Difference between Popups API, Modal Frame API and Dialog API, JQuery UI Dialog

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I cant speak much for the other modules, but I can tell you the key reasons that I've chosen this route.

The design of this module is very forward looking. Drupal 7 will include jQuery UI which is one of the reasons I've decided on using its Dialog widget. Drupal 7 will also include an ajax framework based (somewhat) on the current CTools ajax framework. These two things (jQuery UI Dialog and the CTools ajax framework) make up about 99% of this module which makes this module very future-proof.

I have used Popups API before and found many fundamental issues in the way that it tries to achieve its goal. You should definitely read this post by the module author, if you haven't already.

Dialog API does expect more from the implementer than Popups API. Popups attempt to load any page into a popup window. Dialog API can only work correctly with paths that have been written to be placed in a dialog. To me, this is the key distinction. Since these menu callbacks must be crafted to work within a Dialog, the overall experience is much cleaner.

Hope this answers your questions.

Re-opening for yet another module comparison.

Is there much of a difference between this module and JQuery UI Dialog? The only main thing I see is integration with CTools, which can only be a good thing.

Thanks!

This module is an API. It tries to make ajax dialogs easy for the developer, and thus leaves individual implementations up to the developer. The integration with ctools makes the ajax simple, without needing to use iframes.

jQuery UI Dialog takes an approach similar to modal frame which uses an iframe, but rather uses jquery ui for the javascript.

Well there are differences between modalframe and jquery_ui_dialog, but as Roger told us, they are not to big.

Jquery ui dialog does this "diffrently or more" compared to modalframe:
- it supports jquery ui themes rather then implementing its own ( like modalframe)
- the theme is namespaced and that way does not colide with other jquery ui themes on the site
- it enables you to use the jquery ui dialog buttons (to have a more common userinterface)
- it supports POST requests
- The code size is reduced
- the auto-resize method is differently (i would not tend to say its better. I think it still depends on the browser and theme)

When you dont need those features i guess modalframe is the older and more proven one. Iam still very uncompfortable that i was forced to "fork off" modalframe that way but i guess, thats the way open source goes.

Sorry for breaking open an old issue but this wasn't mentioned here. In D6 Modal Frame Api is required by Node Relationships. As far as i can tell, noderelationships currently does not support the other 2 api's (dialog or jquery_ui).
So in order to have support for noderelationships and button interfaces you'll have to do some theming. Obviously I'd rather see noderelationships become agnostic but a hack&patch to achieve that is beyond me. So, since I almost always have need of noderelationships, I have to use modalframe. (But please correct me if i'm missing something.)

Modalframe uses the iframe method, which is legalized in html5 and sort of safe because in html5 iframes don't have an unload handle. In my experience, in the current situation nested doms are not always fun when scripting/theming. I would prefer using Dialog in that regard.