Embed in an iFrame

Because of how a waiting room tracks visitor progress, you need to specify certain cookie attributes to properly embed a waiting room in an iFrame.

​​ Background

The SameSite attribute of a cookie Open external link specifies whether that cookie can be shared with other domains that load on the same page (ad banners, iFrames). By default, browsers do not send cookies on cross-site subrequests to prevent attackers from stealing or manipulating information present in your cookies.

However, this behavior can prevent a waiting room from queueing a user properly if that waiting room is embedded in an iFrame. The waiting room depends on the __cfwaitingroom cookie to track a user in the queue. But, since the browser blocks the cookie from reaching the waiting room by default, an active and queueing waiting room cannot queue the user and will never let them access the application.

​​ Available options

To customize how your waiting room responds to cookies, include the cookie_attributes object when you create a waiting room (only available via the API).

Available options include:

• samesite: Configures the SameSite attribute on the waiting room cookie:

  • auto (default): Meant to be as flexible as possible, defaulting to lax but becoming none if you have enabled Always Use HTTPS.
  • lax: Cookies are not sent on normal cross-site subrequests (for example to load images or frames into a third party site), but are sent when a user is navigating to the origin site
  • strict: Cookies will only be sent in a first-party context.
  • none: Cookies will always be sent.

• secure: Configures the Secure attribute on the waiting room cookie, which requires the request to be made over https:

  • auto (default): Meant to be as flexible as possible, defaulting to never but becoming always if you have enabled Always Use HTTPS.
  • always: Cookies can only be sent using https requests.
  • never: Cookies can be sent using http or https requests.

​​ Allow cookies to pass through iFrames

If you are embedding a waiting room in an iFrame, specify the following values on cookie_attributes object when creating a waiting room (only available via the API):

• samesite: none
• secure: If you have Always Use HTTPS enabled, set to auto. If you have it disabled, set to always.

​​ Example

curl -X POST "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/zones/{zone-id}/waiting_rooms" \
     -H "X-Auth-Email: user@example.com" \
     -H "X-Auth-Key: xxxxxxxx" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     --data '{"name":"shop_waiting_room",
              "description":"Waiting room for webshop",
              "host":"shop.example.com",
              "path":"/shop",
              "queue_all": true,
              "new_users_per_minute":200,
              "total_active_users":300,
              "session_duration":1,
              "disable_session_renewal": false,
              "json_response_enabled": false,
              "queueing_method": "FIFO",
              "cookie_attributes": {
                "samesite": "none",
                "secure": "auto"
              },
            }'

{
  "success": true,
  "errors": [],
  "messages": [],
  "result": [
    {
      "id": "1111111111111111111111",
      "created_on": "2021-01-01T05:20:00.12345Z",
      "modified_on": "2021-01-01T05:20:00.12345Z",
      "name": "shop_waiting_room",
      "description": "Waiting room for webshop",
      "host": "shop.example.com",
      "path": "/shop",
      "queue_all": true,
      "new_users_per_minute": 200,
      "total_active_users": 300,
      "session_duration": 1,
      "disable_session_renewal": false,
      "json_response_enabled": false,
      "queueing_method": "FIFO",
      "cookie_attributes": {
        "samesite": "none",
        "secure": "auto"
      },
    }
  ]
}