Learn the Basics of Angular CDK Overlay: Angular Modals and Pop-ups

When building apps in Angular, you will likely need to trigger a modal or pop-up at some point. Sometimes, this is easy and can be done with some simple CSS, but other times, it may be more complicated. You may need to append markup to the bottom of your document so that it can be placed on top of everything else. Or maybe, depending on the scroll position, a pop-up will need to open upward instead of downward. There are lots of possible scenarios where you may need more than what’s capable with CSS by itself, and that’s where the CDK Overlay Module comes into play.

In this post, we’ll look at how we can use the CDK Overlay Module to create a globally positioned modal that’s placed on top of everything else and centered within the viewport. And to contrast, we’ll create a pop-up connected to a button that will automatically position itself within the viewport based on scroll position. Alright, let’s get to it!

The Angular CDK Overlay module is really powerful and provides many features. And this means there’s a lot to know and understand. The aim of this post is to demonstrate a basic setup for two common types of overlays, modals, and pop-ups. Since there’s so much to cover within the Overlay module, I will be creating posts of more advanced Overlay module features in the future, so keep an eye out for those. For now, though, let’s start with a basic modal example.

Creating a Modal With the Angular CDK Overlay Service

Here, we have this list of NBA players. We have this button in the upper right corner of each player.

When we click this button, we want to open up a modal to display more information about the specific player. This is something that is fairly easy to do using the CDK Overlay module.

How to install the Angular CDK

But, before we can use it, we first need to install the Angular CDK, which we can do with this command within our Angular app:

npm i @angular/cdk

How to import the Angular CDK Overlay prebuilt CSS

After we have it installed, we will want to include the overlay-prebuilt CSS file from the library. It provides some basic styles in order to create modals and pop-ups that work correctly. I normally include it in something like the global stylesheet for the Angular app, so let’s import it there.

global_styles.scss

@import '@angular/cdk/overlay-prebuilt.css';

Ok, now we’re ready to wire up our modal. The first thing we need to do is inject the Overlay service into our constructor so that we can use it.

player.component.ts

export class PlayerComponent {
    ...
    constructor(private overlay: Overlay) {}
}

Now, let’s create an openModal() method that we’ll call at the click of a button. Within this method, first, we’ll create our overlay using the create() method from the service. This method will create an overlay and return the reference to it, so we’ll set it as a variable named overlayRef since that’s what we will have after calling create().

export class PlayerComponent {
    ...
    protected openModal() {
        const overlayRef = this.overlay.create();
    }
}

Ok, at this point we’ve created it, now we need to attach some markup to the overlay. So, we’ll use our overlayRef variable, and we’ll call the attach() method. This method has a parameter where we need to pass a CdkPortal.

export class PlayerComponent {
    ...
    protected openModal() {
        const overlayRef = this.overlay.create();
        overlayRef.attach();
    }
}

This template portal will need to wrap whatever markup we want to display in our modal. Before we can add this portal, we first need to import it into the Portal Module.

...
import { PortalModule } from '@angular/cdk/portal';

@Component({
    selector: 'app-player',
    imports: [..., PortalModule]
    ...
}

Ok, now we can switch over to our component template. We’ll add an ng-template. On this ng-template we’ll add the cdkPortal directive. And within this ng-template let’s add our player details component. This component has an input where it takes in a player object, so we’ll pass it to our current player.

player.component.html

<ng-template cdkPortal>
    <app-player-details [player]="player"></app-player-details>
</ng-template>

Now, we also need to import this player component, so let’s do that real quick.

player.component.ts

...
import { PlayerDetailsComponent } from './player-details/player-details.component';

@Component({
  selector: 'app-player',
  imports: [..., PlayerDetailsComponent]
  ...
})

Ok, the next thing we need to do is access the portal that we just added in the template so that we can pass it to our attach method. We can do this using the Angular View Child decorator. And for the @ViewChild, its selector will be the CdkPortal. We’ll call this property portal, and we’ll type it to CdkPortal as well.

