Android - How do I make this alert dialog scrollable?

Question

I am a beginner in android and making my first android app. my 'About' menu item, when clicked shows an AlertDialog with a really long message. I have been trying different methods to make it scrollable but I couldn't. I have tried reading different questions on StackOverflow but they didn't work for me. Here is my AlertDialog code.

AlertDialog.Builder alertDialog = new AlertDialog.Builder(this);  
alertDialog.setTitle("Title");  
alertDialog.setMessage("Here is a really long message.");  
alertDialog.setButton("OK", null);  
AlertDialog alert = alertDialog.create();
alert.show();

Can anybody explain to me in detail how to make it scrollable? Any help or suggestions would be appreciated!

read http://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/AlertDialog.html if you need a more complex view than a text, you have to do it a bit differently, using a scrollable TextView e.g. seehttp://stackoverflow.com/questions/1748977/making-textview-scrollable-in-android — ShinTakezou, Jun 06 '13 at 06:29
use like that http://www.helloandroid.com/tutorials/how-display-custom-dialog-your-android-application — Sunil Kumar, Jun 06 '13 at 06:34
Possible duplicate of [Adding a vertical scrollbar to an AlertDialog in Android?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1564867/adding-a-vertical-scrollbar-to-an-alertdialog-in-android) — Chisko, Aug 03 '17 at 16:29
This is the perfect answer for this without using a new layout https://stackoverflow.com/a/33098898/2462531 — Shailendra Madda, Jan 20 '21 at 08:10

score 37 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:55

37

This solution is take from this post.

In order for a view to scrollable, it must be nested inside of a ScrollView container:

<ScrollView>
    <LinearLayout android:orientation="vertical"
            android:scrollbars="vertical"
            android:scrollbarAlwaysDrawVerticalTrack="true">
        <TextView />
        <Button />
    </LinearLayout>
</ScrollView>

Note that a ScrollView container can only have one child layout view. It is not possible, for example, to place a TextView and Button in a ScrollView without the LinearLayout.

edited May 23 '17 at 11:55

Community

1
1

answered Jun 06 '13 at 06:27

blganesh101

3,647
1
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I guess with scrollview you typically need to set the width/height; as in the example in the question here http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17352987/scrollable-textview-inside-alertdialog-android – Fattie May 17 '14 at 09:54
This is the easiest solution ! thanks ! works like a charm ;) – satyres Mar 01 '15 at 13:21

score 13 · Answer 2 · edited Dec 24 '13 at 10:09

In that situation you can create your own layout.xml file containing a Text View under Scroll View. and set TextMessage in this Text View, Inflate this layout with your alert dialog box.

yourxmlfile.xml

<ScrollView 
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent" >

    <LinearLayout 
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="fill_parent" >

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/textmsg"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="fill_parent"
        android:text="@string/hello" />

    </LinearLayout>
</ScrollView>

In Activity Class

LayoutInflater inflater= LayoutInflater.from(this);
View view=inflater.inflate(R.layout.yourxmlfile, null);

TextView textview=(TextView)view.findViewById(R.id.textmsg);
textview.setText("Your really long message.");
AlertDialog.Builder alertDialog = new AlertDialog.Builder(this);  
alertDialog.setTitle("Title");  
//alertDialog.setMessage("Here is a really long message.");
alertDialog.setView(view);
alertDialog.setButton("OK", null);  
AlertDialog alert = alertDialog.create();
alert.show();

Use your id of your xml TextView here, what you given id of textView in` — Mukesh Kumar Singh, Jun 06 '13 at 07:30
I got to fix that. This line was in need of modification.. (TextView)view.findViewById(R.id.textmsg); — ashu, Jun 06 '13 at 08:28
Never mind i got it worked after a few changes sorry for my comment above i can edit it :( — D.Snap, May 06 '15 at 04:09
@cutiko look the answer again, there is only one direct child view `LinearLayout`. — Mukesh Kumar Singh, May 20 '16 at 06:05

yoAlex5 · Answer 3 · 2023-08-07T09:50:03.703

Android Scrollable AlertDialog

You can just use a default approach:

AlertDialog.Builder builder = new AlertDialog.Builder(this);
builder.setTitle("Title").setMessage(message);

AlertDialog alert = builder.create();
alert.show();

You can notice that a message TextView is built-in ScrollView container in alert_dialog.xml. It is a layout that is used.

The location of alert_dialog.xml

<some_path>/Android/sdk/platforms/android-<version>/data/res/layout/alert_dialog.xml
//e.g.
/Users/alex/Library/Android/sdk/platforms/android-30/data/res/layout/alert_dialog.xml

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered May 06 '21 at 01:58

Or you can do it programmatically. This is especially helpful if you want a non-standard dialog box. (e.g. in the below example, I want to add a EditText field in addition to my message.) You can also add buttons, as normal.

final ScrollView myScroll = new ScrollView(this);
        final TextView myText = new TextView(this);
        myText.setText("Put really long text here.");
        myText.setPadding(30, 5, 30, 0); //or whatever you want
        final LinearLayout myView = new LinearLayout(this);
        myView.setOrientation(LinearLayout.VERTICAL);
        final EditText input = new EditText(this);
        input.setInputType(InputType.TYPE_CLASS_TEXT );
        myView.addView(myText);
        myView.addView(input);
        myScroll.addView(myView);
        builder.setView(myScroll);

Android - How do I make this alert dialog scrollable?

4 Answers4

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