Pass URL parameters from iframe - javascript

I have an iframe hosted on my site which is provided by a third party service. I can't manipulate the source code of the iframe and this results in users being able to navigate through the frame whilst the parent URL remains the same. For example
mysite.co.uk/
This presents an issue in regards to tracking and further, post session navigation etc.
Is it possible to listen for events of the hosted iframe and then pass in URL parameters? For example, a user clicks on a listing within an iframe and there URL is appended
mysite.co.uk/listings?listing1
mysite.co.uk/listings?listing2
mysite.co.uk/listings?listing3
My research suggests JaveScript window. & location. but I'm struggling with these suggestions given that I can't amend the code of the iframe.
Any direction would be greatly appreciated.

It is only possible to do this with a same-domain iFrame, unless you can get the third party to make changes on their end to enable CORS.

Related

Does anyone have a creative solution that allows me to hide menu items from a web page embedded in my web page?

I fear that the answer will be "Impossible due to browser security policy" but I really need to accomplish the following:
The problem I have is that the content to be embedded in my web page includes some menu items that I need to remove/hide because they trigger operations that I need to prevent. I cannot find a way to address these DOM nodes to hide them.
I have a web page and need to embed a URL from another domain into my web page. I have tried this with and also by using Ajax to fetch the URL contents and insert them into the DOM of my web page. These two methods have different results.
If I use to embed the page from the "foreign" domain I can see the "foreign" domain's content and I can address the node but all attempts to access the nodes underneath return null. There is no error message (in Firefox) but I suspect that I am getting null because the browser is enforcing the same-domain policy.
On the other hand, if I use Ajax to insert the page content into my web page I don't even see the content and in this case there is a CORS error in the Firefox debugger console.
Since I don't control the "foreign" domain I can't modify it to use the window.postMessage(); technique.
Can anyone suggest a way for me to be able to hide menu items that are in content fetched from a "foreign" domain? (Gotta be a way, gotta be a way, ...)
Thank you.

Capture URL from iframe either programatically or with user input

I am setting up a site which will work as a containing site around a 3rd party site using an iframe. I want the user to be able to browse the 3rd party site (iframe), then submit the URL to the containing site, for me to then store.
I would like to therefore provide either:
a way to programatically access the current URL of the iframe, and submit it to the containing site
a way to display the current URL of the iframe, which the user can then copy or paste into the containing site
another method
a way to programatically access the current URL of the iframe
You can't. That would involve spying on what the user does on another website. Browsers will not let you do that.
a way to display the current URL of the iframe
That would require you to programmatically access the current URL of the iframe. See above.
another method
Write a browser extension instead of trying to do this as a website.

Spoof referrer when a iFrame is required to open application

There is an application which has two demands on opening the application.
First of all it has to be loaded via a iFrame. 2nd of all it has to be loaded from a specific referrer. If one of these isnt true, the application cannot be opened.
My question. Is it possible to work around those demands? So I spoof the HTTP request and I load it in a iFrame in my own website.
Ofcourse I can iFrame the application and ofcourse I can spoof the HTTP request. But I can't figure out a way to do it both, I can't see it. Somebody can help me out?
I would suggest creating a PHP file which gets the content of the website hosting the application (take a look here for an idea of how to do it), and then using your iframe to display the PHP page you just created.

