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
    Page Visibility API

    One event that's always been lacking within the document is a signal for when the user is looking at a given tab, or another tab. When does the user switch off our site to look at something else? When do they come back?

  • By
    Animated 3D Flipping Menu with CSS

    CSS animations aren't just for basic fades or sliding elements anymore -- CSS animations are capable of much more.  I've showed you how you can create an exploding logo (applied with JavaScript, but all animation is CSS), an animated Photo Stack, a sweet...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    Event Delegation with MooTools

    Events play a huge role in JavaScript. I can't name one website I've created in the past two years that hasn't used JavaScript event handling on some level. Ask yourself: how often do I inject elements into the DOM and not add an...

  • By
    Google Font API

    Google recently debuted a new web service called the Font API.  Google's Font API provides developers a means by which they may quickly and painlessly add custom fonts to their website.  Let's take a quick look at the ways by which the Google Font...

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!