VBScript - Dialog Boxes - Adglob Infosystem Pvt Ltd

What is a Dialog Box ?

VBScript allows the developers to interact with the user effectively. It can be a message box to display a message to a user or an input box with which user can enter the values.

VBScript MsgBox Function

The MsgBox function displays a message box and waits for the user to click a button and then an action is performed based on the button clicked by the user.

Syntax

MsgBox(prompt[,buttons][,title][,helpfile,context])

Parameter Description

Prompt − A Required Parameter. A String that is displayed as a message in the dialog box. The maximum length of prompt is approximately 1024 characters. If the message extends to more than a line, then we can separate the lines using a carriage return character (Chr(13)) or a linefeed character (Chr(10)) between each line.
buttons − An Optional Parameter. A Numeric expression that specifies the type of buttons to display, the icon style to use, the identity of the default button, and the modality of the message box. If left blank, the default value for buttons is 0.
Title − An Optional Parameter. A String expression displayed in the title bar of the dialog box. If the title is left blank, the application name is placed in the title bar.
helpfile − An Optional Parameter. A String expression that identifies the Help file to use to provide context-sensitive help for the dialog box.
context − An Optional Parameter. A Numeric expression that identifies the Help context number assigned by the Help author to the appropriate Help topic. If context is provided, helpfile must also be provided.

The Buttons parameter can take any of the following values −

0 vbOKOnly Displays OK button only.
1 vbOKCancel Displays OK and Cancel buttons.
2 vbAbortRetryIgnore Displays Abort, Retry, and Ignore buttons.
3 vbYesNoCancel Displays Yes, No, and Cancel buttons.
4 vbYesNo Displays Yes and No buttons.
5 vbRetryCancel Displays Retry and Cancel buttons.
16 vbCritical Displays Critical Message icon.
32 vbQuestion Displays Warning Query icon.
48 vbExclamation Displays Warning Message icon.
64 vbInformation Displays Information Message icon.
0 vbDefaultButton1 First button is default.
256 vbDefaultButton2 Second button is default.
512 vbDefaultButton3 Third button is default.
768 vbDefaultButton4 Fourth button is default.
0 vbApplicationModal Application modal. The current application will not work until the user responds to the message box.
4096 vbSystemModal System modal. All applications will not work until the user responds to the message box.

The above values are logically divided into four groups: The first group(0 to 5) indicates the buttons to be displayed in the message box. The second group (16, 32, 48, 64) describes the sytle of the icon to be displayed, the third group (0, 256, 512, 768) indicates which button must be the default, and the fourth group (0, 4096) determines the modality of the message box.

Return Values

The MsgBox function can return one of the following values −

1 – vbOK – OK was clicked
2 – vbCancel – Cancel was clicked
3 – vbAbort – Abort was clicked
4 – vbRetry – Retry was clicked
5 – vbIgnore – Ignore was clicked
6 – vbYes – Yes was clicked
7 – vbNo – No was clicked

Example

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
   <body>
      <script language = "vbscript" type = "text/vbscript">
         'Message Box with just prompt message
         MsgBox("Welcome")    
           
         'Message Box with title, yes no and cancel Butttons 
         a = MsgBox("Do you like blue color?",3,"Choose options")
         ' Assume that you press No Button	
         document.write("The Value of a is " & a)
         
      </script>
   </body>
</html>

When the above script is executed, the message box is displayed, and if you press No Button, then the value of a is 7.

The Value of a is 7

VBScript InputBox Function

The InputBox function helps the user to get the values from the user. After entering the values, if the user clicks the OK button or presses ENTER on the keyboard, the InputBox function will return the text in the text box. If the user clicks on the Cancel button, the function will return an empty string (“”).

Syntax

InputBox(prompt[,title][,default][,xpos][,ypos][,helpfile,context])

Parameter Description

Prompt − A Required Parameter. A String that is displayed as a message in the dialog box. The maximum length of prompt is approximately 1024 characters. If the message extends to more than a line, then we can separate the lines using a carriage return character (Chr(13)) or a linefeed character (Chr(10)) between each line.
Title − An Optional Parameter. A String expression displayed in the title bar of the dialog box. If the title is left blank, the application name is placed in the title bar.
Default − An Optional Parameter. A default text in the text box that the user would like to be displayed.
XPos − An Optional Parameter. The Position of X axis which represents the prompt distance from left side of the screen horizontally. If left blank, the input box is horizontally centered.
YPos − An Optional Parameter. The Position of Y axis which represents the prompt distance from left side of the screen Vertically. If left blank, the input box is Vertically centered.
helpfile − An Optional Parameter. A String expression that identifies the Help file to use to provide context-sensitive Help for the dialog box.
context − An Optional Parameter. A Numeric expression that identifies the Help context number assigned by the Help author to the appropriate Help topic. If context is provided, helpfile must also be provided.

Example

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
   <body>
      <script language = "vbscript" type = "text/vbscript">
         ' Input Box with only Prompt
         InputBox("Enter a number")    
        
         ' Input Box with a Title
         a = InputBox("Enter a Number","Enter Value")
         msgbox a
        
         ' Input Box with a Prompt,Title and Default value
         a = InputBox("Enter a Number","Enter Value",123)
         msgbox a
        
         ' Input Box with a Prompt,Title,Default and XPos
         a = InputBox("Enter your name","Enter Value",123,700)
         msgbox a
        
         ' Input Box with a Prompt,Title and Default and YPos
         a = InputBox("Enter your name","Enter Value",123,,500)
         msgbox a
         
      </script>
   </body>
</html>

When the above script is executed, the input box is displayed and displays the entered value by the user.