How do they do it? Dialogs over home screen

Question

I\'m writing an Android application and I would like to place a dialog or view over the home screen so that a user can enter text without jumping into my full application. I

Answer 1

They are launching an activity, but they've set the activity's theme so it looks like a Dialog.

In your manifest, you have to add something like this under the <activity> tag: android:theme="@android:style/Theme.Dialog"

Answer 2

Thanks a lot, I tried with Theme.Dialog

  <activity android:name=".language"
          android:label="@string/app_name"
          android:theme="@android:style/Theme.Dialog">
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
    </intent-filter>
  </activity>

But in my code, there is 2 different floating windows : my layout and the tile. Here is the following code:

import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.app.Dialog; 

public class language extends Activity {
    /** Called when the activity is first created. */
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
       // setContentView(R.layout.main);
        Dialog dialog = new Dialog(this); 
        dialog.setContentView(R.layout.main); 
        dialog.setTitle("Raygional"); 
        dialog.show();

    }
}

PS : I know this should be a question rather than an answer

Answer 3

Use Service for that

intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
this.getApplicationContext().startActivity(intent);

below is some code`

public class HomepopupDataService extends Service {

private static final String TAG = "HomepopupDataService";

@Override
public void onCreate() {
    Log.i(TAG, "Service onCreate");
}


@Override
public int onStartCommand(Intent intent, int flags, int startId) {
    // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    Log.i(TAG, "Service onStartCommand");

    CountDownTimer dlgCountDown;
    Log.e("---------------", "onHandleIntent");
    dlgCountDown = new CountDownTimer(10000, 1000) {
        public void onTick(long millisUntilFinished) {
            Log.e("---------------", "onHandleIntent++");
        }

        public void onFinish() {
            Intent i = new Intent(getApplicationContext(),
                    DialogActivity.class);

            i.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
            getApplicationContext().startActivity(i);
        }
    }.start();
    return super.onStartCommand(intent, flags, startId);
}

@Override
public IBinder onBind(Intent arg0) {
    // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    Log.i(TAG, "Service onBind");
    return null;
}

@Override
public void onDestroy() {
    Log.i(TAG, "Service onDestroy");
}

}

Answer 4

My problem was that the application always launched to display the dialog.

To solve this, I set the activity lauch mode to singleInstance in the manifest. Now it shows the dialog over the home screen!