How to change theme for AlertDialog

Question

I was wondering if someone could help me out. I am trying to create a custom AlertDialog. In order to do this, I added the following line of code in styles.xml

<resources>
 <style name="CustomAlertDialog" parent="android:Theme.Dialog.Alert">
  <item name="android:windowBackground">@drawable/color_panel_background</item>
 </style>
</resources>

• color_panel_background.9.png is located in drawable folder. This is also available in Android SDK res folder.

The following is the main activity.

package com.customdialog;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.app.AlertDialog;
import android.app.Dialog;
import android.content.DialogInterface;
import android.os.Bundle;

public class CustomDialog extends Activity {
    /** Called when the activity is first created. */
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.main);

        this.setTheme(R.style.CustomAlertDialog);
        AlertDialog.Builder builder = new AlertDialog.Builder(this);
        builder.setMessage("HELLO!");
        builder .setCancelable(false)
          .setPositiveButton("Yes", new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
           public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int id) {
               //MyActivity.this.finish();
           }
       })
       .setNegativeButton("No", new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
           public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int id) {
               //dialog.cancel();
           }
       });

        AlertDialog alertdialog = builder.create();
        alertdialog.show();
    }
}

In order to apply the theme to an AlertDialog, I had to set the theme to the current context.

However, I just can't seem to get the app to show customized AlertDialog. Can anyone help me out with this?

Answer 1

I was having this AlertDialog theme related issue using sdk 1.6 as described here: http://markmail.org/message/mj5ut56irkrkc4nr

I solved the issue by doing the following:

  new AlertDialog.Builder(
  new ContextThemeWrapper(context, android.R.style.Theme_Dialog))

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Arve Waltin's solution looks good, although I haven't tested it yet. There is another solution in case you have trouble getting that to work.... Extend AlertDialog.Builder and override all the methods (eg. setText, setTitle, setView, etc) to not set the actual Dialog's text/title/view, but to create a new view within the Dialog's View do everything in there. Then you are free to style everything as you please.

To clarify, as far as the parent class is concerned, the View is set, and nothing else.

As far as your custom extended class is concerned, everything is done within that view.

Answer 3

You can directly assign a theme when you initiate the Builder:

AlertDialog.Builder builder = new AlertDialog.Builder(
                    getActivity(), R.style.MyAlertDialogTheme);

Then customize your theme in your values/styles.xml

<!-- Alert Dialog -->
<style name="MyAlertDialogTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Dialog.Alert">
    <item name="colorAccent">@color/colorAccent</item>
    <item name="android:colorBackground">@color/alertDialogBackground</item>
    <item name="android:windowBackground">@color/alertDialogBackground</item>
</style>

Answer 4

AlertDialog.Builder builder = new AlertDialog.Builder(this);
builder.setTitle("Title");
builder.setMessage("Description");
builder.setPositiveButton("OK", null);
builder.setNegativeButton("Cancel", null);
builder.show();

Answer 5

 <style name="AlertDialogCustom" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.Dialog.Alert">
    <!-- Used for the buttons -->
    <item name="colorAccent">@color/colorAccent</item>
    <!-- Used for the title and text -->
    <item name="android:textColorPrimary">#FFFFFF</item>
    <!-- Used for the background -->
    <item name="android:background">@color/teal</item>
</style>





new AlertDialog.Builder(new ContextThemeWrapper(context,R.style.AlertDialogCustom))
            .setMessage(Html.fromHtml(Msg))
            .setPositiveButton(posBtn, okListener)
            .setNegativeButton(negBtn, null)
            .create()
            .show();

Answer 6

I was struggling with this - you can style the background of the dialog using android:alertDialogStyle="@style/AlertDialog" in your theme, but it ignores any text settings you have. As @rflexor said above it cannot be done with the SDK prior to Honeycomb (well you could use Reflection).

My solution, in a nutshell, was to style the background of the dialog using the above, then set a custom title and content view (using layouts that are the same as those in the SDK).

My wrapper:

import com.mypackage.R;

import android.app.AlertDialog;
import android.content.Context;
import android.graphics.drawable.Drawable;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.ImageView;
import android.widget.TextView;

public class CustomAlertDialogBuilder extends AlertDialog.Builder {

    private final Context mContext;
    private TextView mTitle;
    private ImageView mIcon;
    private TextView mMessage;

    public CustomAlertDialogBuilder(Context context) {
        super(context);
        mContext = context; 

        View customTitle = View.inflate(mContext, R.layout.alert_dialog_title, null);
        mTitle = (TextView) customTitle.findViewById(R.id.alertTitle);
        mIcon = (ImageView) customTitle.findViewById(R.id.icon);
        setCustomTitle(customTitle);

        View customMessage = View.inflate(mContext, R.layout.alert_dialog_message, null);
        mMessage = (TextView) customMessage.findViewById(R.id.message);
        setView(customMessage);
    }

    @Override
    public CustomAlertDialogBuilder setTitle(int textResId) {
        mTitle.setText(textResId);
        return this;
    }
    @Override
    public CustomAlertDialogBuilder setTitle(CharSequence text) {
        mTitle.setText(text);
        return this;
    }

    @Override
    public CustomAlertDialogBuilder setMessage(int textResId) {
        mMessage.setText(textResId);
        return this;
    }

    @Override
    public CustomAlertDialogBuilder setMessage(CharSequence text) {
        mMessage.setText(text);
        return this;
    }

    @Override
    public CustomAlertDialogBuilder setIcon(int drawableResId) {
        mIcon.setImageResource(drawableResId);
        return this;
    }

    @Override
    public CustomAlertDialogBuilder setIcon(Drawable icon) {
        mIcon.setImageDrawable(icon);
        return this;
    }

}

alert_dialog_title.xml (taken from the SDK)

<?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:orientation="vertical"
    >
    <LinearLayout
            android:id="@+id/title_template"
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:orientation="horizontal"
            android:gravity="center_vertical"
            android:layout_marginTop="6dip"
            android:layout_marginBottom="9dip"
            android:layout_marginLeft="10dip"
            android:layout_marginRight="10dip">

            <ImageView android:id="@+id/icon"
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:layout_gravity="top"
                android:paddingTop="6dip"
                android:paddingRight="10dip"
                android:src="@drawable/ic_dialog_alert" />
            <TextView android:id="@+id/alertTitle"
                style="@style/?android:attr/textAppearanceLarge"
                android:singleLine="true"
                android:ellipsize="end"
                android:layout_width="fill_parent"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
        </LinearLayout>
        <ImageView android:id="@+id/titleDivider"
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_height="1dip"
            android:scaleType="fitXY"
            android:gravity="fill_horizontal"
            android:src="@drawable/divider_horizontal_bright" />
</LinearLayout>

alert_dialog_message.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ScrollView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
            android:id="@+id/scrollView"
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:paddingTop="2dip"
            android:paddingBottom="12dip"
            android:paddingLeft="14dip"
            android:paddingRight="10dip">
    <TextView android:id="@+id/message"
                style="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"
                android:textColor="@color/dark_grey"
                android:layout_width="fill_parent"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:padding="5dip" />
</ScrollView>

Then just use CustomAlertDialogBuilder instead of AlertDialog.Builder to create your dialogs, and just call setTitle and setMessage as usual.