Android - Custom AlertDialog Background Color

Question

So I see we can have alertdialogs with gray and white (when setinverse...) background colors.

To learn why I checked themes.xml of the sdk, checking it I was led to drawables and there I realized the alertdialog background is not done programatically but via some images. And these images guarantee that there are two gray(or white when inverse color) horizontal lines on top(title area) and bottom(just above button area) of the dialog when we use LayoutInflater to just set a different backgroundcolor.

So my question is, as LayoutInflator is useless and guessing I have to subclass alertdialog, what do you suggest I do to generate an AlertDialog with a different backgroundcolor? What should I override?

Answer 1

Instead of using AlertDialog, I ended up using a Dialog. To get a custom look:

1-Create the Dialog and remove the title area(Otherwise you'll get a blank gray area on top):

myDialog = new Dialog(this);
myDialog.requestWindowFeature(Window.FEATURE_NO_TITLE);

2-Design a layout in xml, and set as dialog's content:

myDialog.setContentView(R.layout.mydialog_layout);

3-If the layout is not a rounded rect, it will intersect with the rounded corners of the dialog box. So, design the layout as a rounded rect:

in mydialog_layout.xml:

android:background = "@layout/mydialog_shape"

mydialog_shape.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> 
<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" 
     android:shape="rectangle" 
     > 
     <gradient android:startColor="#FF0E2E57" 
     android:endColor="#FF0E2E57" 
            android:angle="225" android:paddingLeft="20dip"/> 

    <corners android:bottomRightRadius="5dp" android:bottomLeftRadius="5dp" 
     android:topLeftRadius="5dp" android:topRightRadius="5dp" android:paddingLeft="20dip"/> 
</shape>

4-Add listeners to the buttons in your activity:

Button button = (Button)myDialog.findViewById(R.id.dialogcancelbutton);
button.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {
@Override
public void onClick(View v) {
    // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    myDialog.cancel();
}});

That's about it.

Answer 2

I recall reading that not all Android Dialogs are created equally. Therefore, if you don't want to use the dialog that shipped with the device's Android version; You need to code a completely fresh dialog from the ground up.

Edit:

I think you need to override the onCreateDialog with a custom dialog builder class. Like I said, I've never done it. Remember, to keep with the Android MVC style, you need to define the dialog in XML as well. If I was going to do it; I would probably start with the XML layout, then code a custom dialog class using the same methods as a regular dialog builder class. Sorry to be so vague, I'm still learning Java and Android myself.