Prompt Dialog in Windows Forms

Question

I am using System Windows Forms but strangely enough don t have the ability to create them   How can I get something like a javascript prompt dialog  without javascript   MessageBox is nice  but there is no way for the user to enter an input   I want the user to enter any text input possible

User · Answer

There is no such thing natively in Windows Forms.

You have to create your own form for that or:

use the Microsoft.VisualBasic reference.

Inputbox is legacy code brought into .Net for VB6 compatibility - so i advise to not do this.

User · Answer

Unfortunately C  still doesn t offer this capability in the built in libs  The best solution at present is to create a custom class with a method that pops up a small form  If you re working in Visual Studio you can do this by clicking on Project  Add class    Visual C  items  code  class   Name the class PopUpBox  you can rename it later if you like  and paste in the following code   using System Drawing  using System Windows Forms   namespace yourNameSpaceHere       public class PopUpBox               private static Form prompt   get  set             public static string GetUserInput string instructions  string caption                        string sUserInput                   prompt   new Form     create a new form at run time                               Width   500  Height   150  FormBorderStyle   FormBorderStyle FixedDialog  Text   caption                  StartPosition   FormStartPosition CenterScreen  TopMost   true                              create a label for the form which will have instructions for user input             Label lblTitle   new Label     Left   50  Top   20  Text   instructions  Dock   DockStyle Top  TextAlign   ContentAlignment TopCenter                TextBox txtTextInput   new TextBox     Left   50  Top   50  Width   400                                             OK button             Button btnOK   new Button     Text    OK   Left   250  Width   100  Top   70  DialogResult   DialogResult OK                btnOK Click     sender  e    gt                                 sUserInput   txtTextInput Text                  prompt Close                               prompt Controls Add txtTextInput               prompt Controls Add btnOK               prompt Controls Add lblTitle               prompt AcceptButton   btnOK                                                                                             Cancel button             Button btnCancel   new Button     Text    Cancel   Left   350  Width   100  Top   70  DialogResult   DialogResult Cancel                btnCancel Click     sender  e    gt                                 sUserInput    cancel                   prompt Close                               prompt Controls Add btnCancel               prompt CancelButton   btnCancel                                                                   prompt ShowDialog                return sUserInput                     public void Dispose            prompt Dispose               You will need to change the namespace to whatever you re using  The method returns a string  so here s an example of how to implement it in your calling method   bool boolTryAgain   false   do       string sTextFromUser   PopUpBox GetUserInput  Enter your text below     Dialog box title        if  sTextFromUser                      DialogResult dialogResult   MessageBox Show  You did not enter anything  Try again     Error   MessageBoxButtons YesNo           if  dialogResult    DialogResult Yes                        boolTryAgain   true    will reopen the dialog for user to input text again                   else if  dialogResult    DialogResult No                          exit cancel             MessageBox Show  operation cancelled                boolTryAgain   false             end if           else               if  sTextFromUser     cancel                         MessageBox Show  operation cancelled                      else                       MessageBox Show  Here is the text you entered       sTextFromUser                       do something here with the user input                    while  boolTryAgain    true     This method checks the returned string for a text value  empty string  or  cancel   the getUserInput method returns  cancel  if the cancel button is clicked  and acts accordingly  If the user didn t enter anything and clicked OK it will tell the user and ask them if they want to cancel or re-enter their text   Post notes  In my own implementation I found that all of the other answers were missing 1 or more of the following    A cancel button The ability to contain symbols in the string sent to the method How to access the method and handle the returned value    Thus  I have posted my own solution  I hope someone finds it useful  Credit to Bas and Gideon   commenters for your contributions  you helped me to come up with a workable solution

