iFrame Monitoring on Server

[Guest]

I am building a web app using ASP.NET 2.0. One of the requirements is that we
link to a third party vendor's site, display their content. let the user make
choices on the vendors site and then return the results back to our
application.

I was hoping to use iframes to do this, but am open to other suggestions.
The main issue is that the iframe needs to be monitored on the server to
determine when the information from the vendor should be returned to our
application. The application runs on our intranet, but the vendor is
unwilling to perform a post back to our site when the user finishes.

Is it possible to monitor iframes from the server? If so, how?

Is their a better solution?

Thanks,

Ben

 

[bruce barker \(sqlwork.com\)]

you need to code a page to act as a proxy to the vendor site. then you can
parse and extract info as youned it. the iframe would refer to the proxy
page, and the proxy page would use web client to access the 3rd party site.
you will need to mirror the images, or translate the source urls. if they
use javascript, you will a need a proxy for them also.

i'd probably write a httpmodule to do it, then proxy all requests

-- bruce (sqlwork.com)

 

[Steven Cheng[MSFT]]

Thanks for Bruce's good suggestion.

Hi Ben,

As far as I know, it would be hard to do cross domain/frame monitoring
since client-script is quite restricted to cross frame accessing for pages
in different domain(web site).

How do you think of creating a proxy page as Bruce mentioned? In such case,
we can collect the necessary information in our proxy page from the user
and then programmtically post these information to the vendor site page.
(There are some built-in network components in .net framework that can help
perform HTTP POST request and get response with remote server).

#How to use HttpWebRequest to send POST request to another web server?
http://www.netomatix.com/HttpPostData.aspx

If the target vendor application is also built upon ASP.NET, we'd take care
of some further things such as viewstate:

#Programmatically Posting Data to ASP .NET Web Applications
http://dotnet.sys-con.com/read/45127.htm

BTW, if possible you can request the vendor site to expose you a private
webservcie endpoint so that you can programmtically submit the data
(collected from user in your own proxy page) to the vendor site through
webservice.

Hope this also helps some.

Sincerely,

Steven Cheng

Microsoft MSDN Online Support Lead



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[Guest]

Thanks Bruce and Steven. That get's me pointed in the right direction. It
seems that creating a proxy for the external vendor site might be a fairly
large undertaking.

Steven - you stated that cross domain monitoring is restricted. Does that
mean it is not possible or is just easier / less time consuming to create the
proxy? I'm just trying to determine a robust solution that does not take an
excessive amount of time to implement.

Thanks,

Ben

 

[Steven Cheng[MSFT]]

Thanks for your response Ben,

The most convenient and simplest approach should be using client scripts to
access the iframe page's elements and monitor its status, however, this is
prohibited in most browsers due to security and privacy consideration. Here
is the MSDN reference describing Cross-Frame Scripting and security of IE
dhtml behaviors:

#About Cross-Frame Scripting and Security
http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/author/om/xframe_scripting_security.asp?f
rame=true

You can find many other web articles discussing on cross-frame scripting.
So for your scenario, I'm afraid we have to come to the "proxy page"
approach. Or if you can persuade your vendor site to provide a more
friendly and convenient interface to let your page interact with theirs
that'll be the most prefect solution.

Anyway, please feel free to let me know your decision or if you need any
further assistance.

Sincerely,

Steven Cheng

Microsoft MSDN Online Support Lead


This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Steven Cheng[MSFT]]

Hello Ben,

Have you got any progress on this issue? Please feel free to post here if
you've got any progress or need any further assistance.

Sincerely,

Steven Cheng

Microsoft MSDN Online Support Lead