Materialize modal idle
I wrote a simple code to materialize. HTML code:
<a class="waves-effect waves-light btn view" data-target="modal1">View Scores</a>
<!-- Modal Structure -->
<div id="modal1" class="modal">
  <div class="modal-content">
    <h4>Modal Header</h4>
    <p>A bunch of text</p>
  </div>
  <div class="modal-footer">
    <a href="#!" class=" modal-action modal-close waves-effect waves-green btn-flat">Agree</a>
  </div>
</div>  
JS Code:
$(document).ready(function() {
  // the "href" attribute of .modal-trigger must specify the modal ID that wants to be triggered
  /*$('.view').click(function (){
    $('#modal1').modal('open'); 
    alert('edskjcxnm');
  });*/
  /*$('.view').leanModal();*/
  $('#modal1').modal('open');
});  
JSFiddle link: https://jsfiddle.net/7f6hmgcf/
Why doesn't it work?
Initialize all modalities first. $('.modal').modal();
The full code will look like this:
(function ($) {
    $(function () {
        //initialize all modals           
        $('.modal').modal();
        //now you can open modal from code
        $('#modal1').modal('open');
        //or by click on trigger
        $('.trigger-modal').modal();
    }); // end of document ready
})(jQuery); // end of jQuery name space
Not 100% sure what you are asking here, but if you ask how to trigger a modal click on a button, you can simply do this by setting onclick as follows:
<a class="waves-effect waves-light btn view" onclick="$('#modal1').modal('open');">View Scores</a>$('# modal1'). modal ('open'); js, :
$(document).ready(function() {
    $('#modal1').modal();
});
: https://jsfiddle.net/AndreasMolle/7f6hmgcf/13/
:
Materializecss , , .
  <!-- Modal Trigger -->
  <a class="waves-effect waves-light btn  modal-trigger" href="#modal1">Modal</a>
   <!-- Modal Structure -->
  <div id="modal1" class="modal">
  <div class="modal-content">
  <h4>Modal Header</h4>
  <p>A bunch of text</p>
  </div>
  <div class="modal-footer">
  <a href="#!" class=" modal-action modal-close waves-effect waves-green   btn-flat">Agree</a>
  </div>
  </div>
 <script>
 $(document).ready(function(){
 // the "href" attribute of .modal-trigger must specify the modal ID that   wants to be triggered
 $('.modal-trigger').leanModal();
 });
  </script>