Question

I create an Iframe on the fly and set as the url a page that downloads a binary file (xls, doc…). While files are downloading I show an animation. When does not, I hide it.

The problem is that Chrome does not know when the files are fully downloaded, that is when the iframe is completely loaded. I use the iframe property readyState to check the iframe state:

var iframe = document.createElement("iframe");
iframe.style.visibility = "hidden";
// I start a progress animation
window.setTimeout(showProgressAnimation, 1000);
// I start the file download
iframe.src ='GetFile.aspx?file=' + fileName;
document.body.appendChild(iframe);


function showProgressAnimation() {
   if (iframe.readyState == "complete" || iframe.readyState == "interactive") {
      // I stop the animation and show the page
      animation.style.display = 'none';
      progressBar.hide();
      $('#page').show();
   }
   else {
      // Chrome is always getting into this line
      window.setTimeout(showProgressAnimation, 1000);
   }
}

So the result is an infinite loop.

I’ve tried the following and it works in Firefox and Chrome but not when the contents are a binary file:

if ($.browser.mozilla || $.browser.webkit ) {
    iframe.onload = function showProgressAnimation() {
        animation.style.display = 'none';
        progressBar.hide();
        $('#page').show();
    }
}
// IE
else{
     window.setTimeout(showProgressAnimation, 1000);
}

Answer 1

You can use the onload to signaling the load of the iframe

here is a simple example that working

var iframe = document.createElement("iframe");
iframe.style.display = "none";
// this function will called when the iframe loaded
iframe.onload = function (){
  iframe.style.display = "block";    
  alert("loaded");
};
// set the src last.
iframe.src ='http://www.test.com';

// add it to the page.
document.getElementById("one").appendChild(iframe);

Tested here:
http://jsfiddle.net/48MQW/5/
With src loaded last.
http://jsfiddle.net/48MQW/24/