Inspect in IFrame in IE8 Developer Tools?

6
votes

I really enjoyed using the Developer Toolbar with IE7, and recently upgraded to IE8 to take advantage of (what appeared to be) more full-featured developer tools.

The IE8 tool is really excellent (finally rivals FireBug), but I can't seem to inspect inside an iframe, which I could with the IE7 toolbar.

I'd prefer not to downgrade to IE7 because I like some of the other features of the IE8 tools, but the ability to inspect inside an iframe is a deal breaker.

Also, firebug is of limited utility to me because our site is an internally-deployed intranet app, which means "browser compatibility" is a very low priority, major functionality is often broken in FireFox.

Here's what the IE8 tools look like around the iframe

In firebug, I can see an <html> element under the iframe, which I can expand just like the rest of the page

The <iframe> in question has its src attribute set server-side (in the ASP.NET code-behind)

UPDATE: I get the same result on this Iframe example page. If anyone can use the IE8 developer tools to inspect inside that iframe then I'd like to hear about it.

3
iframeinternet-explorer-8
...finally rivals Firebug is a highly exaggerated sentence analogous to you taking a wooden plank attaching wooden wheels to it and stating you finally rival Audi. Internet Explorer Developer tools have never been and likely never will be close to Firebug or Chrome dev tools. Unfortunately Microsoft should be banned from working in any way shape or form toward their own browser published for general public. Because of Internet Explorer alone our web applications are worse as they would've been if history had no IE written in it. Fact. - Robert Koritnik

3 Answers

2
votes

Install the final release of IE8 and you will easily walk through any element including iFrame and other container controls.

1
votes

Unhelpful answer: it works for me here.

Inside the <iframe> I see an <html> inside of which is the normal content.

(This is RC1 under Win2k8.)

Does FireBug show the iframe having any content? Is the iframe being populated dynamically? If so try JavaScript debugging with a breakpoint on the point at which the iframe is populated.

Answering the question in the comment re. the iframe from http://www.htmlcodetutorial.com/frames/_IFRAME.html:

  • I see the content document in FireBug
  • I do not see it in IE8.

The one thing (compared to an internal example here) is that the iframe you pointed to contains default content... but since this is not shown in IE8's dev tools I can only think this is a defect and should be reported to MS.

1
votes

this seems to be a bug with IE8 developer tools. remove the <!DOCTYPE from the document referenced by the iframe and you are good to go.