<dialog>: The Dialog element

The <dialog> HTML element represents a dialog box or other interactive component, such as a dismissible alert, inspector, or subwindow.

Content categories Flow content, sectioning root
Permitted content Flow content
Tag omission None, both the starting and ending tag are mandatory.
Permitted parents Any element that accepts flow content
Implicit ARIA role dialog
Permitted ARIA roles alertdialog
DOM interface HTMLDialogElement

Attributes

This element includes the global attributes.

Warning: The tabindex attribute must not be used on the <dialog> element.

open

Indicates that the dialog is active and can be interacted with. When the open attribute is not set, the dialog shouldn't be shown to the user.

Usage notes

  • <form> elements can close a dialog if they have the attribute method="dialog". When such a form is submitted, the dialog closes with its returnValue property set to the value of the button that was used to submit the form.
  • The ::backdrop CSS pseudo-element can be used to style behind a <dialog> element when the dialog is displayed with HTMLDialogElement.showModal(). For example, to dim unreachable content behind the modal dialog.

Examples

Simple example

<dialog open>
  <p>Greetings, one and all!</p>
</dialog>

Advanced example

This example opens a pop-up dialog box that contains a form, when the "Update details" button is clicked.

HTML

<!-- Simple pop-up dialog box containing a form -->
<dialog id="favDialog">
  <form method="dialog">
    <p><label>Favorite animal:
      <select>
        <option></option>
        <option>Brine shrimp</option>
        <option>Red panda</option>
        <option>Spider monkey</option>
      </select>
    </label></p>
    <menu>
      <button value="cancel">Cancel</button>
      <button id="confirmBtn" value="default">Confirm</button>
    </menu>
  </form>
</dialog>

<menu>
  <button id="updateDetails">Update details</button>
</menu>

<output aria-live="polite"></output>

JavaScript

var updateButton = document.getElementById('updateDetails');
var favDialog = document.getElementById('favDialog');
var outputBox = document.querySelector('output');
var selectEl = document.querySelector('select');
var confirmBtn = document.getElementById('confirmBtn');

// "Update details" button opens the <dialog> modally
updateButton.addEventListener('click', function onOpen() {
  if (typeof favDialog.showModal === "function") {
    favDialog.showModal();
  } else {
    alert("The <dialog> API is not supported by this browser");
  }
});
// "Favorite animal" input sets the value of the submit button
selectEl.addEventListener('change', function onSelect(e) {
  confirmBtn.value = selectEl.value;
});
// "Confirm" button of form triggers "close" on dialog because of [method="dialog"]
favDialog.addEventListener('close', function onClose() {
  outputBox.value = favDialog.returnValue + " button clicked - " + (new Date()).toString();
});

Result

Specifications

Specification
HTML Standard (HTML)
# the-dialog-element

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

Polyfill

Include this polyfill to provide support for browsers without <dialog> element.

dialog-polyfill

See also