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?

Shameful

Is it help? androblip.huiges.nl/2010/05/09/theme-android-dialog – Valvule

I found this repo on github to be very helpful: github.com/StylingAndroid/AlertDialog – Kilmarx

Answer 1

In Dialog.java (Android src) a ContextThemeWrapper is used. So you could copy the idea and do something like:

AlertDialog.Builder builder = new AlertDialog.Builder(new ContextThemeWrapper(this, R.style.AlertDialogCustom));

And then style it like you want:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
    <style name="AlertDialogCustom" parent="@android:style/Theme.Dialog">
        <item name="android:textColor">#00FF00</item>
        <item name="android:typeface">monospace</item>
        <item name="android:textSize">10sp</item>
    </style>
</resources>

Furlani

Don't use @android:style/AlertDialog. It is not in the public API. As a consequence, in Android 2.3.3, it crashes when creating the builder. – Simmonds

@kaciula Is @android:style/Theme.Dialog public ? Can it be used instead? – Array

Yes. It is public. Check out developer.android.com/reference/android/R.style.html for a list of all public styles. Keep in mind that the naming in the API is different than that used in code. There is a '_' instead of "." (Theme_Dialog) – Simmonds

Where shall i place the above xml file? – Windjammer

@ChaitanyaChandurkar in res/values/styles.xml – Quinquagesima

this doesn't seem to work on android 2.3.6 either.. :(. – Fascist

For a newer theme that's part of the compatibility themes, I would suggest using the Theme.AppCompat.Light.Dialog.Alert style as the parent of your custom style. But, if you do this, make sure you're importing import android.support.v7.app.AlertDialog; and not import android.app.AlertDialog – Reeva

The only solution I found when using AndroidX was the answer from @Rob on this question: #52830454 – Isobar

Answer 2

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))

Gramnegative

There are several relevant themes; in my case android.R.style.Theme_Holo_Dialog was a better fit. Great tip. – Hayfield

Answer 3

I have written an article in my blog on how to configure the layout of an AlertDialog with XML style files. The main problem is that you need different style definitions for different layout parameters. Here is a boilerplate based on the AlertDialog style of Holo Light Platform version 19 for a style file that should cover a bunch of the standard layout aspects like text sizes and background colors.

<style name="AppBaseTheme" parent="android:Theme.Holo.Light">
    ...
    <item name="android:alertDialogTheme">@style/MyAlertDialogTheme</item>
    <item name="android:alertDialogStyle">@style/MyAlertDialogStyle</item>
    ...
</style>

<style name="MyBorderlessButton">
    <!-- Set background drawable and text size of the buttons here -->
    <item name="android:background">...</item>
    <item name="android:textSize">...</item>
</style>

<style name="MyButtonBar">
    <!-- Define a background for the button bar and a divider between the buttons here -->
    <item name="android:divider">....</item>
    <item name="android:dividerPadding">...</item>
    <item name="android:showDividers">...</item>
    <item name="android:background">...</item>
</style>

<style name="MyAlertDialogTitle">
    <item name="android:maxLines">1</item>
    <item name="android:scrollHorizontally">true</item>
</style>

<style name="MyAlertTextAppearance">
    <!-- Set text size and color of title and message here -->
    <item name="android:textSize"> ... </item>
    <item name="android:textColor">...</item>
</style>

<style name="MyAlertDialogTheme">
    <item name="android:windowBackground">@android:color/transparent</item>
    <item name="android:windowTitleStyle">@style/MyAlertDialogTitle</item>
    <item name="android:windowContentOverlay">@null</item>
    <item name="android:windowMinWidthMajor">@android:dimen/dialog_min_width_major</item>
    <item name="android:windowMinWidthMinor">@android:dimen/dialog_min_width_minor</item>
    <item name="android:windowIsFloating">true</item>
    <item name="android:textAppearanceMedium">@style/MyAlertTextAppearance</item>
    <!-- If you don't want your own button bar style use
            @android:style/Holo.Light.ButtonBar.AlertDialog
            and
            ?android:attr/borderlessButtonStyle
         instead of @style/MyButtonBar and @style/MyBorderlessButton -->
    <item name="android:buttonBarStyle">@style/MyButtonBar</item>
    <item name="android:buttonBarButtonStyle">@style/MyBorderlessButton</item>
</style>

<style name="MyAlertDialogStyle">
    <!-- Define background colors of title, message, buttons, etc. here -->
    <item name="android:fullDark">...</item>
    <item name="android:topDark">...</item>
    <item name="android:centerDark">...</item>
    <item name="android:bottomDark">...</item>
    <item name="android:fullBright">...</item>
    <item name="android:topBright">...</item>
    <item name="android:centerBright">...</item>
    <item name="android:bottomBright">...</item>
    <item name="android:bottomMedium">...</item>
    <item name="android:centerMedium">...</item>
</style>

Departed

could I ask you why we both need style and theme for the AlertDialog customization? Thanks a lot! @nantoka – Antilogism

@Antilogism My blog entry has the details but in a nutshell the layout of an AlertDialog comes from two different classes (Dialog and AlertController) which use different layout param files. – Departed

Answer 4

 <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();

Lunnete

Answer 5

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>

Melbamelborn

Perfect. The only thing I used Theme.AppCompat.Light.Dialog.Alert – Phenix

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.