URL tracking functionality

I want my webpage to have two parts. The top part has a textbox. When the user types a URL into the textbox, the bottom part browses to the content of that URL. When the user clicks a link within the bottom part, the bottom part navigates to the new URL, and the textbox in the top part changes to the new URL. How can I do it?
NOTE: This behavior is the same as in Google Translate (e.g. here), but without any translation.
first problem..
Same origin issue
The only way to achieve what you are asking is exactly the way google translate does what it does - which is to use a server-side powered script as a proxy request:
http://translate.google.com/translate_un?depth=1&hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&tl=en&twu=1&u=http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA&lang=de&usg=ALkJrhgoLkbUGvOPUCHoNZIkVcMQpXhxZg
The above is the URL taken from the iframe that Google translate uses to display the translated page. The main thing to note is that the domain part of the URL is the same as the parent page's URL http://translate.google.com -- if both your frame and your parent window do not share the same domain, then your parent window's JavaScript wont be able to access anything within the iframe. It will be blocked by your browser's in-built security.
Obviously the above wont be a problem if in your project you are only ever going to be navigating your own pages (on the same domain), but considering you are proffering Google Translate as an example I'm assuming not.
What would Google do?
What the above URL does is to ask the server-side to fetch the wikipedia page and return it so that the iframe can display it - but to the iframe this page appears to be hosted on translate.google.com rather than wikipedia. This means that the iframe stays within the same origin as the parent window, and means that JavaScript can be used to edit or modify the page within the iframe.
next problem....
Rewrite the proxied content
Basically what I'm saying is that this can't be achieved with just HTML and client-side JavaScript - you need to have something to help from the server-side i.e. PHP, Python, Ruby, Lisp, Node.. and so on. This script will be responsible for making sure the proxied page appears/renders correctly e.g. you will have to make sure relative links to content/images/css on the original server are not broken (you can use the base tag or physically rewrite relative links). There are also many sites that would see this as an illegal use of their site, as per their site's terms of use and so should be black listed from your service.
final problem..?
Prevent the user from breaking away from your proxy
Once you have your proxy script, you can then use an iframe (please avoid using old framesets), and a bit of JavaScript magic that onload or ondomready of the iframe rewrites all of the links, forms and buttons in the page. This is so that when clicked or submitted, they post to your proxy script rather than the original destination. This rewrite code would also have to send the original destination to your proxy script some how - like u in the Google translate URL. Once you've sorted this, it will mean your iframe will reload with the new destination content, but - all importantly - your iframe will stay on the same domain.
too many problems!
If it were me, personally, I'd rethink your strategy
Overall this is not a simple task, and it isn't 100% fullproof either because there are many things that will cause problems:
Certain sites are designed to break out of frames.
There are ways a user can navigate from a page that can not be easily rewritten i.e. any navigation powered by JavaScript.
Certain pages are designed to break when served up from the wrong host.
Sites that do this kind of 'proxying' of other websites can get into hot water with regards to copyright and usage.
The reason why Google can do it is because they have a lot of time, money and resources... oh and a great deal of what Google translate does is actually handled on the server-side - not in JavaScript.
suggestions
If you are looking for tracking users navigating through your own site:
Use Google Analytics.
Or implement a simple server-side tracking system using cookies.
If you are looking to track users coming to your site and then travelling on to the rest of the world wide web:
Give up, web technologies are designed to prevent things like this.
Or join an online marketing company, they do their best to get around the prevention of things like this.
add a javascript function to your second frame -
<frame id="dataframe" src="frame_a.htm" onload="load()">
let the text box have an id - say "test"
function load()
{
document.getElementById('test').value=document.getElementById('dataframe').src
}

monitoring iframe content/status from the parent page

What methods are available to monitor the status of IFRAME page, I know there are security limits but I hope some small notification system is still possible.
My situation is that I have created a parent page that is located on customer's server, and this page has has iframe page located on my server (my domain). I need to somehow communicate a little between these two:
Can I make javascript to the parent page that can check if my iframe page has a specific string on it, or somehow make iframe page to notify the parent page?
Is there e.g. any possibility to make a timer that checks iframe content time to time?
I also accept answer how mydomain/client.page calls callback on customerdomain.intranet.com/parentpage.htm that has client on iframe
You need to use cross site JavaScript techniques to be able to do this. Here is an example.
Put another file into your server, call it helper.html, include it to your file served by customers server using an iframe. Set the src of the helper.html iframe with adding get parameters, ie. http:/myserver.com/helper.html?param1=a&param2=b, in the helper file use javascript to call method on parent's parent ( parent.parent.messageFromIframe(params) ). Which is the page on your server itself. Since helper and the container page are on the same domain it should work. The technique is popular, for instance Facebook was using it for their Javascript api.
I got information that this is possible by setting parent.location (from iframe) to have hash data like this "mydomain.com/mypage#mymessage"
By default, security restrictions in the browser will prevent access from/to the document in the iframe if it is in a different domain to the parent page. This is, of course, just as it should be.
I believe this would prevent even checking the current location of the iframe, but that's easily testable. If it's accessible, then you could poll the iframe for its location, and whenever the page in the iframe updates, have it append a random querystring parameter. Comparison of that parameter to the value from the previous poll would tell you if it's changed.
However, as I say, I suspect it's not possible.
Edit: This question suggests it is only possible for the initial src attribute: How do I get the current location of an iframe?

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