Overview
sp-dialog
displays important information that users need to acknowledge. They appear over the interface and block further interactions. When used directly the sp-dialog
element surfaces a slot
based API for deep customization of the content to be included in the overlay.
Note: the sp-dialog
element is a component that is used to create a dialog layout. For modal and popover behavior, it should be used within a component that manages the overlay state.
Usage

yarn add @spectrum-web-components/dialog
Import the side effectful registration of <sp-dialog>
via:
import '@spectrum-web-components/dialog/sp-dialog.js';
When looking to leverage the Dialog
base class as a type and/or for extension purposes, do so via:
import { Dialog } from '@spectrum-web-components/dialog';
Anatomy
The dialog consists of several key parts:
- A heading (via
slot="heading"
)
- Content (via default slot)
- Optional hero content (via
slot="hero"
)
- Optional buttons (via
slot="button"
)
- Optional footer content (via
slot="footer"
)
- Optional dismiss button (via
dismissable
attribute)
<sp-dialog size="s">
<div
slot="hero"
style="background-image: url(https://picsum.photos/1400/260)"
></div>
<h2 slot="heading">Disclaimer</h2>
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod
tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
<div slot="footer">Footer information</div>
<sp-button slot="button">Button</sp-button>
</sp-dialog>
Options
Sizes
Small
<sp-dialog size="s">
<h2 slot="heading">Disclaimer</h2>
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod
tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Auctor augue mauris
augue neque gravida. Libero volutpat sed ornare arcu. Quisque egestas diam
in arcu cursus euismod quis viverra. Posuere ac ut consequat semper viverra
nam libero justo laoreet. Enim ut tellus elementum sagittis vitae et leo
duis ut. Neque laoreet suspendisse interdum consectetur libero id faucibus
nisl. Diam volutpat commodo sed egestas egestas. Dolor magna eget est lorem
ipsum dolor. Vitae suscipit tellus mauris a diam maecenas sed. Turpis in eu
mi bibendum neque egestas congue. Rhoncus est pellentesque elit ullamcorper
dignissim cras lobortis.
</sp-dialog>
Medium
<sp-dialog size="m">
<h2 slot="heading">Disclaimer</h2>
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod
tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Auctor augue mauris
augue neque gravida. Libero volutpat sed ornare arcu. Quisque egestas diam
in arcu cursus euismod quis viverra. Posuere ac ut consequat semper viverra
nam libero justo laoreet. Enim ut tellus elementum sagittis vitae et leo
duis ut. Neque laoreet suspendisse interdum consectetur libero id faucibus
nisl. Diam volutpat commodo sed egestas egestas. Dolor magna eget est lorem
ipsum dolor. Vitae suscipit tellus mauris a diam maecenas sed. Turpis in eu
mi bibendum neque egestas congue. Rhoncus est pellentesque elit ullamcorper
dignissim cras lobortis.
</sp-dialog>
Large
<sp-dialog size="l">
<h2 slot="heading">Disclaimer</h2>
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod
tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Auctor augue mauris
augue neque gravida. Libero volutpat sed ornare arcu. Quisque egestas diam
in arcu cursus euismod quis viverra. Posuere ac ut consequat semper viverra
nam libero justo laoreet. Enim ut tellus elementum sagittis vitae et leo
duis ut. Neque laoreet suspendisse interdum consectetur libero id faucibus
nisl. Diam volutpat commodo sed egestas egestas. Dolor magna eget est lorem
ipsum dolor. Vitae suscipit tellus mauris a diam maecenas sed. Turpis in eu
mi bibendum neque egestas congue. Rhoncus est pellentesque elit ullamcorper
dignissim cras lobortis.
</sp-dialog>
Dismissable
When supplied with the dissmissable
attribute an <sp-dialog>
element will surface a "close" button afordance that will dispatch a DOM event with the name of close
when pressed.
Note: the dissmissable
attribute will not be followed when mode="fullscreen"
or mode="fullscreenTakeover"
are applies in accordance with the Spectrum specification.
<sp-dialog dismissable>
<h2 slot="heading">Disclaimer</h2>
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod
tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Auctor augue mauris
augue neque gravida. Libero volutpat sed ornare arcu. Quisque egestas diam
in arcu cursus euismod quis viverra. Posuere ac ut consequat semper viverra
nam libero justo laoreet. Enim ut tellus elementum sagittis vitae et leo
duis ut. Neque laoreet suspendisse interdum consectetur libero id faucibus
nisl. Diam volutpat commodo sed egestas egestas. Dolor magna eget est lorem
ipsum dolor. Vitae suscipit tellus mauris a diam maecenas sed. Turpis in eu
mi bibendum neque egestas congue. Rhoncus est pellentesque elit ullamcorper
dignissim cras lobortis.
