How to design a reusable dialog box within children components in Vue? - vue.js

Question

I've been struggling with implementing a dialog box / modal design and behavior from inside of children components in Vue.
So here's the set up, I have a Vue component called "WorkersComponent". This component is just a list of workers assigned to some case fetched from the backend (Laravel). This component is reusable an can be in any place/case/ticket/lookup where a user would want to add workers to.
The component has an "add" button in it. Once clicked, I want a new component to appear at that location (at the click location), which could be a dropdown, modal, dialogue - doesn't really mater. This subcomponent has a search bar and some controls to fetch workers info and add them to the parent component.
My problem is that I can't figure out how to get the nesting / positioning to work. Because it is a child component, its position is always against the parent component, so I can only control it's position within that parent component, but I want it to be displaying on top of other DOM elements and components if necessary - whatever makes sense. Worst case scenario - I want it to be in the middle of the page at least.
Now how do I implement this? I probably want it to be a unique subcomponent, not a global generic modal. On top of it, if it were a global generic, then I have an idea of how to populate the modal with relevant options but how to pass them back to the component that called the modal - no idea. So I'm struggling with the approach. It seems like such a simple thing and yet, I can't find a viable solution.
<workers-component name="Assigned Workers">
<button <!-- Vue controls in here to invoke a modal/dialogue/dropdown --> >Add Worker</button>
<!-- The subcomponent itself -->
<workers-select-component />
</workers-component>
Here's an example from Gmail: wherever this search bar is (let's say it's a parent component), if I click on a triangle, it will expand this other pane, which will (1) appear wherever the search bar is and (2) cover other elements to display it and (3) not dismiss the pane until manually dismissed (which is easy but normal Bootstrap dropdowns don't support this).

Answer 1

Here's a solution:
Vue.component('ToggleDialog', {
props: ['state'],
template: `
<button
#click="$emit('toggle', state)"
class="dialog-button"
>
TOGGLE MODAL
</button>
`
})
Vue.component('DialogModal', {
props: ['state'],
template: `
<div
class="dialog-backdrop"
>
<div
class="dialog-button"
>
<toggle-dialog
:state="state"
#toggle="toggleModal"
/>
</div>
</div>
`,
methods: {
toggleModal(state) {
this.$emit('toggle', state)
}
}
})
new Vue({
el: "#app",
data() {
return {
isModalOpen: false
}
},
methods: {
toggleModal(state) {
this.isModalOpen = !state
}
}
})
.dialog-backdrop {
position: fixed;
top: 0;
left: 0;
bottom: 0;
right: 0;
height: 100%;
width: 100%;
background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3);
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
align-items: center;
}
.dialog-button {
padding: 10px 15px;
}
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/vue/2.5.17/vue.js"></script>
<div id="app">
<toggle-dialog :state="isModalOpen" #toggle="toggleModal">
OPEN MODAL
</toggle-dialog>
<dialog-modal v-if="isModalOpen" :state="isModalOpen" #toggle="toggleModal" />
</div>
As you can see the modal is not the child of the button, but the child of the main app. toggle events are emitted (and the modal re-emits it) to the app that controls the state of the modal dialog.
For more complex apps it might not be the best. You could use an event bus (deprecated in Vue3) or Vuex (state management) to overcome this multiple emit-re-emit stuff.
EDIT: NEW SOLUTION
Vue.component('ToggleDialog', {
data() {
return {
isModalOpen: false
}
},
template: `
<div
class="toggle-modal-wrapper"
>
<button
#click="isModalOpen = !isModalOpen"
class="dialog-button"
>
TOGGLE MODAL
</button>
<dialog-modal
v-if="isModalOpen"
#toggle="isModalOpen = !isModalOpen"
>
<slot></slot>
</dialog-modal>
</div>
`
})
Vue.component('DialogModal', {
props: {
innerComponent: {
type: String
}
},
template: `
<div
class="dialog-backdrop"
>
<div>
<slot></slot>
<br />
<button
#click="$emit('toggle')"
class="dialog-button"
>
TOGGLE MODAL
</button>
</div>
</div>
`
})
new Vue({
el: "#app",
})
.toggle-modal-wrapper {
z-index: 10000;
}
.dialog-backdrop {
position: fixed;
top: 0;
left: 0;
bottom: 0;
right: 0;
height: 100%;
width: 100%;
background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3);
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
align-items: center;
}
.dialog-button {
padding: 10px 15px;
}
.other-part {
z-index: 1000;
}
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/vue/2.5.17/vue.js"></script>
<div id="app">
<toggle-dialog>
<template>
This is the first.
</template>
</toggle-dialog>
<toggle-dialog>
<template>
This is the other.
</template>
</toggle-dialog>
<div class="other-part">
OTHER PART OF THE UI
</div>
</div>
You could try playing with slots if you want a reusable component - or even better: the render function.