Third-party web widgets (also known as web embeds) are the most straightforward feature integration across web apps. But, some of these embeds could create performance bottlenecks and adversely affect the application performance.
In this article, I will discuss how to measure the impact of third-party embeds and the best practices of using them in web applications.
What are Third-Party Embeds?
Typically we can find web embeds for videos, social media posts, feeds, maps or GIFs. And, these are either iframes or scripts that we can easily add to a web page. However, some of these integrations could adversely affect the application performance.
Therefore, let’s look at how we can measure how they affect the application performance first.
Measuring the Effect of Third-Party Embeds on Application Performance
The size of third-party embeds can vary in size. And the impact on application performance typically increases with size. Furthermore, you can use monitoring tools like Chrome DevTools, Page SpeedInsights, and webPageTest to measure the effect on web application performance.
In the below example, I have used the WebPageTest tool, and its waterfall view shows a detailed picture of the resources used by the web page.
At the top of the image, you can see the actual content of your webpage. It is only a few scripts and takes relatively a short time to load. But at the bottom, there are many scripts with significant loading times. These scripts belong to third-party embeds used by the application.
Also, we can use the Lighthouse extension of Chrome DevTools to measure the same.
Lighthouse lists all the third-party embeds and their transfer sizes as shown below.
Besides, it provides details on the thread execution time for third-party embeds as well.
Best Practices when loading Third-Party Embeds
As I discussed above, third-party embeds can negatively affect website performance. Therefore, let’s look at several best practices to reduce their overall impact.
1. Lazy-Loading
We can use Lazy loading to load embedded resources only when they are required.
Credits: developers.google.com/web/fundementals
For example, any embedded advertisements in a footer need to be shown when a user scrolls down the page. Therefore, we only need to load them upon scrolling to the bottom.
Also, you can utilize browser-level lazy-loading to defer load offscreen iframes.
In the below example, the third-party embed within the iframe will only load when users navigate near them.
<iframe src="https://example.com" loading="lazy"
width=100px
height=50px>
</iframe>
Most of the Chromium supported browsers supports loading attribute, with the following values.
- Lazy -Indicates that the iframe should be loaded later in the browser. When the browser gets close to the viewport, it will load the iframe.
- Eager -This will load the iframe immediately when the page is rendered. The eager attribute is the default value of the
loadingattribute. - Auto — The Browser has the authority to define the loading time of the iframe.
Lazy loading iframes can be efficient if you are working with maps or videos.
For example, if you are using the Google MapsEmbed API, an iframe can be used to lazy load the map as follows:
<iframe src="https://www.google.com/maps/embed/v1/place?key=API_KEY&q=PLACE_ID" width=100px
Similarly, you can embed YouTube videos using iframes and lazy load them to save nearly 500 KB on the first-page load.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aKydtOXW8mI"
width=100px height=150px
loading="lazy"
title="YouTube Player"
frameborder="None"
allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write;
encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture"
allowfullscreen>
</iframe>
Note: Also, you can lazy load iframes in your application using packages like LazySizes. Since this package supports YouTube embeds and widgets, it can be a great option to reduce the iframe load times.
2. Script Ordering
In any application, it is necessary to load the core content first. Then we can focus on the third-party embeds since they mostly occupy a small area in the web page.
For example, the text content of an article should be loaded first before embedding any images or videos.
But, sometimes, third-party embeds can get in the way of core content loading due to JavaScript parser-blocking. Therefore, we need to be extra careful about the order in which they get loaded.
We can use async and defer properties within the script tag to order the execution of scripts.
<head>
<title>Executing the Page</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" media="screen" href="/assets/mainPage.css">
<script src="index.js"></script>
<script src="https://example.com/3p-library.js" async></script>
</head>
You can use the async attribute when you need to run the scripts sooner, while defer can be used for non-vital resources. The following image illustrates how these attributes work.
3. Replace Embeds with Facades
Facades are non-functional static element similar to embeds.
