frameset, frame and noframes

frameset, frame and noframes are obsolete; a frameset page is several separate documents in one window, so use one document with iframe and CSS, or server-side includes.

Avoid
Deprecated

Severity: DeprecatedFormally obsolete, but inert.
Basis: Obsoleted by the specA standard defined it, then removed it.
Detectable: YesMatched exactly. Autofixable when the rule carries a fix.
Matches: frameset, frame, noframesElement rule, anywhere in the document.
Fix: None — reports only
Impacts: Maintainability
Related: element/plugin-embed

A frameset page has no <body>. In its place, <frameset cols="200,*"> splits the window into panes, each <frame src="…"> loads a separate HTML document into one of them, and <noframes> holds content for browsers that don’t do frames. The markup still turns up in old documentation and intranet pages.

Why avoid

It is obsolete. The HTML Standard lists frame, frameset and noframes among the elements that “are entirely obsolete, and must not be used by authors”, and gives two replacements: “Either use iframe and CSS instead, or use server-side includes to generate complete pages with the various invariant parts merged in.”

Browsers do still render it, and that is the problem. The spec keeps the machinery: “The frameset element acts as the body element in documents that use frames”, and inserting a frame creates “a new child navigable”, “similar to the iframe element”. So a frameset page isn’t one document. It is a frame document plus one full document per pane, each with its own history. Following a link inside a pane loads a new document into that pane only. The window’s URL stays the frameset’s, so the address bar, a bookmark or a shared link can’t say which page the reader was actually on.

The layout is fixed, too. The rendering section draws a frameset “as a box with the height and width of the viewport” and divides it by the cols and rows attributes. Pane sizes are set in markup, per page, rather than in a stylesheet that can adapt.

Use instead

Build each page as one complete document, and share the parts that repeat, such as navigation, through a server-side include, a template or a static site generator:

<body>
  <nav aria-label="Documentation">
    <a href="/guide/">Guide</a>
    <a href="/api/">API reference</a>
  </nav>
  <main>
    <h1>Getting started</h1>
  </main>
</body>

Keep the navigation on screen with CSS, for example position: sticky or a grid layout, instead of a separate pane.

If a piece of content really is a separate document, embed it with an iframe and give it a title:

<iframe src="https://maps.example/embed" title="Office location map" width="600" height="400"></iframe>

Detectability

Fully detectable by tag name. The rule’s scope is the whole document: a frameset sits beside <head> rather than inside <body>, and noframes may appear in either.

The bookmarklet reports these findings but can’t show them on a frameset page. It adds its panel to document.body, which on such a page is the frameset, and the spec lays out only frame and frameset children there.

There is no autofix: removing a frameset would leave a page with no content, and noframes holds the only content some readers get.

Resources

HTML Standard — Non-conforming features — frame, frameset and noframes are entirely obsolete; use iframe and CSS or server-side includes instead.
HTML Standard — Frames — frameset acts as the body, and each frame creates a child navigable, like an iframe.
HTML Standard — Rendering: frames and framesets — a frameset is a viewport-sized box divided by cols and rows, laying out only frame and frameset children.

legacy

This page is generated from content/rules/element/frameset.md, the same file the linter is built from. Think the rule is wrong, or that browsers moved on? Say so — that is the most useful issue you can file.