Develop Reference

How to animate opening/closing dialogs within whole application (or activity)?

I have basic knowledge of animations, but how to set globally same animations for opening/closing dialogs within my app?
I have a preference screen with toolbar on top (with some menu items). And clicking on menu, or preferences opens dialogs.
How to set same dialog animations within my app, or at least within certain activity? So whatever dialog I open, it will always be same animation?

You can create a theme for your dialogs with the desired animations and apply it to your app's theme in styles.xml like this:
<!-- Base application theme. -->
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
<item name="colorPrimary">#color/colorPrimary</item>
<item name="colorPrimaryDark">#color/colorPrimaryDark</item>
<item name="colorAccent">#color/colorAccent</item>
<!-- Apply your custom dialog theme here. -->
<item name="android:dialogTheme">#style/CustomDialog</item>
<item name="android:alertDialogTheme">#style/CustomDialog</item>
</style>
<style name="CustomDialog" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.Dialog">
<item name="android:windowAnimationStyle">#style/CustomDialogAnimation</item>
</style>
<style name="CustomDialogAnimation">
<item name="android:windowEnterAnimation">#android:anim/slide_in_left</item>
<item name="android:windowExitAnimation">#android:anim/slide_out_right</item>
</style>
That will apply the enter and exit animations to all of your dialogs ✌🏻I just tested it myself and it worked, let me know if it works for you 🙂

Use this in alert dialog,
if (alertDialogBuilder.getWindow() != null)
alertDialogBuilder.getWindow().getAttributes().windowAnimations = R.style.DialogTheme; //style id
In styles.xml define above Dialog Theme like below:
<style name="DialogTheme">
<item name="android:windowEnterAnimation">#anim/slide_left</item>
<item name="android:windowExitAnimation">#anim/slide_right</item>
</style>
Happy Coding :)

Themes for different text sizes not working

I'd like to have two themes in my app: one with normal font size and one with smaller font size. I need to dynamically change themes in the activity's onCreate or onStart.
I've defined two themes (file themes.xml):
<style name="AppBaseTheme" parent="android:Theme.Light">
</style>
<!-- Default theme with normal font size. This one is set for the whole app in the manifest -->
<style name="NormalTheme" parent="AppBaseTheme">
<item name="android:textAppearance">#style/NormalTextSize</item>
<item name="android:textAppearanceLarge">#style/NormalTextSize.Large</item>
<item name="android:textAppearanceMedium">#style/NormalTextSize.Medium</item>
<item name="android:textAppearanceSmall">#style/NormalTextSize.Small</item>
<item name="android:editTextStyle">#style/EditText_NormalTextSize</item>
</style>
<!-- Small font size -->
<style name="SmallFontTheme" parent="NormalTheme">
<item name="android:textAppearance">#style/SmallTextSize</item>
<item name="android:textAppearanceLarge">#style/SmallTextSize.Large</item>
<item name="android:textAppearanceMedium">#style/SmallTextSize.Medium</item>
<item name="android:textAppearanceSmall">#style/SmallTextSize.Small</item>
<item name="android:editTextStyle">#style/EditText_SmallTextSize</item>
</style>
And in the file styles.xml I've defined style sets for each theme:
<!-- Normal font -->
<style name="NormalTextSize" parent="#android:style/TextAppearance">
<item name="android:textSize">16sp</item>
</style>
<style name="NormalTextSize.Large" >
<item name="android:textSize">22sp</item>
</style>
<style name="NormalTextSize.Medium" >
<item name="android:textSize">18sp</item>
</style>
<style name="NormalTextSize.Small" >
<item name="android:textSize">14sp</item>
</style>
<style name="EditText_NormalTextSize" parent="#android:style/Widget.EditText">
<item name="android:textSize">16sp</item>
</style>
<!-- Small font -->
<style name="SmallTextSize" parent="#android:style/TextAppearance">
<item name="android:textSize">14sp</item>
</style>
<style name="SmallTextSize.Large" >
<item name="android:textSize">20sp</item>
</style>
<style name="SmallTextSize.Medium" >
<item name="android:textSize">16sp</item>
</style>
<style name="SmallTextSize.Small" >
<item name="android:textSize">12sp</item>
</style>
<style name="EditText_SmallTextSize" parent="#android:style/Widget.EditText">
<item name="android:textSize">14sp</item>
</style>
To test the theme change I've created an activity and I've added two TextViews (one with textAppearanceLarge and one with textAppearanceSmall). I've also added an EditText and a list view. I haven't touched any style attribute on these views, I've kept them as they are when dropped in the layout editor. My goal is to change the theme for the whole app without having to define style or appearance for each widget.
I've also added some buttons to trigger the theme change: the new theme resource id is stored in preferences, then the activity is self-finished and a new Intent to the same test activity is launched. The activity reads the current theme setting in onCreate or onStart and calls setTheme. This theme setting change works, but only the ListView is resizing the text: the TextViews and the EditText don't resize.
So my question is what on earth have I done wrong. I've followed 3-4 tutorials and my styles are consistent with what it is supposed to work.
Notice I've only overrided text appearances in the themes because I thought that almost every text-based widget would resize based on the appearance alone (when dropped from the layout editor, every widget has an appearance). I've readed somewhere that it doesn't work that way (if so, good job guys at Google) and that you need to define text size for every kind of widget inside the themes. Well in the example above I've overrided editTextStyle and didn't work. I have also tried buttons and text views with identical result. But what puzzles me is that the ListView, which is the most complex widget on screen, is resizing correctly without defining an style for it, while the most simple widgets are not, even when defining styles for those particular kind of widgets!

