Displays a dialog box to the user and returns a text value based on the user's actions in the dialog box. @Prompt is useful for prompting a user for information and determining a course of action based on the user's input.

Summary of Dialog Box Styles

This table shows the different styles of dialog boxes you can display. @Prompt accepts parameters and returns a value based on the style you indicate.

Style	Purpose	Contains	Return value
ChooseDatabase	Allows user to select a database	Controls and displays for browsing databases; Open, Select, Cancel, Browse, Help, and About buttons	Text list of 3 values. Server name, file name, and title of database. Returns null for server name if the database is local.
LocalBrowse	Allows user to select a file name from the local file system	Controls and displays for browsing local file system; Select, Cancel, and Network or Help buttons	Text. File name that user selected or entered.
Ok	Displays an informational message	Title and prompt; OK button	1 (True).
OkCancelCombo	Allows user to select one value from a drop-down list of choices	Title and prompt; List of choices; OK and Cancel buttons	Text. Value that user selected.
OkCancelEdit	Allows user to type in text input	Title and prompt; Text box for input; OK and Cancel buttons	Text. Value that user entered.
OkCancelEditCombo	Allows user to select one value from a list of choices, or type in a different value	Title and prompt; List of choices with text box; OK and Cancel buttons	Text. Value that user selected or entered.
OkCancelList	Allows user to select one value from a list of choices	Title and prompt; List of choices; OK and Cancel buttons	Text. Value that user selected.
OkCancelListMult	Allows user to select multiple values from a list of choices	Title and prompt; List of choices; OK and Cancel buttons	Text list. All values that user selected.
Password	Allows user to enter password without displaying it on the screen	Title and prompt; Text box that accepts and hides user input; OK and Cancel buttons	Text. Password that user entered.
YesNo	Allows user to make a Yes/No decision	Title and prompt; Yes and No buttons	1 (True, Yes) or 0 (False, No).
YesNoCancel	Allows user to make a Yes/No decision, or Cancel	Title and prompt; Yes, No, and Cancel buttons	1 (True, Yes), 0 (False, No), or -1 (Cancel).

Syntax

@Prompt( [style] : [NoSort] ; title ; prompt ; defaultChoice ; choiceList ; filetype )

Parameters

[style]

Keyword. Required. Indicates the type of dialog box to display. May be any of the following:

[ChooseDatabase]

[LocalBrowse]

[Ok]

[OkCancelCombo]

[OkCancelEdit]

[OkCancelEditCombo]

[OkCancelList]

[OkCancelListMult]

[Password]

[YesNo]

[YesNoCancel]

Include the square brackets ([ ]); these identify the style parameters as keywords. If no [NoSort] keyword is provided, follow the style parameter with a semicolon (;).

Keyword. Optional. Include this keyword if you want the members of choiceList to appear in the exact order in which you enter them. If you omit this keyword, the members of choiceList are sorted alphabetically.

Text. The text you want displayed in the dialog box's title bar. Required for all styles, although you can specify a null string with "". The maximum number of characters you can include in a title is 65. Provide a null string with the [ChooseDatabase] keyword; you cannot replace the default "Choose Database" title.

Text. The text you want displayed within the dialog box. Required for all styles, except LocalBrowse. If you use a formula for prompt and that formula returns a list, only the first item in the list is displayed as the prompt. To display the entire list, use @Implode. You can specify a field name to display the contents of the field as the prompt, but the field must be a text field. If it is a number or datetime field, precede it with @Text. @NewLine cannot be used in prompt. Use @Char(13) to insert a carriage return. The maximum number of characters you can include in the text that displays is 255. Provide a null string for the [ChooseDatabase] keyword; you cannot display custom text in the Choose Database dialog box.

Text. The value that will be used as the default value for the user's input. The input section of the dialog box is primed with the value; the user can either accept it by clicking OK or replace it with another value. Not applicable to dialog boxes of style [Ok], [YesNo], [YesNoCancel], [LocalBrowse], or [Password]. Required for all other styles. For [OkCancelListMult], you can specify multiple default values as a text list "item1":"item2."

Text list. The values that you want displayed in the dialog box's list box. The user can select one of these values as the input. Separate the values with colons, as in: "PHONE.NSF":@MailDbName. Each value in your list can be a text string, or an @function that returns a text string. Required only with styles [OkCancelList], [OkCancelCombo], [OkCancelEditCombo], and [OkCancelListMult].

Text. A value that specifies the types of files to display initially: "1" for NSF files only; "2" for NTF files only; "3" for files of all type. Required only with style [LocalBrowse].

choice

• If the user enters a value, returns the value as text or a text list.
• If the user selects Yes, returns 1 (True).
• If the user selects No, returns 0 (False).
• If the user selects Cancel, formula evaluation stops. The exception is [YesNoCancel], which returns -1 if the user selects Cancel.
• @Prompt([OkCancelEdit]) returns only the first 254 characters of the text entered.

Use @Prompt in field formula, toolbar button, manual agent, form action, and view action formulas. This function does not work in column, selection, mail agent, or scheduled agent formulas, and has limited usefulness in window title and form formulas.

The title and prompt parameters are scalar. If you enter a list, only the first element displays. Use @Implode to convert the list to a string.

You cannot use this function in Web applications.

Language cross-reference

InputBox function of LotusScript language

DialogBoxCanceled property of LotusScript NotesUIDocument class

Prompt method of LotusScript NotesUIWorkspace class

Example
See Also

@DialogBox
Getting user input with @Prompt and @PickList
@PickList
Writing messages to the user
Examples: Lexical elements
Data types
Form fields
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Glossary