A dialog box is an ESL object used to request information from the user. It is always displayed on top of a region. When more than one region occupies a single location on the screen, the dialog box always appears on top of the regions. A dialog box can be moved but its size cannot be changed.
Note that a response to char or response to line from keyboard cannot be taken while in a dialog box or a dialog region.
There are two types of dialog boxes:
Modal |
When made visible, no other ESL objects can be selected until the box is made invisible or deleted. |
Modeless |
When made visible, allows the user to interact with other visible objects. |
Note that a modal dialog box is only modal to the parent and children of the window that was active when the dialog box was made visible.
Dialog boxes are made up of any combination of the following dialog control objects:
Single-line entry fields
Multi-line entry fields
List boxes
Combination boxes
Drop-down lists
Drop-down combination boxes
Pushbuttons
Radio buttons
Spin buttons
Check boxes
Static text objects
Group box objects
Slider objects
Table objects
A dialog box can have only dialog controls as its children. A dialog box cannot be the primary region.
Dialog boxes are defined in dialog units. Dialog units are proportional to the size of the Windows system font. A dialog unit is defined to be one-quarter of the average width and one-eighth of the maximum height of the system font.
