Ember Modal Dialog

The ember-modal-dialog addon provides components to implement modal dialogs throughout an Ember application using a simple, consistent pattern.

Unlike other modal libraries for Ember, ember-modal-dialog uses our ember-wormhole addon to render a modal as a top-level DOM element for layout purposes while retaining its logical position in the Ember view hierarchy. This difference introduces a certain elegance and, dare we say, joy, into the experience of using modals in your app. (For more info on this, see the "Wormhole" section below!)

Test examples are located in tests/dummy/app/templates/application.hbs and can be run locally by following the instructions in the "Installation" and "Running" sections below.

Including In An Ember Application

Here is the simplest way to get started with ember-modal-dialog:

ember install ember-modal-dialog
ember install ember-cli-sass

In Ember CLI versions < 0.2.3, the install command should be:

ember install:addon ember-modal-dialog
ember install:addon ember-cli-sass

app.scss

@import "ember-modal-dialog/ember-modal-structure";
@import "ember-modal-dialog/ember-modal-appearance";

application.hbs

{{#modal-dialog}}
  Oh hai there!
{{/modal-dialog}}

Controller-bound Usage

Here is a more useful example of how to conditionally display a modal based on a user interaction.

Template

<button {{action "toggleModal"}}>Toggle Modal</button>

{{#if isShowingModal}}
  {{#modal-dialog alignment='center'
                  translucentOverlay=true}}
    Oh hai there!
  {{/modal-dialog}}
{{/if}}

Controller

import Ember from 'ember';

export default Ember.Controller.extend({
  isShowingModal: false,
  actions: {
    toggleModal: function(){
      this.toggleProperty('isShowingModal');
    }
  }
});

Routable Usage

To have a modal open for a specific route, just drop the {{modal-dialog}} into that route's template. Don't forget to have an {{outlet}} on the parent route.

Configurable Properties

The following properties of the modal-dialog component are configurable:

Property	Purpose
hasOverlay	`true
translucentOverlay	`true
overlay-class	CSS class name(s) to append to overlay divs. Set this from template.`)
overlayClassNames	CSS class names to append to overlay divs. This is a concatenated property, so it does not replace the default overlay class (default: 'ember-modal-overlay'. If you subclass this component, you may define this in your subclass.)
container-class	CSS class name(s) to append to container divs. Set this from template.`)
containerClassNames	CSS class names to append to container divs. This is a concatenated property, so it does not replace the default overlay class (default: 'ember-modal-dialog'. If you subclass this component, you may define this in your subclass.)
alignment	`top
alignmentTarget	Element selector, element, or Ember View reference for modal position (for use with alignment)
close	The action handler for the dialog's close action

Wormholes

Display of a modal dialog is typically triggered by a user interaction. While the content in the dialog is related to the content in the user interaction, the underyling display mechanism for the dialogs can be shared across the entire application.

The add-modals-container initializer appends a container element to the application.rootElement. It injects a reference to this container element id as a property of the modal-dialog component.

This component uses the ember-wormhole component to render a dialog by appending a morph to a dedicated element in the DOM. This decouples the DOM location of a modal from the DOM location of whatever triggered its display... hence wormholes!

Configuring the Modal Root Element Id

This default id of the modal root element is modal-overlays and can be overridden in environment application options as follows:

module.exports = function(environment) {
  var ENV = {
    ...
    APP: {
      emberModalDialog: {
        modalRootElementId: 'custom-modal-root-element'
      }
    }
  };
  ...

  return ENV;
};

Configuring Styles

Modal dialogs are rendered as child nodes of a modals container div with a default id of modal-overlays.

Each modal dialog consists of an overlay div with class ember-modal-overlay followed by the a dialog div with class ember-modal-dialog.

The resultant portion of the DOM looks like this:

<div id="modal-overlays">
  <div class="ember-modal-overlay"></div>
  <div class="ember-modal-dialog">
  ... MODAL DIALOG CONTENT HTML HERE ...
  </div>
</div>

The addon packages default styles for modal structure and appearance. To use these styles, install ember-cli-sass and import the relevant SCSS file(s) in app.scss.

> ember install ember-cli-sass

Or, in Ember CLI versions < 0.2.3:

ember install:addon ember-cli-sass

app.scss

@import "ember-modal-dialog/ember-modal-structure";
@import "ember-modal-dialog/ember-modal-appearance";

Keyboard shortcuts

A quick-and-dirty way to implement keyboard shortcuts (e.g. to dismiss your modals with escape) is to subclass the dialog and attach keyboard events:

// app/components/modal-dialog.js
import ModalDialog from 'ember-modal-dialog/components/modal-dialog';

export default ModalDialog.extend({
  setup: function() {
    Ember.$('body').on('keyup.modal-dialog', (e) => {
      if (e.keyCode == 27) {
        this.sendAction('close');
      }
    });
  }.on('didInsertElement'),

  teardown: function() {
    Ember.$('body').off('keyup.modal-dialog');
  }.on('willDestroyElement'),
});

This can work, but some apps require a more sophisticated approach. One approach, inspired by Cocoa, takes advantage of the ember-key-responder library. Here's an example:

// app/components/modal-dialog.js
import ModalDialog from 'ember-modal-dialog/components/modal-dialog';

export default ModalDialog.extend({
  acceptsKeyResponder: true,
  becomeKeyResponderWhenInserted: function(){
    this.becomeKeyResponder();
  }.on('didInsertElement'),

  resignKeyResponderWhenDestroyed: function(){
    this.resignKeyResponder();
  }.on('willDestroyElement'),

  cancel: function() {
    this.sendAction('close');
  }
});

View the library for more information.

Dependencies

• Requires Ember CLI >= 0.2.0
• Requires Ember >= 1.10.0

Installation

• ember install ember-modal-dialog

Or, in Ember CLI versions < 0.2.3:

ember install:addon ember-modal-dialog

Running

• ember server
• Visit your app at http://localhost:4200.

Running Tests

• ember try:testall
• ember test
• ember test --server

Unit Tests

When running unit tests on components that use ember-modal-dialog it is necessary to create and register the container for ember-modal-dialog to wormhole itself into. See this example for how to set this up in a unit test.

Building

• ember build

For more information on using ember-cli, visit http://www.ember-cli.com/.

Credits

Contributions from @stefanpenner, @krisselden, @chrislopresto, @lukemelia, @raycohen and others. Yapp Labs is an Ember.js consultancy based in NYC.