<iframe> any good for anything?

Is there any consensus--at least here among subscribers to
c.i.w.a.html--over whether usr of the <iframe> tag is or was ever a good
idea?

Is there any consensus--at least here among subscribers to
c.i.w.a.html--over whether usr of the <iframe> tag is or was ever a good
idea?

Andy Dingley <di*****@codesmiths.com> wrote: You can gain some windowed scrolling (as for frames), without the
brokenness (mainly for bookmarking) of frames.
Inline frames are just as broken as regular frames when it comes to
bookmarking, linking, printing, creating orphaned pages, etc.
It's useful instead of SSI when you're integrating content from multiple
servers, such as including external ad content.

It's standard HTML with good widespread support. This makes it a useful
alternatives to JavaScript tasks.
Which JavaScript tasks?
You can gain some windowed scrolling (as for frames), without the
brokenness (mainly for bookmarking) of frames.
It has exactly the same brokenness as frames.
It's useful instead of SSI when you're integrating content from multiple
servers, such as including external ad content.

It's standard HTML with good widespread support. This makes it a useful
alternatives to JavaScript tasks.
Which JavaScript tasks?

The specific instance I was thinking of was in feeding external
commercial ads, where these are more sophisticated than the old banner
ad image + URL. If these were local then they'd be done by SSI, but as
they're supplied by 3rd party ad-brokers then they can't be. Ad
providers like DoubleClick, TangoZebra or even Google AdSense typically
use some varyingly complex chunk of JavaScript to build the ad content
dynamically on the page. Obviously this fails with JS turned off. An
IFrame is a somewhat cleaner interface to offer them.

You can gain some windowed scrolling (as for frames), without the
brokenness (mainly for bookmarking) of frames. It has exactly the same brokenness as frames.
IFrames (ignoring JavaScript tricks) don't have independent scrolling
from the page, as is commonly done with frames. Obviously this also
removes their usefulness for one of frame's most commonly used
functions, that of implementing shared menu bars without using SSI (as a
right-thinking developer ought)

You can bookmark framesets perfectly easily, the problem is that you can
only thus retrieve the default set of URLs for the constituent frames.
As IFrames don't navigate separately, this won't cause problems for
bookmarking them (or to distinguish from IE's kludge, the ability to
publish a URL, not just bookmark)

In a literal sense, your comment is true "[IFrames] have exactly the
same brokenness as frames." However if the OP reads the regular comments
here that "Frames are bad because they can't be bookmarked" (true
enough), it would be misleading for them to extend this real drawback
onto IFrames, because the context of that problem simply doesn't arise.
It's useful instead of SSI when you're integrating content from multiple
servers, such as including external ad content.

Well, if it makes it easier for me to block the adverts with my hosts file,
then that sounds good.

IFrames don't navigate separately

IFrames (ignoring JavaScript tricks) don't have independent scrolling
from the page, as is commonly done with frames.

IFrames (ignoring JavaScript tricks) don't have independent scrolling
from the page, as is commonly done with frames.

Really? How do you explain IFRAME's SCROLLING attribute (values =
yes|no|auto).

IFrames (ignoring JavaScript tricks) don't have independent scrolling
from the page, as is commonly done with frames.

Keith Baird <ke*********@mail.utexas.edu> wrote: Really? How do you explain IFRAME's SCROLLING attribute (values =
yes|no|auto).

Andy Dingley <di*****@codesmiths.com> wrote: Sorry - I should have said navigation, not scrolling.

I have been writing html/xhtml for nearly as long as I can remember. I
do not like frames and stopped using <frameset> a long time ago. But...

I have never used <iframe> for anything--never paid any attention to
browser support for the iframe element, nor to whatever arguments there
are for or against it.
Is there any consensus--at least here among subscribers to
c.i.w.a.html--over whether usr of the <iframe> tag is or was ever a good
idea? If it has been made obsolete (by css, or otherwise), was there
ever something to be said in favor of this element?
Thanks.
- Jacques

if you want to acheive the same effect as an IFRAME (i.e. a content
area in the browser window that scrolls) but use a far simpler
technique - simply give a DIV a width and a height and set the overflow
to auto. (overflow:auto).