The themes were ok.
The problem was the activity. You need to call setTheme before setContentView.
Kudos to #mozarty for his answer

Custom theme and sherlockActionBar

I am doing a personal theme to use holo widget in 2.3 android.
I did this:
<resources xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<style name="AppThemes" parent="#style/Theme.Sherlock">
<item name="android:editTextStyle">#style/EditTextAppTheme</item>
<item name="android:checkboxStyle">#style/CheckBoxAppTheme</item>
<item name="android:radioButtonStyle">#style/RadioButtonAppTheme</item>
<item name="android:buttonStyle">#style/ButtonAppTheme</item>
<item name="android:imageButtonStyle">#style/ImageButtonAppTheme</item>
<item name="android:spinnerStyle">#style/SpinnerAppTheme</item>
<item name="android:dropDownSpinnerStyle">#style/SpinnerAppTheme.DropDown</item>
<item name="android:spinnerDropDownItemStyle">#style/SpinnerDropDownItemAppTheme</item>
</style>
</resources>
the problem is that widgets don't take the correct style but take the default style. I tried to force assign the #style/EditTextAppTheme at an edittext and it worked.. so the problem is that the theme don't apply.
any idea?
update: the theme apply and work good..the solo problem is some edittext inside a dialog that show with the standard theme

To get the holo theme style in an App for API 10 and below, you can use HoloEverywhere. It's well integrated with ActionBarSherlock. ActionBarSherlock is included as a subproject. https://github.com/ChristopheVersieux/HoloEverywhere

If you want to use a customized Theme you have to set these style attributes in your Application theme. Then apply this theme to the whole App or to a single Activity by defining it in the manifest or setting it programmaticaly in the onCreate() method.
For example(for ABS):
<style name="Theme.myStyle" parent="Theme.Sherlock">
<item name="android:editTextStyle">#style/EditTextAppTheme</item>
<item name="android:checkboxStyle">#style/CheckBoxAppTheme</item>
<item name="android:radioButtonStyle">#style/RadioButtonAppTheme</item>
<item name="android:buttonStyle">#style/ButtonAppTheme</item>
<item name="android:imageButtonStyle">#style/ImageButtonAppTheme</item>
<item name="android:spinnerStyle">#style/SpinnerAppTheme</item>
<item name="android:dropDownSpinnerStyle">#style/SpinnerAppTheme.DropDown</item>
<item name="android:spinnerDropDownItemStyle">#style/SpinnerDropDownItemAppTheme</item>
</style>
And then set this theme to your Application or your Activity in the Manifest with:
android:theme="#style/Theme.myStyle"
or programmatically:
setTheme(R.style.Theme.myStyle);

