I have a web page with a number of iframes, including 3rd party iframes like ad sense and various sharing buttons.
In Firefox, I've noticed that occasionally the content of these iframes get swapped, such that you'll get an ad sense ad where another iframe is. It seems completely random where iframe content shows up. It seems it may have something to do with caching.
Does anyone know what causes this, or any steps I can take to prevent this from happening?
One plausible answer is that two iframes have the same name. I've experienced this several times in conkeror (firefox based), and every time it's been a name conflict.
I've been wrestling with this for awhile now. The problem is with firefox and the way that it caches iframe content. It's not random either. There is nothing to do to prevent this short of not using iframes.
You can reload the iframes onload using something like:
var reloadIframes = function () {
var a = window.frames, b = a.length
while (b--) {
a[b].src = a[b].src;
}
}
In the case of ads it will cause double impressions which will violate you contract.
An easy way to replicate the issue is create 3 html files.
<!--frame1.html-->
<html>
<body>
<h3>frame one</h3>
</body>
</html>
<!--frame2.html-->
<html>
<body>
<h3>frame two</h3>
</body>
</html>
<!--index.html-->
<html>
<body>
<iframe src="frame1.html"></iframe>
<iframe src="frame2.html"></iframe>
</body>
</html>
Open in firefox. Then switch frame one and frame two.
<!--index.html-->
<html>
<body>
<iframe src="frame2.html"></iframe>
<iframe src="frame1.html"></iframe>
</body>
</html>
Refresh index.html. The iframes will not be swapped until you clear your cache.
There is a bug in at mozilla but no one is currently working on it.
In case anyone is looking I was able to track down the bug report:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=356558
It's been 4 years and it doesn't even look like they have confirmed it.
The workaround described in that Mozilla bug report worked for me:
<iframe src="webpage2.html?var=xxx" id="theframe"></iframe>
<script>
var _theframe = document.getElementById("theframe");
_theframe.contentWindow.location.href = _theframe.src;
</script>