User · Answer

here s my refactored version which accepts multiline single as an option     public string ShowDialog string text  string caption  bool isMultiline   false  int formWidth   300  int formHeight   200                        var prompt   new Form                               Width   formWidth                  Height   isMultiline   formHeight   formHeight - 70                  FormBorderStyle   isMultiline   FormBorderStyle Sizable   FormBorderStyle FixedSingle                  Text   caption                  StartPosition   FormStartPosition CenterScreen                  MaximizeBox   isMultiline                             var textLabel   new Label                               Left   10                  Padding   new Padding 0  3  0  0                   Text   text                  Dock   DockStyle Top                             var textBox   new TextBox                               Left   isMultiline   50   4                  Top   isMultiline   50   textLabel Height   4                  Multiline   isMultiline                  Dock   isMultiline   DockStyle Fill   DockStyle None                  Width   prompt Width - 24                  Anchor   isMultiline   AnchorStyles Left   AnchorStyles Top   AnchorStyles Left   AnchorStyles Right                             var confirmationButton   new Button                               Text     OK                   Cursor   Cursors Hand                  DialogResult   DialogResult OK                  Dock   DockStyle Bottom                              confirmationButton Click     sender  e    gt                                prompt Close                                prompt Controls Add textBox               prompt Controls Add confirmationButton               prompt Controls Add textLabel                return prompt ShowDialog      DialogResult OK   textBox Text   string Empty

User · Answer

You need to create your own Prompt dialog  You could perhaps create a class for this   public static class Prompt       public static string ShowDialog string text  string caption                Form prompt   new Form                         Width   500              Height   150              FormBorderStyle   FormBorderStyle FixedDialog              Text   caption              StartPosition   FormStartPosition CenterScreen                    Label textLabel   new Label     Left   50  Top 20  Text text            TextBox textBox   new TextBox     Left   50  Top 50  Width 400            Button confirmation   new Button     Text    Ok   Left 350  Width 100  Top 70  DialogResult   DialogResult OK            confirmation Click     sender  e    gt    prompt Close               prompt Controls Add textBox           prompt Controls Add confirmation           prompt Controls Add textLabel           prompt AcceptButton   confirmation           return prompt ShowDialog      DialogResult OK   textBox Text                 And calling it   string promptValue   Prompt ShowDialog  Test    123      Update   Added default button  enter key  and initial focus based on comments and another question

User · Answer

It s generally not a real good idea to import the VisualBasic libraries into C  programs  not because they won t work  but just for compatibility  style  and ability to upgrade   but you can call Microsoft VisualBasic Interaction InputBox   to display the kind of box you re looking for   If you can create a Windows Forms object  that would be best  but you say you cannot do that

User · Answer

Add reference to Microsoft VisualBasic and use this into your C  code   string input   Microsoft VisualBasic Interaction InputBox  Prompt                            Title                            Default                           0                          0     To add the refernce  right-click on the References in your Project Explorer window then on Add Reference  and check VisualBasic from that list

User · Answer

The answer of Bas can get you in memorytrouble theoretically  since ShowDialog won t be disposed  I think this is a more proper way  Also mention the textLabel being readable with longer text   public class Prompt   IDisposable       private Form prompt   get  set        public string Result   get         public Prompt string text  string caption                Result   ShowDialog text  caption               use a using statement     private string ShowDialog string text  string caption                prompt   new Form                         Width   500              Height   150              FormBorderStyle   FormBorderStyle FixedDialog              Text   caption              StartPosition   FormStartPosition CenterScreen              TopMost   true                    Label textLabel   new Label     Left   50  Top   20  Text   text  Dock   DockStyle Top  TextAlign   ContentAlignment MiddleCenter            TextBox textBox   new TextBox     Left   50  Top   50  Width   400            Button confirmation   new Button     Text    Ok   Left   350  Width   100  Top   70  DialogResult   DialogResult OK            confirmation Click     sender  e    gt    prompt Close               prompt Controls Add textBox           prompt Controls Add confirmation           prompt Controls Add textLabel           prompt AcceptButton   confirmation           return prompt ShowDialog      DialogResult OK   textBox Text                  public void Dispose                   See Marcus comment         if  prompt    null                 prompt Dispose                         Implementation   using Prompt prompt   new Prompt  text    caption         string result   prompt Result

User · Answer

Bas Brekelmans s answer is very elegant in its simplicity   But  I found that for an actual application a little more is needed such as    Grow form appropriately when message text is too long  Doesn t automatically popup in middle of screen  Doesn t provide any validation of user input    The class here handles these limitations  http   www codeproject com Articles 31315 Getting-User-Input-With-Dialogs-Part-1  I just downloaded source and copied InputBox cs into my project   Surprised there isn t something even better though    My only real complaint is it  caption text doesn t support newlines in it since it uses a label control

