How to animate CSS ::backdrop behind HTML ?

Question

The <dialog> element is now cross-browser compatible (since March 2022).

I tried my hand at it today and familiarised myself with:

• HTML

  • <dialog>

• JavaScript

  • .show()
  • .showModal()
  • .close()

• CSS

  • ::backdrop

Everything seems straightforward but the one thing I've been unable to achieve so far is: fading up the backdrop.

For instance, if I want the final color of the backdrop to be:

• background-color: rgba(0, 0, 63, 0.8);

but have it transition (or animate) to that background-color from:

• background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);

is this even possible?

---

Here is my (non-working) example:

const myButton = document.querySelector('button');
const myDialog = document.querySelector('dialog');

const requestDialog = () => {
  myDialog.showModal();
  setTimeout(() => myDialog.classList.add('fadeUp'), 400);
}

myButton.addEventListener('click', requestDialog, false);

body {
  display: flex;
  justify-content: center;
  align-items: center;
  height: 180px;
}

button {
  position: absolute;
  top: 6px;
  left: 6px;
  cursor: pointer;
}

dialog::backdrop {
  background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);
  transition: backgroundColor 0.6s ease-out;
}

dialog.fadeUp::backdrop {
  background-color: rgba(0, 0, 63, 0.8);
}

<button type="button">Click me to<br />Request Dialog</button>

<dialog>
  <h2>My Dialog</h2>
</dialog>

Answer 1

I was having the same problem but this solved to me.

const dialog = document.querySelector('.modal')

function openModal() {
  dialog.showModal(); // default dialog method
}

function closeModal() {
  dialog.classList.add('close'); // run animation here
  
  dialog.addEventListener('animationend', () => {
    dialog.classList.remove('close')
    dialog.close(); // then run the default close method
  }, {once : true}); // add this to prevent bugs when reopening the modal
}

.modal {
  display: none;
}
/* when the dialog is open by its default method it adds a open tag on the element */
.modal[open] {
  display: flex;
}

.modal[open]::backdrop {
  animation: backdrop-fade 2s  ease forwards;
}

.modal.close::backdrop {
  animation: backdrop-fade 3s ease backwards;
  animation-direction: reverse;
}

@keyframes backdrop-fade {
  from {
    background: transparent;
  }
  to{
    background: rgba(0,0,0);
  }
}

<button onclick="openModal()">open modal</button>
<dialog class="modal">
    <button onclick="closeModal()">close modal</button>
</dialog>

Answer 2

If you use a box-shadow, it might work and be close enough to what you try to do :

dialog {
   box-shadow: 0 0 0 100vw rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);
   transition:  2s ease-out;
 }  
dialog.fadeUp {
   box-shadow: 0 0 0 100vw  rgba(0, 0, 63, 0.8);
   transition:  2s ease-out;
 }

Answer 3

G-Cyrillus's answer is almost perfect! Just added the use of max to the box-shadow so that the shadow will cover on mobile devices.

box-shadow: 0 0 0 100vmax rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);

https://stackoverflow.com/a/71764440/19130936