Resizing an iframe based on content

Question

I am working on an iGoogle-like application. Content from other applications (on other domains) is shown using iframes.

How do I resize the iframes to fit the heigh

Answer 1

The simplest way using jQuery:

$("iframe")
.attr({"scrolling": "no", "src":"http://www.someotherlink.com/"})
.load(function() {
    $(this).css("height", $(this).contents().height() + "px");
});

Answer 2

This is slightly tricky as you have to know when the iframe page has loaded, which is difficuly when you're not in control of its content. Its possible to add an onload handler to the iframe, but I've tried this in the past and it has vastly different behaviour across browsers (not guess who's the most annoying...). You'd probably have to add a function to the iframe page that performs the resize and inject some script into the content that either listens to load events or resize events, which then calls the previous function. I'm thinking add a function to the page since you want to make sure its secure, but I have no idea how easy it will be to do.

Answer 3

This answer is only applicable for websites which uses Bootstrap. The responsive embed feature of the Bootstrap does the job. It is based on the width (not height) of the content.

<!-- 16:9 aspect ratio -->
<div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9">
  <iframe class="embed-responsive-item" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/WsFWhL4Y84Y"></iframe>
</div>

jsfiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/00qggsjj/2/

http://getbootstrap.com/components/#responsive-embed

Answer 4

iGoogle gadgets have to actively implement resizing, so my guess is in a cross-domain model you can't do this without the remote content taking part in some way. If your content can send a message with the new size to the container page using typical cross-domain communication techniques, then the rest is simple.

Answer 5

If you do not need to handle iframe content from a different domain, try this code, it will solve the problem completely and it's simple:

<script language="JavaScript">
<!--
function autoResize(id){
    var newheight;
    var newwidth;

    if(document.getElementById){
        newheight=document.getElementById(id).contentWindow.document .body.scrollHeight;
        newwidth=document.getElementById(id).contentWindow.document .body.scrollWidth;
    }

    document.getElementById(id).height= (newheight) + "px";
    document.getElementById(id).width= (newwidth) + "px";
}
//-->
</script>

<iframe src="usagelogs/default.aspx" width="100%" height="200px" id="iframe1" marginheight="0" frameborder="0" onLoad="autoResize('iframe1');"></iframe>

Answer 6

https://developer.mozilla.org/en/DOM/window.postMessage

window.postMessage()

window.postMessage is a method for safely enabling cross-origin communication. Normally, scripts on different pages are only allowed to access each other if and only if the pages which executed them are at locations with the same protocol (usually both http), port number (80 being the default for http), and host (modulo document.domain being set by both pages to the same value). window.postMessage provides a controlled mechanism to circumvent this restriction in a way which is secure when properly used.

Summary

window.postMessage, when called, causes a MessageEvent to be dispatched at the target window when any pending script that must be executed completes (e.g. remaining event handlers if window.postMessage is called from an event handler, previously-set pending timeouts, etc.). The MessageEvent has the type message, a data property which is set to the string value of the first argument provided to window.postMessage, an origin property corresponding to the origin of the main document in the window calling window.postMessage at the time window.postMessage was called, and a source property which is the window from which window.postMessage is called. (Other standard properties of events are present with their expected values.)

The iFrame-Resizer library uses postMessage to keep an iFrame sized to it's content, along with MutationObserver to detect changes to the content and doesn't depend on jQuery.

https://github.com/davidjbradshaw/iframe-resizer

jQuery: Cross-domain scripting goodness

http://benalman.com/projects/jquery-postmessage-plugin/

Has demo of resizing iframe window...

http://benalman.com/code/projects/jquery-postmessage/examples/iframe/

This article shows how to remove the dependency on jQuery... Plus has a lot of useful info and links to other solutions.

http://www.onlineaspect.com/2010/01/15/backwards-compatible-postmessage/

Barebones example...

http://onlineaspect.com/uploads/postmessage/parent.html

HTML 5 working draft on window.postMessage

http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage/comms.html#crossDocumentMessages

John Resig on Cross-Window Messaging

http://ejohn.org/blog/cross-window-messaging/