Modal Control Element

Tiny, framework-agnostic, dependency-free Custom Element that turns a button into a control for a modal <dialog> element. Inspired by the native Popover API.

Installation

npm install @evanminto/modal-control-element --save

HTML

<script src="path/to/@evanminto/modal-control-element/dist/global.js" defer>

ES Modules

You can also load the component directly in your JavaScript, which allows you to define your own custom name for the element or control the timing of module loading and custom element definition.

import { ModalControlElement } from '@evanminto/modal-control-element';

customElements.define('modal-control-element', ModalControlElement);

Usage

Wrap a <modal-control> element around a <button> or <input type="button"> to turn the element into a control for a <dialog> element. When clicked, the dialog will open as a modal, using the showModal() method.

Note: This element does not support opening dialogs non-modally. If you need non-modal behavior, consider using the Popover API which has a similar declarative API.

You can also open a modal via a JS interface. This can be useful when you need to trigger a modal in response to a non-click user action, such as scrolling.

Basic

<modal-control target="my_dialog">
  <button type="button">Toggle</button>
</modal-control>

<dialog id="my_dialog">
  <!-- Custom content -->
</dialog>

Dedicated Show and Hide Buttons

<modal-control
  target="my_dialog"
  target-action="show"
>
  <button type="button">Show</button>
</modal-control>

<dialog id="my_dialog">
  <modal-control
    target="my_dialog"
    target-action="hide"
  >
    <button type="button">Hide</button>
  </modal-control>

  <!-- Custom content -->
</dialog>

Light Dismiss

By default, a modal can be closed via an explicit close button or the escape key. To add full “light dismiss” functionality, namely the ability to close it by clicking outside the modal, add the light-dismiss attribute:

<modal-control target="my_dialog" light-dismiss>
  <button type="button">Toggle</button>
</modal-control>

<dialog id="my_dialog">
  <!-- Custom content -->
</dialog>

Clicking the modal’s backdrop or any other element on the page will close the modal, but clicking inside the modal will not.

Programmatic Toggling

import { ModalController } from '@evanminto/modal-control-element';

const controller = new ModalController(document.querySelector('dialog'), {
  lightDismiss: true,
});

controller.show();
controller.hide();
controller.toggle();

<modal-control> Attributes

light-dismiss

Boolean attribute. If present, turns on light dismiss features.

target

ID of the target <dialog>

target-action

What should happen to the dialog when clicking the control?

Values: toggle (default), show, hide

<modal-control> Properties

lightDismiss

Reflects the light-dismiss attribute as a boolean.

target

Reflects the target attribute.

targetAction

Reflects the target-action attribute.

<modal-control> Events

modal-control-before-toggle

Fires before the dialog state changes. If canceled, the state change will be canceled.

modal-control-toggle

Fires after the dialog state changes.

ModalController Constructor Parameters

dialog

The HTMLDialogElement to control, or a function that returns it. If the dialog can't be found, it should return null, which will cause the controller to do nothing.

options

lightDismiss

Boolean. If true, turns on light dismiss features.

canToggle

Called before changing the modal state. Returns a boolean. If false, show(), hide(), and toggle() will be blocked. You can use this to intercept attempted modal actions, similar to dispatchEvent(). Optional, returns true by default.

onToggle

Called after changing the modal state.

ModalController Methods

show()

Shows the dialog as a modal.

hide()

Closes the dialog.

toggle()

Switches between showing the dialog as a modal and closing.