Question

I’m using an activity with android:theme=”@android:style/Theme.Dialog” to make it act as a dialog. What lies closest to the native behavior of dialogs: Should a dialog fill the screen (in width) or not? And should it grow dynamically if, for instance, a text box is filled up by typing?

My hunch is that the dialog should not fill the screen. I have tried to get this behavior, but whatever I do, on Android 2.2, the dialog width seems to fill the parent.

My layout xml:

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:orientation="vertical">

    <TextView android:id="@+id/text" android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:autoText="true" 
        android:text="@string/item_delete_dialog_label" 
        android:padding="5dip" />

    <LinearLayout android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
        android:orientation="horizontal"
        style="@android:style/ButtonBar" android:layout_width="fill_parent">

        <Button android:id="@+id/yes" android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
            android:text="@string/button_yes"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_weight="1"/>

        <Button android:id="@+id/no" android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
            android:text="@string/button_no"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_weight="1"/>

    </LinearLayout>
</LinearLayout> 

I’ve found many questions regarding making a dialog fill the screen in width, but none about making it wrap in width. How can I get this?

Answer 1

The ButtonBar style makes the dialog much wider than it would be using standard buttons. Changing the LinearLayout width to wrap_content won’t affect the width of the dialog as it’s merely filling the main LinearLayout container which is set to wrap_content – changing the button style will most definitely make a difference.