Database Reference
In-Depth Information
▪
Show a simple message
. Users don't get to make a choice, but like a warning dialog
box, they have to click a button in response to your message.
▪
Ask a simple question
. Users can make a choice by clicking one of the buttons you
provide.
▪
Providing input fields
. Users can enter data into fields provided by the dialog box.
To use a custom dialog box in a script, move the
Show Custom Dialog
step into place in
your script and set the appropriate options for the type of message you need to show. When
the dialog box pops up, your script waits for user response (he has to click a button) and then
continues with the next step.
NOTE
The title, message boxes, and button names each have a Specify button that brings up the calculation
engine so you can make those items more dynamic. For instance, if someone wants to see all open
invoices for a particular customer, but the script doesn't find any, you can show a calculated mes-
sage that checks the Customer::Full Name fields and shows, “Kara Thrace's account is paid in full,”
instead of something equally true but less helpful, like “No records were found.”
Showing a Simple Message
The custom dialog box you created in the “Send Email to Customer” script on
Branching
with If, Else If, Else, and End If
was a simple message with one button for user response.
That message lets users know that the current customer record doesn't have an email address,
so no email can be sent (
Figure 17-3
). Button text is customizable, and you can even use the
Specify Calculation dialog box to write a calculation that makes the button's text dynamic.
But you should limit their text to short words like OK or Cancel. The technical limit is 32
characters, but anything longer than about 10 characters gets chopped off, and there's no way
to make a button larger. See the box on
Testing Multiple Conditions Redux
to learn how to
think like a programmer when you're showing your users a message.
