We Keep Coding

JQuery pop up/ alert needed

I have a list of elements that need to have a corresponding pop up for each element. This is not a pop up where the background is blacked. This is more like a javascript alert although I need to create my own styled button within the pop up with our own bespoke event assigned to it. I need each pop to position itself appropriately next to the relevant item within the UI.
Whats the best way to do this? Are there any examples please? I only want the pop up to show when the visitor triggers an event.
Many thanks,

I suggest you to use Colorbox for pop-up systems. Fırst of all; it is easy to learn and use.
And most importantly: Colorbox won't create conflicts with your other plugins (sometimes fancybox does that).
Some Features:
Supports photos, grouping, slideshow, ajax, inline, and iframed
content.
Lightweight: 10KB of JavaScript (less than 5KBs gzipped).
Appearance is controlled through CSS so it can be restyled.

You can easily do this without using jQuery Plugins.
I put together a little example.

What about http://jqueryui.com/demos/dialog/#modal-confirmation
or http://jqueryui.com/demos/dialog/#modal-message

How to convert existing html popups to modal popups using Javascript?

My legacy UI application has HTML popups that I'd like to convert to Modal popups in Javascript. Any pointers would be highly appreciated.

You can use an IFRAME with something like jquery's modal dialog. I usually find JavaScript modal popups are not entirely modal. E.g. they rely on CSS to position a container over the top of the screen to capture all non-dialog events, but keyboard access is usually still possible. This one is pretty robust though: http://www.ericmmartin.com/projects/simplemodal/
Using an IFRAME would be the easiest transition from real popups to pseudo JS popups as the documents served within the popup would require little modification if any.

Which is your favourite javascript modal plugin?

I'm trying to choose a JavaScript modal plugin to use it on a web site.
I used to use nyroModal (without making any research on this topic) but they have updated it recently and all of the API has changed and, apparently, some of the functionallity of previous version has been lost.
So, I think that this is time to start thinking about whether nyroModal is the right plugin to choose.
I see this question: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/756342/whats-your-favorite-jquery-modal-plugin but I'm not asking for a jQuery plugin, but a JavaScript plugin. The one that you prefer.
This is the functionallity I need:
Launch the modal using an anchor
Launch the modal manually and specify its content
Ability to customize all its content
Ability to attach callbacks on specific modal events
Updated documentation
Thank you!

I think most of the best modal layers are built using a particular framework (i.e. jQuery, mootools, dojo, etc).
By the way, I used several times highslide and it's very powerful!! No frameworks needed :)

I am a mootools fan, and this plugin is my favorite at the moment. It does modal for images, videos, and etc. http://iaian7.com/webcode/mediaboxAdvanced
if you are looking for something similar to what facebook as. David Walsh has a modal plugin called LightBox and its great. http://davidwalsh.name/facebook-lightbox
Both of these plugins are based off Mootools framework.

Un-obtrusive modal window in external site

Sorry for the title.....bit difficult to word what I really want to ask.
Some websites allow a user to copy and paste some widget for use with their own site. For example, getsatisfaction. Yes, those feedback icons that I hope most of you see in various places.
If you have a look at twitterfeed, on the left there will be a feedback icon, once clicked on a nice modal window comes up. the modal windows content is in an iframe to an external source.
I really like this, but my question is:
I could do the same by using some jQuery library for the modal window and then linking the modal content to a site on my page, but how do I stop this from becoming obtrusive to a sites other javascript files?
For example, let's say i'm using my js code and the relevant jquery code, and i've minified it into one file. The user adds my widget to their site. If they're using jQuery, how do I make sure my code isn't going to interfere with theirs?
Would the best way be to use a modal window library which is not very popular?
Thanks very much. Hope that makes sense!
EDIT: I could write my own modal window functionality code, but i'd much rather use a library which already does it.

You can dynamically load jQuery only if it is needed.
First check for the existance of the jQuery object. If not add the script tag.
There are some challenges to this, as there is no onload event when adding a script tag to a page, that works consistently accross browsers, so you will have to poll to see if it fully loaded, and only then run your code.
There is an article on how to do this:
http://www.squidoo.com/load-jQuery-dynamically
You may still have an issue if the user has a differnt version of the jquery library though, although you can probably get around this with some additional checks.

jQuery UI has very nice dialog components that should fit your purpose. Inside them you can instantiate an iframe. see:
http://elijahmanor.com/demos/jqueryuidialogiframe/index.html
If I understand all this correctly, the iframe content is a separate page, so there is no case where your javascript code in that page would interfere with the javascript of the calling page, but maybe I haven't understood that part correctly?
EDIT:
I think I understand what you meant, in that you want to package up the code that you will write that opens the modal window with the iframe. SO you want to make sure that this code does not interfere with existing jQuery code that the user is using.
I think this is a good use case for a jQuery plugin. This way the user of the page can use your function like any jQuery function, so less likelyhood of collisions

How do jQuery modal box plugins compare?

There is a huge number of jQuery modal box plugins out there. Jitter lists 20 of them in this response (Modal windows plugin to rails).
Which one do you use and why? If you use different ones in different cases, how can they be broken down categorically by use-case?

I pick what I want based on its primary use. The fact that you can use a lightbox variant to show a dialog box, doesn't make it a good candidate in my mind.
Generally if I need to show photos or another iframed web page, I use a lightbox variant. Two that we have used at our studio and been happy with are:
Slimbox 2 (Just photos)
Colorbox (Pretty much any type of content)
For dialog type behavior, I highly recommend using jQuery UI's dialog. It is in active development, and is super customizable.
[rant] Whatever you do please don't use SimpleModal unless you need its special type of callbacks. Otherwise, when you try to hook into an onClose callback, you'll find yourself having to perform the actual closing of the box. Just my two cents on that one. :) I just know it has come up a few times here in SO, and it just feels awkward to use IMO [/rant]

I use Colorbox, it is because it is recommended alternative in non-maintained thickbox.
Basically it allows iframe, so image, flash etc are all okay. Also it is incentive for me to upgrade jQuery to 1.3.2 :-)

JQuery UI Dialog with a "plugin" to support iframes:
http://elijahmanor.com/post/jQuery-UI-Dialog-w-Resizable-iFrame.aspx
I use it because it's included in JQueryUI and uses the jquery ui theme you use, which makes for a consistent UI with little cost