Since scripts are only downloaded and run when the user interacts with the lazy-loaded element, the facade looks and performs similarly to the genuine third-party embed. Therefore, we can replace embeds with facades and improve the page load times.
For example, the below webpage has a static location map (as a facade) embedded in the page. And only once the user clicks on the static map, it starts to load the functional map.
1. Using CMS plugins
CMS users can use plugins that provide out-of-the-box capabilities to replace third-party embeds with placeholders.
Here are a few free plugins that provide this feature:
2. Use facades recommended by Google
There are plenty of Google-recommended facades available. You can use them on your site to replace embeds. However, some of these facades require inserting code into your page’s HTML, while others require JavaScript plugins and libraries.
Examples of Google-recommended facades.
3. Programmer developed facades
If you're a programmer, you can design your own facades. The recommended workflow is as follows:
- During the initial page load, show a facade instead of the third-party embed.
- When a user scrolls or hovers over the facade, start lazy load the dependencies.
- When the user clicks on it, replace the facade with the genuine third-party embed.
4. Reducing Layout Shifts
Sometimes, embedding third-party videos or banners can cause unexpected layout shifts in application UIs. These shifts are known as Cumulative Layout Shifts (CLS), and it is important to minimize them since they directly affect user experience and google page ranking.
In the below example, I inspected the home page of the Forbes website. As you can see, there is a shifting in the news feed section when the browser is loading. This is because the embedded advertisement is popping up from the top of the window.
Specifying dimensions
If you use an iframe, video, or image tag to embed content, you must define the dimensions.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EKEav7Io5Y&ab_channel=GoogleChromeDevelopers"
Utilize empty slots
The best way to embed content without any layout shift is to reserve empty but fixed-size slots on your web application. The below example shows how to create a dedicated slot for a Twitter feed.
<style>
.twitterfeed {
display: table-cell;
vertical-align: top;
width: 100px;
}
.twitter-timeline {
height: 400px !important;
}
</style>
<div class=twitterfeed>
<a class="twitter-timeline" href="https://twitter.com/BBCWorld/with_repliesw" data-tweet-limit="1">Tweets by BBC World</a>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"> </script>
</div>
Also, you can use the Layout shift terminator tool to reduce layout shifts from embeds. It will filter out most of the iframes and resize to viewports sizes.
Conclusion
Using third-party embeds can take your application’s user experience to a whole new level, with rich feature integrations. But, if we don’t use them correctly, they can negatively impact your web application performance.
In this article, I discussed how to measure the performance overhead of third-party embeds and use them efficiently. I hope these best practices will help you to use web embeds effectively. And, don’t forget to share your thoughts in the comments section.
Thank you for reading !!!
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Note:
Only HTTPS URLs are supported. For security, the embedded app is constrained by the same origin policy. For domains other than *.arcgis.com and *.esri.com, the sandbox attribute is automatically added.
- Connect to data—Select a layer as the data source (added from web maps, web scenes, direct layer, or through URL) and click the Data button to select an attribute that contains URLs or to add to an existing URL as parameters. Use the Label field to display a description in the widget when it is not populated by the contents of a URL in the data.
- URL info—Obtain URL parameters that you add as a suffix to your app URL in the builder. Configure a dynamic URL to pass URL parameters from the Embed widget to the embedded app so users can add URL parameters to the web experience URL at run time to control what appears in the embedded app.
Note:
For information about URL parameters supported by the embedded app, refer to the respective documentation, such as for ArcGIS Dashboards and ArcGIS Web AppBuilder.
- Code—Add your own custom HTML code to embed third-party elements in your experience.
