Question

Looking off this example, notice how clicking on the Search button brings up a modal form with a darkened overlay behind it. Now notice how clicking on the Column Chooser button brings up a modal form but no overlay behind it.

My question is: how do I get the dark overlay to appear behind my Column Chooser popup?

Answer 1

There are currently undocumented option of the columnChooser:

$(this).jqGrid('columnChooser', {modal: true});

The demo demonstrate this. One can set default parameters for the columnChooser with respect of $.jgrid.col too:

$.extend(true, $.jgrid.col, {
    modal: true
});

Recently I posted the suggestion to extend a little functionality of the columnChooser, but only a part of the changes are current code of the jqGrid. Nevertheless in the new version will be possible to set much more jQuery UI Dialog options with respect of new dialog_opts option. For example the usage of the following will be possible

$(this).jqGrid('columnChooser', {
    dialog_opts: {
        modal: true,
        minWidth: 470,
        show: 'blind',
        hide: 'explode'
    }
});

To use full features which I suggested you can just overwrite the standard implementation of columnChooser. One can do this by including the following code

$.jgrid.extend({
    columnChooser : function(opts) {
        var self = this;
        if($("#colchooser_"+$.jgrid.jqID(self[0].p.id)).length ) { return; }
        var selector = $('<div id="colchooser_'+self[0].p.id+'" style="position:relative;overflow:hidden"><div><select multiple="multiple"></select></div></div>');
        var select = $('select', selector);

        function insert(perm,i,v) {
            if(i>=0){
                var a = perm.slice();
                var b = a.splice(i,Math.max(perm.length-i,i));
                if(i>perm.length) { i = perm.length; }
                a[i] = v;
                return a.concat(b);
            }
        }
        opts = $.extend({
            "width" : 420,
            "height" : 240,
            "classname" : null,
            "done" : function(perm) { if (perm) { self.jqGrid("remapColumns", perm, true); } },
            /* msel is either the name of a ui widget class that
               extends a multiselect, or a function that supports
               creating a multiselect object (with no argument,
               or when passed an object), and destroying it (when
               passed the string "destroy"). */
            "msel" : "multiselect",
            /* "msel_opts" : {}, */

            /* dlog is either the name of a ui widget class that 
               behaves in a dialog-like way, or a function, that
               supports creating a dialog (when passed dlog_opts)
               or destroying a dialog (when passed the string
               "destroy")
               */
            "dlog" : "dialog",

            /* dlog_opts is either an option object to be passed 
               to "dlog", or (more likely) a function that creates
               the options object.
               The default produces a suitable options object for
               ui.dialog */
            "dlog_opts" : function(opts) {
                var buttons = {};
                buttons[opts.bSubmit] = function() {
                    opts.apply_perm();
                    opts.cleanup(false);
                };
                buttons[opts.bCancel] = function() {
                    opts.cleanup(true);
                };
                return $.extend(true, {
                    "buttons": buttons,
                    "close": function() {
                        opts.cleanup(true);
                    },
                    "modal" : opts.modal ? opts.modal : false,
                    "resizable": opts.resizable ? opts.resizable : true,
                    "width": opts.width+20,
                    resize: function (e, ui) {
                        var $container = $(this).find('>div>div.ui-multiselect'),
                            containerWidth = $container.width(),
                            containerHeight = $container.height(),
                            $selectedContainer = $container.find('>div.selected'),
                            $availableContainer = $container.find('>div.available'),
                            $selectedActions = $selectedContainer.find('>div.actions'),
                            $availableActions = $availableContainer.find('>div.actions'),
                            $selectedList = $selectedContainer.find('>ul.connected-list'),
                            $availableList = $availableContainer.find('>ul.connected-list'),
                            dividerLocation = opts.msel_opts.dividerLocation || $.ui.multiselect.defaults.dividerLocation;

                        $container.width(containerWidth); // to fix width like 398.96px                     
                        $availableContainer.width(Math.floor(containerWidth*(1-dividerLocation)));
                        $selectedContainer.width(containerWidth - $availableContainer.outerWidth() - ($.browser.webkit ? 1: 0));

                        $availableContainer.height(containerHeight);
                        $selectedContainer.height(containerHeight);
                        $selectedList.height(Math.max(containerHeight-$selectedActions.outerHeight()-1,1));
                        $availableList.height(Math.max(containerHeight-$availableActions.outerHeight()-1,1));
                    }
                }, opts.dialog_opts || {});
            },
            /* Function to get the permutation array, and pass it to the
               "done" function */
            "apply_perm" : function() {
                $('option',select).each(function(i) {
                    if (this.selected) {
                        self.jqGrid("showCol", colModel[this.value].name);
                    } else {
                        self.jqGrid("hideCol", colModel[this.value].name);
                    }
                });

