THE HYPERCARD CENTER

HyperTalk Reference

Note: This is a work in progress and will be formatting errors. Read more about the project on the home page.

ask

ask text1 [with text2]

ask password [clear] text1 [with text2]
ask file text1 [with fileName]

The ask command displays a question (text1 ) in a dialog box along with a text box where the user can type a reply. The ask dialog automatically provides the OK and Cancel buttons.

You can supply a default reply using the with text2 option. The default text appears highlighted in the text box.

Ask returns the text entered by the user, if any, in the local variable it. If the user clicks Cancel, ask places empty in it.

Ask also sets the HyperTalk function the result to empty if the user clicks OK or to Cancel if the user clicks Cancel. (So you can use the value of the result to determine whether the user provides an empty string or clicks Cancel.) You must check the result in the statement immediately after the ask command.

Note: ask automatically sizes the dialog box to fit the size of the text (up to thirteen lines). The total length of the text cannot exceed 254 characters for both the prompt and the default reply.

Ask password displays a bullet (•) for each character the user types and encrypts the reply as a number. You can save this number in a field to compare with future passwords. (The ask password clear form does not encrypt the reply, but it does display a bullet for each typed character.)

Note: ask password is different from setting the password of the stack with the Protect Stack dialog. With ask password, your handler must set and check any passwords.

Ask file displays a directory dialog box in which you type the name of a file. The with filename option provides a default name that appears in the text box.

Examples

-- userName is a global variable set up by the Home stack:
ask "Enter your name:" with userName 

ask "What time of day?" with "Noon"
if the result is "Cancel" then
   -- the user clicked the Cancel button
else if it is empty then
   -- the user clicked OK with no answer
else
   -- the user clicked OK and provided an answer
end if

ask password "Enter your password:"
if it is in card field "passwords" then allowAccess
else go Home

ask file "Save the file as:" with "Untitled"

Demo Script

on mouseUp
   -- convert some arbitrary seconds to the date  
   -- to get the date format as set for the system.
   put "1838246400" into someSeconds
   convert someSeconds to short date
   

   ask "Enter your birthday:" with someSeconds
   if the result is "Cancel" then answer "You clicked Cancel."
   else
     put convertBirthDayToDays(it) into numberOfDays
     if numberOfDays is not empty
     then answer "You are" && numberOfDays && "days old."
   end if
 end mouseUp
 

 function convertBirthDayToDays birthDay
   convert birthDay to seconds
   if the result is "invalid date" then beep
   else
     convert the date to seconds
     put it - birthDay into secondsOld
     return secondsOld / 86400 -- 86400 is the number of seconds in a day
   end if
 end convertBirthDayToDays

Placeholders

"my stack"
"HD20:Wally's Stacks:my stack"
"my file alias"

Related Topics

• answer