Overlay

BootstrapVueNext's custom BOverlay component is used to visually obscure a particular element or component and its content. It signals a state change within the element or component to the user and can be used for creating loaders, warnings/alerts, prompts, and more.

Overview

BOverlay can be used to obscure almost anything. Example use cases would be forms, tables, delete confirmation dialogs, or anywhere you need to signal that the application is busy performing a background task, to signal that a certain component is unavailable, or to provide additional context to the end user.

BOverlay can be used to overlay (wrap) an element or component (the default behaviour), or can be placed as a descendant of a position: relative element (non-wrapping mode).

The overlay visibility is controlled via the show prop. By default, the overlay is not shown.

NOTE

This component only visually obscures its content (or the page). Refer to the Accessibility section below for additional accessibility details and concerns.

Default wrapping mode example:

Card with overlay

Laborum consequat non elit enim exercitation cillum.

Click the button to toggle the overlay:

HTML
vue
<template>
  <BOverlay
    :show="show"
    rounded="sm"
  >
    <BCard
      title="Card with overlay"
      :aria-hidden="show ? 'true' : null"
    >
      <BCardText>Laborum consequat non elit enim exercitation cillum.</BCardText>
      <BCardText>Click the button to toggle the overlay:</BCardText>
      <BButton
        :disabled="show"
        variant="primary"
        @click="show = true"
      >
        Show overlay
      </BButton>
    </BCard>
  </BOverlay>

  <BButton @click="show = !show">Toggle overlay</BButton>
</template>

<script setup lang="ts">
import {ref} from 'vue'
const show = ref(false)
</script>

Options

There are many options available for styling the overlay, and for providing custom content within the overlay.

Overlay backdrop color

You can control the backdrop background color via the variant prop. The variant is translated into one of Bootstrap's background variant utility classes. Control the opacity of the backdrop via the opacity prop (opacity values can range from 0 to 1). And background blurring can be controlled via the blur prop.

0.85
HTML
vue
<template>
  <div class="row">
    <div
      class="col-lg-6"
      aria-controls="overlay-background"
    >
      <label for="bg-variant">Variant</label>
      <BFormSelect
        id="bg-variant"
        v-model="variant"
        :options="variants"
      />

      <label for="bg-opacity">Opacity</label>
      <div class="d-inline">
        <BFormInput
          id="bg-opacity"
          v-model.number="opacity"
          type="range"
          min="0"
          max="1"
          step="0.01"
          class="d-inline"
        />
      </div>

      {{ opacity.toFixed(2) }}

      <div>
        <label for="bg-blur"
          >Blur (does not work if variant is anything other than 'transparent' or 'white' or if
          bgColor is defined)</label
        >
        <BFormSelect
          id="bg-blur"
          v-model="blur"
          :options="blurs"
        />
      </div>
    </div>

    <BCol lg="6">
      <BOverlay
        id="overlay-background"
        show
        :variant="variant"
        :opacity="opacity"
        :blur="blur"
        rounded="sm"
      >
        <BCard
          title="Card with overlay"
          aria-hidden="true"
        >
          <BCardText>
            Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor
            incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud
            exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.
          </BCardText>
          <BButton
            disabled
            variant="primary"
            >Button</BButton
          >
        </BCard>
      </BOverlay>
    </BCol>
  </div>
</template>

<script setup lang="ts">
import {ref} from 'vue'

const variants = [
  'transparent',
  'white',
  'light',
  'dark',
  'primary',
  'secondary',
  'success',
  'danger',
  'warning',
  'info',
] as const
const blurs = [{text: 'None', value: ''}, '1px', '2px', '5px', '0.5em', '1rem']

const variant = ref<(typeof variants)[number]>('light')
const opacity = ref(0.85)
const blur = ref('2px')
</script>

As an alternative to the variant prop, you can specify a CSS color string value via the bg-color prop. When a value is provided for bg-color, the variant prop value is ignored.

Notes:

  • Background blurring is not available on some browsers (e.g. IE 11).
  • Blurring requires that the opacity level be relatively high for the effect to be visible.

Fade transition

By default, the overlay uses Bootstrap's fade transition when showing or hiding. You can disable the fade transition via adding the no-fade prop to BOverlay.

Card with overlay

Laborum consequat non elit enim exercitation cillum.

