This module provides an API to render an iframe within a modal dialog based on the jQuery UI Dialog plugin. You should not install this module unless another module requires you to, or you wish to use it for your own custom modules.
It is an alternative to Popups API (Ajax Dialogs) which implements its own library and API to manage popup dialogs. On the other hand, the Modal Frame API is based on the jQuery UI Dialog plugin and it is specially built to deal with iframe elements with very little effort (and no particular AJAX requirements).
For themers, this module provides a default template for rendering child pages within modal frames (modalframe-page.tpl.php) that can be copied to the theme directory and customized to suit the particular needs of the site. It is also pretty easy to adapt the provided stylesheets to match the look of the site.
Requirements related to jQuery UI: jQuery UI version 1.7.x (1.8.x. not yet supported) Note that you also need jQuery 1.3.x, currently provided by jQuery Update 6.x-2.x.
Highly recommended: onBeforeUnload API (enhances synchronization of parent/child windows). See reference: #669436: In search for alternatives to the unload event.
Builtin support for: Dirty Forms.
Modules using Modal Frame API: Modal Frame Contrib Package (includes mini-modules that implement the Modal Frame API to enhance the usability of a few day to day tasks in every Drupal site), Node Relationships, Modal Frame CCK Editor, Modal Frames from Menu Items, Subnodes by Taxonomy.
Modal Frame API is pretty simple, but powerful at the same time.