Having gone through this blog post Splash Screens the Right Way , i discovered Google's new approach to creating splashscreens.
But my problem with this new method is adding a progress bar/indicator to the splashscreen.
I found several solutions but they are all custom xml layouts instead of Drawables
I also tried creating a progress dialog in my Background_splash.xml which is inside my drawable folder but i got an error that it is not allowed.
My app starts from the splash-screen to App intro activity then to the Main activity.
Is there any way to add a progress indicator/bar to this type of splashscreen?
Below are my codes created using the Splash Screens the Right Way Tutorial
Background_splash.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<item
android:drawable="#color/grey"/>
<item>
<bitmap
android:gravity="center"
android:src="#mipmap/ic_launcher"/>
</item>
AndroidManifest.xml
<activity
android:name="com.domain.app.appintro.SplashActivity"
android:theme="#style/SplashTheme">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
Styles.xml
<style name="SplashTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.NoActionBar">
<item name="android:windowBackground">#drawable/background_splash</item>
</style>
The answer is you cannot! If you want to show the splash screen before the app loads, via the theme, it will have to be a static image. If you want to show a progress bar AFTER the app loads, for example if you need to download data, then you can add a progress bar to splash activity, which will be shown AFTER the static image and app finished loading. If you do not need to wait after app loads, then you are just wasting user time by adding another wait period, and making for a lousy app. All of this can be understood from the comments and replies from the article you linked.
Have you considered using AsyncTask to load the progressDialog. You might be trying to download something in the main thread which blocks splash screen to load.
public class MyActivity extends Activity {
private ProgressDialog pd = null;
private Object data = null;
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.main);
// Show the ProgressDialog on this thread
this.pd = ProgressDialog.show(this, "Working..", "Downloading Data...", true, false);
// Start a new thread that will download all the data
new DownloadTask().execute("Any parameters my download task needs here");
}
private class DownloadTask extends AsyncTask<String, Void, Object> {
protected Object doInBackground(String... args) {
Log.i("MyApp", "Background thread starting");
// This is where you would do all the work of downloading your data
return "replace this with your data object";
}
protected void onPostExecute(Object result) {
// Pass the result data back to the main activity
MyActivity.this.data = result;
if (MyActivity.this.pd != null) {
MyActivity.this.pd.dismiss();
}
}
}
}
Take this as a start point and put this as the inner class of your mainActivity.
As #lionscribe rightly said, there is no way to creating custom splash-screen with this approach. However, This http://saulmm.github.io/avoding-android-cold-startsmight help those who will like to animate elements in the new splash-screen approach.
In any application the add/edit will be comparatively having lesser inputs. I have seen that the application, esp., calendar, are using clever strategy to show these as simple dialog, so that the user may not notice that there is empty space in the designed form
As shown below
My question is, how to make it happen?
What I'm doing is I extend DialogFragment:
public class AboutFragment extends DialogFragment { ... }
I also have an activity that contains that fragment. And when the dialog/activity needs to be called, this method decides how to display it:
public static void showAbout(Activity parent) {
if (isTablet) {
AboutFragment aboutFragment = AboutFragment.newInstance();
aboutFragment.setStyle(DialogFragment.STYLE_NORMAL, R.style.DialogTheme);
DialogUtils.showDialog(parent, aboutFragment);
} else {
Intent aboutIntent = new Intent(parent, AboutActivity.class);
parent.startActivity(aboutIntent);
}
}
How to decide whether it is a tablet, is totally up to you.
This technique is explained in the documentation.
In my opinion the best approach here is to use
<!-- Theme for a window without an action bar that will be displayed either full-screen
on smaller screens (small, normal) or as a dialog on larger screens
(large, xlarge). -->
"android:Theme.Holo.Light.DialogWhenLarge.NoActionBar"
The best/easiest solution I've found is to always use an Activity, and based on screensize (and version), change your Theme parent.
in res/values/themes.xml
<style name="Detail.Theme" parent="#android:style/Theme.Holo.Light" >
...
</style>
and in res/values-large/themes.xml
<style name="Detail.Theme" parent="#android:style/Theme.Holo.Light.DialogWhenLarge" >
...
</style>
use Context.setTheme method to set them programmetically. As the doc says
this should be called before any views are instantiated in the Context
(for example before calling.
So, to switch between themes need to call setTheme before onCreate
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
// check screen size
setTheme(dialogTheme);
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_second);
}
As #StinePike answered, setting a dialog theme programatically doesn't do any use (to me), as it shows a wierd black screen behind the dialog, rather than a dimmed background (as shown in the question). This is obviously a bug.