Click the button to toggle the overlay:

HTML
vue
<template>
  <BOverlay
    no-fade
    :show="show"
    rounded="sm"
  >
    <BCard
      title="Card with overlay"
      :aria-hidden="show ? 'true' : null"
    >
      <BCardText>Laborum consequat non elit enim exercitation cillum.</BCardText>
      <BCardText>Click the button to toggle the overlay:</BCardText>
      <BButton
        :disabled="show"
        variant="primary"
        @click="show = true"
      >
        Show overlay
      </BButton>
    </BCard>
  </BOverlay>

  <BButton @click="show = !show">Toggle overlay</BButton>
</template>

<script setup lang="ts">
import {ref} from 'vue'
const show = ref(false)
</script>

Default spinner styling

The default overlay content is a BSpinner of type 'border'. You can control the appearance of the spinner via the following props:

  • spinner-type: Currently supported values are 'border' (the default) or 'grow'
  • spinner-variant: Variant theme color for the spinner. Default is null which inherits the current font color
  • spinner-small: Set to true to render a small size spinner
HTML
template
<BOverlay
  show
  spinner-variant="primary"
  spinner-type="grow"
  spinner-small
  rounded="sm"
  style="max-width: 320px"
>
  <BCard
    title="Card with spinner style"
    aria-hidden="true"
  >
    <BCardText>
      Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut
      labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco
      laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.
    </BCardText>
    <BButton
      disabled
      variant="primary"
      >Button</BButton
    >
  </BCard>
</BOverlay>

Overlay corner rounding

By default, the overlay backdrop has square corners. If the content you are wrapping has rounded corners, you can use the RadiusElementExtendables props rounded, rounded-top, rounded-bottom, rounded-start and rounded-end to apply rounding to the overlay's corners to match the obscured content's rounded corners. Possible values for these props are the values of RadiusElementExtendables. See the BAvatar documentation for a detailed explanation of how these props work.

With rounding

Image 1

Without rounding

Image 1
HTML
vue
<template>
  <BButton @click="showRoundedEx = !showRoundedEx">Toggle overlay</BButton>

  <BRow class="text-center mt-3">
    <BCol md="6">
      <p>With rounding</p>
      <BOverlay
        :show="showRoundedEx"
        class="d-inline-block"
        rounded="circle"
      >
        <BImg
          thumbnail
          rounded="circle"
          fluid
          src="https://picsum.photos/200/200/?image=54"
          alt="Image 1"
        />
      </BOverlay>
    </BCol>

    <BCol md="6">
      <p>Without rounding</p>
      <BOverlay
        :show="showRoundedEx"
        class="d-inline-block"
      >
        <BImg
          thumbnail
          rounded="circle"
          fluid
          src="https://picsum.photos/200/200/?image=54"
          alt="Image 1"
        />
      </BOverlay>
    </BCol>
  </BRow>
</template>

<script setup lang="ts">
import {ref} from 'vue'

const showRoundedEx = ref(false)
</script>

Custom overlay content

Place custom content in the overlay (replacing the default spinner) via the optionally scoped slot overlay.

Card with custom overlay content

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.

Click the button to toggle the overlay:

HTML
vue
<template>
  <BOverlay
    :show="show"
    rounded="sm"
    @shown="onShown"
    @hidden="onHidden"
  >
    <BCard
      title="Card with custom overlay content"
      :aria-hidden="show ? 'true' : null"
    >
      <BCardText>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.</BCardText>
      <BCardText>Click the button to toggle the overlay:</BCardText>
      <BButton
        :disabled="show"
        variant="primary"
        @click="show = true"
      >
        Show overlay
      </BButton>
    </BCard>
    <template #overlay>
      <div class="text-center">
        <p id="cancel-label">Please wait...</p>
        <BButton
          variant="outline-danger"
          size="sm"
          aria-describedby="cancel-label"
          @click="show = false"
        >
          Cancel
        </BButton>
      </div>
    </template>
  </BOverlay>
</template>

<script setup lang="ts">
import {ref} from 'vue'

const show = ref(false)

const onShown = () => {
  // eslint-disable-next-line no-console
  console.log('shown')
}
const onHidden = () => {
  // eslint-disable-next-line no-console
  console.log('hidden')
}
</script>

The following scope properties are available to the overlay slot:

PropertyDescription
spinnerVariantValue of the spinner-variant prop
spinnerTypeValue of the spinner-type prop
spinnerSmallValue of the spinner-small prop

When placing interactive content in the overlay, you should focus the container of the custom content or one of the focusable controls in the overlay content for accessibility reasons. You can listen for the BOverlay 'shown' event to know when the overlay content is available in the document.

Overlay content centering

By default, the overlay content will be horizontally and vertically centered within the overlay region. To disable centering, set the no-center prop to true.

