Q330 How can I create a modal window in Internet Explorer 4?

You are here: irt.org | FAQ | JavaScript | Window | Q330 [ previous next ]

showModalDialog (in Internet Explorer 4) creates a dialog box and displays the HTML document given by URL. The dialog box is a special window that is modal, meaning it retains the input focus until the user closes it. It returns a number, string, or other value equal to the value of the returnValue property as set by the document given by URL.

Syntax
variant = window.showModalDialog(URL [, arguments [, features]])

Where:

• URL
  
  String specifying the URL of the document to load and display. While an empty string is accepted (""), it should be noted that this is useless since once a modal dialog has been opened, it cannot be accessed by the page that opened it.
• arguments
  
  Optional. Variant specifying the arguments to use when displaying the document. This parameter can be used to pass a value of any type including an array of values. The dialog can extract the values passed by the caller from the dialogArguments property of the window object.
• features
  
  Optional. String specifying the window ornaments for the dialog box. It can be a combination of the following values. Syntax Description
• dialogWidth:number
  
  Sets the width of the dialog window.
• dialogHeight:number
  
  Sets the height of the dialog window.
• dialogTop:number
  
  Sets the top position of the dialog window relative to the upper-left corner of the desktop.
• dialogLeft:number
  
  Sets the left position of the dialog window relative to the upper-left corner of the desktop.
• center:{yes | no | 1 | 0 }
  
  Specifies whether to center the dialog window within the desktop. Default is yes.

For further information see http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/Author/dhtml/reference/methods/showModalDialog.asp for the showModalDialog method, and http://developer.netscape.com:80/viewsource/goodman_modal/goodman_modal.html for a Netscape Navigator version.

©2018 Martin Webb