timed modeless dialog

Question

Is there any way to show a modeless dialog--a dialog that allows the user to interact with whatever was on the screen before the dialog but also allows the user to interact

Answer 1

Yes, create an Activity with style Theme.Dialog. This is a normal activity which looks like a dialog, while being modeless and accepting events.

An example:

Edited:

Indeed Theme.Dialog blurs the underlying activity and makes it unaccessible. I had a similar requirement here I had to show upload progress dialog with text and cancel button. The main catch is in setting WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_NOT_TOUCH_MODAL and resetting WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_DIM_BEHIND.

Created a Dialog with custom content:

    if (progressDialog == null) {
            progressDialog = new Dialog(activityRequestingProgressDialog);
            progressDialog.requestWindowFeature(Window.FEATURE_NO_TITLE);
            progressDialog.setContentView(R.layout.progress_upload);
            progressBar = (ProgressBar) progressDialog.findViewById(R.id.progressBar);
            progressText = (TextView) progressDialog.findViewById(R.id.progressText);
            progressText.setText("0 %");
            progressText.setTextSize(18);
            Button buttonCancel = (Button) progressDialog.findViewById(R.id.btnCancel);
            buttonCancel.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
                public void onClick(View view) {
                    cancelProgressDialog();
                    stopUpload("Upload cancelled.");
                }
            });
            Window window = progressDialog.getWindow();
            window.setFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_NOT_TOUCH_MODAL,
                    WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_NOT_TOUCH_MODAL);
            window.clearFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_DIM_BEHIND);
            window.setGravity(Gravity.BOTTOM);
            progressDialog.show();
        }

        progressText.setText(text);
        progressBar.setProgress(percent);

And this is the layout for this Dialog: