Modify iframe.src without entry to history object

John picture John · Feb 6, 2013 · Viewed 8.1k times · Source

I have an iframe in my web page. I modify the src property via javascript like so:

document.getElementById('myiframe').src = 'http://vimeo.com/videoid1';
document.getElementById('myiframe').src = 'http://vimeo.com/videoid2';
document.getElementById('myiframe').src = 'http://vimeo.com/videoid3';

However, everytime I do this, it's logged into the browser's history. So everytime I press back in the browser window, the iframe content goes from videoid3 to videoid2 to videoid1. If I press back again, the entire page goes back.

I would like to modify the iframe src with javascript WITHOUT logging an entry into the browser's history. So if i click the browser back button, the entire page goes back without updating the iframe.

I tried doing something like:

document.getElementById('myiframe').contentWindow.location.replace('http://vimeo.com/videoid1');
document.getElementById('myiframe').contentWindow.location.replace('http://vimeo.com/videoid2');
document.getElementById('myiframe').contentWindow.location.replace('http://vimeo.com/videoid3');

Although this made the browser back button behave the way I wanted to, it broke certain things in the vimeo video. Vimeo REQUIRES you to change urls via the iframe.src instead of contentWindow.location.replace().

As such, how do I modify the iframe.src WITHOUT logging into history?

Related This is actually one of the solutions I'm exploring to solve the main problem, which I posted here History object back button with iframes

Answer

Mike 'Pomax' Kamermans picture Mike 'Pomax' Kamermans · Feb 6, 2013

don't change the src, just replace the old iframe with a new one?

const urls = [
  "http://bing.com",
  "http://google.com",
  "http://duckduckgo.com"
];

function next() {
  if(urls.length==0) return;
  const original = document.getElementsByTagName("iframe")[0];
  const newFrame = document.createElement("iframe");
  newFrame.src = urls.pop();
  original.parentNode.replaceChild(newFrame, original);
}

nextbtn.addEventListener("click", () => next());
iframe {
  width: 300px;
  height:300px;
}
<p>let's test some iframes</p>
<button id="nextbtn">next</button>
  <iframe />

No history states. Same functionality. Everyone wins.