Are iframes really that crappy?, A HTML question. Options

[Kread-EX]

I'm trying to embed a SMF forum into Wordpress, and I'm thinking of using iframes for that. I don't really know why but each web coder I know shouts "Blasphemy" when I say that.
I know that iframes can put a certain strain on the server resources but surely it's not the sole reason?

So, question to specialists here (Wyatt, XMO...): should I use them or not?

[Akisoft]

To be honest, it's not really bad practice; iFrames are just heavily abused. Do you really need to embed the forum, as opposed to just linking to it?

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/362730/...ed-bad-practice

[Ternal-sempai]

It depends on how effective you want your SEO to be. iframes wreak havoc on how search engines see your website. They're also horrible for accessibility for the blind, which usually use screen readers, and you can imagine how that works out with iframes.

Any iframe can be replaced with an include() command in PHP (one the most basic commands in PHP), so once you get to that point, iframes are completely useless. That said, for your particular situation I would recommend just linking to the SMF forum on another page instead of trying to embed it. If you do, there are probably ways you can use RSS to your advantage in making the blog appear on the forum.

[Kread-EX]

Well, I can integrate the two with include yes, but it's just a headache to fix the conflicting stylesheets afterwards. So I wanted a "lazy way" if you want.

But I guess you're right. I never used iframes before so I hadn't really bothered to study them.

[X-M-O]

It depends on how effective you want your SEO to be. iframes wreak havoc on how search engines see your website. They're also horrible for accessibility for the blind, which usually use screen readers, and you can imagine how that works out with iframes.

Any iframe can be replaced with an include() command in PHP (one the most basic commands in PHP), so once you get to that point, iframes are completely useless. That said, for your particular situation I would recommend just linking to the SMF forum on another page instead of trying to embed it. If you do, there are probably ways you can use RSS to your advantage in making the blog appear on the forum.

Kread, the above quote is very similar to what I would have said.
Most programmers will call "blasphemy" when iFrames are suggested due to the fact that they all like to "do things right".
However, their reasoning is based on two things: accessibility and practicality. =]

I'm glad you haven't created a habit of using iFrames, just don't start that habit because it's not worth it. =]

[Kread-EX]

I see.
Well, I'll just use two stylesheets I guess. It's messy but it does the job. Too much for the lazy way.

Thanks for the advice everybody.

[Amy Pond]

Personally I would just style both to look exactly the same and have them linked to one another.

An example:

http://www.hbgames.org/forums/
http://www.hbgames.tk/resources/index.php

These two are both hosted elsewhere and completely different sites and softwares, but they are styled to look as alike as possible so that the end user thinks they are a part of the same overall site.


iFrames have their uses but they also have their problems. If you don't encounter these problems then go ahead, use them.

iFrames are deprecated in the HTML standard mainly because of SEO and screenreader reasons. Forums = hundreds of pages to be archived by a search engine, but in an iFrame the bot won't see them. Neither will a blind person.

[Kread-EX]

In the end, I simply put the forum on another page, and included the wordpress header and navbar on top of it. Just had to tweak a little bit the CSS.
Technically it's not really the navbar though - it just looks like it and behave like it.

I tried with an IFrame anyway, just to see for myself, and the navigation was completely messed up.