I\'m using an (I know, I know, ...) in my app (single-page application with ExtJS 4.2) to do file downloads because they contain lots of data and
If you control the script in server that generates excel or whatever you are sending to iframe why don't you put a UID flag and store it in session with value 0, so... when iframe is created and server script is called just set UID flag to 1 and when script is finished (the iframe will be loaded) just put it to 2.
Then you only need a timer and a periodic AJAX call to the server to check the UID flag... if it's set to 0 the process doesn't started, if it's 1 the file is creating, and finally if it's 2 the process has been ended.
What do you think? If you need more information about this approach just ask.