jQuery UI - Close Dialog When Clicked Outside

Question

I have a jQuery UI Dialog that gets displayed when specific elements are clicked. I would like to close the dialog if a click occurs anywhere other than on those triggering elements or the dialog itself.

Here's the code for opening the dialog:

$(document).ready(function() {
    var $field_hint = $('<div></div>')
        .dialog({
            autoOpen: false,
            minHeight: 50,
            resizable: false,
            width: 375
        });

    $('.hint').click(function() {
        var $hint = $(this);
        $field_hint.html($hint.html());
        $field_hint.dialog('option', 'position', [162, $hint.offset().top + 25]);
        $field_hint.dialog('option', 'title', $hint.siblings('label').html());
        $field_hint.dialog('open');
    });
    /*$(document).click(function() {
        $field_hint.dialog('close');
    });*/
});

If I uncomment the last part, the dialog never opens. I assume it's because the same click that opens the dialog is closing it again.

---

Final Working Code
Note: This is using the jQuery outside events plugin

$(document).ready(function() {
    // dialog element to .hint
    var $field_hint = $('<div></div>')
            .dialog({
                autoOpen: false,
                minHeight: 0,
                resizable: false,
                width: 376
            })
            .bind('clickoutside', function(e) {
                $target = $(e.target);
                if (!$target.filter('.hint').length
                        && !$target.filter('.hintclickicon').length) {
                    $field_hint.dialog('close');
                }
            });

    // attach dialog element to .hint elements
    $('.hint').click(function() {
        var $hint = $(this);
        $field_hint.html('<div style="max-height: 300px;">' + $hint.html() + '</div>');
        $field_hint.dialog('option', 'position', [$hint.offset().left - 384, $hint.offset().top + 24 - $(document).scrollTop()]);
        $field_hint.dialog('option', 'title', $hint.siblings('label').html());
        $field_hint.dialog('open');
    });

    // trigger .hint dialog with an anchor tag referencing the form element
    $('.hintclickicon').click(function(e) {
        e.preventDefault();
        $($(this).get(0).hash + ' .hint').trigger('click');
    });
});

Answer 1

The given example(s) use one dialog with id '#dialog', i needed a solution that close any dialog:

$.extend($.ui.dialog.prototype.options, {
    modal: true,
    open: function(object) {
        jQuery('.ui-widget-overlay').bind('click', function() {              
            var id = jQuery(object.target).attr('id');
            jQuery('#'+id).dialog('close');
        })
    }
});

Thanks to my colleague Youri Arkesteijn for the suggestion of using prototype.

Answer 2

I use this solution based in one posted here:

var g_divOpenDialog = null;
function _openDlg(l_d) {

  // http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2554779/jquery-ui-close-dialog-when-clicked-outside
  jQuery('body').bind(
   'click',
   function(e){
    if(
      g_divOpenDialog!=null 
      && !jQuery(e.target).is('.ui-dialog, a')
      && !jQuery(e.target).closest('.ui-dialog').length
    ){
      _closeDlg();
    }
   }
  );

  setTimeout(function() {
    g_divOpenDialog = l_d;
    g_divOpenDialog.dialog();
  }, 500);
}
function _closeDlg() {
  jQuery('body').unbind('click');
  g_divOpenDialog.dialog('close');
  g_divOpenDialog.dialog('destroy');
  g_divOpenDialog = null;
}

Answer 3

For those you are interested I've created a generic plugin that enables to close a dialog when clicking outside of it whether it a modal or non-modal dialog. It supports one or multiple dialogs on the same page.

More information here: http://www.coheractio.com/blog/closing-jquery-ui-dialog-widget-when-clicking-outside

Laurent

Answer 4

$(".ui-widget-overlay").click (function () {
    $("#dialog-id").dialog( "close" );
});

Fiddle showing the above code in action.

Answer 5

Sorry to drag this up after so long but I used the below. Any disadvantages? See the open function...

$("#popup").dialog(
{
    height: 670,
    width: 680,
    modal: true,
    autoOpen: false,
    close: function(event, ui) { $('#wrap').show(); },
    open: function(event, ui) 
    { 
        $('.ui-widget-overlay').bind('click', function()
        { 
            $("#popup").dialog('close'); 
        }); 
    }
});

Answer 6

This question is a bit old, but in case someone wants to close a dialog that is NOT modal when user clicks somewhere, you can use this that I took from the JQuery UI Multiselect plugin. The main advantage is that the click is not "lost" (if user wants to click on a link or a button, the action is done).

$myselector.dialog({
            title: "Dialog that closes when user clicks outside",
            modal:false,
            close: function(){
                        $(document).off('mousedown.mydialog');
                    },
            open: function(event, ui) { 
                    var $dialog = $(this).dialog('widget');
                    $(document).on('mousedown.mydialog', function(e) {
                        // Close when user clicks elsewhere
                        if($dialog.dialog('isOpen') && !$.contains($myselector.dialog('widget')[0], e.target)){
                            $myselector.dialog('close');
                        }            
                    });
                }                    
            });