Close requests, close watchers, and the dialog element

The latest version of Chrome (134) comes with a new light-dismiss behavior for the dialog element, which enables a native click-outside feature. That’s fantastic! Reading the announcement, I wondered how many ways there are to close a dialog element.

The specification states that a user can send a close request to the user agent, indicating that the user wishes to close something currently being shown on the screen, such as a popover, menu, or dialog. There are also close watchers, which listen to other close or cancel actions.

My goal is to collect all close requests and watchers in this blog post. Please get in touch if anything is missing.

Source: Close requests, close watchers, and the dialog element – Manuel Matuzovic