dialog boxes In BASH

dialog - display dialog boxes from shell scripts.

'dialog' is a utility for building console-based 'front ends' in UNIX like operating systems.
In this brief tutorial I am mentioning the usage of few important basic controls available with this 'dialog' utility and later I have created a very simple front end application in UNIX bash scripting using dialog.

note-

first install dialog rpm via YUM

#yum install dialog*  -y        {In REDHAT}

To install 'dialog' on your ubuntu:

# apt-get install dialog         {In Ubuntu}

 Example-1

Checklist box:

A checklist box allows you to present a set of choices to the user 
and the user can toggle each one on or off individually using the space 
bar.

# dialog --checklist "Choose OS:" 15 40 5 1 Linux off 2 Solaris on 3 'HP UX' off 4 AIX off 

Radiolist box:

The 'radiolist' control box is same as 'checklist' box.

# dialog --backtitle "OS infomration" --radiolist "Select OS:" 10 40 3 1 "Linux 7.2" off 2 "Solaris 9" on 3 "HPUX 11i" off

Inputbox:

The 'inputbox' allows the user to enter a string.

# dialog --title "Inputbox - Example" --backtitle "KR Network Cloud" --inputbox "Enter your favourite OS here" 8 50

Menu box:

# dialog --title "A dialog Menu Example" --menu "Please choose an option:" 15 55 5 1 "Add a record to DB" 2 "Delete a record from DB" 3 "Exit from this menu"

message-box:

# dialog --title "Example Dialog message box" --msgbox "\n Installation Completed on host7" 6 50 

yesno box:
    

# dialog --title "Confirmation"  --yesno "Want to quit?" 6 20

Infobox:

# dialog --infobox "Processing, please wait" 3 34 ; sleep 5

   

TextBox: 

It is a simple file viewer

 # dialog --textbox ~/work/conf.txt 10 4

Gauge Box
#!/bin/sh
#A gauge Box example with dialog
(
c=10
while [ $c -ne 110 ]
    do
        echo $c
        echo "###"
        echo "$c %"
        echo "###"
        ((c+=10))
        sleep 1
done
) |
dialog --title "A Test Gauge With dialog" --gauge "Please wait ...." 10 60 0
 
 

Calendar Box:

#!/bin/sh

dat=$(dialog --stdout --title "My Calendar" \
                   --calendar "Select a date:" 0 0 25 12 2009)

case $? in
0)
 echo "You have entered: $dat"   ;;
1)
 echo "You have pressed Cancel"  ;;
255)
 echo "Box closed"   ;;
esac 

Time Box:

#!/bin/sh

tim=$(dialog --stdout --title "A TimeBox" \
                    --timebox "Set the time:" 0 0 10 13 59)

case $? in
0)
  echo "You have set: $tim"   ;;
1)
  echo "You have pressed Cancel"  ;;
255)
  echo "Box closed"   ;;
esac

Dear friends..

one of the great things about "dialog" is that there is also "xdialog".

xdialog works just like dialog except it uses X to create the same dialog boxes as dialog but in GUI form.

So,
 it is very easy to write a script that checks if X is running and then 
substitutes xdialog for dialog is it is true.  Making your program both 
terminal and X compatible.