you keep referring to how 'nasty' your code is, but for the life of me, i can't imagine why. as in _d3m0n_'s post, simply setting the chan name to a variable and then having the dialog reference that variable should work sufficiently well. after all, the main difference is that you'd be referncing a %variable instead of an $identifier. also, if you wanted to change the channel/whatever this dialog should be 'attached' to, you simply change the %variable value.
i can say with almost certainty that what you are trying to do is not nearly as hard as you are making it.
