Can the API show an input window?

From reading the docs, because the API doesn't execute in a browser, it cannot show an input window to a player. But I'd like to be sure before I go pester the devs. I come from Maptool, and I am used to "frameworks" that allow things like: Click the ability check button. Get an input window that asks you which ability check you're doing, whether you have proficiency, whether you have expertise, whether there's a misc modifier. Shows you a list of your skills as a reminder. And then does some rolls and shows output upon hitting "OK" That's a simple example. If you're familiar with Maptool, you know that the community went quite input-window-happy, and it's clear to see why. It's a great tool to have. Can I show an input window, with some HTML in it - a form basically - to a player from the API, and then consume the result? If not, I want that. Pretty badly. It's the major thing holding me back from actually giving roll20 a serious try. My not-so-serious try has been to become a mentor for a month. :)

I'm not a mentor, and have no API experience, but I think much of what you are asking for could be done with roll queries in macros: <a href="https://wiki.roll20.net/Macros#Using_a_variable_with_a_Macro" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.roll20.net/Macros#Using_a_variable_with_a_Macro</a>

I know about roll queries. That's not an input window. You end up with three queries or so for a simple thing, and you can't do anything complex - like say a spellbook, or a screen to design an ability - at all. I was over in the general forum to see whether macros are suited. They're not, I was pointed towards the API. So now I'm trying to be certain that the API can't do an input window either. To me, input / display windows are a must-have. I can't really fathom how you'd do the more interesting things without them. I am very open to being shown "the roll20 way", as long as that doesn't mean my players end up with three prompts for input instead of one for the most basic things, and six buttons to click instead of one. That'd be an ability check example. And that's the simplest possible thing you can do in a macro.

Reading your example above, Thorsten, it seems that you want to move the ability check off the character sheet and into a separate form. Maybe I'm reading it wrong, but in order to do away with having a button against each ability you seem to be suggesting having a single button that then asks you questions where separate buttons could already have known the answer. I've not rolled my sleeves up with the API yet, so can't help, but clarifying the above might be helpful for others reading this.

Thorsten B. said: I know about roll queries. That's not an input window. You end up with three queries or so for a simple thing, and you can't do anything complex - like say a spellbook, or a screen to design an ability - at all. I was over in the general forum to see whether macros are suited. They're not, I was pointed towards the API. So now I'm trying to be certain that the API can't do an input window either. To me, input / display windows are a must-have. I can't really fathom how you'd do the more interesting things without them. I am very open to being shown "the roll20 way", as long as that doesn't mean my players end up with three prompts for input instead of one for the most basic things, and six buttons to click instead of one. That'd be an ability check example. And that's the simplest possible thing you can do in a macro. The API has no UI functionality at this time, the API is hardly in beta yet so wait and see.

The api doesn't inherently have a popup function, however you can have it output a whisper via the chat window, and you can use ! to create the input you're looking for. A good example is a spell script I haven't touched in a while, but you could type !spells and it would output to the chat a list of spells, and you could use !cast xxx and it would cast spell xxx with description.

Right, thanks. That's what I thought. "Wait and see" is a reasonable approach, and "this is what I am used to doing and really want" I think is also reasonable, to give that feedback. That's what mentors are for, right? :). I just wanted to be sure I wasn't missing something super-obvious before going into the mentor forum to say "I'd really really like to have this." Thank you all for chiming in, it's really been super-helpful! Here's my 5e ability check window. This is the most basic thing you could do with an input/output window. There are much niftier things available, including full-fledged spell books, character sheets including power generators (for 4e), and so on. As you can see, we have a picture and a name, a drop-down, two check boxes, an input window for modifier (which works equally well with "3" as "1d4" or "1d4+3"), and a bunch of text to remind the player what their proficiencies are.

@Emile, absolutely, that works and is quite clever. I can see how it's possible to adapt a campaign to not having UI interaction, and you could also just refer to printed character sheets more.