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Android Build a Weather App (2015) Concurrency and Error Handling Configuring the Alert Dialog

Matthew Francis
Matthew Francis
6,967 Points

Why do we need an activity lifecycle for Dialogs?

Creating a dialog:

       public class AlertDialogFragment extends DialogFragment {
          @Override
        public Dialog onCreateDialog(Bundle savedInstanceState) { 

            Context context = getActivity(); //get whatever activity class the dialog is created in
            AlertDialog.Builder builder = new AlertDialog.Builder(context)
                    .setTitle(context.getResources().getString(R.string.error_title)) //getResource() not neccecary, added just in case
                    .setMessage(context.getResources().getString(R.string.error_message))
                    .setPositiveButton(context.getResources().getString(R.string.error_message_ok_button), null);

            AlertDialog dialog = builder.create();
            return dialog;
        }
    }

Why is the onCreateDialog needed? what benefits does it yield?

Extra question:

    private void alertAboutUserError(){
        AlertDialogFragment dialog = new AlertDialogFragment();
        dialog.show(getFragmentManager(),"error_dialog"); //confused about this code
    }

A bit puzzeled on the second arugment, why is the string needed? I've read it's a reference for dialog? how would you use it?

1 Answer

J.D. Sandifer
J.D. Sandifer
18,813 Points

The short answer is that it's the way to create your own custom Dialog object.

To learn more about it - and any Android API question - check out the Android Developers Reference. Here's the page on this specific topic: Alert Dialog.

I just googled "Android AlertDialogFragment" and it was the first link. You can read earlier on the page to learn more about DialogFragment in general.