CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptjqueryiframe
Jashwant
Jashwant

Reputation: 28995

Iframe v/s external js (to show my website's content on other websites)

In my project,

I have created a code snippet which can be copied and then put in any website. It shows my content on other websites.

What I am using now is :

<script type='text/javascript'>
var user = 'abc';
var age = '23';

document.write('<iframe src="http://www.mysite.com/page.php?user='+ user + '&age=' + age + '" ></iframe');
</script>

In page.php,

I do some processing based on user and age and show dynamic content.

My approach works fine.

But when I look into some good standard ways to do such tasks, I find a different way.

Take an example of google adsense code.

<script type='text/javascript'>
 var a = 'somedata';
 var b = 'someotherdata';
</script>

<script type='text/javascript' src='http://www.google.com/adsenseurl.js'></script>

I guess, since a and b are global; adsenseurl.js must be using it and may be finally they are showing it on iframe.

So, now the question.

What's the advantage in using google's approach and whats wrong in my approach ?

p.s. I know I should try to avoid using iframes but I dont see any other way to accomplish this.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 938

Answers (2)

mplungjan
mplungjan

Reputation: 177685

The main difference between your approach and adSense is in my opinion that your code has to be placed where the ads have to appear and loading a script like adsense, they can place the iframe in the DOM after examining the page - using 

var myIframe = document.createElement('iframe');
.
.
someDOMObject.appendChild(myIframe);

and/or manipulating the zindex to float the iframe above the page

Lastly the iFrame is useful (regardless of "oh noes - iframes are evil" you may hear) since you can use any css and jquery you like. If the page you are on already has styled divs and old versions of jQuery you will have a lot more work to make it look like you want.

Upvotes: 2

Oleg
Oleg

Reputation: 9359

Why use an iframe? If your user loads the <script src='yoursite.com/something.js'></script>, you immediately have access to his DOM and you can do whatever you want via that something.js. In the same way that you load jQuery from some CDN - it can be immediately used to modify the DOM.

Otherwise there's really no difference except that:

  1. Instead of embedding a potentially big amount of code that your user has to maintain, he just provides the necessary variables and simply links to a script on your page.
  2. You can update the js code on your server and make sure that all your users are immediately (minus caching) up-to-date with the new functionality.

There might be other advantages, but these two should suffice I believe.

Upvotes: 0

Related Questions