How to change the background color around a DialogFragment?

I'm building a custom DialogFragment. The dialog layout is set to my_dialog.xml, but how can I modify the color around the dialog (the transparent grey)?

enter image description here

my_dialog.xml

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_gravity="center" >

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/hello"
        android:layout_width="100dp"
        android:layout_height="100dp"
        android:background="@android:color/holo_orange_light"
        android:gravity="center"
        android:text="hello" />

</RelativeLayout>

MyDialogFragment.java

public class MyDialogFragment extends DialogFragment {

    @Override
    public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container,
            Bundle savedInstanceState) {

        View view = inflater.inflate(R.layout.my_dialog, container);

        getDialog().getWindow().requestFeature(Window.FEATURE_NO_TITLE);

        return view;
    }
}

I had to set android:windowIsFloating to false and android:windowBackground to my custom color in the dialog style:

styles.xml

<resources xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">

    <style name="MyDialog" parent="@android:style/Theme.Dialog">
        <item name="android:windowFrame">@null</item>
        <item name="android:windowBackground">@color/orange_transparent</item>
        <item name="android:windowIsFloating">false</item>
        <item name="android:windowContentOverlay">@null</item>
        <item name="android:windowTitleStyle">@null</item>
        <item name="android:colorBackgroundCacheHint">@null</item>
        <item name="android:windowAnimationStyle">@android:style/Animation.Dialog</item>
        <item name="android:windowSoftInputMode">stateUnspecified|adjustPan</item>
        <item name="android:gravity">center</item>
    </style>

</resources>

MyDialogFragment

public class MyDialogFragment extends DialogFragment {

    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setStyle(DialogFragment.STYLE_NO_TITLE, R.style.MyDialog);
    }
}

I wanted a transparent background for my DialogFragment, and, in code, this works fine:

@Override
public void onStart() {
    super.onStart();

    Window window = getDialog().getWindow();
    window.setBackgroundDrawableResource(android.R.color.transparent);
}

Of course, you can specify any color or Drawable using setBackgroundDrawable() or setBackgroundDrawableResource().

This works at least in onStart(), but not in onCreate(), and not necessarily in onCreateView(), it seems.

That said, in most cases it's probably cleaner to do this in XML, using styles, along these lines:

<style name="MyDialogStyle" parent="@android:style/Theme.Holo.Light.Dialog">
    <item name="android:windowBackground">@android:color/transparent</item>
</style>

To get a fully transparent dialog, you can set in onCreateView the following

  • setBackgroundDrawable to Color.TRANSPARENT
  • setDimAmount to 0

See code example here:

public class TextEditor extends DialogFragment {

    @Override
    public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container, Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        View view = inflater.inflate(R.layout.fragment_text_editor, container);

        // make dialog itself transparent
        getDialog().getWindow().setBackgroundDrawable(new ColorDrawable(Color.TRANSPARENT));

        // remove background dim 
        getDialog().getWindow().setDimAmount(0);

        //[add more custom code here...]

        return view;
    }
}

I found I just needed to do this:

<style name="MyDialog" parent="@android:style/Theme.Dialog">
    <!--  other attributes  -->
    <item name="android:backgroundDimEnabled">false</item>
</style>