ui.dialog
=================

.. py:function:: ui.dialog(widgets)
   
    *New in metview-python version 1.9.0*.
   
    Creates a popup editor from a list of widget components and returns user input. It requires the Metview user interface to be installed.
      
    :param widgets: list of widget components
    :rtype: dict

    The example below shows how :func:`ui.dialog` can be used with various widget components:

        .. code-block:: python

            import metview as mv

            a = mv.ui.icon(
                name="input data",
                class_="GRIB"
            )

            b = mv.ui.any(
                name="verif date (yyyy-mm-dd)",
                default="2012-03-01",
                help="help_script",
                help_script_command="echo Dates must be in YYYY-MM-DD format"
            )

            c = mv.ui.slider(
                name="days",
                min=1,
                max=10,
                default=5
            )

            d = mv.ui_option_menu(
                name="parameter", 
                values=["UV", "t"],
                default="t"
            )
        
            e = mv.ui.any(
                name="area",
                help="help_input",
                input_type="area",
                default=[30,-25,50,65] # S, W, N, E
            )

            f = mv.ui.colour(
                name="isoline_colour",
                default="green"
            )

            g = mv.ui.toggle(
                name="show_title",
                default="on"
            )  

            # retrieve the user input values
            x = mv.ui.dialog([a, b, c, d, e, f, g])

            print("area=", x["area"])

    The actual popup editor generated by :func:`ui.dialog` looks like this:

        .. image:: /_static/api/dialog_1.png
            :width: 320px


    The table below lists all the available widget components:

    .. list-table::
        :widths: 20 80
        :header-rows: 0

        * - :func:`ui.any`
          - value input widget
      
        * - :func:`ui.colour`
          - colour selector widget

        * - :func:`ui.icon`
          - icon drop area widget

        * - :func:`ui.option_menu`
          - option menu (combobox) widget

        * - :func:`ui.slider`
          - slider widget

        * - :func:`ui.toggle`
          - on/off toggle button widgets


.. mv-minigallery:: ui.dialog