Question

I’m tying to grab with javascript a HTML element located in a frame nested in an iframe and a frameset. The HTML structure looks like this:

<iframe id="central_iframe" name="central_iframe" (...)>
    <frameset cols="185, *" border="0" framespacing="0" frameborder="0">
        <frame src="/subdomain" name="SideFrame" id="SideFrame" (...)>

Previously I’ve done it like this:

myIframe = document.getElementById('central_iframe');
mySideFrame = myIframe.contentDocument.getElementById('SideFrame');
myElement = mySideFrame.contentDocument.getElementById('iWantToGrabThis');

This however does not work here because myIframe.contentDocument returns null. myIframe.contentWindow on the other hand returns a window that has no properties at all (and hence myIframe.contentWindow.document is undefined). Similarly, when I try

central_iframe.SideFrame

also a window with no properties whatsoever is returned.

EDIT: The page is not mine and therefore I can’t change its source. I’m just trying to interact with it.

I’m doing the testing in Chrome developer tools. I’ve also tried it with the same result in GeckoFX. Any help will be appreciated.

Answer 1

After doing more research it indeed seems that Justin Morgan’s suggestion is right and what I want is impossible. I made a partial workaround by loading the parent iframe in the browser to begin with. This allowed me to access the child frame (SideFrame) normally.