Introduction to iFrames in Selenium WebDriver

Steven RogerMay 19, 2023

0 353 3 minutes read

Introduction to iFrames in Selenium WebDriver

Consider creating a website that displays the locations of nearby eateries and integrating Google Maps to assist users in seeking directions. iFrames An external online resource called Google Maps is being integrated into your website. Similarly to this, if a user wants to add a YouTube video to a website, they can do so by mentioning the video’s link in the HTML of the page. Yes, in order to embed items such as different documents, photos, and videos onto a single web page, iframes are used in web development. Maps, films, photos, or any other external HTML page are examples of embedded objects. How to locate and automate these iframes in Selenium is the agenda for this post. Check out the Selenium course to learn more about iFrames.

Table of Contents

What are iFrames?

An iFrame is a portion of a web page where various types of material, such as photographs, documents, and videos, are embedded into the main web page. The media may come from other websites or internal, website-related photos or documents. The HTML <iframe> tag defines the iframe in its entirety as an Inline Frame.

The <iframe> tag in an HTML document can be used to insert an iframe element. The URL of the media we must embed in the iframe is specified by the tag’s ‘src’ attribute. The HTML document’s iframe usage syntax is as follows:

Iframes are frequently used on websites, yet they pose security problems. Furthermore, because the pages are typically hosted on an external domain, websites can become exposed to cross-site assaults. The material that an iframe’s developer has embedded must therefore be trusted.

Let’s first define “frame” before delving deeper into the specifics of iframe. It is frequently confused with the iframe and is used extensively in web development. However, each of these is significantly different from the others and has a distinct function.

What is the difference between a Frame and an iFrame?

Frame and iframe are two terms used in web development that are frequently used and have similar pronunciations. But the functions and uses of each of these are distinct.

Frames are HTML tags that separate the browser window into several sections, each of which can load a different HTML document. A webpage is assigned to each frame. In HTML, a frame is identified by the frame> element, and a frameset contains all of the frames. A frameset is a group of frames in a browser window that enables you to divide the screen into various pages.

Iframes, on the other hand, are inline frames that, as was previously said, are used to embed content from internal and external websites and are identified by the iframe> element. These can be positioned anywhere on the web page in an area inside the < body> element, unlike frames, which require a frameset tag.

Iframes are often less secure than frames because the content they contain is typically embedded in third-party websites that are housed externally outside your domain. Security concerns are extremely rarely noticed when the material in iframes is internal to the website and not from a third party.

How to automate iFrames using Selenium WebDriver?

As is common knowledge, the first step in automating a web page with Selenium WebDriver is to identify the web elements on the page. However, Selenium WebDriver is unable to directly access and locate the web elements included within the iframes. Selenium can only access components in a certain context, and the contexts of the embedded iframe and the main web page are distinct from one another. To access the elements inside the iframe, Selenium must explicitly change the context.

The elements that are enclosed in an iframe (Marker 1 in the preceding image) are inaccessible to Selenium. To access all the web elements contained in the iframe, Selenium must first change the context to the *iframe*. Selenium WebDriver offers three options for changing the focus to a specific iframe:

using the Index of the iframe.
using the Name or Id of the iframe
And, using the Web Element object of the iframe.

The switchTo().frame() method of Selenium WebDriver is available to change the execution context to the specified iframe. Let’s see how to apply this technique to all of the methods for changing the context to the designated iframe that was previously mentioned:

How does Selenium change to an iframe by index?

If a web page has numerous iframes, we can go to each one using Selenium’s index of the iframe. assuming they are in fixed locations on the website. The index starts at zero. It implies that the index will begin at 0 if there are 2 frames on a page.