Question

Is their a better way to put a EditText in a alertDialog, instead of using a custom view?

Answer 1

Try to use this:

final EditText input = new EditText(this);

    AlertDialog alertDialog = new AlertDialog.Builder(this).create();
    alertDialog.setTitle("Title");
    alertDialog.setMessage("Message");
    alertDialog.setView(input, 10, 0, 10, 0); // 10 spacing, left and right
    alertDialog.setButton("OK", new OnClickListener() {
        @Override
        public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int which) {
            // Clicked
        }
    });
    alertDialog.show();

If you want to add a custom Layout for your editText the only option i know is:
inflate your layout with a LayoutInflater, and use that as the View.