Build a Modal (Pop up) With HTML, CSS and JavaScript

#html #css #javascript #codenewbie

In this article I will show you how to create a modal that pops up whenever you click a button. The main focus of the article will not be on the CSS but on what you will need to achieve this functionality so feel free to copy the CSS styles.

There are three major elements you will need to achieve the modal functionality:

A button to trigger the modal
The modal itself (Well obviously 😅)
A button to close the modal

Let's go ahead to create them in our HTML

  <body>
      <!-- button to launch the modal -->
      <button class="show-modal">Log In</button>

      <!-- the modal itself -->
      <div class="modal hidden">
         <!-- button to close the modal -->
         <button class="close-modal">&times;</button>

         <h1>Welcome back, friend😍</h1>
         <form action="">
            <input type="email" placeholder="Email">
            <input type="password" placeholder="Password">
            <button type="submit">Log in</button>
            <p>Don't have an account? <a href="">Sign up</a></p>
         </form>
      </div>
      <div class="overlay hidden"></div>
 </body>

We will use the class "hidden" to set the initial display of the modal to none.
Let's add our CSS and style the button triggering the modal

* {
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
  box-sizing: border-box;
}

body {
  font-family: sans-serif;
  color: #333;
  height: 100vh;
  position: relative;
  display: flex;
  align-items: center;
  justify-content: center;
}

.show-modal {
  font-size: 2rem;
  font-weight: 600;
  padding: 1.2rem 2.5rem;
  margin: 5rem 2rem;
  border: none;
  background-color: rgb(92, 22, 139);
  color: rgb(241, 241, 241);
  border-radius: 0.5rem;
  cursor: pointer;
}

Now let's include styles for the modal and overlay

.modal {
  position: absolute;
  top: 50%;
  left: 50%;
  transform: translate(-50%, -50%);
  width: 80%;
  max-width: 500px;
  background-color: white;
  padding: 4rem;
  border-radius: 5px;
  box-shadow: 0 3rem 5rem rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3);
  z-index: 10;
  text-align: center;
}

.modal h1 {
  font-size: 1.8rem;
  margin-bottom: 2rem;
}

p {
  font-size: 1.1rem;
}
a {
  text-decoration: none;
  color: rgb(2, 0, 145);
}

form input,
form button {
  display: block;
  width: 100%;
  margin: 1.3rem 0;
  border-radius: 5px;
  border: none;
  outline: none;
  padding: 1rem;
  font-size: 1.1rem;
}

form input {
  box-shadow: inset 2px 2px 5px #babecc, inset -5px -5px 10px 
  #ffffff73;
}

form button {
  background-color: rgb(2, 0, 145);
  color: #fff;
}
.overlay {
  position: absolute;
  top: 0;
  left: 0;
  width: 100%;
  height: 100%;
  background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6);
  backdrop-filter: blur(3px);
  z-index: 5;
}

.close-modal {
  position: absolute;
  top: 0.8rem;
  right: 1.3rem;
  font-size: 2.5rem;
  color: #333;
  cursor: pointer;
  border: none;
  background: none;
}

/* CLASS TO HIDE MODAL */
.hidden {
  display: none;
}

That's all for our HTML and CSS.
The first thing we need to do in our JavaScript is to select the elements we need as I mentioned earlier.

const modal = document.querySelector(".modal"); //selects the modal
const btnCloseModal = document.querySelector(".close-modal"); //selects the button to close the modal
const btnOpenModal = document.querySelector(".show-modal"); //selects the button to show the modal
const overlay = document.querySelector(".overlay"); //selects the overlay

Next, we create a function that adds or removes the class "hidden" that we used to hide the modal and overlay.

const toggleModal = function () {
  modal.classList.toggle("hidden");
  overlay.classList.toggle("hidden");
};

The method classList.toggle() takes a CSS class name and adds it to the specified element if the class is not present and removes the class from the element if it is present.

Next, we want that function toggleModal to run. It will remove the hidden class when the show-modal button is clicked, add the class the close-modal button is clicked and when the user clicks outside the modal (the overlay). We can achieve that by using the addEventListener() method on the elements we selected.

btnOpenModal.addEventListener("click", toggleModal);

btnCloseModal.addEventListener("click", toggleModal);

overlay.addEventListener("click", toggleModal);

That's all! We now have a fully functional Log In modal.

You can test it live via codepen https://codepen.io/veed_/pen/QWgLvYb . Hope you found this helpful.

Top comments (18)

Gena Kainovskiy • Aug 21 '21 • Edited

Good, what do you think about improving your example and to add a11y supporting?

Veed - The Hood Developer • Aug 21 '21 • Edited

Thank you sir. I'll work on including that and update on the codepen 😊

Alex Nielsen • Aug 25 '21

Thank you for the great demo. Is the overlay just there so you can close the modal by clicking outstide the modal or does it serve some other purpose?

Veed - The Hood Developer • Aug 26 '21

You're welcome Alex. Asides that, the overlay also makes the modal more visible. If there were many content on the page, the overlay will blur out other contents making the whole focus on the modal itself

Alex Nielsen • Aug 26 '21

yes, that makes sense. thanks again

Aatmaj • Aug 22 '21

That is just super!

Veed - The Hood Developer • Aug 22 '21

Thank you

Ashley Sheridan • Aug 26 '21

This has a few accessibility concerns:

Keyboard navigation, can't be dismissed by hitting the escape key
Focus isn't moved to the modal when it's opened
Focus isn't trapped in the modal, so anyone can tab out to the content beneath
Focus isn't returned to the button that triggered it, so keyboard users would be left lost once the modal is dismissed
Could benefit from some focus styles on the form elements to give feedback to the user where they're at