jQuery Dialog Box
I encountered the same issue (dialog would only open once, after closing, it wouldn't open again), and tried the solutions above which did not fix my problem. I went back to the docs and realized I had a fundamental misunderstanding of how the dialog works.
The $('#myDiv').dialog() command creates/instantiates the dialog, but is not necessarily the proper way to open it. The proper way to open it is to instantiate the dialog with dialog(), then use dialog('open') to display it, and dialog('close') to close/hide it. This means you'll probably want to set the autoOpen option to false.
So the process is: instantiate the dialog on document ready, then listen for the click or whatever action you want to show the dialog. Then it will work, time after time!
<script type="text/javascript"> jQuery(document).ready( function(){ jQuery("#myButton").click( showDialog ); //variable to reference window $myWindow = jQuery('#myDiv'); //instantiate the dialog $myWindow.dialog({ height: 350, width: 400, modal: true, position: 'center', autoOpen:false, title:'Hello World', overlay: { opacity: 0.5, background: 'black'} }); } ); //function to show dialog var showDialog = function() { //if the contents have been hidden with css, you need this $myWindow.show(); //open the dialog $myWindow.dialog("open"); } //function to close dialog, probably called by a button in the dialog var closeDialog = function() { $myWindow.dialog("close"); }</script></head><body><input id="myButton" name="myButton" value="Click Me" type="button" /><div id="myDiv" style="display:none"> <p>I am a modal dialog</p></div>
Looks like there is an issue with the code you posted. Your function to display the T&C is referencing the wrong div id. You should consider assigning the showTOC function to the onclick attribute once the document is loaded as well:
$(document).ready({ $('a.TOClink').click(function(){ showTOC(); });});function showTOC() { $('#example').dialog({modal:true});}A more concise example which accomplishes the desired effect using the jQuery UI dialog is:
<div id="terms" style="display:none;"> Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. </div> <a id="showTerms" href="#">Show Terms & Conditions</a> <script type="text/javascript"> $(document).ready(function(){ $('#showTerms').click(function(){ $('#terms').dialog({modal:true}); }); }); </script>
I had the same problem and was looking for a way to solve it which brought me here. After reviewing the suggestion made from RaeLehman it led me to the solution. Here's my implementation.
In my $(document).ready event I initialize my dialog with the autoOpen set to false. I also chose to bind a click event to an element, like a button, which will open my dialog.
$(document).ready(function(){ // Initialize my dialog $("#dialog").dialog({ autoOpen: false, modal: true, buttons: { "OK":function() { // do something }, "Cancel": function() { $(this).dialog("close"); } } }); // Bind to the click event for my button and execute my function $("#x-button").click(function(){ Foo.DoSomething(); });});Next, I make sure that the function is defined and that is where I implement the dialog open method.
var Foo = { DoSomething: function(){ $("#dialog").dialog("open"); }}By the way, I tested this in IE7 and Firefox and it works fine. Hope this helps!