Lazy Load IFRAMEs
We've known for a decade that lazy loading resources like JavaScript, CSS, and especially images is a massive performance win for web pages. At first we used tricks and JavaScript to do the lazy loading, but more recently native image lazy loading has debuted in browsers.
Did you know that you can also lazy load IFRAMEs using the same loading="lazy" attribute and value?
<iframe
src="https://davidwalsh.name/"
loading="lazy"
onload="alert('Loaded!');"
/>
You can see how lazy loading IFRAMEs works with this demo:
This single attribute to perform a complex but useful operation is the ideal solution for lazy loading just about anything. I'm so thankful that browsers are implementing APIs that make using best practices so easy!
![9 Mind-Blowing WebGL Demos]()
As much as developers now loathe Flash, we're still playing a bit of catch up to natively duplicate the animation capabilities that Adobe's old technology provided us. Of course we have canvas, an awesome technology, one which I highlighted 9 mind-blowing demos. Another technology available...
![JavaScript Promise API]()
While synchronous code is easier to follow and debug, async is generally better for performance and flexibility. Why "hold up the show" when you can trigger numerous requests at once and then handle them when each is ready? Promises are becoming a big part of the JavaScript world...
![Multiple File Upload Input]()
More often than not, I find myself wanting to upload more than one file at a time. Having to use multiple "file" INPUT elements is annoying, slow, and inefficient. And if I hate them, I can't imagine how annoyed my users would be. Luckily Safari, Chrome...
![CSS content and attr]()
CSS is becoming more and more powerful but in the sense that it allows us to do the little things easily. There have been larger features added like transitions, animations, and transforms, but one feature that goes under the radar is generated content. You saw a...
This browser feature looks really like a huge gamechanger. Would love so much to use it with profit although it doesn’t seem to work correctly for me.
[First of all, using it with images instead of iframes always worked perfectly, so all this regards only loading=”lazy” for iframes.]
After hours of testing on different pages, what I see is that using loading=”lazy”, Iframes load WAY TOO EARLY.
This apparently buggy behavior happens only if the page itself is NOT loaded from another iframe. So this rules out CodePen as a viable tool to show this.
Let’s make a text.html file from this code, almost identical to your example, to highlight exactly what I’m saying:
https://gist.github.com/jeff-at-livecanvas/bb1a803465419c62d623305daf6722cd
Opening this file in a Chrome window, with an internal height of 700 pixels, shows the Loaded! message immediately.
Same happens with latest Firefox too.
Would be great if somebody could shed some light on this.