window.frameElement

Returns the element (such as <iframe> or <object>) in which the window is embedded, or null if the element is either top-level or is embedded into a document with a different script origin; that is, in cross-origin situations.

Syntax

frameEl = window.frameElement;

• frameEl is the element which the window is embedded into. If the window isn't embedded into another document, or if the document into which it's embedded has a different origin (such as having been located from a different domain), this is null.

Example

var frameEl = window.frameElement;
// If we're embedded, change the containing element's URL to 'http://mozilla.org/'
if (frameEl) {
  frameEl.src = 'http://mozilla.org/';
}

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
WHATWG HTML Living Standard The definition of 'Window.frameElement' in that specification.	Working Draft	Initial specification.

Browser compatibility

See also

• window.frames returns an array-like object, listing the direct sub-frames of the current window.
• window.parent returns the parent window, which is the window containing the frameElement of the child window.