Show dialog alert from a non-activity class in android

Question

I want to show an Alert Dialog via AlertDialogManager class to a non-activity class DeviceAdminReceiverSample's method onDisabled, but whenever I call alertDialog via that method it generates error with following text

Error

06-12 12:01:19.923: E/AndroidRuntime(468): FATAL EXCEPTION: main
06-12 12:01:19.923: E/AndroidRuntime(468): java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to start           
receiver com.android.remotewipedata.DeviceAdminReceiverSample:   
android.view.WindowManager$BadTokenException: Unable to add window -- token null is not   
for an application

I know the issue is with context thing but I don't know what to put there so that it work, I tried this, getApplicationContext() but all vain. My code for both classes is below

AlertDialogManager

public class AlertDialogManager {

public void showAlertDialog(Context context, String title, String message,
        Boolean status) {
    final AlertDialog alertDialog = new AlertDialog.Builder(context).create();
    alertDialog.setTitle(title);
    alertDialog.setMessage(message);

    if (status != null)
        alertDialog.setButton("OK", new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
            public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int which) {
                alertDialog.dismiss();
            }
        });
    alertDialog.show();
}

}

DeviceAdminReceiverSample

public class DeviceAdminReceiverSample extends DeviceAdminReceiver {
static final String TAG = "DeviceAdminReceiver";
AlertDialogManager alert = new AlertDialogManager();

/** Called when this application is no longer the device administrator. */
@Override
public void onDisabled(Context context, Intent intent) {
    super.onDisabled(context, intent);
    Toast.makeText(context, R.string.device_admin_disabled,
            Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
    // intent.putExtra("dialogMessage", "Device admin has been disabled");
    // intent.setClass(context, DialogActivity.class);
    // intent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
    // context.startActivity(intent);
    alert.showAlertDialog(context, "Alert",
            "Device admin has been disabled", true);
}

Answer 1

Just add this before your alertDialog.show();

alertDialog.getWindow().setType(WindowManager.LayoutParams.TYPE_SYSTEM_ALERT);

or try following if above didn't work:

alertDialog.getWindow().setType(WindowManager.LayoutParams.TYPE_APPLICATION_PANEL); 

and use this permission:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW" />

Answer 2

If you always want to get the current activity from anywhere in the app you can register an ActivityLifecycleCallback on your Application instance.

Here's an untested implementation that might get you closer.

public class TestApp extends Application {

    private WeakReference<Activity> mActivity = null;

    @Override
    public void onCreate() {
        super.onCreate();
        registerActivityLifecycleCallbacks(new ActivityLifecycleCallbacks() {
            @Override
            public void onActivityCreated(Activity activity, Bundle savedInstanceState) {
                mActivity = new WeakReference<Activity>(activity);
            }

            @Override
            public void onActivityDestroyed(Activity activity) {
                mActivity.clear();
            }

            /** Unused implementation **/
            @Override
            public void onActivityStarted(Activity activity) {}

            @Override
            public void onActivityResumed(Activity activity) {}
            @Override
            public void onActivityPaused(Activity activity) {}

            @Override
            public void onActivityStopped(Activity activity) {}

            @Override
            public void onActivitySaveInstanceState(Activity activity, Bundle outState) {}
        });
    }

    public Activity getCurrentActivity() {
        return mActivity.get();
    }

}

Then to use this throughout your app you would do some call like this ...

Activity activity = ((TestApp)getApplicationContext()).getCurrentActivity(); 

The advantages are you can always keep track of your current activity, however its a little too overkill for just handling Dialogs from within the Activity.