How to set margins to a custom dialog?

Question

Does anybody knows how can I set margins to a custom dialog? I'm asking because I've a custom dialog but when displayed it stretches to fill the parent, even though I set explicitly WRAP_CONTENT on the layout params.

Basically, the dialog contains a listview whose elements must be scrolled down, when the elements are 1 for example, it doesn't stretch, but when more items are added, then the dialog occupies the entire screen.

Any suggestions? I've trying all possible combinations of possible solutions without achieving satisfactory results

EDIT: Added the dialog layout

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_margin="50dip"   
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:layout_gravity="top|center">

    <FrameLayout android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_margin="5dip" android:layout_height="wrap_content">

            <TextView android:layout_width="wrap_content"        android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
                android:layout_gravity="center"
                android:textSize="20sp" android:textColor="@color/black"/>

            <Button android:layout_height="32dip" android:layout_width="32dip" 
                android:id="@+id/guide_dialog_cross_button"
                android:background="@drawable/button_cross_white"/>

        </FrameLayout>


    <ListView android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
        android:fadingEdge="none"
        android:layout_margin="5dip"/>

    <ImageButton android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_margin="5dip" />

</LinearLayout>

Answer 1

A simple solution that worked for me was to wrap my entire View in another one, and set the margin to which is now the inner View.

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content">

    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_margin="22dp"
        android:orientation="vertical"
        android:layout_width="220dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content">

    ... Buttons, TextViews, etc

    </LinearLayout>

</LinearLayout>

Obs: that worked when I wanted margins within my AlertDialog. Not regarding the screen.

Answer 2

Margins don't work for Dialogs, I imagine the top-level window view isn't a layout type that supports margins. I've seen posts saying margins will work when defined as the Dialog's style (rather than on the top-level view element), but this does not seem to work either.

What you need to do to work around the issue is to use an inset drawable for your Dialog background, and adjust any padding to account for the background's extra inset. In the example below, I'll just set left & right margins.

Dialog background drawable:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- drawable is a reference to your 'real' dialog background -->
<!-- insetRight and insetLeft add the margins -->
<inset
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:drawable="@drawable/dialog_background" 
    android:insetRight="10dp"
    android:insetLeft="10dp">
</inset>

Dialog main view:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- paddingTop / paddingBottom padding for the dialog -->
<!-- paddingLeft / paddingRight padding must add the additional inset space to be consistent -->
<!-- background references the inset background drawable -->
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:paddingTop="5dp"
    android:paddingBottom="5dp"
    android:paddingLeft="15dp"
    android:paddingRight="15dp"
    android:background="@drawable/dialog_background_inset">

<!-- ...the rest of the layout... -->

You may also need to set the background colour of the Dialog itself to transparent. Add a colour resource like so:

<color name="transparent">#00000000</color>

And set the window background colour of the dialog to this (note: you can't assign the colour directly, eclipse will complain)

<style name="Dialog" parent="android:style/Theme.Dialog">
    <item name="android:windowBackground">@color/transparent</item>
    <item name="android:windowNoTitle">true</item>
    <item name="android:windowIsFloating">true</item>
</style>

This style should be passed to your Dialog's constructor as the theme argument, as in new Dialog(context, R.style.Dialog);

Answer 3

Margin doesnt seem to work on the custom layout for the dialog, but padding works. Try setting the padding on the top level Linear layout.

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:paddingLeft="4dp"
    android:paddingRight="4dp" >

Answer 4

1) change your main parent layout height match_content like below :

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_content"
    android:layout_margin="50dip"   
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:layout_gravity="top|center">

2) now add style to your styles.xml

<style name="dialogTheme" parent="Base.Theme.AppCompat.Light.Dialog.Alert"/>

3) now add below code to show dialog :

Dialog dialog = new Dialog(DayActivity.this, R.style.dialogTheme);
dialog.setContentView(R.layout.dialog_custom_layout);
dialog.getWindow().setLayout(ViewGroup.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, ViewGroup.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT);
dialog.show();

Answer 5

This is a straight-forward, programmatic way to set position and size of my dialog with margins.

