How to create a custom alertDialog with a list inside bound to an onClick event android?

Question

I guess I am going slightly mad... But I can't figure it out. I would like to show a custom alert dialog bound to an Onclick event with a list of data which come from a database.

All works perfectly if I use a simple Dialog, but I would like to make it custom in order to set a title, some text views and buttons on the top of the alert dialog (instead of just show a title with the .setTitle() method).

Here is my code:

protected void onPostExecute(String file_url) {
        pDialog.dismiss();

        runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {

            @Override
            public void run() {
                infoListButton.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {

                     @Override
                     public void onClick(View arg0) {
                        // custom Dialog
                        AlertDialog.Builder builder;
                        AlertDialog alertDialog;

                        Context mContext = getApplicationContext();
                        LayoutInflater inflater = (LayoutInflater)
                                mContext.getSystemService(LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
                        View layout = inflater.inflate(R.layout.custom_dialog_institutionalinfos, null);

                        TextView text = (TextView) layout.findViewById(R.id.custom_dialog_text);
                        text.setText("Hello, this is a custom dialog!");

                        builder = new AlertDialog.Builder(mContext);
                        builder.setView(layout);
                        alertDialog = builder.create();
                        // inflating the custom institutional expandable list layout
                        LayoutInflater li = (LayoutInflater) thisContext.getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
                        View v = li.inflate(R.layout.institutional_info_custom_list, null, false);
                        alertDialog.setContentView(v);

                        InstitutionalInfoListView = (ListView) v.findViewById(android.R.id.list);
                        final MasterDetailArrayAdapter adapter = new MasterDetailArrayAdapter(HomeComune.this, MasterDetailInstitutionalInfoList);         
                        InstitutionalInfoListView.setAdapter(adapter);

                        alertDialog.show();
                     }
                });
            }
        });         
    }

the app crashes when I click on the infoListButton and I get A message in the LogCat:

03-16 19:25:22.905: E/AndroidRuntime(5301): FATAL EXCEPTION: main
03-16 19:25:22.905: E/AndroidRuntime(5301): android.util.AndroidRuntimeException:                              
requestFeature() must be called before adding content

and an error on the line where I call alertDialog.show(); method. Why this happens? How to resolve?

I just want to add a custom title, a button and a text view to my AlertDialog.

How to do that?

EDIT: how can I custom the title and add a button to the top-right of the dialog to bind it with an onclick event that will dismiss() the dialog???

EDIT: I have created a MyCustomDialog class with this code:

public class MyCustomDialog extends Dialog {

public MyCustomDialog(Context context) {
    super(context);
    requestWindowFeature(Window.FEATURE_NO_TITLE);
    setContentView(R.layout.custom_dialog_institutionalinfos);
    TextView dialogTitle = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.custom_dialog_text);
    dialogTitle.setText("My First Custom Dialog");
}
}

And this XML:

<?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="fill_parent" >
  <TextView
    android:id="@+id/custom_dialog_text"
    android:layout_width="80dp"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
   />
<ListView
    android:id="@android:id/list"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
    android:paddingBottom="20dp"/>

    </RelativeLayout>

The code where I instantiate the dialog:

   // custom Dialog
                        MyCustomDialog dialog = new MyCustomDialog(thisContext);

                        // inflating the custom institutional expandable list layout
                        LayoutInflater li = (LayoutInflater) thisContext.getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
                        View v = li.inflate(R.layout.institutional_info_custom_list, null, false);
                        dialog.setContentView(v);

                        InstitutionalInfoListView = (ListView) v.findViewById(android.R.id.list);
                        final MasterDetailArrayAdapter adapter = new MasterDetailArrayAdapter(HomeComune.this, MasterDetailInstitutionalInfoList);         
                        InstitutionalInfoListView.setAdapter(adapter);

                        dialog.show();

But there's no Text displayed in the dialog. I only see the list:

What am I missing? UPDATE: MyCustomDialog class:

public class MyCustomDialog extends Dialog {

public MyCustomDialog(Context context) {
    super(context);
    requestWindowFeature(Window.FEATURE_NO_TITLE);
    setContentView(R.layout.custom_title);
    TextView dialogTitle = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.custom_dialog_text);
    dialogTitle.setText("Hello I am a dialog");
}
 }

The custom_title.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="40dp"
android:background="#3FD100"
android:orientation="vertical" >

<TextView
    android:id="@+id/custom_dialog_text"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"

   />

 </LinearLayout> 

The code where I instantiate MyCustomDialog class:

          // custom Dialog
    MyCustomDialog dialog = new MyCustomDialog(thisContext);
    InstitutionalInfoListView = (ListView) dialog.findViewById(R.id.custom_dialog_list);
final MasterDetailArrayAdapter adapter = new   
    MasterDetailArrayAdapter(HomeComune.this, MasterDetailInstitutionalInfoList);         
                            InstitutionalInfoListView.setAdapter(adapter);

dialog.show();

The app crashes with a null pointer exception at
InstitutionalInfoListView.setAdapter(adapter);

UPDATE: the TextView is inside the ListView, how to proceed?

Answer 1

Why do you use an AlertDialog? You can use a simple Dialog which generally causes less problems and is more appropriate for custom layouts.

EDIT: Details

First create an XML layout file, just like you would do for an Activity. Then create a class that extends Dialog. Say your custom dialog class is called CustomDialog. In public CustomDialog(Context context) call:

super(context);
requestWindowFeature(Window.FEATURE_NO_TITLE);
setContentView(R.layout.custom_dialog);
// find your views and customize them here

EDIT: HOW TO CREATE CUSTOM DIALOG INSTANCE

• in your xml, also give the ListView a custom id: android:id="@+id/custom_dialog_list"
• check the comments in the section below

// custom Dialog MyCustomDialog dialog = new MyCustomDialog(thisContext);

                    // you DO NOT need to inflate a new view. by dialog.setContentView(v); you *replace* your XML file with another layout.

                    // inflating the custom institutional expandable list layout
                    //LayoutInflater li = (LayoutInflater) thisContext.getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
                    //View v = li.inflate(R.layout.institutional_info_custom_list, null, false);
                    //dialog.setContentView(v);

                    // dont forget to check this line
                    InstitutionalInfoListView = (ListView) dialog.findViewById(R.id.custom_dialog_list); // set a custom id for your list in the layout
                    final MasterDetailArrayAdapter adapter = new MasterDetailArrayAdapter(HomeComune.this, MasterDetailInstitutionalInfoList);         
                    InstitutionalInfoListView.setAdapter(adapter);

                    dialog.show();