Custom style is interfering with platform dialogs

I've created a custom theme for my app, and it looks great! However, I've noticed that some default platform dialogs, such as the context menu when long-pressing an EditText doesn't show correctly.
On the left, a context menu through my app. On the right, a standard context menu through a platform app.
Here's my style.xml:
<resources xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<style name="Theme.Styled" parent="Theme.Sherlock">
<!-- ... various app styles ... -->
<item name="android:alertDialogStyle">#style/DialogHolo</item>
<item name="android:dialogTheme">#style/DialogHolo</item>
</style>
<style name="DialogHolo" parent="android:style/Theme.Dialog">
<item name="android:fullDark">#drawable/bg_dialog_full</item>
<item name="android:topDark">#drawable/bg_dialog_top</item>
<item name="android:centerDark">#drawable/bg_dialog_middle</item>
<item name="android:bottomDark">#drawable/bg_dialog_bottom</item>
<item name="android:fullBright">#drawable/bg_dialog_full</item>
<item name="android:centerBright">#drawable/bg_dialog_middle</item>
<item name="android:bottomBright">#drawable/bg_dialog_bottom</item>
<item name="android:bottomMedium">#drawable/bg_dialog_bottom</item>
<item name="android:centerMedium">#drawable/bg_dialog_middle</item>
<item name="android:textColor">#ffe6e7e8</item>
</style>
</resources>
Is it possible to either have these dialogs use the default style or get the text to appear in the desired text color?

I never found an elegant solution for this, and instead simply provided a theme defined separately in my style.xml when displaying a custom dialog.

Android - change dialog title style of all dialogs in application

Is there a way I can change all the alert dialogs appearing in my Android application? I want to change the dialogs that are system generated as well (like the Edit Text dialog that opens up when you long tap on any EditText). I want to change the title font color and size of all the dialogs in my app.
Is there a way to do it?
I have tried setting android:alertDialogTheme in my theme. But it seems to be not working. Code following -
<style name="Theme.DLight" parent="android:Theme.Light.NoTitleBar">
<item name="android:alertDialogTheme">#style/DialogStyle</item>
</style>
and
<style name="DialogStyle" parent="android:Theme" >
<item name="android:windowBackground">#drawable/background_holo_light</item>
<item name="android:textColor">#014076</item>
</style>
EDIT
I'm not invoking a dialog from my code. It's just the default dialog
that appears when you long click on any EditText. Generally it
contains the keyboard options like Select word, Select all, Input
method etc.

In you dialog theme, the attribute you need to modify windowTitleStyle. There, reference a style for your title and define a text appearance for this title. For example, to display your title red and bold:
<style name="AppTheme" parent="#android:style/Theme.Holo">
...
<item name="alertDialogTheme">#style/AppTheme.AlertDialog</item>
</style>
<style name="DialogStyle" parent="#style/Theme.Holo.Dialog.Alert">
...
<item name="android:windowTitleStyle">#style/DialogWindowTitle_Custom</item>
</style>
<style name="DialogWindowTitle_Custom" parent="#style/DialogWindowTitle_Holo">
<item name="android:maxLines">1</item>
<item name="android:scrollHorizontally">true</item>
<item name="android:textAppearance">#style/TextAppearance_DialogWindowTitle</item>
</style>
<style name="TextAppearance_DialogWindowTitle" parent="#android:style/TextAppearance.Holo.DialogWindowTitle">
<item name="android:textColor">#android:color/holo_red_light</item>
<item name="android:textStyle">bold</item>
</style>
If you want to style a little bit more your AlertDialog, I wrote a blog post detailing the steps.

In styles.xml:
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
<!-- Customize your theme here. -->
//All your other styles and add the one mntioned below.
<item name="alertDialogTheme">#style/AlertDialogStyle</item>
</style>
In the styles of AlertDialog add:
<style name="AlertDialogStyle" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.Dialog.Alert">
<item name="colorAccent">#color/colorAccent</item>
<item name="android:textColorPrimary">#color/primary_text</item>
<item name="android:editTextColor">#color/primary_text</item>
<item name="android:background">#color/white</item>
<item name="android:windowTitleStyle">#style/TextAppearance.AppCompat.Title</item>
</style>
windowTitleStyle is important to add as it will give your title that effect that you need.
Now simply use this Theme in your AlertDialog in any activity that you want like below:
AlertDialog.Builder dialog = new AlertDialog.Builder(this, R.style.AlertDialogStyle);