My Web page uses iframes to collect content from other pages. All pages are in the same domain.
From the main page, is there a way to confirm that all iframes have loaded, and that there is no 404 error?
http-status-code-404iframejavascript
My Web page uses iframes to collect content from other pages. All pages are in the same domain.
From the main page, is there a way to confirm that all iframes have loaded, and that there is no 404 error?
A closure is a pairing of:
A lexical environment is part of every execution context (stack frame) and is a map between identifiers (ie. local variable names) and values.
Every function in JavaScript maintains a reference to its outer lexical environment. This reference is used to configure the execution context created when a function is invoked. This reference enables code inside the function to "see" variables declared outside the function, regardless of when and where the function is called.
If a function was called by a function, which in turn was called by another function, then a chain of references to outer lexical environments is created. This chain is called the scope chain.
In the following code, inner
forms a closure with the lexical environment of the execution context created when foo
is invoked, closing over variable secret
:
function foo() {
const secret = Math.trunc(Math.random()*100)
return function inner() {
console.log(`The secret number is ${secret}.`)
}
}
const f = foo() // `secret` is not directly accessible from outside `foo`
f() // The only way to retrieve `secret`, is to invoke `f`
In other words: in JavaScript, functions carry a reference to a private "box of state", to which only they (and any other functions declared within the same lexical environment) have access. This box of the state is invisible to the caller of the function, delivering an excellent mechanism for data-hiding and encapsulation.
And remember: functions in JavaScript can be passed around like variables (first-class functions), meaning these pairings of functionality and state can be passed around your program: similar to how you might pass an instance of a class around in C++.
If JavaScript did not have closures, then more states would have to be passed between functions explicitly, making parameter lists longer and code noisier.
So, if you want a function to always have access to a private piece of state, you can use a closure.
...and frequently we do want to associate the state with a function. For example, in Java or C++, when you add a private instance variable and a method to a class, you are associating state with functionality.
In C and most other common languages, after a function returns, all the local variables are no longer accessible because the stack-frame is destroyed. In JavaScript, if you declare a function within another function, then the local variables of the outer function can remain accessible after returning from it. In this way, in the code above, secret
remains available to the function object inner
, after it has been returned from foo
.
Closures are useful whenever you need a private state associated with a function. This is a very common scenario - and remember: JavaScript did not have a class syntax until 2015, and it still does not have a private field syntax. Closures meet this need.
In the following code, the function toString
closes over the details of the car.
function Car(manufacturer, model, year, color) {
return {
toString() {
return `${manufacturer} ${model} (${year}, ${color})`
}
}
}
const car = new Car('Aston Martin','V8 Vantage','2012','Quantum Silver')
console.log(car.toString())
In the following code, the function inner
closes over both fn
and args
.
function curry(fn) {
const args = []
return function inner(arg) {
if(args.length === fn.length) return fn(...args)
args.push(arg)
return inner
}
}
function add(a, b) {
return a + b
}
const curriedAdd = curry(add)
console.log(curriedAdd(2)(3)()) // 5
In the following code, function onClick
closes over variable BACKGROUND_COLOR
.
const $ = document.querySelector.bind(document)
const BACKGROUND_COLOR = 'rgba(200,200,242,1)'
function onClick() {
$('body').style.background = BACKGROUND_COLOR
}
$('button').addEventListener('click', onClick)
<button>Set background color</button>
In the following example, all the implementation details are hidden inside an immediately executed function expression. The functions tick
and toString
close over the private state and functions they need to complete their work. Closures have enabled us to modularise and encapsulate our code.
let namespace = {};
(function foo(n) {
let numbers = []
function format(n) {
return Math.trunc(n)
}
function tick() {
numbers.push(Math.random() * 100)
}
function toString() {
return numbers.map(format)
}
n.counter = {
tick,
toString
}
}(namespace))
const counter = namespace.counter
counter.tick()
counter.tick()
console.log(counter.toString())
This example shows that the local variables are not copied in the closure: the closure maintains a reference to the original variables themselves. It is as though the stack-frame stays alive in memory even after the outer function exits.
function foo() {
let x = 42
let inner = function() { console.log(x) }
x = x+1
return inner
}
var f = foo()
f() // logs 43
In the following code, three methods log
, increment
, and update
all close over the same lexical environment.
And every time createObject
is called, a new execution context (stack frame) is created and a completely new variable x
, and a new set of functions (log
etc.) are created, that close over this new variable.
function createObject() {
let x = 42;
return {
log() { console.log(x) },
increment() { x++ },
update(value) { x = value }
}
}
const o = createObject()
o.increment()
o.log() // 43
o.update(5)
o.log() // 5
const p = createObject()
p.log() // 42
If you are using variables declared using var
, be careful you understand which variable you are closing over. Variables declared using var
are hoisted. This is much less of a problem in modern JavaScript due to the introduction of let
and const
.
