August 26, 2001 - Passing a String to the Dialog Box | WebReference

August 26, 2001 - Passing a String to the Dialog Box

Yehuda Shiran August 26, 2001
Passing a String to the Dialog Box
Tips: August 2001

Yehuda Shiran, Ph.D.
Doc JavaScript

The second argument of the functions showModalDialog() and showModelessDialog() can be used to pass parameters by value from the caller to the callee. Passing by value means that the callee cannot change the argument passed to it by the caller, because it is the argument's value that is being passed, not its address. The argument can be of any type: scalar, array, string, object, etc. Let's take a look at a simple example. Pop up a dialog box with this statement:

window.showModelessDialog('010826a.html','Doc JavaScript');
The page 010826a.html includes some text and the following script:

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
<!--
  alert(dialogArguments);
// -->
</SCRIPT>

The window object property dialogArguments is set to the second parameter passed by showModelessDialog(). We passed the string "Doc JavaScript", and indeed the alert box in 010826a.html pops up this string. Try displaying 010826a.html by itself, and you'll get an undefined parameter error (dialogArguments).

For more on modal and modeless dialog boxes, go to Column 90, Modal and Modeless Dialog Boxes.