How to implement a custom AlertDialog View

Question

In the Android docs on AlertDialog, it gives the following instruction and example for setting a custom view in an AlertDialog:

If you want to display a more complex view, look up the FrameLayout called "body" and add your view to it:

FrameLayout fl = (FrameLayout) findViewById(R.id.body);
fl.add(myView, new LayoutParams(FILL_PARENT, WRAP_CONTENT));

First off, it's pretty obvious that add() is a typo and is meant to be addView().

I'm confused by the first line using R.id.body. It seems that it's the body element of the AlertDialog ... but I can't just enter that in my code b/c it gives a compile error. Where does R.id.body get defined or assigned or whatever?

Here's my code. I tried to use setView(findViewById(R.layout.whatever) on the builder but it didn't work. I'm assuming because I didn't manually inflate it?

AlertDialog.Builder builder = new AlertDialog.Builder(this);
builder.setTitle("Title")
    .setCancelable(false)
    .setPositiveButton("Go", new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {

    @Override
    public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int id) {
        EditText textBox = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.textbox);
        doStuff();
    }
});

FrameLayout f1 = (FrameLayout)findViewById(R.id.body /*CURRENTLY an ERROR*/);
f1.addView(findViewById(R.layout.dialog_view));

AlertDialog alert = builder.create();
alert.show();

Answer 1

AlertDialog.setView(View view) does add the given view to the R.id.custom FrameLayout. The following is a snippet of Android source code from AlertController.setupView() which finally handles this (mView is the view given to AlertDialog.setView method).

...
FrameLayout custom = (FrameLayout) mWindow.findViewById(R.id.**custom**);
custom.addView(**mView**, new LayoutParams(FILL_PARENT, FILL_PARENT));
...

Answer 2

It would make the most sense to do it this way, least amount of code.

new AlertDialog.Builder(this).builder(this)
        .setTitle("Title")
        .setView(R.id.dialog_view)   //notice this setView was added
        .setCancelable(false)
        .setPositiveButton("Go", new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
            @Override 
            public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int id) {
                EditText textBox = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.textbox);
                doStuff();
            }
        }).show();

For an expanded list of things you can set, start typing .set in Android Studio

Answer 3

This worked for me:

dialog.setView(dialog.getLayoutInflater().inflate(R.layout.custom_dialog_layout, null));

Answer 4

The easiest way to do this is by using android.support.v7.app.AlertDialog instead of android.app.AlertDialog where public AlertDialog.Builder setView (int layoutResId) can be used below API 21.

new AlertDialog.Builder(getActivity())
    .setTitle(title)
    .setView(R.layout.dialog_basic)
    .setPositiveButton(android.R.string.ok,
        new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
            public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int whichButton) {
                //Do something
            }
        }
    )
    .setNegativeButton(android.R.string.cancel,
        new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
            public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int whichButton) {
                //Do something
            }
        }
    )
    .create();

Answer 5

The android documents have been edited to correct the errors.

The view inside the AlertDialog is called android.R.id.custom

http://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/AlertDialog.html

Answer 6

The simplest lines of code that works for me are are follows:

AlertDialog.Builder builder = new AlertDialog.Builder(this);
builder.setView(R.layout.layout_resource_id);
builder.show();

Whatever the type of layout(LinearLayout, FrameLayout, RelativeLayout) will work by setView and will just differ in the appearance and behavior.