How to open a modal container with other than the Button widget

Component: UI Designer | Version: 7.8+

Purpose of this article

Starting with the version 7.8, the UI Designer now includes a Modal container among the out-of-the-box widgets. As the documentation explains, the modal container can be used to create a pop-in window; it can then be opened with a button by choosing Open modal in the button's Actions property.

However, you may wish to be able to open your modal container with a widget other than a Button. Well, here is how you may easily manage to do so.

In the following example we will show you how to open a modal container when selecting a row in a table widget:

Customise the Table widget

1. In a dummy page, add a Table widget, then select the widget and click on the "..." icon right beside the widget title on the top right side of the page.

2. In the roll-down menu, choose "View...". This will open the widget editor.

3. In order to be able to edit the widget, though, you must save it first with a new name. So click on "Save as..." and provide a new name. (e.g. TableModalEnabled)

4. Create a new property (e.g. modalId) to be able to specify the id of the modal container to open.

5. Add the parameter modalService in the widget's Controller function:

 function PbTableCtrl($scope, modalService) {
  ...

6. In the Controller, define a new function (e.g. openModal) to open a modal window:

  function openModal(modalId) {
    modalService.open(modalId);
  } 

7. In the Controller, inside the "action" function that should trigger the opening of the modal (this.selectRow), call the new function to open the modal:

  this.selectRow = function (row) {
    if (this.isClickable()) {
      $scope.properties.selectedRow = row;
      openModal($scope.properties.modalId);
    }
  };

8. This is what the Controller will look like:

function PbTableCtrl($scope, modalService) {

  this.isArray = Array.isArray;

  this.isClickable = function () {
    return $scope.properties.isBound('selectedRow');
  };

  this.selectRow = function (row) {
    if (this.isClickable()) {
      $scope.properties.selectedRow = row;
      openModal($scope.properties.modalId);
    }
  };

  this.isSelected = function(row) {
    return angular.equals(row, $scope.properties.selectedRow);
  };
 
  function openModal(modalId) {
    modalService.open(modalId);
  }  
 
}

9. Save all the changes made to the widget.

Use the Table widget to open your modal container in your form/page

We will create a modal to display additional information for the selected member of the Support Members list.

1. In your form or page:

• create a variable that will hold the list of Support Members. (e.g. supportTeam).
  (This variable will most likely be populated dynamically by some query or external API call; but for the sake of simplicity of the example, we will use a hardcoded list) e.g.:

[
    {
        "name": "Calvin",
        "jobtitle": "manager",
        "location": "Grenoble",
        "expertise": "cart-riding"
    },
    {
        "name": "Tintin",
        "jobtitle": "employee",
        "location": "Grenoble",
        "expertise": "moon trips"
    },
    {
        "name": "Hobbes",
        "jobtitle": "employee",
        "location": "San Francisco",
        "expertise": "common sense"
    },
    {
        "name": "Obelix",
        "jobtitle": "employee",
        "location": "Grenoble",
        "expertise": "menhirs"
    },
    {
        "name": "Lucky Luke",
        "jobtitle": "employee",
        "location": "San Francisco",
        "expertise": "gunslinging"
    }
]

• create an empty JSON variable that will hold the selected Support Member. (e.g. selectedSupportMember)

2. In your form or page, add a Modal container widget. Select the widget and set a unique ID in its Modal Id property. (e.g. supportMemberModal)

3. Inside the Modal container:

• add an Input widget for each member information you wish to display. e.g.:
  • Member name: selectedSupportMember.name
  • Post: selectedSupportMember.jobtitle
  • Location: selectedSupportMember.location
• add a Close Button widget to close the Modal window, and choose Close modal in the Action property.

4. In your form or page, add a TableModalEnabled custom widget. Select the widget and:

• set the ID of the modal container in its Modal Id property (e.g. supportMemberModal)
• set the variable that will hold the selected Support Member in its Selected Row property (e.g. selectedSupportMember)
• set the variable that holds the list of Support Members in its Content property (e.g. supportTeam)
• set the Column keys for the data to display (e.g. name, expertise) and the corresponding Headers (e.g. Name, Expertise/Skill)
  

5. Save the changes made to your form or page.

6. Now, when a member of the Support Team is selected in the table, a modal window will be opened displaying some additional information of that member.