I have an application running inside an iframe on a "foreign" page (different domain etc.). To allow some basic communication between the iframe & the parent, I load some script of mine on the parent page and use postMessage
to do some cross document messaging.
Most of the time this communication works as intended, but sometimes I see some errors reported to my error tracking tool and can't figure out why they happen.
Here's some exemplary code:
PluginOnParent.js
// ...
window.addEventListener('message', function(e) {
// Check message origin etc...
if (e.data.type === 'iFrameRequest') {
e.source.postMessage({
type: 'parentResponse',
responseData: someInterestingData
}, e.origin);
}
// ...
}, false);
// ...
AppInsideIFrame.js
// ...
var timeoutId;
try {
if (window.self === window.top) {
// We're not inside an IFrame, don't do anything...
return;
}
} catch (e) {
// Browsers can block access to window.top due to same origin policy.
// See http://stackoverflow.com/a/326076
// If this happens, we are inside an IFrame...
}
function messageHandler(e) {
if (e.data && (e.data.type === 'parentResponse')) {
window.clearTimeout(timeoutId);
window.removeEventListener('message', messageHandler);
// Do some stuff with the sent data
}
}
timeoutId = window.setTimeout(function() {
errorTracking.report('Communication with parent page failed');
window.removeEventListener('message', messageHandler);
}, 500);
window.addEventListener('message', messageHandler, false);
window.parent.postMessage({ type: 'iFrameRequest' }, '*');
// ...
What happens here, when the timeout hits and the error is reported?
Some more info & thoughts of mine:
- I have no control over the parent page myself
- It doesn't seem to be a general "configuration" issue (CORS etc.) since the error happens on the same page where it works most of the time
- We don't support IE < 10 and other "legacy" browser versions at all, so those are no issue here
- My error reporting tool reports a multitude of different browsers amongst which are the latest versions of them (FF 49, Chrome 43 on Android 5, Chrome 53 on Win and Android 6, Mobile Safari 10, ...)
- Therefore it doesn't seem like it's an issue related to specific browsers or versions.
- The timeout of 500 ms is just some magic number I chose which I thought would be completely safe...
The problem appears to be in your PluginOnParent.js, where you are sending your response. Instead of using "e.origin" (which upon inspection in the developer tools was returning "null") -- try using the literal '*', as it states in the following documentation on postMessage usage (in the description for targetOrigin):
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Window/postMessage
Also, as a bonus, I just tested this across two different domains and it works as well. I placed Parent.html on one domains web server, and changed the iframe's src to be child.html on a completely different domain, and they communicated together just fine.
Parent.html
<html>
<head>
<script type="text/javascript">
function parentInitialize() {
window.addEventListener('message', function (e) {
// Check message origin etc...
if (e.data.type === 'iFrameRequest') {
var obj = {
type: 'parentResponse',
responseData: 'some response'
};
e.source.postMessage(obj, '*');
}
// ...
})
}
</script>
</head>
<body style="background-color: rgb(72, 222, 218);" onload="javascript: parentInitialize();">
<iframe src="child.html" style="width: 500px; height:350px;"></iframe>
</body>
</html>
Child.html
<html>
<head>
<script type="text/javascript">
function childInitialize() {
// ...
var timeoutId;
try {
if (window.self === window.top) {
// We're not inside an IFrame, don't do anything...
return;
}
} catch (e) {
// Browsers can block access to window.top due to same origin policy.
// See http://stackoverflow.com/a/326076
// If this happens, we are inside an IFrame...
}
function messageHandler(e) {
if (e.data && (e.data.type === 'parentResponse')) {
window.clearTimeout(timeoutId);
window.removeEventListener('message', messageHandler);
// Do some stuff with the sent data
var obj = document.getElementById("status");
obj.value = e.data.responseData;
}
}
timeoutId = window.setTimeout(function () {
var obj = document.getElementById("status");
obj.value = 'Communication with parent page failed';
window.removeEventListener('message', messageHandler);
}, 500);
window.addEventListener('message', messageHandler, false);
window.parent.postMessage({ type: 'iFrameRequest' }, '*');
// ...
}
</script>
</head>
<body style="background-color: rgb(0, 148, 255);" onload="javascript: childInitialize();">
<textarea type="text" style="width:400px; height:250px;" id="status" />
</body>
</html>
Hope that helps!
Most of the time this communication works as intended, but sometimes I
see some errors reported to my error tracking tool and can't figure
out why they happen.
What happens here, when the timeout hits and the error is reported?
I have no control over the parent page myself
Not certain what the function errorTracking.report
does when called, though does not appear that an actual error relating to message
event occurs?
The timeout of 500 ms is just some magic number I chose which I
thought would be completely safe...
With duration
set at 500
, setTimeout
could be called before a message
event fires at window
.
timeoutId = window.setTimeout(function() {
errorTracking.report('Communication with parent page failed');
window.removeEventListener('message', messageHandler);
}, 500);
Adjust the duration
of setTimeout
to a greater duration.
Alternatively substitute onerror
handler or window.addEventListener
for setTimeout
Notes
When a syntax(?) error occurs in a script, loaded from a
different origin, the details of the syntax error are not reported to
prevent leaking information (see bug 363897). Instead the error
reported is simply "Script error." This behavior can be overriden in
some browsers using the crossorigin attribute on and having
the server send the appropriate CORS
HTTP response headers. A
workaround is to isolate "Script error." and handle it knowing that
the error detail is only viewable in the browser console and not
accessible via JavaScript.
For example
// handle errors
onerror = function messageErrorHandlerAtAppInsideIFrame(e) {
console.error("Error at messageErrorIndex", e)
}
to handle any actual errors during communicating between different contexts, or origins.
Use postMessage
at load
event of iframe
to communicate with message
handlers at parent window
.
http://plnkr.co/edit/M85MDHF1kPPwTE2E0UGt?p=preview