Fibrilliform

how did you access android.R.internal.id.alerttitle? – Antabuse

I didn't, I accessed R.id.alertTitle – Fibrilliform

Answer 7

For Custom Dialog:

just call super(context,R.style.<dialog style>) instead of super(context) in dialog constructor

public class MyDialog extends Dialog
{
    public MyDialog(Context context)
    {
       super(context, R.style.Theme_AppCompat_Light_Dialog_Alert)
    }
}

For AlertDialog:

Just create alertDialog with this constructor:

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

Ammieammine

No need to extend Dialog with a new empty class, since already there is a constructor version which takes the theme style. – Benzoyl

@Benzoyl The point is to show how to override the style in a custom Dialog class. It's just an example, your real Dialog class will have some other code in it too. – Pursuit

Answer 8

I guess it cannot be done. At least not with the Builder. I'm working with 1.6 and the Implementation in Builder.create() is:

public AlertDialog create() {
    final AlertDialog dialog = new AlertDialog(P.mContext);
    P.apply(dialog.mAlert);
    [...]
}

which calls the "not-theme-aware" constructor of AlertDialog, which looks like this:

protected AlertDialog(Context context) {
    this(context, com.android.internal.R.style.Theme_Dialog_Alert);
}

There is a second constructor in AlertDialog for changing themes:

protected AlertDialog(Context context, int theme) {
    super(context, theme);
    [...]
}

that the Builder just doesn't call.

If the Dialog is pretty generic anyway, I'd try writing a subclass of AlertDialog, calling the second constructor and use that class instead of the Builder-mechanism.

Energize

Answer 9

Better way to do this use custom dialog and customize according your needs here is custom dialog example.....

public class CustomDialogUI {
Dialog dialog;
Vibrator vib;
RelativeLayout rl;

@SuppressWarnings("static-access")
public void dialog(final Context context, String title, String message,
        final Runnable task) {
    dialog = new Dialog(context);
    dialog.requestWindowFeature(Window.FEATURE_NO_TITLE);
    dialog.setContentView(R.layout.custom);
    dialog.setCancelable(false);
    TextView m = (TextView) dialog.findViewById(R.id.message);
    TextView t = (TextView) dialog.findViewById(R.id.title);
    final Button n = (Button) dialog.findViewById(R.id.button2);
    final Button p = (Button) dialog.findViewById(R.id.next_button);
    rl = (RelativeLayout) dialog.findViewById(R.id.rlmain);
    t.setText(bold(title));
    m.setText(message);
    dialog.show();
    n.setText(bold("Close"));
    p.setText(bold("Ok"));
    // color(context,rl);
    vib = (Vibrator) context.getSystemService(context.VIBRATOR_SERVICE);
    n.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {
        @Override
        public void onClick(View arg0) {
            vib.vibrate(15);
            dialog.dismiss();
        }
    });
    p.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {
        @Override
        public void onClick(View arg0) {
            vib.vibrate(20);
            dialog.dismiss();
            task.run();
        }
    });
}
 //customize text style bold italic....
public SpannableString bold(String s) {
    SpannableString spanString = new SpannableString(s);
    spanString.setSpan(new StyleSpan(Typeface.BOLD), 0,
            spanString.length(), 0);
    spanString.setSpan(new UnderlineSpan(), 0, spanString.length(), 0);
    // spanString.setSpan(new StyleSpan(Typeface.ITALIC), 0,
    // spanString.length(), 0);
    return spanString;
}

}

Here is xml layout

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:background="#00000000"
>

<RelativeLayout
    android:id="@+id/rlmain"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="150dip"
    android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
    android:layout_centerVertical="true"
    android:background="#569CE3" >

    <RelativeLayout
        android:id="@+id/relativeLayout1"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
        android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
        android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
        android:layout_marginLeft="25dip"
        android:layout_marginTop="10dip" >

        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/title"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
            android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
            android:text="Are you Sure?"
            android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"
            android:textColor="#ffffff"
            android:textSize="13dip" />
    </RelativeLayout>

    <RelativeLayout
        android:id="@+id/relativeLayout2"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_alignLeft="@+id/relativeLayout1"
        android:layout_alignRight="@+id/relativeLayout1"
        android:layout_below="@+id/relativeLayout1"
        android:layout_marginTop="5dip" >
    </RelativeLayout>

    <ProgressBar
        android:id="@+id/process"
        style="?android:attr/progressBarStyleSmall"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
        android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
        android:layout_marginRight="3dip"
        android:layout_marginTop="3dip" />

    <RelativeLayout
        android:id="@+id/relativeLayout3"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_alignLeft="@+id/relativeLayout2"
        android:layout_below="@+id/relativeLayout2"
        android:layout_toLeftOf="@+id/process" >

        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/message"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
            android:layout_centerVertical="true"
            android:text="Medium Text"
            android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceMedium"
            android:textColor="#ffffff"
            android:textSize="13dip"/>

