Bootstrap 3 - How to load content in modal body via AJAX?

As you can see here, I have a button that launches a modal. Setting an href url for the button this url is automatically loaded into modal by Bootstrap 3. The fact is this page is loaded into modal root (as said in the bootstrap 3 documentation for modals usage). I want to load it into the modal-body instead.

Is there a way to do it via attributes (not javascript)? Or what is the most automatic way to do it?

P.S. I remember in Bootstrap 2 the content was loaded in the body, not the root.

This is actually super simple with just a little bit of added javascript. The link's href is used as the ajax content source. Note that for Bootstrap 3.* we set data-remote="false" to disable the deprecated Bootstrap load function.

JavaScript:

// Fill modal with content from link href
$("#myModal").on("show.bs.modal", function(e) {
    var link = $(e.relatedTarget);
    $(this).find(".modal-body").load(link.attr("href"));
});

Html (based on the official example):

<!-- Link trigger modal -->
<a href="remoteContent.html" data-remote="false" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#myModal" class="btn btn-default">
    Launch Modal
</a>

<!-- Default bootstrap modal example -->
<div class="modal fade" id="myModal" tabindex="-1" role="dialog" aria-labelledby="myModalLabel" aria-hidden="true">
  <div class="modal-dialog">
    <div class="modal-content">
      <div class="modal-header">
        <button type="button" class="close" data-dismiss="modal" aria-label="Close"><span aria-hidden="true">&times;</span></button>
        <h4 class="modal-title" id="myModalLabel">Modal title</h4>
      </div>
      <div class="modal-body">
        ...
      </div>
      <div class="modal-footer">
        <button type="button" class="btn btn-default" data-dismiss="modal">Close</button>
        <button type="button" class="btn btn-primary">Save changes</button>
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

Try it yourself: https://jsfiddle.net/ednon5d1/

Check this SO answer out.

It looks like the only way is to provide the whole modal structure with your ajax response.

As you can check from the bootstrap source code, the load function is binded to the root element.

In case you can't modify the ajax response, a simple workaround could be an explicit call of the $(..).modal(..) plugin on your body element, even though it will probably break the show/hide functions of the root element.

I guess you're searching for this custom function. It takes a data-toggle attribute and creates dynamically the necessary div to place the remote content. Just place the data-toggle="ajaxModal" on any link you want to load via AJAX.

The JS part:

$('[data-toggle="ajaxModal"]').on('click',
              function(e) {
                $('#ajaxModal').remove();
                e.preventDefault();
                var $this = $(this)
                  , $remote = $this.data('remote') || $this.attr('href')
                  , $modal = $('<div class="modal" id="ajaxModal"><div class="modal-body"></div></div>');
                $('body').append($modal);
                $modal.modal({backdrop: 'static', keyboard: false});
                $modal.load($remote);
              }
            );

Finally, in the remote content, you need to put the entire structure to work.

<div class="modal-dialog">
    <div class="modal-content">
        <div class="modal-header">
            <button type="button" class="close" data-dismiss="modal">&times;</button>
            <h4 class="modal-title"></h4>
        </div>
        <div class="modal-body">
        </div>
        <div class="modal-footer">
            <a href="#" class="btn btn-white" data-dismiss="modal">Close</a>
            <a href="#" class="btn btn-primary">Button</a>
            <a href="#" class="btn btn-primary">Another button...</a>
        </div>
    </div><!-- /.modal-content -->
</div><!-- /.modal-dialog -->

In the case where you need to update the same modal with content from different Ajax / API calls here's a working solution.

$('.btn-action').click(function(){
    var url = $(this).data("url"); 
    $.ajax({
        url: url,
        dataType: 'json',
        success: function(res) {
            
            // get the ajax response data
            var data = res.body;
      
            // update modal content here
            // you may want to format data or 
            // update other modal elements here too
            $('.modal-body').text(data);
      
            // show modal
            $('#myModal').modal('show');
            
        },
        error:function(request, status, error) {
            console.log("ajax call went wrong:" + request.responseText);
        }
    });
});

Bootstrap 3 Demo
Bootstrap 4 Demo

A simple way to use modals is with eModal!

