Best jQuery plugin for popup or overlaid forms

chakotha

What might be the best plugin or other library for the rapid and straightforward creation of modal or popup or overlaid forms?

I have tried SimpleModal and found it cumbersome and impractical if I wanted to set up lots of these forms throughout a webapp.

I have today been trying to get to grips with fancybox as it seems like it might be easier to apply whenever needed - though it is still acting up a bit for me. Should crack it tomorrow.

I'm really interested to hear what other people are using for these and what is the best solution for ease of use and speed to set up.

cormee

chakotha wrote: »

What might be the best plugin or other library for the rapid and straightforward creation of modal or popup or overlaid forms?

I have tried SimpleModal and found it cumbersome and impractical if I wanted to set up lots of these forms throughout a webapp.

I have today been trying to get to grips with fancybox as it seems like it might be easier to apply whenever needed - though it is still acting up a bit for me. Should crack it tomorrow.

I'm really interested to hear what other people are using for these and what is the best solution for ease of use and speed to set up.

Use them with care. Modal windows are absolutely awful on mobile devices, especially smart phones, and they're also awful from an accessibility point of view (window opens but background window remains active for tabbing and JAWS). The closest I've seen to an accessible modal window is http://webhipster.com/testing/accessibility/modal-dialog-latest/ but you're still left with the mobile device issue.

Giblet

It is possible to do them on mobile, but usually you would have to pin them to the top of the window, rather than the middle, and turn off any auto centering features. I'd advise never ever using them.

smash

modal windows are a complete pain in the ass for users. Everyone hates them. avoid if possible.

chakotha

Thanks for the feedback and the heads-up on the mobile issue.

I've been trying to get a bit of zing into my forms lately and I have been creating a larger form where a small modal form with 2-3 inputs to set a few incidental options might save the bother of an extra page somewhere else. And there is the login form which isn't too intrusive when on a computer? It's mostly to put a modal form wherever an unnecessary page can be avoided.

One has to be careful not to dot them around everywhere.

Feathers

Do you mean modal (as it, blocks all other interaction with the page) or a 'lightbox' (normally esc, or click outside the box to cancel). I'd suggest going with the latter, as others have said modals are a complete pain, but think lightboxes/or dropdown forms are fine.

Regarding mobile, was on a site recently that kept centring the lightbox but didn't take the zooming into account. When the page was fully zoomed out I was hitting 3 buttons at once (HTC Wildfire), but zoomed in the form would move itself off the page!