                var perm = [];
                //fixedCols.slice(0);
                $('option:selected',select).each(function() { perm.push(parseInt(this.value,10)); });
                $.each(perm, function() { delete colMap[colModel[parseInt(this,10)].name]; });
                $.each(colMap, function() {
                    var ti = parseInt(this,10);
                    perm = insert(perm,ti,ti);
                });
                if (opts.done) {
                    opts.done.call(self, perm);
                }
            },
            /* Function to cleanup the dialog, and select. Also calls the
               done function with no permutation (to indicate that the
               columnChooser was aborted */
            "cleanup" : function(calldone) {
                call(opts.dlog, selector, 'destroy');
                call(opts.msel, select, 'destroy');
                selector.remove();
                if (calldone && opts.done) {
                    opts.done.call(self);
                }
            },
            "msel_opts" : {}
        }, $.jgrid.col, opts || {});
        if($.ui) {
            if ($.ui.multiselect ) {
                if(opts.msel == "multiselect") {
                    if(!$.jgrid._multiselect) {
                        // should be in language file
                        alert("Multiselect plugin loaded after jqGrid. Please load the plugin before the jqGrid!");
                        return;
                    }
                    opts.msel_opts = $.extend($.ui.multiselect.defaults,opts.msel_opts);
                }
            }
        }
        if (opts.caption) {
            selector.attr("title", opts.caption);
        }
        if (opts.classname) {
            selector.addClass(opts.classname);
            select.addClass(opts.classname);
        }
        if (opts.width) {
            $(">div",selector).css({"width": opts.width,"margin":"0 auto"});
            select.css("width", opts.width);
        }
        if (opts.height) {
            $(">div",selector).css("height", opts.height);
            select.css("height", opts.height - 10);
        }
        var colModel = self.jqGrid("getGridParam", "colModel");
        var colNames = self.jqGrid("getGridParam", "colNames");
        var colMap = {}, fixedCols = [];

        select.empty();
        $.each(colModel, function(i) {
            colMap[this.name] = i;
            if (this.hidedlg) {
                if (!this.hidden) {
                    fixedCols.push(i);
                }
                return;
            }

            select.append("<option value='"+i+"' "+
                          (this.hidden?"":"selected='selected'")+">"+colNames[i]+"</option>");
        });
        function call(fn, obj) {
            if (!fn) { return; }
            if (typeof fn == 'string') {
                if ($.fn[fn]) {
                    $.fn[fn].apply(obj, $.makeArray(arguments).slice(2));
                }
            } else if ($.isFunction(fn)) {
                fn.apply(obj, $.makeArray(arguments).slice(2));
            }
        }

        var dopts = $.isFunction(opts.dlog_opts) ? opts.dlog_opts.call(self, opts) : opts.dlog_opts;
        call(opts.dlog, selector, dopts);
        var mopts = $.isFunction(opts.msel_opts) ? opts.msel_opts.call(self, opts) : opts.msel_opts;
        call(opts.msel, select, mopts);
        // fix height of elements of the multiselect widget
        var resizeSel = "#colchooser_"+$.jgrid.jqID(self[0].p.id),
            $container = $(resizeSel + '>div>div.ui-multiselect'),
            $selectedContainer = $(resizeSel + '>div>div.ui-multiselect>div.selected'),
            $availableContainer = $(resizeSel + '>div>div.ui-multiselect>div.available'),
            containerHeight,
            $selectedActions = $selectedContainer.find('>div.actions'),
            $availableActions = $availableContainer.find('>div.actions'),
            $selectedList = $selectedContainer.find('>ul.connected-list'),
            $availableList = $availableContainer.find('>ul.connected-list');
        $container.height($container.parent().height()); // increase the container height
        containerHeight = $container.height();
        $selectedContainer.height(containerHeight);
        $availableContainer.height(containerHeight);
        $selectedList.height(Math.max(containerHeight-$selectedActions.outerHeight()-1,1));
        $availableList.height(Math.max(containerHeight-$availableActions.outerHeight()-1,1));
        // extend the list of components which will be also-resized
        selector.data('dialog').uiDialog.resizable("option", "alsoResize",
            resizeSel + ',' + resizeSel +'>div' + ',' + resizeSel + '>div>div.ui-multiselect');
    }
});

In the case you can continue to use the original minimized version of jquery.jqGrid.min.js and the code which use can be just $(this).jqGrid('columnChooser');. Together with all default settings it will be like

$.extend(true, $.ui.multiselect, {
    locale: {
        addAll: 'Make all visible',
        removeAll: 'Hidde All',
        itemsCount: 'Avlialble Columns'
    }
});
$.extend(true, $.jgrid.col, {
    width: 450,
    modal: true,
    msel_opts: {dividerLocation: 0.5},
    dialog_opts: {
        minWidth: 470,
        show: 'blind',
        hide: 'explode'
    }
});
$grid.jqGrid('navButtonAdd', '#pager', {
    caption: "",
    buttonicon: "ui-icon-calculator",
    title: "Choose columns",
    onClickButton: function () {
        $(this).jqGrid('columnChooser');
    }
});

The demo demonstrate the approach. The main advantage of the changes – the really resizable Column Chooser:

UPDATED: Free jqGrid fork of jqGrid, which I develop starting with the end of 2014, contains of cause the modified code of columnChooser.