Secure expandable advertisements using an API and cross-domain communications

1. A method comprising:

presenting, using a computer processor, a webpage with an iframe containing an HTML document from a third party server, wherein the domains of the third party server and the webpage are different;

receiving an API call from the third party server to expand the iframe;

receiving, as an argument to the API call, dimension data and direction data indicating how to expand the iframe;

authenticating the API call by comparing the dimension data and direction data to predetermined values indicating iframe expansion;

issuing an instruction to a client machine to expand the iframe;

providing to the third party server a security token that identifies the HTML document and the iframe; and

authenticating the API call by verifying the token received as an argument to the API call.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising expanding the iframe in accordance with the dimension data and direction data.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the third party server calls the API when the third party server detects a triggering event.

4. A system comprising:

a web server to present a webpage with an iframe containing an HTML document from a third party server, wherein the domains of the third party and the webpage are different;

an application programming interface to receive an API call from the third party server to expand the iframe; and

a memory storing computer-executable instructions that when executed by a computer processor cause the computer processor to perform the actions of:

presenting a webpage with an iframe containing the HTML document from the third party server;

receiving the API call from the third party server to expand the iframe;

receiving, as an argument to the API call, dimension data and direction data indicating how to expand the iframe;

authenticating the API call by comparing the dimension data and direction data to predetermined values indicating iframe expansion;

issuing an instruction to a client machine to expand the iframe; providing to the third party server a security token that identifies the HTML document and the iframe; and

authenticating the API call by verifying the token received as an argument to the API call.

5. A system as in claim 4 , further comprising an expansion module to expand the iframe in accordance with the dimension data and direction data.

6. A system as in claim 4 , wherein the application programming interface receives an API call from the third party server when the third party server detects a trigger event.

7. A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising instructions, which when implemented by one or more processors perform the operations comprising:

presenting a webpage with an iframe containing an HTML document from a third party server, wherein the domains of the third party server and the webpage are different;

receiving an API call from the third party server to expand the iframe; receiving dimension data and direction data indicating how to expand the iframe from the third party server as an argument with the API call;

authenticating the API call by comparing the dimension data and direction data to predetermined values indicating how the iframe can be expanded; and

issuing an instruction to a client machine to expand the iframe; and

providing to the third party server a security token that identifies the HTML document and the iframe; and

authenticating the API call by verifying the token received as an argument to the API call.

8. A non-transitory machine-readable medium storage device as in claim 7 , the operations further comprising expanding the iframe in accordance with the dimension data and direction data.

9. The machine-readable storage device as in claim 7 , the operations further comprising the third party server calling the API when the third party server detects a triggering event.