Instead of trying to set it programatically, or in style.xml, and pretty much everywhere except for AndroidManifest.xml, I did the reverse, which has worked for me.
(the solution which I took from the marvelous solution of the above issue)
The simplest solution (that works) as follows:
1. Make the activity a dialog by default through AndroidManifest.xml:
e.g., in the AndroidManifest.xml:
<activity
android:name="com.example.MyActivity"
android:label="#string/title_activity_mine"
android:theme="#android:style/Theme.DeviceDefault.Dialog">
...
</activity>
2. On starting the activity, set the theme to default if device is not a tablet.
if (!(isTablet(this)) {
setTheme(defaultTheme);
}
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
...
Note:
solution will work with custom styles defined in style.xml.
Ref:
How to detect device is Android phone or Android tablet?
Dialog with transparent background in Android
Issue 4394 - android - setTheme() does not work as expected
PS: final app on tablet and phone is as follows:
Use a DailogFragment and then control how its shown with setShowsDialog()
I am using the AlarmManager to pass a PendingIntent to my BroadcastReceiver after, say, 5 minutes. Now, I want to show a DialogFragment to the user, on top of whatever app the user might be using when the alarm goes off. For example, if the user is using Chrome when the alarm goes off, my DialogFragment should popup ABOVE the user's Chrome window.
What I am ending up with instead, is the DialogFragment being shown with a blank activity of my app as the background (as in the following pic)
http://i.stack.imgur.com/Vz9IZ.png
This is the code I am using in my BroadcastReceiver, to launch an FragmentActivity first :
public class AlarmReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver {
#Override
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent)
{
Intent hardReminderIntent = new Intent(context, AlarmHardActivity.class);
hardReminderIntent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
context.startActivity(hardReminderIntent);
}
}
Next, from this activity, I am popping up the DialogFragment :
public class AlarmHardActivity extends FragmentActivity {
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
FragmentManager fm = getSupportFragmentManager();
AlarmHardDialog editNameDialog = new AlarmHardDialog();
editNameDialog.show(fm, "fragment_dialog");
//setContentView(R.layout.activity_alarm_hard);
}
#Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
// Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present.
//getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.activity_alarm_hard, menu);
return true;
}
}
My questions :
I could not find a way to call getSupportFragmentManager directly from the onReceive in my BroadcastReceiver, and thus assumed that the only way to obtain a dialog, would be to first call a 'dummy' activity, that creates the dialog. Is there a better way to do this?
Irrespective of whether or not my approach was correct, I expected that since there is no call to setContentView(..) in AlarmHardActivity, there would be no UI rendered for it. Is my understanding wrong? I also tried calling setContentView(..) and then marking the layout to have Theme.NoDisplay and android:alpha="0", but to no avail.
Any help will be much appreciated. Thanks!
Instead of showing dialog on the activity, better alternative will be making activity look like dialog by using dialog theme and setting margin of all sides to desirable dp, so that activity get shrieked to dialog box size.
For few examples look at these posts:
Android Activity as a dialog
Android: how to create a transparent dialog-themed activity
How to set a dialog themed activity width to screen width?
To your questions:
Fragments can be attached only to Activity (ActivityFragment). So yes, you need dummy Activity for this.
Use the invisible theme #android:style/Theme.Translucent.NoTitleBar, calling setContentView isn't necessary. But this theme isn't Holo compatible (in dialog you would have old Android look). I solved this with custom theme (I use this from ICS, but it should work from HONEYCOMB):
<style name="InvisibleTheme" parent="#android:style/Theme.Holo.Light">
<item name="android:windowActionBar">false</item>
<item name="android:windowNoTitle">true</item>
<item name="android:windowBackground">#android:color/transparent</item>
<item name="android:colorBackgroundCacheHint">#null</item>
<item name="android:windowIsTranslucent">true</item>
<!-- Note that we use the base animation style here (that is no animations) because we really have no idea how this kind of activity will be used. -->
<item name="android:windowAnimationStyle">#android:style/Animation</item>
</style>
It is impossible to show this dialog without Activity. You can try to run your app like you have on your screenshoot, but with transparent background and hidden ActionBar. But i have never tried to do that so I'm not sure if it will work.
I need to implement splash screen in my honeycomb app.
I use this code in activity's onCreate to show splash:
setContentView(R.layout.splash);
getActionBar().hide();
and this code to show main UI after sometime:
setContentView(R.layout.main);
getActionBar().show();
But before onCreate is called and splash appears, there is small amount of time when action bar shown.
How can I make action bar invisible?
