Dialog Boxes
There are two types of dialog box within PTC ALD:
1. System dialog boxes are invoked by entering macros or PIs that allow the user to enter parameters for those commands
2. User-defined dialog boxes can be set to appear as part of the formatting of a user's document to request information that will build the document to a specific set of requirements
User defined dialog boxes allow user settings to be passed to scripts and/or variables to provide the contextual information needed to build this particular instance of this particular document.
The basic elements of a dialog box are:
• a title
• text
• conditions
• edit fields
• buttons
• the use of variables and exit buttons
All dialog boxes are defined by numbered strings or within a document's stream. Dialog box content items can be defined either in internal streams or external strings files and are invoked using macros, which either call the internal stream or the string number assigned by the external string file.
For further information about string files, string numbers and scripts please refer to the reference chapter Scripting. This chapter is located in the Reference Manuals section of the PTC ALD Help Center, accessed via the menu option.
The main macros used for creating dialog boxes are:
defstr
Define an PTC ALD string to be used to hold dialog box data
addstr
Add dialog box data to an PTC ALD string
wdb
Invoke a dialog box by displaying it on screen or passing its information to a set of variables.
twdb
Use the contents of a stream to create a dialog box without having to use defstr and addstr to define and add strings.
For an example of a basic dialog box, please refer to the
Basic Dialog Box Script Example.
For further information about dialog boxes and more complex script examples please refer to the reference chapter Dialogue Boxes. This chapter is located in the Reference Manuals section of the PTC ALD Help Center, accessed via the menu option.