Use Dialog API module instead of Modalframe/Overlay [#690862]

This is more along the lines of what I was looking for. For 7.x, I don't think we should revert the work done for Overlay/Contextual support. I just think it needs to be an user option (use overlay or dialog).

http://demos.zroger.com/dialog/example
http://drupal.org/project/dialog

"This module provides an AJAX Dialog window API based on CTools ajax-responder and jQuery UI Dialog widget."

7.x version is in CVS too.

Comments

Comment #1

moonray CreditAttribution: moonray commented 26 January 2010 at 08:23

Dialog module is still not full-featured yet. There is no way to have scrollbars, at present, to allow content larger than the dialog to be useable. We might have to wait with this one, for now.

Comment #2

Jacine

she/her

New York

CreditAttribution: Jacine commented 26 January 2010 at 21:39

Referencing the Dialog API issue: #679108: Dialog auto-resize not working

A patch has been posted by Roger: http://drupal.org/node/679108#comment-2517622

Comment #3

moonray CreditAttribution: moonray commented 27 January 2010 at 11:37

Modalframe uses JQuery UI as well. The only big difference that I can see (other than making it easy to process a form and add all needed js/css files) is the CSS (the way it looks). It does drag/drop once the feature was enabled.

Do we really want to use Dialog API instead of a module that has been tested for a while? What are the big reasons for switching?

Comment #4

Jacine

she/her

New York

CreditAttribution: Jacine commented 27 January 2010 at 19:03

Title:

Use Dialog module instead of Modalframe/Overlay

» Use Dialog API module instead of Modalframe/Overlay

In order of importance:

1. I am concerned about the path to Drupal 7. From the Modal Frame API project page:

Note for those interested in Drupal 7 support for this module: It seems this feature is being included in Drupal core itself. So, probably there will be no stable release of this module for Drupal 7 because it will be already there. :-D See: #517688: Initial D7UX admin overlay.

I am not interested in relying on the Overlay module in order to be able to edit styles in Skinr at all. I've spent a decent amount of time using it, and ultimately end up turning it off every time. Requiring it in its current state would be a step backwards for Skinr IMO.

2. "Ajax without Javascript" and "Ajax modal windows, the easy way" are impressive and have been getting great feedback. Per Earl Miles here:

... We did manage to get this framework into core for d7 so we will see lots of code using this stuff in the future.

I would hardly call this stuff untested.

3. In the issue queue for modalframe the author refuses to support a few options in jQuery UI Dialog. The one I am most turned off by is: #595800: Making it possible to show buttons. From a UI perspective buttons are a big part of the dialog. Given the fact that jQuery UI is in D7 core, that modules will start using it, and decent themes will be providing styles for jQuery UI widgets, it is my opinion that not using the buttons as they are intended causes undesirable design/UI inconsistencies.

4. In the last ~week, 2 Dialog modules have popped up in contrib: jQuery UI Dialog & Dialog API. One is a direct result of Modal Frame's shortcomings, which generally causes concern.

Comment #5

Jacine

she/her

New York

CreditAttribution: Jacine commented 27 January 2010 at 20:26

Another thing to note is that Dialog API doesn't use iframes. iframes are generally not desirable, especially when you don't need to use them, and I am told we do not need them for Skinr.