jQuery Forum

I like the Separation of Concerns in the current dialog...The only way
I would want ajax built into dialog is if the entire ajax accessor is
exposed so the developer can be in control. There are way too many
component with built-in calls to ajax that don't expose all the ajax
options and require workarounds.
Right now it is so easy to:
$j(".${triggerClass}").click(function(){
$j.ajax({
type: "get",
url: url,
success: function(data){
$j('#${containerId} .target').append(data);
$j('#${containerId}').dialog();
});
More event hooks before and after close need to be there for effects
and so on though.
My $0.02 :)
Mike

You're right, there's no reason why you can't just call the AJAX
funtions of jQuery yourself and be fully in charge. There is one
issue with your approach though, the dialog doesn't open until the
AJAX completes. My preferred approach is to open the dialog and fire
the AJAX off, with the dialog containing some kind of a throbber or
similar wait message. The throbber then gets replaced when the ajax
completes.
<div id="myAjaxDialog"><img src="throbber.gif" /></div>
<input type="button" value="Open AJAX dialog" id="someButton">
$('#myAjaxDialog').dialog ().dialog ('close');
$('#someButton').click ( function (){
$('#myAjaxDialog.').dialog ('open').load ('someajaxscript.php');
});
This is obviously just a quick and dirty example and I'd recommend
using .ajax over using .load for the extra control you gain, but it
gets the idea across I hope.

I guess it depends on your user story and style...If there is an issue
on my server due to ajax call or some other parameter hasn't been set
to make the call valid I prefer to avoid opening the dialog and notify
the user a different way...

The thing is users expect to see an instant response to user interface
actions. What happens if the ajax request takes 3 seconds to
complete? There will be a 3 second delay between the user clickig a
control and the user seeing a dialog. Some studies I've read say that
any user interface latency of over 200ms or so is detrimental to the
user experience. If you open the dialog first and then kick the AJAX
operation off then at least the user gets confirmation quickly that
the application has registered his mouse click and has started to do
something about it. If the AJAX request fails you can display that as
a message in the open dialog instead.
There's a slideshow by the guys who developed Plaxo floating around
( http://yuiblog.com/blog/2007/08/29/video-smarr/ http://video.yahoo.com/watch/1041101
) that talks about, among other things, the importance of having a
user interface show to a user that something is happening in response
to his actions as quickly as humanly possible, even if all that is is
a dialog saying "Working" or something.