IE href="javascript:customFunction()" not firing on first frame load

Question

I have a custom date picker popup that isn't working in IE sometimes. It works in Chrome and Edge fine.

The code looks something like this:

<frameset>
    <frame>Buttons for next/prev month/year</frame>
    <frame>This is the actual calendar that gets redrawn when the above buttons are used
        <a href="javascript:parent.opener.setDate(1);">1</a> //there's a different anchor tag for each day of the month
    </frame>
<frameset>

So here's where it gets kind of weird. We have two networks, call them old and new. Old has probably a lot of undocumented global policy changes and new is probably close to the gov standard. This works on any browser on the old network, but not IE (11) on the new network. It works in Edge though. Additionally, if the top frame buttons are used to pick the next/prev month, or just the "Today" button, then all of the bottom frame anchor links work normally. There are no console errors/warnings, nothing in the network monitor showing a request returned an error code, the clicks just don't register. I put a breakpoint inside customFunction() and it won't break when the links don't work, but it will break if the link will work.

The only other thing that seems odd to me is that the code for the whole popup looks something like:

str = "<frameset><frame name='topFrame' " + 
    "src='javascript:parent.opener.drawTop'></frame><frame name='bottomFrame' "+
    "src='javascript:parent.opener.drawBottom'><frame</frameset>"

document.write(str);

I did look to check and the code that redraws the bottom frame when the prev/next/etc buttons are used is the same function that gets called during the first load.

However, what seems odd about this is that on the first load the DOM inspector shows everything (top frame, bottom frame including all the individual numbers for each day of the month, etc), but the Debugger (F12 tools) doesn't show the code loaded with the document.write(str); line. To be able to see that code and set break points I have to use the prev/next buttons and then an additional .html file shows up in Debugger which has the constructed HTML that matches the DOM.

Answer 1

try this:

1)

<a href="javascript:parent.opener.setDate(1); void(0);">1</a>

2)

<a href="javascript:function(){parent.opener.setDate(1); return false;}">1</a>

3)

<a href="#" onclick="javascript:parent.opener.setDate(1); return false;">1</a>

4) check your code. Maybe your frame has attribute 'sandbox'. This attribute can block javascript. Example:

 <iframe src="URL" sandbox>

Answer 2

Aside from the great suggestions by Nutscracker, I've also had my share of vague problems with document.write and event handlers not attaching in IE. The problem commented on by ConnorsFan could be the cause here, but you could also try:

document.body.innerHTML = '<frameset><frame name="topFrame" ' + 
'src="javascript:parent.opener.drawTop"></frame><frame name="bottomFrame" '+
'src="javascript:parent.opener.drawBottom"><frame></frameset>'

You might also want to check this code is actually being called, maybe the real working popup is loaded from somewhere else by the prev/next buttons and this is just some leftover stuff.