Are iFrames ever a good idea?

[SimonMac]

Vidahost has an automatic redirect that webmail.sitename.com redirects to webmail.gridhost.co.uk, this automatic redirect can't use SSL.

My plan is if I create a subdomain called mail.sitename.com which I can use an SSL certificate on, and the only page on the subdomain is a full size iframe for https://webmail.gridhost.co.uk, is this a bad idea? If so how bad an idea is it?

[xoggoth]

Need a NickFitz for this one. But, apart from security concerns, if your website is http it may not load all the content from an https page.

Why you should not mix http and https when using iframes | Advanced iframe | TinyWebGallery Blog

Using php file_get_contents('https://webmail.gridhost.co.uk/'); and echoing gives a page with identical source to original but all the images & style are not showing.

[xoggoth]

Nope. Says "This content cannot be displayed in a frame"

http://www.xoggoth.org/pages/mail.html

[DaveB]

In principle they are fine, lots of sites use them for eCommerce to load the payment providers window on the parent site, but it has to be done right and if you get it wrong you leave yourself open to exploitation of your site.

[eek]

Why do you want an iframe? Just create an actual alias that auto redirects to the webmail client. mail.personaldomain.com redirects me directly to mail.google.com and I have no with ssl error messages...

Likewise mail.corporate.com goes to outlook.office365.com

[WTFH]

Why do you want an iframe? The Samsung Galaxy Frame is far better.

[SimonMac]

Why do you want an iframe? Just create an actual alias that auto redirects to the webmail client. mail.personaldomain.com redirects me directly to mail.google.com and I have no with ssl error messages...

Likewise mail.corporate.com goes to outlook.office365.com

I want the address bar to show my domain not the gridhost

[AtW]

Get yer own domain name + hosting, VPS very cheap

[fool]

I want the address bar to show my domain not the gridhost

eeks suggestion should do that. Domain alias or cname is what you're looking for, as long as vidahost doesn't configure the hosting to only work for a certian FQDN, which is unlikely.

[Snarf]

Something to bear in mind, if you do what you were talking abour earlier and have a page containing nothing but a full screen iFrame to a site, when users navigate around that site the address bar will not change, the title bar will not change and they will not be able to create shortcuts to the content.

There is nothing inherently wrong with using an iFrame, its the way that the verified by visa and mastercard solutions used to work (Still do as far as I know - but its been a while since I dealt with them!)