User · Answer

Here s an example in VB NET  Public Function ShowtheDialog caption As String  text As String  selStr As String  As String     Dim prompt As New Form       prompt Width   280     prompt Height   160     prompt Text   caption     Dim textLabel As New Label   With               Left   16              Top   20              Width   240              Text   text             Dim textBox As New TextBox   With               Left   16              Top   40              Width   240              TabIndex   0              TabStop   True             Dim selLabel As New Label   With               Left   16              Top   66              Width   88              Text   selStr             Dim cmbx As New ComboBox   With               Left   112              Top   64              Width   144             cmbx Items Add  Dark Grey       cmbx Items Add  Orange       cmbx Items Add  None       cmbx SelectedIndex   0     Dim confirmation As New Button   With               Text    In Ordnung                Left   16              Width   80              Top   88              TabIndex   1              TabStop   True             AddHandler confirmation Click  Sub sender  e  prompt Close       prompt Controls Add textLabel      prompt Controls Add textBox      prompt Controls Add selLabel      prompt Controls Add cmbx      prompt Controls Add confirmation      prompt AcceptButton   confirmation     prompt StartPosition   FormStartPosition CenterScreen     prompt ShowDialog       Return String Format   0   1    textBox Text  cmbx SelectedItem ToString    End Function

User · Answer

Based on the work of Bas Brekelmans above  I have also created two derivations -   input  dialogs that allow you to receive from the user both a text value and a boolean  TextBox and CheckBox    public static class PromptForTextAndBoolean       public static string ShowDialog string caption  string text  string boolStr                Form prompt   new Form            prompt Width   280          prompt Height   160          prompt Text   caption          Label textLabel   new Label     Left   16  Top   20  Width   240  Text   text            TextBox textBox   new TextBox     Left   16  Top   40  Width   240  TabIndex   0  TabStop   true            CheckBox ckbx   new CheckBox     Left   16  Top   60  Width   240  Text   boolStr            Button confirmation   new Button     Text    Okay    Left   16  Width   80  Top   88  TabIndex   1  TabStop   true            confirmation Click     sender  e    gt    prompt Close               prompt Controls Add textLabel           prompt Controls Add textBox           prompt Controls Add ckbx           prompt Controls Add confirmation           prompt AcceptButton   confirmation          prompt StartPosition   FormStartPosition CenterScreen          prompt ShowDialog            return string Format   0   1    textBox Text  ckbx Checked ToString                  and text along with a selection of one of multiple options  TextBox and ComboBox    public static class PromptForTextAndSelection       public static string ShowDialog string caption  string text  string selStr                Form prompt   new Form            prompt Width   280          prompt Height   160          prompt Text   caption          Label textLabel   new Label     Left   16  Top   20  Width   240  Text   text            TextBox textBox   new TextBox     Left   16  Top   40  Width   240  TabIndex   0  TabStop   true            Label selLabel   new Label     Left   16  Top   66  Width   88  Text   selStr            ComboBox cmbx   new ComboBox     Left   112  Top   64  Width   144            cmbx Items Add  Dark Grey            cmbx Items Add  Orange            cmbx Items Add  None            Button confirmation   new Button     Text    In Ordnung    Left   16  Width   80  Top   88  TabIndex   1  TabStop   true            confirmation Click     sender  e    gt    prompt Close               prompt Controls Add textLabel           prompt Controls Add textBox           prompt Controls Add selLabel           prompt Controls Add cmbx           prompt Controls Add confirmation           prompt AcceptButton   confirmation          prompt StartPosition   FormStartPosition CenterScreen          prompt ShowDialog            return string Format   0   1    textBox Text  cmbx SelectedItem ToString               Both require the same usings   using System  using System Windows Forms    Call them like so   Call them like so   PromptForTextAndBoolean ShowDialog  Jazz    What text should accompany the checkbox     Allow Scat Singing      PromptForTextAndSelection ShowDialog  Rock    What should the name of the band be     Beret color to wear

User · Answer

Other way of doing this  Assuming that you have a TextBox input type  Create a Form  and have the textbox value as a public property   public partial class TextPrompt   Form       public string Value               get   return tbText Text Trim                 public TextPrompt string promptInstructions                InitializeComponent             lblPromptText Text   promptInstructions             private void BtnSubmitText Click object sender  EventArgs e                Close               private void TextPrompt Load object sender  EventArgs e                CenterToParent              In the main form  this will be the code   var t   new TextPrompt this   Type the name of the settings file     t ShowDialog        This way  the code looks cleaner    If validation logic is added  If various other input types are added

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