In the following example, we have set the no-center prop, and absolutely positioned the custom overlay slot content at the top right.

HTML
template
<BOverlay
  no-center
  show
  rounded="sm"
>
  <template #overlay>
    <BAvatar
      class="position-absolute"
      style="top: 0; right: 0"
  /></template>
  <BCard
    title="Card with no-center overlay"
    aria-hidden="true"
  >
    <BCardText>
      Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut
      labore et dolore magna aliqua.
    </BCardText>
    <BButton
      disabled
      variant="primary"
      >Button</BButton
    >
  </BCard>
</BOverlay>

Width

BOverlay defaults to a width of 100%. When wrapping an inline or inline-block element, you will need to add the class d-inline-block (e.g. <BOverlay class="d-inline-block">).

You can also use the width utility classes or CSS styles to control the width of the overlay's wrapping container element.

Non-wrapping mode

By default, BOverlay wraps the content of the default slot. In some cases you may want to obscure a parent container. Use the no-wrap prop to disable rendering of the wrapping (and ignore the default slot). Note that this requires that the ancestor element that is to be obscured to have relative positioning (either via the utility class 'position-relative', or CSS style 'position: relative;').

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.

Card with parent overlay

Laborum consequat non elit enim exercitation cillum.

Click the button to toggle the overlay:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.

HTML
vue
<template>
  <div class="position-relative p-4 bg-info">
    <p class="text-light fw-bold">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.</p>
    <BCard title="Card with parent overlay">
      <BCardText>Laborum consequat non elit enim exercitation cillum.</BCardText>
      <BCardText>Click the button to toggle the overlay:</BCardText>
      <BButton
        :disabled="show"
        variant="primary"
        @click="show = true"
      >
        Show overlay
      </BButton>
    </BCard>
    <p class="text-light fw-bold mb-0">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.</p>
    <BOverlay
      :show="show"
      no-wrap
    />
  </div>
  <BButton
    class="mt-3"
    @click="show = !show"
    >Toggle overlay</BButton
  >
</template>

<script setup lang="ts">
import {ref} from 'vue'

const show = ref(false)
</script>

Note that some of Bootstrap v5 component styles have relative positioning defined (e.g. cards, cols, etc.). You may need to adjust the placement of BOverlay in your markup.

For example, BCard has relative positioning, so you can place the <BOverlay no-wrap> as a descendant of BCard:

Card header
Image

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

HTML
vue
<template>
  <BCard
    header="Card header"
    footer="Card footer"
  >
    <BImg
      thumbnail
      rounded="circle"
      src="https://picsum.photos/72/72/?image=58"
      alt="Image"
      class="d-inline"
    />
    <p class="d-inline align-top mb-0">
      Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut
      labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco
      laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.
    </p>
    <BOverlay
      :show="show"
      no-wrap
    />
  </BCard>
  <BButton
    class="mt-3"
    @click="show = !show"
    >Toggle overlay</BButton
  >
</template>

<script setup lang="ts">
import {ref} from 'vue'

const show = ref(false)
</script>

When in no-wrap mode, BOverlay will not set the aria-busy attribute on the obscured element. You may also want to use an aria-live region in your app that announces to screen reader users that the page is busy.

Refer to the Accessibility section below for additional details and concerns.

Absolute vs fixed positioning for no-wrap

In cases where you want to obscure the entire app or page, when using the no-wrap prop, you can switch to viewport fixed positioning via setting the prop fixed on BOverlay. Note that this does not disable scrolling of the page, and note that any interactive elements on the page will still be in the document tab sequence.

You may also need to adjust the z-index of the overlay to ensure that the backdrop appears above all other page elements. Use the z-index property to override the default z-index value.

Refer to the Accessibility section below for additional details and concerns.

Overlay z-index

In some circumstances, you may need to adjust the z-index used by the overlay (depending on positioning in the DOM or the content being obscured). Simply set the z-index prop with a value suitable for your application or use case. The default z-index is 10.

Accessibility

Note that the overlay is visual only. You must disable any interactive elements (buttons, links, etc.) when the overlay is showing, otherwise the obscured elements will still be reachable via keyboard navigation (i.e. still in the document tab sequence).

If you have any links in the obscured content, we recommend using the BLink component, as it supports the disabled state, as native links (<a href="...">) and RouterLink components do not support the disabled state.

It is also recommended adding either the aria-hidden="true" or aria-busy="true" attribute to your obscured content when the overlay is visible. Just be careful not to add aria-hidden="true" to the wrapper that contains the BOverlay component (when using no-wrap), as that would hide any interactive content in the overlay slot for screen reader users.

