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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
Posted by 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
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.