Bootstrap 3 with remote Modal

For Bootstrap 3

The workflow I had to deal with was loading content with a url context that could change. So by default setup your modal with javascript or the href for the default context you want to show :

$('#myModal').modal({ show: false, remote: 'some/context' }); 

Destroying the modal wouldn't work for me because I wasn't loading from the same remote, thus I had to :

$(".some-action-class").on('click', function () { $('#myModal').removeData('bs.modal'); $('#myModal').modal({remote: 'some/new/context?p=' + $(this).attr('buttonAttr') }); $('#myModal').modal('show'); }); 

This of course was easily refactored into a js library and gives you a lot of flexibility with loading modals

I hope this saves someone 15 minutes of tinkering.

If you don't want to send the full modal structure you can replicate the old behaviour doing something like this:

// this is just an example, remember to adapt the selectors to your code! $('.modal-link').click(function(e) { var modal = $('#modal'), modalBody = $('#modal .modal-body'); modal .on('show.bs.modal', function () { modalBody.load(e.currentTarget.href) }) .modal(); e.preventDefault(); }); 

Here's my solution (leveraging a few above) that makes use of BS3's own structure to re-instate the old remote loading behaviour. It should be seamless.

I'm going to keep the code variable heavy and descriptive to keep things understandable. I'm also assuming the presence of JQuery. Javascript heavy lifter types will handily streamline the code.

For reference here's a link that invokes a BS3 modal:

<li><a data-toggle="modal" href="terms.html" data-target="#terms">Terms of Use</a></li> 

In youre Javascript you're going to need the following.

// Make sure the DOM elements are loaded and accounted for $(document).ready(function() { // Match to Bootstraps data-toggle for the modal // and attach an onclick event handler $('a[data-toggle="modal"]').on('click', function(e) { // From the clicked element, get the data-target arrtibute // which BS3 uses to determine the target modal var target_modal = $(e.currentTarget).data('target'); // also get the remote content's URL var remote_content = e.currentTarget.href; // Find the target modal in the DOM var modal = $(target_modal); // Find the modal's <div class="modal-body"> so we can populate it var modalBody = $(target_modal + ' .modal-body'); // Capture BS3's show.bs.modal which is fires // immediately when, you guessed it, the show instance method // for the modal is called modal.on('show.bs.modal', function () { // use your remote content URL to load the modal body modalBody.load(remote_content); }).modal(); // and show the modal // Now return a false (negating the link action) to prevent Bootstrap's JS 3.1.1 // from throwing a 'preventDefault' error due to us overriding the anchor usage. return false; }); }); 

We're just about there. One thing you may want to do is style the modal body with a max-height, so that long content will scroll.

In your CSS, you'll need the following:

.modal-body{ max-height: 300px; overflow-y: scroll; } 

Just for refference I'll include the modal's HTML, which is a knock-off of every Bootsrap Modal Example you've ever seen:

<div id="terms" class="modal fade"> <div class="modal-dialog"> <div class="modal-content"> <div class="modal-header"> <button type="button" class="close" data-dismiss="modal" aria-hidden="true">&times;</button> <h3 id="termsLabel" class="modal-title">TERMS AND CONDITIONS</h3> </div> <div class="modal-body"> </div> <div class="modal-footer"> <button type="button" class="btn btn-default" data-dismiss="modal">Close</button> </div> </div><!-- /.modal-content --> </div><!-- /.modal-dialog --> </div><!-- /.modal --> 

I did this:

$('#myModal').on 'shown.bs.modal', (e) -> $(e.target).find('.modal-body').load('http://yourserver.com/content') 

As much as I dislike modifying Bootstrap code (makes upgrading more difficult), you can simply add ".find('.modal-body') to the load statement in modal.js as follows:

// original code // if (this.options.remote) this.$element.load(this.options.remote) // modified code if (this.options.remote) this.$element.find('.modal-body').load(this.options.remote) 

another great and easy way is to have a blind modal in your layout and call it if neccessary.

JS

 var remote_modal = function(url) { // reset modal body with a spinner or empty content spinner = "<div class='text-center'><i class='fa fa-spinner fa-spin fa-5x fa-fw'></i></div>" $("#remote-modal .modal-body").html(spinner) $("#remote-modal .modal-body").load(url); $("#remote-modal").modal("show"); } 

and your HTML

 <div class='modal fade' id='remote-modal'> <div class='modal-dialog modal-lg'> <div class='modal-content'> <div class='modal-body'></div> <div class='modal-footer'> <button class='btn btn-default'>Close</button> </div> </div> </div> </div> </body> 

now you can simply call remote_modal('/my/url.html') and the content gets displayed inside of the modal

Here is the method I use. It does not require any hidden DOM elements on the page, and only requires an anchor tag with the href of the modal partial, and a class of 'modalTrigger'. When the modal is closed (hidden) it is removed from the DOM.

 (function(){ // Create jQuery body object var $body = $('body'), // Use a tags with 'class="modalTrigger"' as the triggers $modalTriggers = $('a.modalTrigger'), // Trigger event handler openModal = function(evt) { var $trigger = $(this), // Trigger jQuery object modalPath = $trigger.attr('href'), // Modal path is href of trigger $newModal, // Declare modal variable removeModal = function(evt) { // Remove modal handler $newModal.off('hidden.bs.modal'); // Turn off 'hide' event $newModal.remove(); // Remove modal from DOM }, showModal = function(data) { // Ajax complete event handler $body.append(data); // Add to DOM $newModal = $('.modal').last(); // Modal jQuery object $newModal.modal('show'); // Showtime! $newModal.on('hidden.bs.modal',removeModal); // Remove modal from DOM on hide }; $.get(modalPath,showModal); // Ajax request evt.preventDefault(); // Prevent default a tag behavior }; $modalTriggers.on('click',openModal); // Add event handlers }()); 

To use, just create an a tag with the href of the modal partial:

<a href="path/to/modal-partial.html" class="modalTrigger">Open Modal</a> 

I do it this way:

<!-- global template loaded in all pages // --> <div id="NewsModal" class="modal fade" tabindex="-1" role="dialog" data-ajaxload="true" aria-labelledby="newsLabel" aria-hidden="true"> <div class="modal-dialog"> <div class="modal-content"> <div class="modal-header"> <button type="button" class="close" data-dismiss="modal" aria-hidden="true">×</button> <h3 class="newsLabel"></h3> </div> <div class="modal-body"> <div class="loading"> <span class="caption">Loading...</span> <img src="/images/loading.gif" alt="loading"> </div> </div> <div class="modal-footer caption"> <button class="btn btn-right default modal-close" data-dismiss="modal">Close</button> </div> </div> </div> </div> 

Here is my a href:

<a href="#NewsModal" onclick="remote=\'modal_newsfeed.php?USER='.trim($USER).'&FUNCTION='.trim(urlencode($FUNCTIONCODE)).'&PATH_INSTANCE='.$PATH_INSTANCE.'&ALL=ALL\' remote_target=\'#NewsModal .modal-body\'" role="button" data-toggle="modal">See All Notifications <i class="m-icon-swapright m-icon-dark"></i></a>