Javascript dialog return

Question

Hi, I've got a javascript function that draws a dialog. I'd like to have it return the value the user specifies. The problem is, the dialog is closed when a user clicks on of two buttons, which have onClick events assigned to them. The only way I know to grab these events is by assigning functions to them, which means that a return causes the assigned function to return, and not my inputDialog function. I'm sure I'm just doing this in a stupid way.

In case you're wondering, this script is using Adobe's ExtendScript API for extending After Effects.

Thanks in advance! Here's the code:

function inputDialog (queryString, title){
    // Create a window of type dialog.
    var dia = new Window("dialog", title, [100,100,330,200]);  // bounds = [left, top, right, bottom]
    this.windowRef = dia;

    // Add the components, a label, two buttons and input
    dia.label = dia.add("statictext", [20, 10, 210, 30]);
    dia.label.text = queryString;
    dia.input = dia.add("edittext", [20, 30, 210, 50]);
    dia.input.textselection = "New Selection";
    dia.input.active = true;
    dia.okBtn = dia.add("button", [20,65,105,85], "OK");
    dia.cancelBtn = dia.add("button", [120, 65, 210, 85], "Cancel");


    // Register event listeners that define the button behavior

    //user clicked OK
    dia.okBtn.onClick = function() {
        if(dia.input.text != "") { //check that the text input wasn't empty
            var result = dia.input.text;
            dia.close(); //close the window
            if(debug) alert(result);
            return result;
        } else { //the text box is blank
            alert("Please enter a value."); //don't close the window, ask the user to enter something
        }
    };

    //user clicked Cancel
    dia.cancelBtn.onClick = function() {
        dia.close();
        if(debug) alert("dialog cancelled");
        return false;
    };

    // Display the window
    dia.show();

}

Answer 1

I've come up with a solution. It's really ugly, but it'll tide me over for now... Anyone have a better solution?

    var ret = null;

    // Register event listeners that define the button behavior
    dia.okBtn.onClick = function() {
        if(dia.input.text != "") { //check that the text input wasn't empty
            var result = dia.input.text;
            dia.close(); //close the window
            if(debug) alert(result);
            ret = result;
            return result;
        } else { //the text box is blank
            alert("Please enter a value."); //don't close the window, ask the user to enter something
        }
    };

    dia.cancelBtn.onClick = function() { //user cancelled action
        dia.close();
        ret = false;
        return false;
    };

    // Display the window
    dia.show();

    while(ret == null){};
    return ret;