I must be getting old. When you have been doing web development for 14 years you get to have a perspective on some things. I remember when frames first came out. AND THEY WERE GOOD.
But as web development progressed, things changed, AND THEY WERE BAD.
Then iframes came out. AND THEY WERE GOOD.
But browsers, security software, and search engines did not like them, AND THEY WERE BAD.
Well it looks like things have changed again. Facebook is changing how developers supply widget code, now requiring iframes, instead of the facebook html.
Youtube has updated it’s embed code, and now used iframes. Although it looks like it is much smaller code, surprise! There is a whole world of code behind that little link. The approach is very smart, it allows Youtube to redirect to other servers, or dedicated players based upon the browser type, or to upgrade the code every other day. All without making the world upgrade to the new and improved embed code again. (that is until the replacement for iframes comes along).
The timing is great for us. I was just working on upgrading our embed code to handle HTML5, mobile browsers, and to help with our increased traffic. It was delayed because of another pressing upgrade. Now completed, but I am happy to see I can take the iframe approach instead of the embedded javascript approach I was going to take. Just like Youtube we will gain a lot of advantages using the iframe approach. And the upgrades to our members will be invisible. No more “upgrade your embed code”.
Thank you FB and the ‘Tube, you are setting standards and doing the R&D for us little guys, thereby helping us broadcast the Gospel of Jesus Christ around the world. Join me in praying for the salvation of programmers of both camps. Amen.