To meet compliance requirements, the widget restricts what content you can embed by code. Currently, the widget supports URL content in an HTML iframe, code shared from a selection of popular social media websites, and a subset of HTML tags and attributes. The following is a list of supported HTML formats:
Format Example Standard HTML iframe with URL content1
<iframe width="100%" height="600px" frameborder="0" scrolling="yes" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="https://developers.arcgis.com/"></iframe></div>YouTube
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pNrsd5naN7U" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>Twitter
Example of a Twitter Timeline:
<a class="twitter-timeline" href="https://twitter.com/ArcGISApps?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">Tweets by ArcGISApps</a> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>Facebook
<iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fesrigis%2Fphotos%2Fa.433181450280%2F10160256145415281%2F&show_text=true&width=500" width="500" height="417" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share"></iframe>Instagram
<blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/reel/CmZQDMJtMvc/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14" style=" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:540px; min-width:326px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);"><div style="padding:16px;"> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/CmZQDMJtMvc/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" style=" background:#FFFFFF; line-height:0; padding:0 0; text-align:center; text-decoration:none; width:100%;" target="_blank"> <div style=" display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div> <div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div></div></div><div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div> <div style="display:block; height:50px; margin:0 auto 12px; width:50px;"><svg width="50px" height="50px" viewBox="0 0 60 60" version="1.1" xmlns="https://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><g stroke="none" stroke-width="1" fill="none" fill-rule="evenodd"><g transform="translate(-511.000000, -20.000000)" fill="#000000"><g><path d="M556.869,30.41 C554.814,30.41 553.148,32.076 553.148,34.131 C553.148,36.186 554.814,37.852 556.869,37.852 C558.924,37.852 560.59,36.186 560.59,34.131 C560.59,32.076 558.924,30.41 556.869,30.41 M541,60.657 C535.114,60.657 530.342,55.887 530.342,50 C530.342,44.114 535.114,39.342 541,39.342 C546.887,39.342 551.658,44.114 551.658,50 C551.658,55.887 546.887,60.657 541,60.657 M541,33.886 C532.1,33.886 524.886,41.1 524.886,50 C524.886,58.899 532.1,66.113 541,66.113 C549.9,66.113 557.115,58.899 557.115,50 C557.115,41.1 549.9,33.886 541,33.886 M565.378,62.101 C565.244,65.022 564.756,66.606 564.346,67.663 C563.803,69.06 563.154,70.057 562.106,71.106 C561.058,72.155 560.06,72.803 558.662,73.347 C557.607,73.757 556.021,74.244 553.102,74.378 C549.944,74.521 548.997,74.552 541,74.552 C533.003,74.552 532.056,74.521 528.898,74.378 C525.979,74.244 524.393,73.757 523.338,73.347 C521.94,72.803 520.942,72.155 519.894,71.106 C518.846,70.057 518.197,69.06 517.654,67.663 C517.244,66.606 516.755,65.022 516.623,62.101 C516.479,58.943 516.448,57.996 516.448,50 C516.448,42.003 516.479,41.056 516.623,37.899 C516.755,34.978 517.244,33.391 517.654,32.338 C518.197,30.938 518.846,29.942 519.894,28.894 C520.942,27.846 521.94,27.196 523.338,26.654 C524.393,26.244 525.979,25.756 528.898,25.623 C532.057,25.479 533.004,25.448 541,25.448 C548.997,25.448 549.943,25.479 553.102,25.623 C556.021,25.756 557.607,26.244 558.662,26.654 C560.06,27.196 561.058,27.846 562.106,28.894 C563.154,29.942 563.803,30.938 564.346,32.338 C564.756,33.391 565.244,34.978 565.378,37.899 C565.522,41.056 565.552,42.003 565.552,50 C565.552,57.996 565.522,58.943 565.378,62.101 M570.82,37.631 C570.674,34.438 570.167,32.258 569.425,30.349 C568.659,28.377 567.633,26.702 565.965,25.035 C564.297,23.368 562.623,22.342 560.652,21.575 C558.743,20.834 556.562,20.326 553.369,20.18 C550.169,20.033 549.148,20 541,20 C532.853,20 531.831,20.033 528.631,20.18 C525.438,20.326 523.257,20.834 521.349,21.575 C519.376,22.342 517.703,23.368 516.035,25.035 C514.368,26.702 513.342,28.377 512.574,30.349 C511.834,32.258 511.326,34.438 511.181,37.631 C511.035,40.831 511,41.851 511,50 C511,58.147 511.035,59.17 511.181,62.369 C511.326,65.562 511.834,67.743 512.574,69.651 C513.342,71.625 514.368,73.296 516.035,74.965 C517.703,76.634 519.376,77.658 521.349,78.425 C523.257,79.167 525.438,79.673 528.631,79.82 C531.831,79.965 532.853,80.001 541,80.001 C549.148,80.001 550.169,79.965 553.369,79.82 C556.562,79.673 