What is an iFrame and how does the integration work?

With tchop you can create a place for all content, news and content feeds – from interesting texts, links, social media posts or videos to podcasts or newsletters. The output is often so exciting that it makes sense to integrate it into existing or new websites. There are various technical methods for this. These make integration child’s play and at the same time meet all modern requirements in terms of security and user experience. In the following blog post we explain this feature, which is now available to all customers, in detail. First of all: it will be exciting, because there are a lot of new possibilities!

How the integration works technically

For the embedding of media content on websites there is the so-called iFrame in the modern HTML5 web standard. These enable the website provider to display several pages at once, which are technically completely independent. The handling is very simple: You can use it to integrate videos, maps, presentations and other content quickly and without deeper technical knowledge.

iFrame (or “Inline Frame” or “Floating Frame”) is a separate HTML document that is displayed in a separate window together with other content on the page in the browser. It can be placed anywhere and its height and width can be easily adapted to the respective requirements. Technically, another HTML document is displayed in the existing document on the page. If you open a page with such an iFrame frame, another independent page is loaded “invisibly” in the background. That the user is not aware of this.

Of course, we already see this integration today when we see and use YouTube videos or audio players from Spotify on websites. The Internet is full of it and the user usually doesn’t notice it. Live tickers on news websites are also usually embedded using this technology. So iFrame integrations are an integral part of the modern web and a widely used standard tool. Because it is isolated from the original document, it is also a particularly secure method of displaying dynamic content.

There are actually only two disadvantages: First, no data can be exchanged between the website and the integrated element. In addition, iFrames cannot be seen by so-called web crawlers. Crawlers are programs that search the Internet for different purposes using different criteria. Google uses this for its search engine. The Google Crawler only indexes and “understands” content that is actually on the website. So the integration has no positive influence on the SEO performance of a website (but also no negative).

You have the choice

The tchop content formats offer different options for integrating content into your website. While with known social media wall providers only social media posts can be “embedded” (and with some maybe own pictures and simple text posts) but with tchop you benefit from the whole range of different content formats of links, social media posts, Video and audio. You have the choice of integration between

  • a single card
  • a special mix
  • the entire news feed of a channel

You can use any number of integrations from different channels and mixes to integrate different content on different websites. This allows you to set up a structure that suits your requirements and that automatically supplies your website with the right content.

The iFrame code snippet looks like this:

It can be easily copied into any online CMS editor using “Copy & Paste”. The code snippet also makes it easy to determine the height and width of the element. The cards are then arranged responsively within this module. This makes it easy to influence the appearance and user experience of the website.

What can you use it for?

First of all: You can use that for a lot of things! At first glance, the possibilities are similar to the so-called social media walls. A social media wall collects and filters content from social media channels such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. It is often shown or integrated on a company website, on product pages from e-commerce sites or on digital screens in offices, on the street or at live events. The content that normally only runs on social networks can be made available to other target groups in a simple and uncomplicated manner.

With tchop, the possibilities go even further! Because on our platform practically all content types relevant today can be easily and efficiently aggregated and curated. This creates a mix of news, social media content and micro-content such as images or videos, a mix of your own or someone else’s, current or evergreen content. Content can be uploaded, commented or edited “live” via the app, whereby one can determine which users are allowed to post where.

Another very decisive advantage over the well-known social walls is the fact that the content remains legally within your jurisdiction. You always have control over who should see where. All rights remain with you without restriction, while you have to assign extensive rights to the known networks.

That is why tchop is particularly suitable as a system for cases in which it is not desired to make content publicly accessible (e.g. because the content should only be intended for subscribers, members or event participants). The integration can be done in a protected area only for registered members or e.g. also within an intranet.

The possibilities in the context of the respective website are unlimited and it ultimately depends on the respective use case how you want to use this. One thing is certain: the integration of more content increases the time spent on the website and enables additional perspectives and backgrounds to be provided without risking a lot of effort.

Summary

An iFrame is a rectangular HTML element that is used on many websites today. This technology allows you to embed your own tchop content and outputs flexibly and dynamically at any desired position on a website. The iFrame acts like a small browser window and delivers the tchop content in the context of its own website. The integration is quick, easy and secure. Everyone can integrate an iFrame into their website using a short code snippet. The possibilities for content are practically unlimited. The imagination knows no limits!

Talk to us at any time! The feature is now available to all customers free of charge. We are happy to help with the integration and provide suggestions and ideas from other applications.