@Prompt and @PickList: Formula Dialogs to Ask the User — Client-Only, Not on the Web

Oct 2, 2026 638 words

You want a button to pop “Are you sure you want to delete?” for a Yes/No, or a list to let the user pick one customer record from a view — in Formula those are @Prompt and @PickList.

They’re handy, but there’s a boundary people trip on: these are front-end client dialogs, so on the web or in a scheduled agent they silently do nothing. Both function pages say it in black and white: “You cannot use this function in Web applications.”

This piece covers @Prompt’s styles, how @PickList selects documents from a view, and the client-only line.

TL;DR

@Prompt — ask, confirm, choose: HCL calls it “useful for prompting a user for information and determining a course of action based on the user’s input.” Many styles: [Ok], [YesNo], [YesNoCancel], [OkCancelEdit], [OkCancelList], [OkCancelCombo], [OkCancelEditCombo], [OkCancelListMult], [Password], [LocalBrowse], [ChooseDatabase]. Return value depends on the style ([YesNo] returns 1/0).
@PickList — a modal to pick documents or names: [Custom] selects one or more documents from a view you specify and returns a column value; [Name] picks from the Domino Directory; also [Room] / [Resource] / [Folders]. [Single] restricts to single selection; it returns a text list.
The client-only boundary: both “cannot be used in Web applications”; @Prompt also does not work in column, selection, mail agent, or scheduled agent formulas. UI dialogs belong in front-end events only.
Pairing: once the dialog returns the user’s choice, hand the actual UI action to @Command / @PostedCommand.

@Prompt: ask, confirm, choose

The official @Prompt syntax:

@Prompt( [ style ] : [NoSort] ; title ; prompt ; defaultChoice ; choiceList ; filetype )

Common styles:

Style	What it does	Returns
`[Ok]`	show a message, one OK button	1
`[YesNo]`	Yes / No	1 or 0
`[YesNoCancel]`	Yes / No / Cancel	1 / 0 / -1
`[OkCancelEdit]`	text input box	the entered string
`[OkCancelList]`	single select from a list	the chosen value
`[OkCancelCombo]`	single select from a dropdown	the chosen value
`[OkCancelEditCombo]`	dropdown or type your own	chosen or typed value
`[OkCancelListMult]`	multi-select from a list	a text list
`[Password]`	password entry (hidden)	the entered string
`[LocalBrowse]`	local file browser	selected file name

Example — a confirmation:

@If(@Prompt([YesNo]; "Confirm"; "Submit this request?") = 1;
    @Command([FileSave]);
    "")

@PickList: pick documents from a view, or names from the Directory

@PickList opens a modal. HCL defines it as showing “A view you specify from which the user can select one or more documents. @PickList returns a column value from the selected document(s),” or “A dialog box, displaying information from all available Domino Directories.”

The official @PickList two main forms:

@PickList( [CUSTOM] : [SINGLE] ; server : file ; view ; title ; prompt ; column ; categoryname )
@PickList( [NAME] : [SINGLE] [; selectedoptions ] )

[CUSTOM]: select documents from view in the server:file DB, returning column column (1-based).
[NAME]: pick from the Domino Directory.
[SINGLE]: single selection only (omit for multi-select).
Returns: a text list of the selected documents’ column values.

Example — let the user pick from the “Customers” view, returning column 1:

sel := @PickList([CUSTOM] : [SINGLE]; "" : "crm.nsf"; "Customers";
                 "Choose a customer"; "Pick one"; 1);
@If(sel = ""; @Return(""); "");
FIELD Customer := sel

Client-only — keep them off the web and out of scheduled agents

This is the boundary people miss. Both function pages carry the same line: “You cannot use this function in Web applications.” And @Prompt adds one more restriction: it doesn’t work in column, selection, mail agent, or scheduled agent formulas.

The reason is direct: these are dialogs that need a person sitting at the Notes client to respond. Put them in something that runs in the background or on a schedule (no UI, no one to click) and there’s nothing to pop — so they silently do nothing or error. To “ask the user” on the web or in the background, use another mechanism (a form or XPages dialog on the web; background logic shouldn’t prompt at all — use a default or a parameter).

Which to use

Just confirm, or show a message → @Prompt([YesNo]) / [Ok].
Ask for a line of text → @Prompt([OkCancelEdit]); masked → [Password].
Choose from fixed options → @Prompt([OkCancelList]) / [OkCancelCombo]; multi → [OkCancelListMult].
Pick one or more documents from existing data (a view) → @PickList([Custom]) — it returns the column value directly, no need to build a choiceList yourself.
Pick a person → @PickList([Name]).
After you have the choice, hand the UI action to @Command / @PostedCommand — mind the execution order covered there.

What about LotusScript and SSJS?

@Prompt / @PickList are a Formula mechanism for Notes front-end dialogs:

LotusScript: the counterparts are NotesUIWorkspace’s Prompt, PickListStrings / PickListCollection, and DialogBox — also front-end-only, likewise unavailable in a server agent.
SSJS / web: there’s no @Prompt. To “ask the user,” you build it yourself — an XPages dialog control, or client-side JavaScript — not this Formula dialog set.

Sources

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