Question

jQuery based modal dialog boxes are great as long as you do as much as the example tells you to. I need a jQuery based modal dialog box library that has to have the following characteristics:

Ideal implementation:

   function showDialog(values)
    {
      processToChangeDom(values);
      changeDivTobeDisplayed();
      modalDialog.show();
    }

• It should be fast, something like the add and link dialog on StackOverflow. Most libraries take an eternity to load the dialog with its fancy effects and stuff.

• I want to call it using a script. Show a hidden div or a span element inline. MOst of the libraries talk filling an anchor with rel, class and href=#hiddenDiv sort of things. I need to be able to what I want without adding unnecessary attributes to my anchor. Something like this

• It should reflect changes I make to the DOM in the hidden Div. I used facebox and found out that it makes a copy of the hidden div and changes to the DOM doesn’t reflect on the modal window.

• I need to be able call the close modal div using javascript and also attach beforeOpen and afterClose handlers to the action.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I have already tried facebox, simplemodal and a whole range of libraries, most of them don’t support one or the other of these functions I described above.

Answer 1

Try SimpleModal. I found it’s API quite nice.