import { CdkPortal, PortalModule } from '@angular/cdk/portal';

export class PlayerComponent {
    @ViewChild(CdkPortal) portal!: CdkPortal;
    ...
}

Now that we have a handle on the portal, we can simply add it to our attach method.

export class PlayerComponent {
    @ViewChild(CdkPortal) portal!: CdkPortal;
    ...
    protected openModal() {
        const overlayRef = this.overlay.create();
        overlayRef.attach(this.portal);
    }
}

And the last thing we need to do is call this open modal method when the button is clicked. So, back in our component template, on the button, we bind to the click event, and then we call our method.

player.component.html

<button (click)="openModal()">
    ...
</button>

Ok, now let’s click our button and take a look.

And there it is, the click opens the modal with our player details.

So, this is pretty cool, but at first glance, this may not seem like anything special, but let me tell you, it actually is. If we inspect the modal, we can see that the markup for our player details is actually getting injected into a container at the end of the body. This is pretty crazy since our player component is up above within the app component.

This is what ensures that this modal will properly be placed on a layer that is unaffected by anything else within our app. And that can be really handy in many modal situations.

How to Customize the Angular Overlay Settings With a Custom Overlay Config Object

Now, as I mentioned earlier, there’s a lot of functionality and configuration available with the Overlay Module. For example, if we want to position our model in the center of the viewport, We can do this by passing a custom configuration object to the overlay.

To do this, let’s create a config variable. This will be set to a new OverlayConfig object. We’ll need to make sure that class is imported. Within this, we’re going to set the positionStrategy for the overlay.

We’ll add this.overlay, and then we’ll call the position() method. It’s going to be a global() position, which just means that it will be positioned relative to the viewport and not any specific element. From there, we’ll call centerHorizontally(), and then centerVertically().

Let’s also set a width of sixty percent to keep it from growing too wide. Then, we can pass this custom config in our create method. The items we’ve included in this custom config will now override the default values for those properties.

...
import { ..., OverlayConfig } from '@angular/cdk/overlay';

export class PlayerComponent {
    ...
    protected openModal() {
        const config = new OverlayConfig({
            positionStrategy: this.overlay.position().global().centerHorizontally().centerVertically(),
            width: '60%'
        });
        const overlayRef = this.overlay.create(config);
        overlayRef.attach(this.portal);
    }
}

Ok, let’s check it out.

Looking pretty good right?

How to Close an Angular CDK Overlay on a Backdrop Click

Now, what if we want to put up a layer over the viewport when the modal is open, and when we click on that layer, we want to close the modal? Well, we can do this by adding more custom configurations in our OverlayConfig. We can add hasBackdrop true. This will add a backdrop element to our overlay.

Now, to close the modal when this backdrop gets clicked, we have a backdropClick() method on our overlay ref that we can call. This method returns an observable that will fire every time the backdrop is clicked as long as it is open, so we can subscribe. Then, in the callback here, we will close our overlay by calling overlayRef.detach().

...
export class PlayerComponent {
    ...
    protected openModal() {
        const config = new OverlayConfig({
            ...
            hasBackdrop: true
        });
        ...
        overlayRef.backdropClick().subscribe(() => overlayRef.detach());
    }
}

Now, let’s try this.

Cool, it closes when we click on this backdrop. Now, there’s a ton more available to us here, so I’ll save it for a future post. Just know that there’s quite a bit more functionality and configuration available to you if needed.

For now, let’s look at an example of a Connected Position overlay.

Creating a Pop-up With a Connected Position Angular CDK Overlay

Creating a “connected position” overlay means that our pop-up, instead of being globally positioned within the viewport, will be positioned relative to the button that we clicked on to open it. As if it’s attached to it. For this, we can use a couple of directives provided by the Overlay module instead of using the Overlay service.

We’ll use the cdkOverlayOrigin directive, which will be applied to the item that we want to position from, in our case, our button. And then, we’ll use the cdkConnectedOverlay directive that will be applied to the ng-template that we want to inject into our popup.

