Chunk of jQuery that could be used to open up a linked URL into a modal. Although hasn't been used in a long while.

modal.js

/* Modal Script */
jQuery(function($) {$(document).ready(function() {

/* Modal windows */
$.fn.thedialog = function(settings) {
	// Options
	var o = $.extend({
	title: 'h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,legend,label,p',
	focus: 'a,input,button,select,textarea,[tabindex]',
	buttons: false
	},settings);
	// Return jquery
	 $(this).each(function() {
		// Close any existing dialogs
		$('#dialog').trigger('close');
		// Disable tabbable elements with tabIndex="-1"
		$('a,input,button,select,textarea,[tabindex],iframe').attr('tabIndex', '-1');
		// Create modal overlay/background
		var overlay = $('<div class="overlay"></div>');
		// Styles for IE
		overlay.css('opacity', 0.7).children(0).css('opacity',0);
		// Dialog wrapper
		var dialog = $('<div id="dialog" role="dialog" aria-labelledby="dialog-title"></div>');
		// FadeIn effect on open
		dialog.fadeIn('slow');
		// Close event
		dialog.bind('close',function() {
			overlay.remove();
			dialog.remove();
			$('body').removeClass('blocked');
			$(document).unbind('keydown.dialog focus.dialog');
			$('a,input,button,select,textarea,[tabindex],iframe').removeAttr('tabIndex');
		});
		// Closelink with aria support
			var closelink = $('<button class="dialog-close" aria-label="Close this dialog">Close</button>');
			// Close button click
			closelink.click(function() {
				dialog.trigger('close');
				return false;
			});
			// Close on esc key (27)
			$(document).bind('keydown.dialog', function(e) {
				if(e.which == 27) dialog.trigger('close');
			});
			// Close on background click
			overlay.click(function() {
				dialog.trigger('close');
				return false;
			});
		// Dialog content
		var dialogContent = $('<div class="dialog-content"></div>').append(this).appendTo(dialog);
		closelink.appendTo(dialog);
		// Specify dialog title (first heading in a dialog)
		dialog.find(o.title).eq(0).attr('id', 'dialog-title');
		// Add blocked class to body, append overlay and append dialog
		$('body').addClass('blocked').append(overlay).append(dialog);
		// Move focus to dialog title
		if(dialogContent.find(o.focus).length) dialogContent.find(o.focus).eq(0).focus();
		// Resize modal
		modalResize();
	});
};

// The Resize function, also triggers on window.resize
$(window).resize(function() {modalResize();});
var modalResize = function() {
	var dialog = $('#dialog');
	if (dialog && dialog.is(':visible')) {
		var width = $(window).width()*0.65;
		var height = $(window).height()*0.8;
		dialog.css("width", width);
		dialog.css("height", height);
		var x = ($(window).width()*0.5) - (width*0.5);
		var y = ($(window).height()*0.5) - (height*0.5);
		$(window).scrollTop(y);
		dialog.css("left", x + "px");
		dialog.css("top", y + "px");
		// If fitVids exists, do it
		if ($.isFunction($.fn.fitVids)) {
			dialog.fitVids();
		}
	}
};

// To ajax get the modal contents
$.openmodal = function(url) {
	// Differentiate url from selector
	var splitUrl = url.split(' ');
	var justUrl = splitUrl[0];
	splitUrl.shift();
	if(splitUrl.length) var subset = splitUrl.join(' ');
	// Get the ajax data
	$.get(justUrl,function(data) {
		// Make it a string
		var response = $(data);
		if(subset != ' ') response = response.find(subset);
		if(response.length == 0) response=$('<div class="box-error">Modal window load error</div>');
		response.thedialog();
	});
};

// Any link with class="modal" will trigger this
$('a.modal').click(function(e){
	if($(window).width() > 720 ){
		$.openmodal($(this).attr('href')+' #content', {});
		return false;
	}
});

});}); // End document.ready and jQuery