How to create a floating touchable activity that still allows to touch native controls outside of its borders?

Question

What I am trying to achieve is best explained by the scheme I made with mspaint:

I have tried to set FLAG_NOT_TOUCH_MODAL which by the description is supposed to be exactly what I want, but it simply does not work. My activity consumes ALL touch events, even outside its borders.

If I set FLAG_NOT_FOCUSABLE then of course the native controls under the activity are touchable, but then the activity is completely not even when touching inside its borders.

I have tried setting isFloatingWindow=true in the manifest, but it didn't seem to make any difference.

Can anyone achieve this? I would really appreciate a small demo activity that works this way so I can take it and work from there. I have tried numerous permutations for WindowManager and Intent flags and nothing seems to work exactly as I need.

Thanks in advance.

UPDATE:

I have tried your suggestion, but it still did not work as desired.

This is my activity layout xml:

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:layout_width="385dp"
android:layout_height="300dp"
android:theme="@android:style/Theme.Dialog"
tools:context="com.ui.activities.TestActivity"
android:id="@+id/testLayout"
android:visibility="visible"
android:background="@drawable/abc_ab_solid_light_holo"
android:clickable="true">

<Button
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="Click me"
    android:id="@+id/button"
    android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
    android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
    android:layout_marginBottom="35dp"
    android:clickable="true"
    android:enabled="true"
    android:onClick="onClick" />

And this is the Activity class:

public class TestActivity extends Activity implements View.OnClickListener {

private String TAG = TestActivity.class.getSimpleName();

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_test);

    setWindowParams();
}

private void setWindowParams() {
    WindowManager.LayoutParams wlp = getWindow().getAttributes();
    wlp.dimAmount = 0;
    wlp.flags = WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_LAYOUT_NO_LIMITS |
            WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_NOT_TOUCH_MODAL;
    getWindow().setAttributes(wlp);
}

And unfortunately, this is the result:

What am I missing?

Thanks.

Mayne

hi, how did u make activity live when app not running? – Lh

Hi, it has been many years past but from what I recall we used a Foreground Service. – Mayne

Answer 1

Set a Dialog theme on the Activity in your manifest. For example:

android:theme="@android:style/Theme.Dialog"

Then set the following Window parameters in onCreate():

public void setWindowParams() {
    WindowManager.LayoutParams wlp = getWindow().getAttributes();
    wlp.dimAmount = 0;            
    wlp.flags = WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_LAYOUT_NO_LIMITS |
                WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_NOT_TOUCH_MODAL;
    getWindow().setAttributes(wlp);     
}

Katakana

Let us continue this discussion in chat. – Mayne

Answer 2

You can use activity with special theme in your AndroidManifest file:

<style name="Theme.Transparent">
        <item name="windowActionBar">false</item>
        <item name="windowNoTitle">true</item>
        <item name="android:windowIsTranslucent">true</item>
        <item name="android:windowBackground">@android:color/transparent</item>
        <item name="android:colorBackgroundCacheHint">@null</item>
        <item name="android:windowContentOverlay">@null</item>
        <!--<item name="android:backgroundDimEnabled">false</item>--> // show/hide background 
        <item name="android:windowIsFloating">true</item>
</style>

And also don't forget to set mach_parent attribute in Activity like:

override fun onStart() {
        super.onStart()
        window.setLayout(ViewGroup.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, ViewGroup.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT)
    }

Rebarebah