For this example, since we’ll be using these directives, we can actually remove most of what we added when we were using the Overlay service. Well, get rid of the @ViewChild, the constructor, and the openModal() function. We can also remove the PortalModule, CdkPortal, Overlay, and Overlay Config imports as well.

Now, within the component template, we can replace the click binding on our button with the cdkOverlayOrigin directive.

<button cdkOverlayOrigin>
    ...
</button>

On the overlay ng-template, we can replace the cdkPortal directive with the cdkConnectedOverlay directive.

<ng-template cdkConnectedOverlay>
    ...
</ng-template>

Now, we need to connect the overlay to the origin. To do this, the overlay has an input called cdkConnectedOverlayOrigin. We need to pass this input to our origin directive instance. So we add a template reference variable, let’s call it trigger, on our origin button.

<button
    cdkOverlayOrigin
    #trigger="cdkOverlayOrigin">
    ...
</button>

Now, we can pass this reference to the overlay with the cdkConnectedOverlayOrigin input.

<ng-template
    cdkConnectedOverlay
    [cdkConnectedOverlayOrigin]="trigger">
    ...
</ng-template>

To make this pop-up open, we’ll use the cdkConnectedOverlayOpen input. This input expects a boolean value telling it whether it should be open or not. So, let’s add a property called detailsOpen, and initialize it to false.

...
export class PlayerComponent {
    protected detailsOpen = false;
}

We’ll toggle the property when the button is clicked using a click event binding.

<button
    cdkOverlayOrigin
    #trigger="cdkOverlayOrigin"
    (click)="detailsOpen = !detailsOpen">
    ...
</button>

Then, we can bind our cdkConnectedOverlayOpen input to this property on the overlay.

<ng-template
    cdkConnectedOverlay
    [cdkConnectedOverlayOrigin]="trigger"
    [cdkConnectedOverlayOpen]="detailsOpen">
    ...
</ng-template>

Ok, let’s give this a try.

Cool, now it gets positioned next to the button. And, if we inspect this again, the markup gets injected in the same location, at the end of the body.

What’s even more cool is that on the item at the bottom of the viewport, we will want it to open upward because we don’t have room to see it if it opens downward. Well, if we click on the button, we can see that this actually happens without us doing anything at all.

Super cool. This really saves us a ton of effort. All the tough stuff has already been figured out for us.

And just like the global positioning method, when using the Overlay service, there are a bunch of configurations available to us. This time, with the directives, however, we use @Inputs and @Outputs.

So, if we want to add the width, for example, we can use the cdkConnectedOverlayWidth input.

<ng-template
    cdkConnectedOverlay
    [cdkConnectedOverlayOrigin]="trigger"
    [cdkConnectedOverlayOpen]="detailsOpen"
    cdkConnectedOverlayWidth="60%">
    ...
</ng-template>

Now, the pop-up won’t grow beyond sixty percent of the width of its container.

And if we want to close this pop-up when we click anywhere outside, we can use the overlayOutsideClick output, which will fire when it detects a click outside of itself. When this happens, we can set our details open property to false.

<ng-template
    cdkConnectedOverlay
    [cdkConnectedOverlayOrigin]="trigger"
    [cdkConnectedOverlayOpen]="detailsOpen"
    cdkConnectedOverlayWidth="60%"
    (overlayOutsideClick)="detailsOpen = false">
    ...
</ng-template>

Now, when we open our pop-up and then click outside, it closes.

Just like with the Overlay service, there’s a ton more available to us, which I’ll save for a future post. Just remember that there’s more functionality and configuration available outside of what I’ve covered here.

So, some pretty cool stuff is happening in these examples. It’s all actually quite complex from a development perspective, but there’s not much for us to figure out in order to leverage it, thanks to the folks who built it.

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Check out the demo code and examples of these techniques in the Stackblitz example below. If you have any questions or thoughts, don’t hesitate to leave a comment.

Also published here.