MessagePort.onmessage

The onmessage event handler of the MessagePort interface is an EventListener, called whenever an MessageEvent of type message is fired on the port — that is, when the port receives a message.

channel.onmessage = function() { ... };

In the following code block, you can see a new channel being created using the MessageChannel.MessageChannel constructor. When the IFrame has loaded, we pass MessageChannel.port2 to the IFrame using MessagePort.postMessage along with a message. The handleMessage handler then responds to a message being sent back from the IFrame using onmessage, putting it into a paragraph — MessageChannel.port1 is listened to, to check when the message arrives.

var channel = new MessageChannel();
var para = document.querySelector('p');

var ifr = document.querySelector('iframe');
var otherWindow = ifr.contentWindow;

ifr.addEventListener("load", iframeLoaded, false);

function iframeLoaded() {
  otherWindow.postMessage('Hello from the main page!', '*', [channel.port2]);
}

channel.port1.onmessage = handleMessage;
function handleMessage(e) {
  para.innerHTML = e.data;
}   

For a full working example, see our channel messaging basic demo on Github (run it live too).

• Using channel messaging