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How to call a JavaScript function from one frame to another in Chrome/Webkit with file protocol

I have developed an application that has a list of items in one frame; when one clicks on an item it does something in another frame (loads an image).

This used to work fine in all browsers, including Chrome 3; now it still works fine in Firefox but in recent versions of Chrome (I believe since 4) it throws this error:

Unsafe JavaScript attempt to access frame with URL (...) from frame with URL (...). Domains, protocols and ports must match.

This is obviously a security "feature" but is it possible to get around it?

Here is a simple test:

index.html:

<html>
  <frameset cols="50%,50%">
    <frame src="left.html" name="left"/>
    <frame src="right.html" name="right"/>
    </frameset>
  </html>

left.html:

<html>
  <body>
    <a href="javascript:parent.right.test('hello');">click me</a>
    </body>
  </html>

right.html:

<html>
  <body>
    <script>
      function test(msg) {
        alert(msg);
        }
      </script>
    </body>
  </html>

The above works in Firefox 3.6 and Chrome 3 but in Chrome 5 it throws the above error...

Edit:

  • added the @cols attribute to the frameset element
  • in fact it works in Chrome if and only if the pages are served with the http protocol (and from the same domain) but my problem is when pages are local and served from a file:// protocol. Then it works in Firefox (all versions) and Chrome 3 but not Chrome 5 (I don't have Chrome 4 so I'm not shure about that specific version (and don't know if it's even possible to download a specific Chrome version?) -- but for Chrome 5 I'm very sure it doesn't work).
Solution

  • See the answers to the closely-related question: Call a JavaScript function defined in an iframe in Chrome using the file protocol.

    Briefly, launching Chrome with --allow-file-access-from-files "solves" the problem insofar as the error will not be reported.

    Of course, since you're distributing files on a CD, you're unlikely to view this an actual solution. I recommend starring Chromium bug 47416 to encourage the developers of Chromium to bring Chrome more into line with the behavior of Gecko.