I tested my approach for a DialogFragment by applying it in the onCreateDialog method:

public Dialog onCreateDialog( Bundle savedInstanceState )
{
    // create dialog in an arbitrary way
    Dialog dialog = super.onCreateDialog( savedInstanceState ); 
    DialogUtils.setMargins( dialog, 0, 150, 50, 75 );
    return dialog;
}

This is the method applying the margins to the dialog:

public static Dialog setMargins( Dialog dialog, int marginLeft, int marginTop, int marginRight, int marginBottom )
{
    Window window = dialog.getWindow();
    if ( window == null )
    {
        // dialog window is not available, cannot apply margins
        return dialog;
    }
    Context context = dialog.getContext();

    // set dialog to fullscreen
    RelativeLayout root = new RelativeLayout( context );
    root.setLayoutParams( new ViewGroup.LayoutParams( ViewGroup.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, ViewGroup.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT ) );
    dialog.requestWindowFeature( Window.FEATURE_NO_TITLE );
    dialog.setContentView( root );
    // set background to get rid of additional margins
    window.setBackgroundDrawable( new ColorDrawable( Color.WHITE ) );

    // apply left and top margin directly
    window.setGravity( Gravity.LEFT | Gravity.TOP );
    LayoutParams attributes = window.getAttributes();
    attributes.x = marginLeft;
    attributes.y = marginTop;
    window.setAttributes( attributes );

    // set right and bottom margin implicitly by calculating width and height of dialog
    Point displaySize = getDisplayDimensions( context );
    int width = displaySize.x - marginLeft - marginRight;
    int height = displaySize.y - marginTop - marginBottom;
    window.setLayout( width, height );

    return dialog;
}

Here are the helper methods I used:

@NonNull
public static Point getDisplayDimensions( Context context )
{
    WindowManager wm = ( WindowManager ) context.getSystemService( Context.WINDOW_SERVICE );
    Display display = wm.getDefaultDisplay();

    DisplayMetrics metrics = new DisplayMetrics();
    display.getMetrics( metrics );
    int screenWidth = metrics.widthPixels;
    int screenHeight = metrics.heightPixels;

    // find out if status bar has already been subtracted from screenHeight
    display.getRealMetrics( metrics );
    int physicalHeight = metrics.heightPixels;
    int statusBarHeight = getStatusBarHeight( context );
    int navigationBarHeight = getNavigationBarHeight( context );
    int heightDelta = physicalHeight - screenHeight;
    if ( heightDelta == 0 || heightDelta == navigationBarHeight )
    {
        screenHeight -= statusBarHeight;
    }

    return new Point( screenWidth, screenHeight );
}

public static int getStatusBarHeight( Context context )
{
    Resources resources = context.getResources();
    int resourceId = resources.getIdentifier( "status_bar_height", "dimen", "android" );
    return ( resourceId > 0 ) ? resources.getDimensionPixelSize( resourceId ) : 0;
}

public static int getNavigationBarHeight( Context context )
{
    Resources resources = context.getResources();
    int resourceId = resources.getIdentifier( "navigation_bar_height", "dimen", "android" );
    return ( resourceId > 0 ) ? resources.getDimensionPixelSize( resourceId ) : 0;
}

The helper methods are explained in another of my SO answers.

This Gist contains an extended versions that supports immersve mode too.

Answer 6

A workaround can be done like this:

dialog.getWindow().getAttributes().height = 
           (int) (getDeviceMetrics(context).heightPixels*0.8);

`getDeviceMetrics Method:

public static DisplayMetrics getDeviceMetrics(Context context) {
    DisplayMetrics metrics = new DisplayMetrics();
    WindowManager wm = (WindowManager) context.getSystemService(Context.WINDOW_SERVICE);
    Display display = wm.getDefaultDisplay();
    display.getMetrics(metrics);
    return metrics;
}