If you are placing interactive content in the overlay slot, you should focus the content once the 'shown' event has been emitted. You can use the hidden event to trigger returning focus to an element as needed when the overlay is no longer visible.

When using the wrapping mode (prop no-wrap is not set), the wrapper will have the attribute aria-busy="true" set, to allow screen reader users to know that the wrapped content is in a busy or loading state. When prop no-wrap is set, the attribute will not be applied.

When using the no-wrap prop, and potentially the fixed prop, to obscure the entire application or page, you must ensure that all interactive page elements (other than the content of the overlay) have been disabled and are not in the document tab sequence.

Use case examples

Here are just a few examples of common use cases of BOverlay. In all cases, we disable any interactive elements in the obscured area to prevent reachability via keyboard navigation (i.e. Tab key) or screen reader access.

Please refer to the Accessibility section for additional details and concerns.

Loading button

Easily create a loading button:

HTML
vue
<template>
  <BOverlay
    :show="loadingBuzy"
    rounded
    opacity="0.6"
    spinner-small
    spinner-variant="primary"
    class="d-inline-block"
    @hidden="onBuzyHidden"
  >
    <BButton
      ref="buzyButton"
      :disabled="loadingBuzy"
      variant="primary"
      @click="setBuzyClick"
    >
      Do something
    </BButton>
  </BOverlay>
</template>

<script setup lang="ts">
import {ref, useTemplateRef} from 'vue'
import {BButton} from 'bootstrap-vue-next/components/BButton'

let timeout: ReturnType<typeof setTimeout> | null = null

const loadingBuzy = ref(false)
const buzyButton = useTemplateRef<typeof BButton>('buzyButton')

const clearTimer = () => {
  if (timeout) {
    clearTimeout(timeout)
    timeout = null
  }
}
const setTimer = (callback: () => void) => {
  clearTimer()
  timeout = setTimeout(() => {
    clearTimer()
    callback()
  }, 5000)
}
const setBuzyClick = () => {
  loadingBuzy.value = true
  // Simulate an async request
  setTimer(() => {
    loadingBuzy.value = false
  })
}

const onBuzyHidden = () => {
  // Return focus to the button once hidden
  buzyButton.value?.$el.focus()
}
</script>

Form confirmation prompt and upload status

This example is a bit more complex, but shows the use of no-wrap, and using the overlay slot to present the user with a prompt dialog, and once confirmed it shows an uploading status indicator. This example also demonstrates additional accessibility markup.

HTML
vue
<template>
  <BForm
    class="position-relative p-3"
    @submit.prevent="onFormSubmit"
  >
    <div class="row">
      <label
        class="col-lg-2"
        label-for="form-name"
        >Name</label
      >
      <BFormInput
        id="form-name"
        class="col"
        :disabled="formbusy"
      />
    </div>

    <div class="row mt-2">
      <label
        class="col-lg-2"
        label-for="form-email"
        >Email</label
      >
      <BFormInput
        id="form-email"
        class="col"
        type="email"
        :disabled="formbusy"
      />
    </div>

    <div class="d-flex justify-content-center mt-2">
      <BButton
        ref="formsubmit"
        type="submit"
        :disabled="formbusy"
        >Submit</BButton
      >
    </div>

    <BOverlay
      :show="formbusy"
      no-wrap
      @shown="onFormOverlayShown"
      @hidden="onFormOverlayHidden"
    >
      <template #overlay>
        <div
          v-if="processing"
          class="text-center p-4 bg-primary text-light rounded"
        >
          <div class="mb-3">Processing...</div>
          <BProgress
            min="1"
            max="20"
            :value="processingcounter"
            variant="success"
            height="3px"
            class="mx-n4 rounded-0"
          />
        </div>
        <div
          v-else
          ref="formdialog"
          tabindex="-1"
          role="dialog"
          aria-modal="false"
          aria-labelledby="form-confirm-label"
          class="text-center p-3"
        >
          <p><strong id="form-confirm-label">Are you sure?</strong></p>
          <div
            class="d-flex"
            style="column-gap: 5%"
          >
            <BButton
              variant="outline-danger"
              class="me-3"
              @click="onFormCancel"
            >
              Cancel
            </BButton>
            <BButton
              ref="successbutton"
              variant="outline-success"
              @click="onFormOK"
              >OK</BButton
            >
          </div>
        </div>
      </template>
    </BOverlay>
  </BForm>
</template>