Ex from github:

1. Link to eModal.js <script src="//rawgit.com/saribe/eModal/master/dist/eModal.min.js"></script>

2. use eModal to display a modal for alert, ajax, prompt or confirm

    // Display an alert modal with default title (Attention)
    eModal.ajax('your/url.html');
   

$(document).ready(function () {/* activate scroll spy menu */

    var iconPrefix = '.glyphicon-';


    $(iconPrefix + 'cloud').click(ajaxDemo);
    $(iconPrefix + 'comment').click(alertDemo);
    $(iconPrefix + 'ok').click(confirmDemo);
    $(iconPrefix + 'pencil').click(promptDemo);
    $(iconPrefix + 'screenshot').click(iframeDemo);
    ///////////////////* Implementation *///////////////////

    // Demos
    function ajaxDemo() {
        var title = 'Ajax modal';
        var params = {
            buttons: [
               { text: 'Close', close: true, style: 'danger' },
               { text: 'New content', close: false, style: 'success', click: ajaxDemo }
            ],
            size: eModal.size.lg,
            title: title,
            url: 'http://maispc.com/app/proxy.php?url=http://loripsum.net/api/' + Math.floor((Math.random() * 7) + 1) + '/short/ul/bq/prude/code/decorete'
        };

        return eModal
            .ajax(params)
            .then(function () { alert('Ajax Request complete!!!!', title) });
    }

    function alertDemo() {
        var title = 'Alert modal';
        return eModal
            .alert('You welcome! Want clean code ?', title)
            .then(function () { alert('Alert modal is visible.', title); });
    }

    function confirmDemo() {
        var title = 'Confirm modal callback feedback';
        return eModal
            .confirm('It is simple enough?', 'Confirm modal')
            .then(function (/* DOM */) { alert('Thank you for your OK pressed!', title); })
            .fail(function (/*null*/) { alert('Thank you for your Cancel pressed!', title) });
    }

    function iframeDemo() {
        var title = 'Insiders';
        return eModal
            .iframe('https://www.youtube.com/embed/VTkvN51OPfI', title)
            .then(function () { alert('iFrame loaded!!!!', title) });
    }

    function promptDemo() {
        var title = 'Prompt modal callback feedback';
        return eModal
            .prompt({ size: eModal.size.sm, message: 'What\'s your name?', title: title })
            .then(function (input) { alert({ message: 'Hi ' + input + '!', title: title, imgURI: 'https://avatars0.githubusercontent.com/u/4276775?v=3&s=89' }) })
            .fail(function (/**/) { alert('Why don\'t you tell me your name?', title); });
    }

    //#endregion
});

.fa{
  cursor:pointer;
 }

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script src="http://rawgit.com/saribe/eModal/master/dist/eModal.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.6/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>


<link href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootswatch/3.3.5/united/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet" >
<link href="http//cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/font-awesome/4.3.0/css/font-awesome.min.css" rel="stylesheet">

<div class="row" itemprop="about">
	<div class="col-sm-1 text-center"></div>
	<div class="col-sm-2 text-center">
		<div class="row">
			<div class="col-sm-10 text-center">
				<h3>Ajax</h3>
				<p>You must get the message from a remote server? No problem!</p>
				<i class="glyphicon glyphicon-cloud fa-5x pointer" title="Try me!"></i>
			</div>
		</div>
	</div>
	<div class="col-sm-2 text-center">
		<div class="row">
			<div class="col-sm-10 text-center">
				<h3>Alert</h3>
				<p>Traditional alert box. Using only text or a lot of magic!?</p>
				<i class="glyphicon glyphicon-comment fa-5x pointer" title="Try me!"></i>
			</div>
		</div>
	</div>

