     But only if number of iframes differs in your page and page who are loading you in iframe  Make no iframe in your page to have 100  guarantee of result of this code

User · Answer

function amiLoadedInIFrame         try               Introduce a new propery in window top          window top dummyAttribute   true              If window dummyAttribute is there   then window and window top are same intances          return  window dummyAttribute        catch e                Exception will be raised when the top is in different domain          return true

User · Answer

Since you are asking in the context of a facebook app  you might want to consider detecting this at the server when the initial request is made  Facebook will pass along a bunch of querystring data including the fb sig user key if it is called from an iframe   Since you probably need to check and use this data anyway in your app  use it to determine the the appropriate context to render

User · Answer

If you want to know if the user is accessing your app from facebook page tab or canvas check for the Signed Request  If you don t get it  probably the user is not accessing from facebook  To make sure confirm the signed request fields structure and fields content   With the php-sdk you can get the Signed Request like this    signed request    facebook- gt getSignedRequest      You can read more about Signed Request here   https   developers facebook com docs reference php facebook-getSignedRequest   and here   https   developers facebook com docs reference login signed-request

User · Answer

I m not sure how this example works for older Web browsers but I use this for IE  Firefox and Chrome without an issue  var iFrameDetection    window     window parent    false   true

User · Answer

if   window location     window parent location               The page is in an iframe       else                  The page is not in an iframe

User · Answer

RoBorg is correct  but I wanted to add a side note   In IE7 IE8 when Microsoft added Tabs to their browser they broke one thing that will cause havoc with your JS if you are not careful   Imagine this page layout   MainPage html   IframedPage1 html    named  foo     IframedPage2 html    named  bar       IframedPage3 html  named  baz     Now in frame  baz  you click a link  no target  loads in the  baz  frame  it works fine   If the page that gets loaded  lets call it special html  uses JS to check if  it  has a parent frame named  bar  it will return true  expected    Now lets say that the special html page when it loads  checks the parent frame  for existence and its name  and if it is  bar  it reloads itself in the bar frame  e g   if window parent  amp  amp  window parent name     bar      window parent location   self location      So far so good  Now comes the bug   Lets say instead of clicking on the original link like normal  and loading the special html page in the  baz  frame  you middle-clicked it or chose to open it in a new Tab   When that new tab loads  with no parent frames at all   IE will enter an endless loop of page loading  because IE  copies over  the frame structure in JavaScript such that the new tab DOES have a parent  and that parent HAS the name  bar    The good news  is that checking   if self    top       this returns true      in that new tab does return true  and thus you can test for this odd condition

User · Answer

The accepted answer didn t work for me inside the content script of a Firefox 6 0 Extension  Addon-SDK 1 0   Firefox executes the content script in each  the top-level window and in all iframes    Inside the content script I get the following results      window     window top    false    window self     window top    true   The strange thing about this output is that it s always the same regardless whether the code is run inside an iframe or the top-level window   On the other hand Google Chrome seems to execute my content script only once within the top-level window  so the above wouldn t work at all   What finally worked for me in a content script in both browsers is this    console log window frames length         parent frames length     Without iframes this prints 0 0  in a top-level window containing one frame it prints 1 1  and in the only iframe of a document it prints 0 1   This allows my extension to determine in both browsers if there are any iframes present  and additionally in Firefox if it is run inside one of the iframes

User · Answer

Best-for-now Legacy Browser Frame Breaking Script The other solutions did not worked for me  This one works on all browsers  One way to defend against clickjacking is to include a  quot frame-breaker quot  script in each page that should not be framed  The following methodology will prevent a webpage from being framed even in legacy browsers  that do not support the X-Frame-Options-Header  In the document HEAD element  add the following   lt style id  quot antiClickjack quot  gt body display none  important   lt  style gt   First apply an ID to the style element itself   lt script type  quot text javascript quot  gt     if  self     top           var antiClickjack   document getElementById  quot antiClickjack quot           antiClickjack parentNode removeChild antiClickjack        else          top location   self location        lt  script gt   This way  everything can be in the document HEAD and you only need one method taglib in your API  Reference  https   www codemagi com blog post 194

User · Answer

If you want to know if the user is accessing your app from facebook page tab or canvas check for the Signed Request  If you don t get it  probably the user is not accessing from facebook  To make sure confirm the signed request fields structure and fields content   With the php-sdk you can get the Signed Request like this    signed request    facebook- gt getSignedRequest      You can read more about Signed Request here   https   developers facebook com docs reference php facebook-getSignedRequest   and here   https   developers facebook com docs reference login signed-request

User · Answer

I actually used to check window parent and it worked for me  but lately window is a cyclic object and always has a parent key  iframe or no iframe   As the comments suggest hard comparing with window parent works  Not sure if this will work if iframe is exactly the same webpage as parent   window     window parent

User · Answer

Write this javascript in each page  if  self    top      window location    Home aspx       Then it will automatically redirects to home page

User · Answer

This ended being the simplest solution for me         lt p id  demofsdfsdfs  gt  lt  p gt    lt script gt   if window self     window top       run this code if in an iframe document getElementById  demofsdfsdfs   innerHTML    in frame     else     run code if not in an iframe document getElementById  demofsdfsdfs   innerHTML    no frame       lt  script gt

User · Answer

if  window frames length    parent frames length    page loaded in iframe     But only if number of iframes differs in your page and page who are loading you in iframe  Make no iframe in your page to have 100  guarantee of result of this code

User · Answer

function amiLoadedInIFrame         try               Introduce a new propery in window top          window top dummyAttribute   true              If window dummyAttribute is there   then window and window top are same intances          return  window dummyAttribute        catch e                Exception will be raised when the top is in different domain          return true

[javascript] How to identify if a webpage is being loaded inside an iframe or directly into the browser window?

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