    </RelativeLayout>

    <Button
        android:id="@+id/next_button"
        android:layout_width="90dip"
        android:layout_height="35dip"
        android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
        android:textColor="@drawable/button_text_color"
         android:background="@drawable/blue_button"
         android:layout_marginBottom="5dp"
           android:textSize="10dp"

        android:layout_alignRight="@+id/relativeLayout3"
        android:text="Okay" />

    <Button
        android:id="@+id/button2"
        android:text="Cancel"
        android:textColor="@drawable/button_text_color"
        android:layout_width="90dip"
        android:layout_height="35dip"
        android:layout_marginBottom="5dp"
         android:background="@drawable/blue_button"
         android:layout_marginRight="7dp"
        android:textSize="10dp"
        android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
        android:layout_toLeftOf="@+id/next_button"
         />

</RelativeLayout>

Bontebok

Theming and using a custom view are 2 different things and have different purposes. – Carline

Answer 10

Anyone trying to do this within a Fragment (using the support library i.e. pre API 11) should go with this:

public class LoadingDialogFragment extends DialogFragment {
    public static final String ID = "loadingDialog";

    public static LoadingDialogFragment newInstance() {
        LoadingDialogFragment f = new LoadingDialogFragment();

        return f;
    }

    @Override
    public Dialog onCreateDialog(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        StyleAlertDialog adb = new StyleAlertDialog(getActivity(), R.style.Your_Style);
        adb.setView(getActivity().getLayoutInflater().inflate(R.layout.fragment_dialog_layout, null));
        return adb;
    }

    private class StyleAlertDialog extends AlertDialog {
        protected StyleAlertDialog(Context context, int theme) {
            super(context, theme);
        }
    }
}

@Rflexor gave me the nudge to extend AlertDialog and expose the constructor thanks

Earnestineearnings

The constructor AlertDialog.Builder(Context, int) only works on API 11 and above. Your code will crash on earlier Android versions. – Fibrilliform

@JosephEarl (using the support library i.e. pre API 11) – Earnestineearnings

My bad, you use the dialog constructor and not the dialog builder constructor. – Fibrilliform

Answer 11

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.

Caveat

Answer 12

You can override the default theme used by DialogFragments spawned by an activity by modifying the activity's theme's attributes....

set the activity's theme in AndroidManifest.xml.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    package="com.example.helloworld">

    <application
        android:name=".App"
        android:allowBackup="true"
        android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:roundIcon="@mipmap/ic_launcher_round"
        android:supportsRtl="true"
        android:theme="@style/AppTheme">     <!-- set all Activity themes to your custom theme -->

        .....

    </application>

</manifest>

in the values/styles.xml, override the item used to determine what theme to use for spawned DialogFragments

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>

    <style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat">

        <!-- override the default theme for DialogFragments -->
        <item name="android:dialogTheme">@style/AppTheme.Dialog</item>

    </style>

    .....

</resources>

in the values/styles.xml, define and configure the theme you want to use for DialogFragments

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>

    .....

    <!--
        configure your custom theme for DialogFragments...
    -->
    <style name="AppTheme.Dialog" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Dialog.MinWidth">

        <!-- override the default theme for DialogFragments spawned by this DialogFragment -->
        <item name="android:dialogTheme">@style/AppTheme.Dialog</item>

        <!--
            OPTIONAL: override the background for the dialog...i am using a dark theme,
            and for some reason, there is no themes for dialogs with dark backgrounds,
            so, i made my own.
        -->
        <item name="android:windowBackground">@drawable/dialog__window_background</item>

        <!--
            add the title to the dialog's theme. you can remove it later by using
            DialogFragment.setStyle()
        -->
        <item name="android:windowNoTitle">false</item>
        <item name="windowNoTitle">?android:windowNoTitle</item>

    </style>

    .....

</resources>

OPTIONAL: if you use a dark theme, and overrode android:windowBackground like i did in AppTheme.Dialog, then add a drawable/dialog__window_background.xml file with the contents:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<inset xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:insetLeft="16dp"
    android:insetTop="16dp"
    android:insetRight="16dp"
    android:insetBottom="16dp">
    <shape android:shape="rectangle">
        <corners android:radius="?dialogCornerRadius" />
        <solid android:color="?android:colorBackground" />
    </shape>
</inset>

Bagnio

Answer 13

I"m not sure how Arve's solution would work in a custom Dialog with builder where the view is inflated via a LayoutInflator.

The solution should be to insert the the ContextThemeWrapper in the inflator through cloneInContext():

View sensorView = LayoutInflater.from(context).cloneInContext(
     new ContextThemeWrapper(context, R.style.AppTheme_DialogLight)
).inflate(R.layout.dialog_fingerprint, null);

Sadick

Answer 14

It can done simply by using the Builder's setView(). You can create any view of your choice and feed into the builder. This works good. I use a custom TextView that is rendered by the dialog builder. I dont set the message and this space is utilized to render my custome textview.

Wart

Answer 15

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

Effulgence

Do you mind to format your code with the built-in code snippet? – Xenophobe