Im developing an intranet application using vaadin that needs to display and interact with an iframe on a different host (same sub-domain).
To handle these requirements it is necessary to set the Javascript “document.domain” on both frames to an identical sub-domain to satisfy the same-origin policy. This is happening just fine.
Everything works fine in Firefox, the application functions perfectly - and in vanilla IE8 it works fine as well. However, the entire framework breaks when using IE8 in compatibility mode (which should operate as IE7). FYI - IE8 by default, loads all intranet applications in compatibility mode. Unfortunately there is no general workaround for this, so we’re stuck with it. By “the entire framework breaks”, I mean that the application does not load at all due to a Javascript error.
I tracked down the JS error to the “__gwt_historyFrame” iframe. For some reason IE8 does not like the fact that the “document.domain” property was changed, and it refuses to allow the framework to interact with the __gwt_historyFrame iframe. As soon as the framework accesses: “frame.contentWindow.document” - IE throws an “Access Denied” error, and the application stops loading.
Does anyone know a workaround for this? Is IE8 compatibility mode even officially supported? Is changing document.domain supported? Im using some custom build logic to ensure that documents change their domain when loaded - which works fine - but is there a more standard method?