558.743,79.167 560.652,78.425 C562.623,77.658 564.297,76.634 565.965,74.965 C567.633,73.296 568.659,71.625 569.425,69.651 C570.167,67.743 570.674,65.562 570.82,62.369 C570.966,59.17 571,58.147 571,50 C571,41.851 570.966,40.831 570.82,37.631"></path></g></g></g></svg></div><div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style=" color:#3897f0; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:550; line-height:18px;">View this post on Instagram</div></div><div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"><div> <div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"></div> <div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"></div></div><div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"></div> <div style=" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg)"></div></div><div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style=" width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"></div> <div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"></div> <div style=" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"></div></div></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"></div> <div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"></div></div></a><p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/CmZQDMJtMvc/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">A post shared by Esri (@esrigram)</a></p></div></blockquote> <script async src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script>Vimeo
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/344310270?h=f8c418505e" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> <p><a href="https://vimeo.com/344310270">The Science of Where - ESRI</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/south422">422 South</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>Other
Caution:
There is an 8 KB (8192-character) size limit imposed for performance reasons.
Tip:
If you want to embed a complex HTML page that exceeds the size limit or does not come from any of the supported sources, deploy the page to your own server and embed by URL instead.
- Auto refresh—Set a custom time interval (in minutes) to automatically refresh the embedded content in the Embed widget. The minimum value you can set is 0.2 minutes (12 seconds).
Configure a dynamic URL
Complete the following steps to obtain URL parameters from your web experience that you can pass to an embedded app:
- Add an Embed widget and save.
- In the address bar of the browser window, add the URL parameter to your web experience URL and press Enter to reload the page.
Tip:
Because the builder already includes the app ID parameter, add the URL parameter using an ampersand (such as &state=) instead of a question mark.
Once the builder reloads with the URL parameter, the URL info button displays its key to build a dynamic URL.
- In the Embed by URL input box, paste the URL for the app you want to embed.
- At the end of the embed URL, type the URL parameter (such as ?state=).
- Click the URL info button and select the corresponding key to complete the dynamic URL.
The following is an example dynamic URL for an embedded dashboard:
https://<your portal url>/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/<id>?state={appURL.search.state}
Share authentication
Some web applications prompt users to sign in with an ArcGIS account. An app might require login because of its share settings, because the app includes widgets that use premium content, or for other reasons.
If you want to embed an ArcGIS web app in your Experience Builder app, and both require login, you can add the arcgis-auth-origin and arcgis-auth-portal URL parameters to share authentication between both apps so users only need to sign in once.
To embed a private Experience Builder app in another Experience Builder app, use ?arcgis-auth-origin= to define the host app domain URL for authentication. The following is an example:
https://<orgdomain>/experience/<AppID>/?arcgis-auth-origin=<your host app domain, such as https://localhost:3001>To embed a JavaScript API-based app, such as a Web AppBuilder app, use the ?arcgis-auth-origin= for the host app domain authentication and ?arcgis-auth-portal= for the JavaScript API based app's domain authentication. The following is an example:
https://<orgdomain>/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=<appID>&arcgis-auth-origin=<your host app domain, such as https://localhost:3001>&arcgis-auth-portal=<orgA URL>https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/<appID>?arcgis-auth-origin=https://experience.arcgis.com&arcgis-auth-portal=https://<myorg>.maps.arcgis.com
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