In the following code, each time around the loop, a new function inner
is created, which closes over i
. But because var i
is hoisted outside the loop, all of these inner functions close over the same variable, meaning that the final value of i
(3) is printed, three times.
function foo() {
var result = []
for (var i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
result.push(function inner() { console.log(i) } )
}
return result
}
const result = foo()
// The following will print `3`, three times...
for (var i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
result[i]()
}
function
from inside another function is the classic example of closure, because the state inside the outer function is implicitly available to the returned inner function, even after the outer function has completed execution.eval()
inside a function, a closure is used. The text you eval
can reference local variables of the function, and in the non-strict mode, you can even create new local variables by using eval('var foo = …')
.new Function(…)
(the Function constructor) inside a function, it does not close over its lexical environment: it closes over the global context instead. The new function cannot reference the local variables of the outer function.We had this type of problem, but slightly in reverse to your situation - we were providing the iframed content to sites on other domains, so the same origin policy was also an issue. After many hours spent trawling google, we eventually found a (somewhat..) workable solution, which you may be able to adapt to your needs.
There is a way around the same origin policy, but it requires changes on both the iframed content and the framing page, so if you haven't the ability to request changes on both sides, this method won't be very useful to you, i'm afraid.
There's a browser quirk which allows us to skirt the same origin policy - javascript can communicate either with pages on its own domain, or with pages it has iframed, but never pages in which it is framed, e.g. if you have:
www.foo.com/home.html, which iframes
|-> www.bar.net/framed.html, which iframes
|-> www.foo.com/helper.html
then home.html
can communicate with framed.html
(iframed) and helper.html
(same domain).
Communication options for each page:
+-------------------------+-----------+-------------+-------------+
| | home.html | framed.html | helper.html |
+-------------------------+-----------+-------------+-------------+
| www.foo.com/home.html | N/A | YES | YES |
| www.bar.net/framed.html | NO | N/A | YES |
| www.foo.com/helper.html | YES | YES | N/A |
+-------------------------+-----------+-------------+-------------+
framed.html
can send messages to helper.html
(iframed) but not home.html
(child can't communicate cross-domain with parent).
The key here is that helper.html
can receive messages from framed.html
, and can also communicate with home.html
.
So essentially, when framed.html
loads, it works out its own height, tells helper.html
, which passes the message on to home.html
, which can then resize the iframe in which framed.html
sits.
The simplest way we found to pass messages from framed.html
to helper.html
was through a URL argument. To do this, framed.html
has an iframe with src=''
specified. When its onload
fires, it evaluates its own height, and sets the src of the iframe at this point to helper.html?height=N
There's an explanation here of how facebook handle it, which may be slightly clearer than mine above!
In www.foo.com/home.html
, the following javascript code is required (this can be loaded from a .js file on any domain, incidentally..):
<script>
// Resize iframe to full height
function resizeIframe(height)
{
// "+60" is a general rule of thumb to allow for differences in
// IE & and FF height reporting, can be adjusted as required..
document.getElementById('frame_name_here').height = parseInt(height)+60;
}
</script>
<iframe id='frame_name_here' src='http://www.bar.net/framed.html'></iframe>
In www.bar.net/framed.html
:
<body onload="iframeResizePipe()">
<iframe id="helpframe" src='' height='0' width='0' frameborder='0'></iframe>
<script type="text/javascript">
function iframeResizePipe()
{
// What's the page height?
var height = document.body.scrollHeight;
// Going to 'pipe' the data to the parent through the helpframe..
var pipe = document.getElementById('helpframe');
// Cachebuster a precaution here to stop browser caching interfering
pipe.src = 'http://www.foo.com/helper.html?height='+height+'&cacheb='+Math.random();
}
</script>
Contents of www.foo.com/helper.html
:
<html>
<!--
This page is on the same domain as the parent, so can
communicate with it to order the iframe window resizing
to fit the content
-->
<body onload="parentIframeResize()">
<script>
// Tell the parent iframe what height the iframe needs to be
function parentIframeResize()
{
var height = getParam('height');
// This works as our parent's parent is on our domain..
parent.parent.resizeIframe(height);
}
// Helper function, parse param from request string
function getParam( name )
{
name = name.replace(/[\[]/,"\\\[").replace(/[\]]/,"\\\]");
var regexS = "[\\?&]"+name+"=([^&#]*)";
var regex = new RegExp( regexS );
var results = regex.exec( window.location.href );
if( results == null )
return "";
else
return results[1];
}
</script>
</body>
</html>
Best Answer
The status only lives in the response header.
The 404 Page is handling an HTTP Status Code, which is only included in the server's response sent to the browser, but not in the actual
window
anddocument
objects of the DOM that javascript may access. This means that while you certainly can collect the status-code and take appropriate actions, you may only do so when your javascript is receiving the response, such as with a jQuery.ajax() request or an XmlHttRequest to load your "iframe".Hope the 404 page follows 404 standards.
If the above isn't an option, the only other possibility may be to check the title, and/or H tags, for " 404 ". While this is most certainly less than ideal (I'd love to see, "404, Movie not Found, the Movie."), it is your only other option.