jQuery UI - Close Dialog When Clicked Outside

Question

I have a jQuery UI Dialog that gets displayed when specific elements are clicked. I would like to close the dialog if a click occurs anywhere other than on those triggering elements or the dialog itself.

Here's the code for opening the dialog:

$(document).ready(function() {
    var $field_hint = $('<div></div>')
        .dialog({
            autoOpen: false,
            minHeight: 50,
            resizable: false,
            width: 375
        });

    $('.hint').click(function() {
        var $hint = $(this);
        $field_hint.html($hint.html());
        $field_hint.dialog('option', 'position', [162, $hint.offset().top + 25]);
        $field_hint.dialog('option', 'title', $hint.siblings('label').html());
        $field_hint.dialog('open');
    });
    /*$(document).click(function() {
        $field_hint.dialog('close');
    });*/
});

If I uncomment the last part, the dialog never opens. I assume it's because the same click that opens the dialog is closing it again.

---

Final Working Code

$(document).ready(function() {
    var $field_hint = $('<div></div>')
        .dialog({
            autoOpen: false,
            minHeight: 50,
            resizable: false,
            width: 375
        })
        .bind('clickoutside', function(e) {
            if (!$(e.target).filter('.hint').length) {
                $field_hint.dialog('close');
            } 
        });

    $('.hint').click(function() {
        var $hint = $(this);
        $field_hint.html($hint.html());
        $field_hint.dialog('option', 'position', [162, $hint.offset().top + 25]);
        $field_hint.dialog('option', 'title', $hint.siblings('label').html());
        $field_hint.dialog('open');
    });
});

Answer 1

Check out the jQuery Outside Events plugin

Lets you do:

$field_hint.bind('clickoutside',function(){
    $field_hint.dialog('close');
});

Answer 2

Try this post:

http://www.jensbits.com/2010/06/16/jquery-modal-dialog-close-on-overlay-click/

Answer 3

Just updated the post this evening. Take another look if you haven't already. Thx.