</sp-dialog>
No Divider
<sp-dialog dismissable no-divider>
<h2 slot="heading">Disclaimer</h2>
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod
tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Auctor augue mauris
augue neque gravida. Libero volutpat sed ornare arcu. Quisque egestas diam
in arcu cursus euismod quis viverra. Posuere ac ut consequat semper viverra
nam libero justo laoreet. Enim ut tellus elementum sagittis vitae et leo
duis ut. Neque laoreet suspendisse interdum consectetur libero id faucibus
nisl. Diam volutpat commodo sed egestas egestas. Dolor magna eget est lorem
ipsum dolor. Vitae suscipit tellus mauris a diam maecenas sed. Turpis in eu
mi bibendum neque egestas congue. Rhoncus est pellentesque elit ullamcorper
dignissim cras lobortis.
</sp-dialog>
Behaviors
Use the dialog with an overlay to create a dialog that appears over the current page. The dialog manages several behaviors:
- Animation of the dialog content when opening/closing
- Focus management when the dialog opens
- Event handling for closing the dialog
<sp-button id="trigger">Overlay Trigger</sp-button>
<sp-overlay trigger="trigger@click" placement="bottom">
<sp-popover>
<sp-dialog>
<h2 slot="heading">Overlay 1</h2>
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do
eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Auctor
augue mauris augue neque gravida. Libero volutpat sed ornare arcu.
</sp-dialog>
</sp-popover>
</sp-overlay>
<overlay-trigger placement="top" type="replace">
<sp-button slot="trigger">Overlay Trigger 2</sp-button>
<sp-popover slot="click-content" open>
<sp-dialog size="s">
<h2 slot="heading">Overlay 2</h2>
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do
eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Auctor
augue mauris augue neque gravida. Libero volutpat sed ornare arcu.
<sp-button
slot="button"
onclick="javascript: this.dispatchEvent(new Event('close', {bubbles: true, composed: true}));"
>
I understand
</sp-button>
</sp-dialog>
</sp-popover>
</overlay-trigger>
Receives focus
The receives-focus
attribute can be used to control whether the dialog should receive focus when it is opened. Leverage the type="modal"
and receives-focus="auto"
settings in the Overlay API to ensure that focus is thrown into the dialog content when opened and that the tab order will be trapped within it while open.
The receives-focus
attribute on overlay-trigger
has three possible values:
auto
(default): Focus will automatically move to the first focusable element in the dialog
true
: Forces focus to move to the overlay content
false
: Prevents focus from moving to the overlay
For accessible dialogs, always use receives-focus="auto"
or receives-focus="true"
to ensure keyboard users can interact with the dialog content.
<sp-button id="focus">Overlay Trigger</sp-button>
<sp-overlay trigger="focus@click" type="modal" receives-focus="auto">
<sp-popover>
<sp-dialog>
<h2 slot="heading">Dialog Heading</h2>
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do
eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Auctor
augue mauris augue neque gravida. Libero volutpat sed ornare arcu.
</sp-dialog>
</sp-popover>
</sp-overlay>
Accessibility
Include a heading
The heading
slot is of the sp-dialog
dialog element is used to label the dialog content for screen readers.
1.7.0 (2025-06-11)
Minor Changes
sp-overlay: Fixed : Overlays (like pickers and action menus) were incorrectly closing when scrolling occurred within components. The fix ensures the handleScroll
method in OverlayStack
only responds to document/body scrolling events and ignores component-level scrolling events, which was the original intention.
sp-card: Fixed: On mobile Chrome (both Android and iOS), scrolling on sp-card
components would inadvertently trigger click events. This was caused by the timing-based click detection (200ms threshold) in the pointer event handling, which could misinterpret quick scrolls as clicks. This issue did not affect Safari on mobile devices.
sp-action-button: - Fixed : Action buttons with href attributes now properly detects modifier keys and skips the proxy click, allowing only native browser behavior to proceed.
Patch Changes
sp-styles: Remove unnecessary system theme references to reduce complexity for components that don't need the additional mapping layer.
sp-card: - Fixed: sp-card
component relies on sp-popover
for certain toggle interactive behaviors, but this dependency was missing from its dependency tree.
sp-menu: Fixes: Icons in menu stories weren't properly responding to theme changes when used in functional story components.
Switching to class-based LitElement components ensures proper component lifecycle hooks and shadow DOM context for icon initialization and theme integration.
sp-tabs: Added @spectrum-web-components/action-button
as a dependency for Tabs as its used in the direction button.
sp-split-view: Added @spectrum-web-components/shared dependency in splitview since it uses ranDomId from the shared package
sp-textfield: Replace deprecated word-break: break-word
with overflow-wrap: break-word
to align with modern CSS standards and improve cross-browser compatibility. This property was deprecated in Chrome 44 (July 2015) in favor of the standardized overflow-wrap
property.