Dialogs are modal forms that inherit from Progress.Windows.Form and that block for user input. Dialog forms are used to interact with the user and retrieve information, in a similar way to an ABL FRAME defined WITH VIEW-AS DIALOG-BOX.

You can construct your own application-specific dialog in the OpenEdge Visual Designer and add controls such as Label, Textbox, and Button to customize the dialog form to your specific needs. .NET also includes predefined dialog forms, such as File Open and message boxes, which you can use programmatically in your own applications.

You can use ABL dialog-boxes and .NET dialog forms in the same application. The ABL MESSAGE statement is similar to the System.Windows.Forms.Application:MessageBox( ) method, both of which display similar types of alert boxes which represent a different type of dialog using a dedicated event loop. The ABL SYSTEM-DIALOG COLOR statement is comparable to the .NET System.Windows.Forms.ColorDialog or System.Windows.Forms.FileDialog.