Proposal: Add light dismiss option to ContentDialogs

[Felix-Dev]

Proposal: Add light dismiss option to ContentDialogs

Summary

This proposal aims to add a light dismiss option to the ContentDialog class. The light dismiss behavior is functionally the same as if the user would close the dialog by pressing ESC or the Gamepad B button.

Rationale

Many times, ContentDialogs are displayed which show some information and the user would like to light dismiss the dialog after reading said information. See Windows Terminal's About dialog for example:

It would be great if developers could enable users to light dismiss the dialog in addition to the current dismiss options. Developers who currently want to provide light dismiss behavior for ContentDialogs need to either make use of implementation details or re-build the entire dialog using other controls, like Popup: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/39317526/uwp-light-dismiss-contentdialog.
As such, having a light dismiss behavior to opt-into would enable developers to built great dialog experiences without having to build the dialogs entirely from the ground up or make assumptions about the ContentDialog implementation.

Scope

Capability	Priority
Developers can opt-into a light dismiss behavior for a ContentDialog instance.	Must

Important Notes

The proposed API to add to the ContentDialog class matches the Popup's light dismiss API:

public static DependencyProperty IsLightDismissEnabledProperty { get; }

public bool IsLightDismissEnabled { get; set; }

[shaheedmalik]

Yes. This is needed to make apps more accessible to more input devices.

[ranjeshj]

@stmoy @chigy FYI

[stmoy]

Yes. This is needed to make apps more accessible to more input devices.

@shaheedmalik, can you help me understand how light dismiss dialogs helps with this?

[mdtauk]

Yes. This is needed to make apps more accessible to more input devices.

@shaheedmalik, can you help me understand how light dismiss dialogs helps with this?

It would enable a scenario where you want to display custom Xaml content, which is dismissable without the need of a discreet button. I know this could be achieved as a flyout, but that tends to be for elements that emerges from a control, rather than an About or Progress dialog scenario

[shaheedmalik]

@stmoy Xbox controller compatibility.

[mdtauk]

@stmoy Xbox controller compatibility.

A cancel/dismiss button could be given focus when the dialog opens - for Xbox controller, or enter key press - but not sure why there shouldn't be a DismissBehaviour option which allows for light dismiss, when you may want an overlay that appears modal, but can be dismissed easily.

[stmoy]

@stmoy Xbox controller compatibility.

A cancel/dismiss button could be given focus when the dialog opens - for Xbox controller, or enter key press

Fortunately, the last round of ContentDialog updates included a rationalization about close behavior specifically to support other forms of input. Pressing B on the Gamepad will close the dialog regardless of which button/content has focus. The "close actions" are described in the ContentDialog guidance doc.

Use the ContentDialog.CloseButton API to create this button. This allows you to create the right user experience for all inputs including mouse, keyboard, touch, and gamepad. This experience will happen when:

• The user clicks or taps on the CloseButton
• The user presses the system back button
• The user presses the ESC button on the keyboard
• The user presses Gamepad B

-=-=-

but not sure why there shouldn't be a DismissBehaviour option which allows for light dismiss, when you may want an overlay that appears modal, but can be dismissed easily.

The situation I'm worried about is that some dialogs will then be modal and others will be light-dismiss, but the user will have no way of knowing which is which.

ContentDialogs were built to support scenarios where the app requires the user's attention/input. They are modal, after all, and block the user until they act. The question then becomes “Is a light dismiss action deliberate enough to justify closing a dialog?” Light dismiss is intended to be a lightweight user interaction this is used to dismiss non-crucial UIs -- and is therefore not deliberate enough of a user action to close a dialog.

The About info dialog above isn't following the ContentDialog guidance because A) it's not requesting a user action, and B) the information isn't critical. In other words, this seems like a user experience issue with Terminal that we should fix rather than introducing a confusing new dialog user experience API across the system.

[Felix-Dev]

@stmoy Please correct me if I'm wrong, but if ContentDialog won't get a light dismiss option, then the platform is lacking a fast and easy way to create light dismissable dialogs. Yes, you can use the Popup class but that's not ready-made for you like the ContentDialog is.

I think the platform should definitely have a ContentDialog class like API to easily create dialogs which can be closed by a lightweight user action. I've seen a lot of (content) dialogs which only showed some information and had an OK button. These should be light dismissable. ContentDialog per its guidlines might be the wrong control here but developers are using it because it's so much easier to create a light-dismissable dialog using the Popup class.

It's possible already to build dialogs using the Popup class and the ContentDiaog class which look the same to the user (so they cannot differentiate between them). One such dialog can be light dismissed (the Popup one), the ContentDialog dialog cannot. In that sense the user might already be confused that some dialogs can be light-dismissed, others not. Clear UI design in the apps can help avoid confusing the user.

TL;DR: Developers today are using the ContentDialog class in a way which might not abide by its guidelines because the lack of another API to easily and rapidly create dialog experiences. There is the Popup class but it forces you to build the entire dialog UI from the ground up. As there are many types of dialogs which only display some information and don't require a choice from the user, the platform should offer a simple and easy way to create light dismissable dialogs.

[mdtauk]

I think a good way to think about ContentDialog, is that it creates a Dialog which you add content to. Its not a ContentModalDialog, and as such, there is nothing wrong with allowing it to be Modal or Overlay as a display mode, and let the developer choose how it can be dismissed.