Why does document.body.offsetHeight + document.body.bottomMargin not equal document.documentElement.offsetHeight

Question

I\'m trying to workout the height of an iFrame and can not understand why

document.body.offsetHeight + document.body.bottomMargin 

does not

Answer 1

After much digging around I came up with this to solve the problem.

function getIFrameHeight(){
    function getComputedBodyStyle(prop) {
        return parseInt(
            document.defaultView.getComputedStyle(document.body, null),
            10
        );
    }

    return document.body.offsetHeight +
        getComputedBodyStyle('marginTop') +
        getComputedBodyStyle('marginBottom');
}

and an expanded version for IE8 and below.

function getIFrameHeight(){
    function getComputedBodyStyle(prop) {
        function getPixelValue(value) {
            var PIXEL = /^\d+(px)?$/i;

            if (PIXEL.test(value)) {
                return parseInt(value,base);
            }

            var 
                style = el.style.left,
                runtimeStyle = el.runtimeStyle.left;

            el.runtimeStyle.left = el.currentStyle.left;
            el.style.left = value || 0;
            value = el.style.pixelLeft;
            el.style.left = style;
            el.runtimeStyle.left = runtimeStyle;

            return value;
        }

        var 
            el = document.body,
            retVal = 0;

        if (document.defaultView && document.defaultView.getComputedStyle) {
            retVal =  document.defaultView.getComputedStyle(el, null)[prop];
        } else {//IE8 & below
            retVal =  getPixelValue(el.currentStyle[prop]);
        } 

        return parseInt(retVal,10);
    }

    return document.body.offsetHeight +
        getComputedBodyStyle('marginTop') +
        getComputedBodyStyle('marginBottom');
}