	<div class="col-sm-2 text-center">
		<div class="row">
			<div class="col-sm-10 text-center">
				<h3>Confirm</h3>
				<p>Get an okay from user, has never been so simple and clean!</p>
				<i class="glyphicon glyphicon-ok fa-5x pointer" title="Try me!"></i>
			</div>
		</div>
	</div>
	<div class="col-sm-2 text-center">
		<div class="row">
			<div class="col-sm-10  text-center">
				<h3>Prompt</h3>
				<p>Do you have a question for the user? We take care of it...</p>
				<i class="glyphicon glyphicon-pencil fa-5x pointer" title="Try me!"></i>
			</div>
		</div>
	</div>
	<div class="col-sm-2 text-center">
		<div class="row">
			<div class="col-sm-10  text-center">
				<h3>iFrame</h3>
				<p>IFrames are hard to deal with it? We don't think so!</p>
				<i class="glyphicon glyphicon-screenshot fa-5x pointer" title="Try me!"></i>
			</div>
		</div>
	</div>
	<div class="col-sm-1 text-center"></div>
</div>

create an empty modal box on the current page and below is the ajax call you can see how to fetch the content in result from another html page.

 $.ajax({url: "registration.html", success: function(result){
            //alert("success"+result);
              $("#contentBody").html(result);
            $("#myModal").modal('show'); 
           
        }});

once the call is done you will get the content of the page by the result to then you can insert the code in you modal's content id using.

You can call controller and get the page content and you can show that in your modal.

below is the example of Bootstrap 3 modal in that we are loading content from registration.html page...

index.html
------------------------------------------------
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.7/css/bootstrap.min.css">
  <script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.3.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
  <script src="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.7/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>

<script type="text/javascript">
function loadme(){
	//alert("loadig");

	$.ajax({url: "registration.html", success: function(result){
        //alert("success"+result);
          $("#contentBody").html(result);
        $("#myModal").modal('show'); 
       
    }});
}
</script>
</head>
<body>

<!-- Trigger the modal with a button -->
<button type="button" class="btn btn-info btn-lg" onclick="loadme()">Load me</button>


<!-- Modal -->
<div id="myModal" class="modal fade" role="dialog">
  <div class="modal-dialog">

    <!-- Modal content-->
    <div class="modal-content" >
      <div class="modal-header">
        <button type="button" class="close" data-dismiss="modal">&times;</button>
        <h4 class="modal-title">Modal Header</h4>
      </div>
      <div class="modal-body" id="contentBody">
        
      </div>
      <div class="modal-footer">
        <button type="button" class="btn btn-default" data-dismiss="modal">Close</button>
      </div>
    </div>

  </div>
</div>

</body>
</html>

registration.html
-------------------- 
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<style>
body {font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;}

form {
    border: 3px solid #f1f1f1;
    font-family: Arial;
}

.container {
    padding: 20px;
    background-color: #f1f1f1;
    width: 560px;
}

input[type=text], input[type=submit] {
    width: 100%;
    padding: 12px;
    margin: 8px 0;
    display: inline-block;
    border: 1px solid #ccc;
    box-sizing: border-box;
}

input[type=checkbox] {
    margin-top: 16px;
}

input[type=submit] {
    background-color: #4CAF50;
    color: white;
    border: none;
}

input[type=submit]:hover {
    opacity: 0.8;
}
</style>
<body>

<h2>CSS Newsletter</h2>

<form action="/action_page.php">
  <div class="container">
    <h2>Subscribe to our Newsletter</h2>
    <p>Lorem ipsum text about why you should subscribe to our newsletter blabla. Lorem ipsum text about why you should subscribe to our newsletter blabla.</p>
  </div>

  <div class="container" style="background-color:white">
    <input type="text" placeholder="Name" name="name" required>
    <input type="text" placeholder="Email address" name="mail" required>
    <label>
      <input type="checkbox" checked="checked" name="subscribe"> Daily Newsletter
    </label>
  </div>

  <div class="container">
    <input type="submit" value="Subscribe">
  </div>
</form>

</body>
</html>