ASP.NET MVC modal dialog/popup best practice

I am looking for the most standard way to achieve modal dialogs in ASP.NET MVC.

An example of what I am trying to do is when I select an item from my "list" page, I want the "details" page to be a popup over the list and NOT a new page. I'm not looking for a hack. I want it to be a solution that follows the ASP.NET MVC pattern. I would also prefer not stepping outside jQuery and ASP.NET Ajax (no plugins UNLESS it is emerging as a best practice).

Solution 1:

The jQuery UI library has a dialog widget that I use for things like this. While it's a plugin, IMO, the best practice is simply not rolling your own dialog widget.

http://jqueryui.com/demos/dialog/

Solution 2:

Lunchy's dialog suggestion is nice. Just make an ajax request to your controller action and have the action return what you want to display, like a partial view with some formatting html. Then, put that html into your dialog, or whatever you plan to display, and show it.