I tried to apply theme to activity without action bar:
<item name="android:windowActionBar">false</item>
but in that case getActionBar() always returns null and I found no way to show it again.
Setting android:windowActionBar="false" truly disables the ActionBar but then, as you say, getActionBar(); returns null.
This is solved by:
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
getWindow().requestFeature(Window.FEATURE_ACTION_BAR);
getActionBar().hide();
setContentView(R.layout.splash); // be sure you call this AFTER requestFeature
This creates the ActionBar and immediately hides it before it had the chance to be displayed.
But now there is another problem. After putting windowActionBar="false" in the theme, the Activity draws its normal Window Title instead of an ActionBar.
If we try to avoid this by using some of the *.NoTitleBar stock themes or we try to put <item name="android:windowNoTitle">true</item> in our own theme, it won't work.
The reason is that the ActionBar depends on the Window Title to display itself - that is the ActionBar is a transformed Window Title.
So the trick which can help us out is to add one more thing to our Activity theme xml:
<item name="android:windowActionBar">false</item>
<item name="android:windowTitleSize">0dp</item>
This will make the Window Title with zero height, thus practically invisible .
In your case, after you are done with displaying the splash screen you can simply call
setContentView(R.layout.main);
getActionBar().show();
and you are done. The Activity will start with no ActionBar flickering, nor Window Title showing.
ADDON:
If you show and hide the ActionBar multiple times maybe you have noticed that the first showing is not animated. From then on showing and hiding are animated. If you want to have animation on the first showing too you can use this:
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
requestWindowFeature(Window.FEATURE_ACTION_BAR);
// delaying the hiding of the ActionBar
Handler h = new Handler();
h.post(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
getActionBar().hide();
}
});
The same thing can be achieved with:
protected void onPostResume() {
super.onPostResume();
getActionBar().hide();
but it may need some extra logic to check if this is the first showing of the Activity.
The idea is to delay a little the hiding of the ActionBar. In a way we let the ActionBar be shown, but then hide it immediately. Thus we go beyond the first non-animated showing and next showing will be considered second, thus it will be animated.
As you may have guessed there is a chance that the ActionBar could be seen before it has been hidden by the delayed operation. This is actually the case. Most of the time nothing is seen but yet, once in a while, you can see the ActionBar flicker for a split second.
In any case this is not a pretty solution, so I welcome any suggestions.
Addition for v7 support actionbar user, the code will be:
getWindow().requestFeature(Window.FEATURE_ACTION_BAR);
getSupportActionBar().hide();
Using this simple code in your .class file to hide action bar
getSupportActionBar().hide();
If you are using ActionBarSherlock, then use Theme.Sherlock.NoActionBar Theme in your Activity
<activity
android:name=".SplashScreenActivity"
android:theme="#style/Theme.Sherlock.NoActionBar">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
Create two styles:
<style name="AppThemeNoBar" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light">
<item name="android:windowNoTitle">true</item>
</style>
<style name="AppThemeBar" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light">
<item name="android:windowNoTitle">false</item>
</style>
Set AppThemeNoBar as application theme and AppThemeBar to the activity where you want to show the ActionBar.
Using two styles you wont see the Action bar while views are loading.
Check this link Android: hide action bar while view load
Hi I have a simple solution by using 2 themes
Splash screen theme (add it to the manifest):
<style name="SplashTheme" parent="#android:style/Theme.Holo.NoActionBar">
<item name="android:windowBackground">#color/red</item>
</style>
normal theme (add it in your activity by setTheme(R.style.Theme)):
<style name="Theme" parent="#style/Theme.Holo"> <item name="android:windowBackground">#color/blue</item>
</style>
To support SDK 10:
#Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
setTheme(R.style.Theme);
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
...........
...........
}
I was also trying to hide Action Bar on Android 2.2, but none of these solution worked. Everything ends with a crash. I checked the DDMS LOg, It was telling me to use 'Theme.AppCompat'.At last I Solved the problem by changing the android:theme="#android:style/Theme.Holo.Light.NoActionBar"Line
into android:theme="#style/Theme.AppCompat.NoActionBar"and it worked, but the the Interface was dark.
then i tried android:theme="#style/Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar" and finally got what i wanted.
After that when I Searched about 'AppCompat' on Developer Site I got This.
So I think the Solution for Android 2.2 is
<activity
android:name=".MainActivity"
android:theme="#style/Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar" >
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
And Sorry for my bad English Like Always.
Best result to me was to create an activity with ThemeNoTitleBar and without content as launcher. Then this activity call directly to the other.
Of course if you want you can add content to the Splash Activity but in my case I just wanted to show application directly.
