Dialogs and Message Boxes in VB6

Common Dialog Control

• The FileOpen method calls VBGetOpenFileName, which calls Windows GetOpenFileName.
• The FileSaveAs method calls VBGetSaveFileName, which calls Windows GetSaveFileName.
• The FilePrint method calls VBPrintDlg, which calls Windows PrintDlg.
• The FilePageSetup method calls VBPageSetupDlg, which calls Windows PageSetupDlg.
• The OptionFont method calls VBChooseFont, which calls Windows ChooseFont.
• The OptionColor method calls VBChooseColor, which calls Windows ChooseColor.

 

Private Sub mnuFileOpen_Click()
  If edit.DirtyDialog Then edit.FileOpen
  dropFile.Text = edit.filename
  SetTextMode edit.TextMode
End Sub

After checking that the current file is saved, call the FileOpen method of the XEditor object. FileOpen in turn calls VBGetOpenFileName:

Function FileOpen() As Boolean
  Dim f As Boolean, sFile As String, fReadOnly As Boolean
  f = VBGetOpenFileName( _
    FileName:=sFile, _
    ReadOnly:=fReadOnly, _
    Filter:=FilterString, _
    Owner:=hWnd)
  If f And sFile <> sEmpty Then
    TextMode = Not IsRTF(sFile)
    LoadFile sFile
    If fReadOnly Then Locked = True
    FileOpen = True
  End If
End Function

Pass the result to the LoadFile method.

 

References

You may install the Common Dialog ActiveX Component - comdlg32.ocx - in the ToolBox or use the CDCOpenSave.cls file*

asterik * - class in S2Album

 

Message Boxes

The MsgBox Function displays a message in a dialog box, waits for the user to click a button, and returns an Integer indicating which button the user clicked. It can be used to provide information or prompt for a user decision.

Syntax

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

Constants

• vbOKOnly 0 Display OK button only. (default)
• vbOKCancel 1 Display OK and Cancel buttons.
• vbAbortRetryIgnore 2 Display Abort, Retry, and Ignore buttons.
• vbYesNoCancel 3 Display Yes, No, and Cancel buttons.
• vbYesNo 4 Display Yes and No buttons.
• vbRetryCancel 5 Display Retry and Cancel buttons.

• vbCritical 16 Display Critical Message icon.
• vbQuestion 32 Display Warning Query icon.
• vbExclamation 48 Display Warning Message icon.
• vbInformation 64 Display Information Message icon.

• vbDefaultButton1 0 First button is default.
• vbDefaultButton2 256 Second button is default.
• vbDefaultButton3 512 Third button is default.
• vbDefaultButton4 768 Fourth button is default.

• vbApplicationModal 0 Application modal; the user must respond to the message box before continuing work in the current application.
• vbSystemModal 4096 System modal; all applications are suspended until the user responds to the message box.

• vbMsgBoxHelpButton 16384 Adds Help button to the message box
• VbMsgBoxSetForeground 65536 Specifies the message box window as the foreground window
• vbMsgBoxRight 524288 Text is right aligned
• vbMsgBoxRtlReading 1048576 Specifies text should appear as right-to-left reading on Hebrew and Arabic systems

Return Values

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

Display a popup alert with a message and OK button:

 MsgBox "Invalid input!"

The OK CANCEL dialog:

 iYN = Msg("Click OK to Proceed". vbOkCancel,"Startup Menu")

An Alert with YES, NO, and CANCEL (! graphic):

 iYN = MsgBox("Click to Test", vbYesNoCancel + vbExclamation, "Test Message")

Simple exit program confirm

 Private Sub Command1_Click()
   Select Case MsgBox("Do you really wish to quit this program?", vbOKCancel + vbQuestion, "Confirmation")
     Case vbOK
       Unload Me
   End Select
 End Sub

 

The Input Box

An InputBox( ) function will display a message box where the user can enter a value or a message in the form of text.

Format:

 myMessage=InputBox(Prompt, Title, default_text, x-position, y-position)

• Prompt - The message displayed normally as a question asked.
• Title - The title of the Input Box.
• default-text - The default text that appears in the input field where users can use it as his intended input or he may change to the message he wish to key in.
• x-position and y-position - the position or the coordinate of the input box.

Example

userMsg = InputBox("What is your message?", "Message Entry Form", "Enter your messge here", 500, 700)