<script setup lang="ts">
import {nextTick, ref, useTemplateRef} from 'vue'
import {BButton} from 'bootstrap-vue-next/components/BButton'

const formbusy = ref(false)
const processing = ref(false)
const processingcounter = ref(1)
const formdialog = useTemplateRef<HTMLElement>('formdialog')
const formsubmit = useTemplateRef<typeof BButton>('formsubmit')
const successbutton = useTemplateRef<typeof BButton>('successbutton')
let processingInterval: ReturnType<typeof setInterval> | null = null

const clearProcessingInterval = () => {
  if (processingInterval) {
    clearInterval(processingInterval)
    processingInterval = null
  }
}

const onFormOverlayShown = () => {
  // Focus on the dialog ok button when the overlay is shown
  successbutton.value?.$el.focus()
}

const onFormOverlayHidden = () => {
  // In this case, we return focus to the submit button
  // You may need to alter this based on your application requirements
  formsubmit.value?.$el.focus()
}

const onFormSubmit = () => {
  processing.value = false
  formbusy.value = true
}

const onFormCancel = () => {
  formbusy.value = false
}

const onFormOK = () => {
  processingcounter.value = 1
  processing.value = true
  clearProcessingInterval()
  processingInterval = setInterval(() => {
    if (processingcounter.value < 20) {
      processingcounter.value++
    } else {
      clearProcessingInterval()
      nextTick(() => {
        formbusy.value = false
        processing.value = false
      })
    }
  }, 350)
}
</script>

Using in BModal

The modal body has position: relative; set, so when using <BOverlay no-wrap ...> in the modal body only the modal body will be obscured. If you wish to obscure the entire modal (including the header and footer), you will need to set the BModal prop body-class to position-static, and also set the rounded prop on BOverlay.

Component Reference

<BOverlay>

PropTypeDefaultDescription
bg-colorstringundefined CSS color to use as the opaque overlay backdrop color. If set, overrides the `variant` prop
blurstring | null'2px' Value for the CSS blur backdrop-filter. Be sure to include the CSS units. Not supported in IE 11. Set to null or an empty string to disable blurring
fixedbooleanfalse When prop `no-wrap` is set, will use fixed positioning instead of absolute positioning. Handy if you want to obscure the entire application page
no-centerbooleanfalse When set, disables the vertical and horizontal centering of the overlay content
no-fadebooleanfalse Disables the fade transition of the overlay
no-spinnerbooleanfalse If set, will not show the spinner
no-wrapbooleanfalse Disabled generating the wrapper element, and ignored the default slot. Requires that `<b-overlay>` be placed in an element with position relative set
opacityNumberish0.85 Opacity of the overlay backdrop. Valid range is `0` to `1`
overlay-tagstring'div' Element tag to use as for the overlay element
roundedboolean | RadiusElement'false' Specifies the type of rounding to apply to the component or its children. The `square` prop takes precedence. Refer to the documentation for details
rounded-bottomboolean | RadiusElementundefined Specifies the type of rounding to apply to the `bottom` corners of the component or its children
rounded-endboolean | RadiusElementundefined Specifies the type of rounding to apply to the `end` corners of the component or its children
rounded-startboolean | RadiusElementundefined Specifies the type of rounding to apply to the `start` corners of the component or its children
rounded-topboolean | RadiusElementundefined Specifies the type of rounding to apply to the `top` corners of the component or its children
showbooleanfalse When set, shows the overlay
spinner-smallbooleanfalse When set, renders the default spinner in a smaller size
spinner-typeSpinnerType'border' Type of the default spinner to show. Current supported types are 'border' and 'grow'
spinner-variantColorVariant | nullundefined Applies one of the Bootstrap theme color variants to the spinner.
variantColorVariant | 'white' | 'transparent' | null'light' Applies one of the Bootstrap theme color variants to the default spinner. Default is to use the current font color
wrap-tagstring'div' Element tag to use for the overall wrapper element. Has no effect if prop `no-wrap` is set
z-indexNumberish10 Z-index value to apply to the overlay. You may need to increase this value to suit your content or placement
EventArgsDescription
click
click: MouseEvent - The native click event
Emitted when overlay is clicked
hiddenEmitted when the overlay has been hidden
shownEmitted when the overlay has been shown
NameScopeDescription
defaultThe content to be overlayed. The default slot is ignored if the prop `no-wrap` is set
overlay
type: SpinnerType
variant: ColorVariant | null
small: boolean
Custom content to replace the default overlay spinner