Manifest:
<activity
android:name="com.package.SplashActivity"
android:theme="#android:style/Theme.Black.NoTitleBar" >
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
Activity:
public class SplashActivity extends Activity{
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState){
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
//start StartActivity
Intent intent = new Intent(this, StartActivity.class);
startActivity(intent);
finish();
}
}
If you use one Activity included a splash screen, then you can do this if you use SherlockActionBar
getSupportActionBar().hide();
After the splash screen you can show it again with ...
getSupportActionBar().show();
It should be the same with native ActionBar of Android.
#Clerics solution works. But this appears to also be an issue with some of googles native apps: googles, play store, talk. Also other big apps like skype.
EDIT: Bellow solution have given me problem for actionbarsherlock on api < 4.0, the reason being setTheme doesn't work pre ice cream sandwich
Add following in your manifest within you application or activity tags:
android:theme="#style/Theme.NoActionBar"
And then in your main activity:
// Set theme
setTheme(R.style.YOUR_THEME);
getSupportActionBar().setTitle(R.string.title);
// Start regular onCreate()
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
best and simple
requestWindowFeature(Window.FEATURE_NO_TITLE);
getWindow().setFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_FULLSCREEN,
WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_FULLSCREEN);
2015, using support v7 library with AppCompat theme, set this theme for your Activity.
<style name="AppTheme.AppStyled" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
<item name="colorPrimaryDark">#color/md_indigo_100</item>
<item name="colorPrimary">#color/md_indigo_500</item>
<item name="colorAccent">#color/md_red_500</item>
<item name="android:textColorPrimary">#color/md_white_1000</item>
<item name="android:textColor">#color/md_purple_500</item>
<item name="android:textStyle">bold</item>
<item name="windowNoTitle">true</item>
<item name="windowActionBar">false</item>
</style>
For Splashscreen you should use this line in manifest and don't use getActionBar()
<item name="android:windowActionBar">false</item>
and once when Splash Activity is finished in the main Activity use below or nothing
<item name="android:windowActionBar">true</item>
Try this, it works for me:
Below gets rid of activity's title bar
requestWindowFeature(Window.FEATURE_NO_TITLE);
Below eliminates the notification bar to make the activity go full-screen
getWindow().setFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_FULLSCREEN,
WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_FULLSCREEN);
(Full Example Below)
Take note: These methods were called before we set the content view of our activity
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
// Sets Application to full screen by removing action bar
requestWindowFeature(Window.FEATURE_NO_TITLE);
getWindow().setFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_FULLSCREEN,
WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_FULLSCREEN);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
// without this check, we would create a new fragment at each orientation change!
if (null == savedInstanceState)
createFragment();
}
this may be handy
add this to your manifest
android:theme="#android:style/Theme.Light.NoTitleBar"
cheers
The best way I find after reading all the available options is set main theme without ActionBar and then set up MyTheme in code in parent of all Activity.
Manifest:
<application
...
android:theme="#android:style/Theme.Holo.Light.NoActionBar"
...>
BaseActivity:
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setTheme(R.style.GreenHoloTheme);
}
This way helps me to avoid ActionBar when application start!
The solutions already posted came with the sideffect, that the first .show() call did not animate the ActionBar for me.
I got another nice solution, which fixed that:
Create a transparent drawable - something like that:
<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<solid
android:color="#00000000" />
</shape>
Set the actual actionbar background to a invisible custom view which you set on the actionbar:
getSupportActionBar().setCustomView(R.layout.actionbar_custom_layout);
getSupportActionBar().setDisplayOptions(ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_CUSTOM,
ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_CUSTOM | ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_HOME | ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_TITLE);
Set the transparent background for the actionbar in onCreate:
getSupportActionBar().setBackgroundDrawable(getResources().getDrawable(R.drawable.background_transparent));
Imortant: Don't hide the actionbar immediately in onCreate, but with a little delay later - e.g. when the layout is finished with creation:
getWindow().getDecorView().getViewTreeObserver().addOnGlobalLayoutListener(new OnGlobalLayoutListener() {
#Override
public void onGlobalLayout() {
getSupportActionBar().hide();
}
});
Before your first .show() call set the custom view visible:
_actionbarRoot.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);
getSupportActionBar().show();
In case you have null because you are using the support library, instead of getActionBar() you need to call getSupportActionBar().
