IFRAME contentWindow is null

By  on  

I like clean code so I do what I can to avoid unwanted JavaScript global variables.  I initially thought that keys(window) would give me window property leaks but that didn't work because browsers returned different results, so I moved on to using an IFRAME to compare default window property keys.

When I first tried this method, I got a lame error about an IFRAME element's contentWindow property being null.  Ugh.  It didn't take long to figure out why:  you need to wait until the IFRAME has loaded to get the contentWindow:

var iframe = document.createElement('iframe');
iframe.onload = function() {
	// contentWindow is set!	
};
iframe.src = 'about:blank';
document.body.appendChild(iframe);

Of course you'll want to add the onload event before setting the src.  If you use the load event to check for the contentWindow property, you'll be in business!

Recent Features

  • By
    fetch API

    One of the worst kept secrets about AJAX on the web is that the underlying API for it, XMLHttpRequest, wasn't really made for what we've been using it for.  We've done well to create elegant APIs around XHR but we know we can do better.  Our effort to...

  • By
    Convert XML to JSON with JavaScript

    If you follow me on Twitter, you know that I've been working on a super top secret mobile application using Appcelerator Titanium.  The experience has been great:  using JavaScript to create easy to write, easy to test, native mobile apps has been fun.  My...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    Add Site Screenshots for External Links Using MooTools Tooltips

    Before you send your user to an unknown external website, why not provide them a screenshot of the site via a tooltip so they may preview the upcoming page? Here's how you can do just that using MooTools. The MooTools JavaScript The first step is to grab...

  • By
    MooTools Overlay Plugin

    Overlays have become a big part of modern websites; we can probably attribute that to the numerous lightboxes that use them. I've found a ton of overlay code snippets out there but none of them satisfy my taste in code. Many of them are...

Discussion

  1. Sisyphe

    Don’t you need to append your iframe element to a DOM tree so that the browser fetches its target content ? I mean, I know that old IE will load scripts as you parse an “HTML string” but in modern browsers, I thought that the asset does not get loaded until you append the element to a document (and in my opinion this it what makes constructors such as Image() so useful).

  2. Yes, good catch! Updated!

  3. James

    Unfortunately this does not appear to be 100% reliable in chrome (i’m currently using version 62.0.3202.94, but this appears to have been an issue for a while), as sometimes contentWindow can still be null when onload is triggered.

  4. bell.jackit

    This solution worked for me! Thanks a lot!

  5. Sharry Stowell

    Thank you, saved me hours!

    Sharry

Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!