How can I reuse one Bootstrap modal div?

Question

I'd like to be able to have a number of different links on a page reuse one modal div via Bootstrap's modal plugin:

<h3>This button shows a modal (<code>#utility</code>) with text "Phasellus <em>tincidunt gravida</em>..."</h3>
<br />
<a id="file_attach" data-toggle="modal" href="http://fiddle.jshell.net/jhfrench/6K8rD/show/" data-target="#utility" class="btn">Modal 1</a><br />
<h3>This button should invoke the same modal (<code>#utility</code>), but fill it with text "Phasellus <em>egestas est eu</em>..."</h3>
<br />
<a id="file_attach" data-toggle="modal" href="http://fiddle.jshell.net/jhfrench/AWSnt/show/" data-target="#utility" class="btn">Modal 2</a><br />

<!-- Modal -->
<div id="utility" class="modal hide fade" tabindex="-1" role="dialog" aria-labelledby="myModalLabel" aria-hidden="true">
  <div class="modal-header">
    <button type="button" class="close" data-dismiss="modal" aria-hidden="true">&times;</button>
    <h3 id="myModalLabel">Click outside modal to close it</h3>
  </div>
  <div class="modal-body">
    <p>One fine body…this is getting replaced with content that comes from passed-in href</p>
  </div>
  <div class="modal-footer">
    <button class="btn" data-dismiss="modal" aria-hidden="true">Close</button>
    <button class="btn btn-primary">Save changes</button>
  </div>
</div>

I'd expect that clicking on either link (which are styled as buttons) would invoke the modal and load the modal with the page (value of href) corresponding to the clicked button. Instead, the modal always loads with the content of the link you click first; the modal does not "refresh" with content that should be dictated by href of the "other" link.

I think this is a Bootstrap bug, but I'm asking the question here in case I'm using it incorrectly.

Please see http://jsfiddle.net/jhfrench/qv5u5/ for a demonstration.

Answer 1

After further research, I found a few Bootstrap issues mentioning this behaviour here and here. I've asked for issue 5514 to be reopened.

Meanwhile, this jQuery will patch up the problem*:

$('a[data-toggle="modal"]').on('click', function(){
    // update modal header with contents of button that invoked the modal
    $('#myModalLabel').html( $(this).html() );
    //fixes a bootstrap bug that prevents a modal from being reused
    $('#utility_body').load(
        $(this).attr('href'),
        function(response, status, xhr) {
            if (status === 'error') {
                //console.log('got here');
                $('#utility_body').html('<h2>Oh boy</h2><p>Sorry, but there was an error:' + xhr.status + ' ' + xhr.statusText+ '</p>');
            }
            return this;
        }
    );
});​

Please see http://jsfiddle.net/jhfrench/qv5u5/51/ for a working example.*

*-For some reason, sometimes when you click the button in the fiddle the modal will show blank. This is not a problem in the application I'm working with, so I suspect it's a problem unrelated to this question/answer.

Answer 2

Instead of having to write html markups of modal and manipulate it via javascript, I would use Bootstrap-Dialog to ease everything:

$('.modal-btn').click(function(event){
    var $link = $(this);
    new BootstrapDialog({
        title   :   'Load content of : ' + $link.attr('href'),
        content :   $('<div>Loading...</div>').load($link.attr('href')),
        buttons :   [{
            label   :   'Close',
            onclick :   function(dialog){
                dialog.close();
            }
        }, {
            label   :   'Save changes',
            cssClass:   'btn-primary',
            onclick :   function(dialog){
                alert('The content of the dialog is: ' + dialog.getBody().html());
                dialog.close();
            }
        }]
    }).open();

    event.preventDefault();
});

See here for a live demo, it loads the two urls you provided in your example: http://jsfiddle.net/txrM8/

See more about Bootstrap-Dialog: http://nakupanda.github.io/bootstrap-dialog/