Just add this to your MainActivity in the onCreate function.
val actionBar = supportActionBar?.apply { hide() }
Put your splash screen in a separate activity and use startActivityForResult from your main activity's onCreate method to display it. This works because, according to the docs:
As a special case, if you call startActivityForResult() with a requestCode >= 0 during the initial onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)/onResume() of your activity, then your window will not be displayed until a result is returned back from the started activity. This is to avoid visible flickering when redirecting to another activity.
You should probably do this only if the argument to onCreate is null (indicating a fresh launch of your activity, as opposed to a restart due to a configuration change).
I had still error with null pointer and finally it helped when I called first getWindow().requestFeature() and then super.onCreate()
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
getWindow().requestFeature(Window.FEATURE_ACTION_BAR);
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
getActionBar().show();
Just add this in your styles.xml
<item name="android:windowNoTitle">true</item>
Actually, you could simply set splash Activity with NoActionBar
and set your main activity with action bar.
The best way to do this is two make the first activity as blank activity and the content you want to put and then after some time fire another activity.
By following this way you can make the first activity as your splash screen without action bar or anything.
Heres my first activity
package com.superoriginal.rootashadnasim.syllabus;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.os.Handler;
import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;
import android.os.Bundle;
public class first_screen extends AppCompatActivity {
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_first_screen);
final Handler h=new Handler();
h.postDelayed(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
Intent intent=new Intent(getApplicationContext(),DrawerChooseBranchMainActivity.class);
startActivity(intent);
}
},2000);
}
}
After that you can put any of your activity as first activity
If you want no action bar in any screen then just add this in your styles
<item name="windowActionBar">false</item>
<item name="windowNoTitle">true</item>
Android studio provide in build template for full screen, if you use Android studio you can follow below step to implement full screen activity.
Done. Android studio did your job, now you can check code for full screen.
this is the best way I used
Go to java file, after onCreate:
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
{
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
// Take instance of Action Bar
// using getSupportActionBar and
// if it is not Null
// then call hide function
if (getSupportActionBar() != null) {
getSupportActionBar().hide();
}
}
I realise that posting links are not the best way to do things, but I highly recommend you read the following documentation from Google themselves. This is the official android doc on how to control your system ui (things like actionbar, nav bar etc). Unfortunately the info is too much to post directly, but after reading this you will understand exactly how to show and hide features no matter what version you are developing for, its so simple!
Incase the link ever changes, it can be found under the official android documentation under training -> getting started -> Best practices for user interface -> managing the system ui
https://developer.android.com/training/system-ui/index.html
you can use this :
getSupportActionBar().hide(); if it doesn't work try this one :
getActionBar().hide();
if above doesn't work try like this :
in your directory = res/values/style.xml , open style.xml -> there is attribute parent change to parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar"
if all of it doesn't work too. i don't know anymore. but for me it works.
I've had this problem in a few different apps now and I can't seem to find a solution.
If, in the onCreate() of an Activity, I start an activity that uses the dialog theme it doesn't draw anything to screen... the whole screen stays black. All the views are there (e.g., I can tap where an EditText should be and it'll give me the keyboard), they're just not visible.
Stupid simple example, for fun:
public class MainActivity extends Activity {
#Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.main);
startActivityForResult(new Intent(this, CredentialsInputActivity.class), 1);
}
#Override
protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
super.onActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, data);
// do some crap with the result, doesn't really matter what
}
}
CredentialsInputActivity is pretty straight forward... just extends Activity and has the theme set to #android:style/Theme.Dialog in the manifest file.
It turns out that this is a known bug in 1.5 (fixed in 1.6 and never a problem in 1.1). The bug stems from the animation for the new Activity taking place before the old Activity has been drawn, but it only presents if the "old" Activity was the first Activity in the Task.
A workaround is to disable the animation for the theme. The simplest way to do this it with a new theme that extends the main dialog theme.
res/values/themes.xml:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
<style name="CupcakeDialog" parent="android:Theme.Dialog">
<item name="android:windowAnimationStyle">#null</item>
</style>
</resources>
Then just reference it in your AndroidManifest.xml:
<!-- ... -->
<activity
android:name=".CredentialsInputActivity"
android:label="#string/CredentialsInputActivity_window_title"
android:theme="#style/CupcakeDialog" />
<!-- ... -->
Obviously, you loose the animation, but at least you can see it :)
Note: commonsware.com's solution worked fine too with the caveat I noted in the comments.
Just a guess here...
I think #android:style/Theme.Dialog is set for much of the background to be translucent. Initially, your MainActivity's background is black. If the startActivityForResult() is kicking in before your MainActivity gets to draw, that might explain your problem.
Try using postDelayed() on a View to delay your startActivityForResult() by a few hundred milliseconds, and see if that changes the behavior.