Android prompt user input dialog example

In this tutorial, we will enchance the previous AlertDialog example, to make it able to accept user input, just like a PromptDialog. More specific, this is a custom AlertDialog example.
See following steps :

1. Create a prompt dialog layout (XML file).
2. Attach the prompt dialog layout to AlertDialog.Builder.
3. Attach the AlertDialog.Builder to AlertDialog.
4. Done.

P.S This project is developed in Eclipse 3.7, and tested with Android 2.3.3.

Note
You may interest to read this custom dialog example.

1 Android Layout Files

Two XML files, one for main screen, one for prompt dialog.
File : res/layout/main.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical" >
 
    <Button
        android:id="@+id/buttonPrompt"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="Show Prompt Dialog" />
 
    <EditText
        android:id="@+id/editTextResult"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" >
 
    </EditText>
 
</LinearLayout>

File : res/layout/prompts.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:id="@+id/layout_root"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:padding="10dp" >
 
    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/textView1"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="Type Your Message : "
        android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceLarge" />
 
    <EditText
        android:id="@+id/editTextDialogUserInput"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" >
 
        <requestFocus />
 
    </EditText>
 
</LinearLayout>

2. Activity

Read the comment and demo in next step, it should be self-explorary.
File : MainActivity.java

package com.mkyong.android;
 
import android.app.Activity;
import android.app.AlertDialog;
import android.content.Context;
import android.content.DialogInterface;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.LayoutInflater;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.View.OnClickListener;
import android.widget.Button;
import android.widget.EditText;
 
public class MainActivity extends Activity {
 
	final Context context = this;
	private Button button;
	private EditText result;
 
	public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
 
		super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
		setContentView(R.layout.main);
 
		// components from main.xml
		button = (Button) findViewById(R.id.buttonPrompt);
		result = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.editTextResult);
 
		// add button listener
		button.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {
 
			@Override
			public void onClick(View arg0) {
 
				// get prompts.xml view
				LayoutInflater li = LayoutInflater.from(context);
				View promptsView = li.inflate(R.layout.prompts, null);
 
				AlertDialog.Builder alertDialogBuilder = new AlertDialog.Builder(
						context);
 
				// set prompts.xml to alertdialog builder
				alertDialogBuilder.setView(promptsView);
 
				final EditText userInput = (EditText) promptsView
						.findViewById(R.id.editTextDialogUserInput);
 
				// set dialog message
				alertDialogBuilder
					.setCancelable(false)
					.setPositiveButton("OK",
					  new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
					    public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog,int id) {
						// get user input and set it to result
						// edit text
						result.setText(userInput.getText());
					    }
					  })
					.setNegativeButton("Cancel",
					  new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
					    public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog,int id) {
						dialog.cancel();
					    }
					  });
 
				// create alert dialog
				AlertDialog alertDialog = alertDialogBuilder.create();
 
				// show it
				alertDialog.show();
 
			}
		});
	}
}

3. Demo

Start it, the “main.xml” layout is display a button and edittext (result).

Click on the button, display a prompt dialog “prompts.xml” layout, type message “mkyong“, and click on the “OK” button.

User input “mkyong” will pass to the “main.xml” layout, edittext (result), and display it.

Download Source Code

Download it – Android-Prompt-Dialog-Example.zip (16 KB)