Parse XML and display it in an AlertDialog in Android

Question

I have this .xml file with countries and their countrycodes in them. This is how it looks like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<landen>
<land>
   <naam>Afghanistan</naam>
   <code>AF</code>
</land>
<land>
   <naam>Albani�</naam>
   <code>AL</code>
</land>
<land>
   <naam>Algerije</naam>
   <code>DZ</code>
</land>
<land>
</landen>

Now I want people to choose one country out of an list. I though an AlertDialog would be nice to display everything.

The way i get the values out of my xml-file is like this:

protected ArrayList<Land> getLanden() {
    ArrayList<Land> lijst = new ArrayList<Land>();
    try {
        DocumentBuilder builder =DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance().newDocumentBuilder();
        Document doc = builder.parse(getAssets().open("landenlijst.xml"));
        NodeList nl = doc.getElementsByTagName("land");
        for (int i=0;i<nl.getLength();i++) {
            Node node = nl.item(i);

            Land land = new Land();

            land.land = Xml.innerHtml(Xml.getChildByTagName(node, "naam"));
            land.landcode = Xml.innerHtml(Xml.getChildByTagName(node, "code"));
            lijst.add(land);
        }
        Log.d("Gabug","Klaar met parsen");
        Log.d("Gabug","Landen: " + lijst);
    } catch (Exception e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
    return lijst;
}

And I use this to make my AlertDialog:

public void KiesLandMenu(){
        ArrayList<Land> alleLanden = getLanden();
        final CharSequence[] items = alleLanden.toArray(new CharSequence[alleLanden.size()]);
        AlertDialog.Builder builder = new AlertDialog.Builder(this);
        builder.setTitle("Kies land");
        builder.setItems(items, new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
            public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int item) {
                switch (item){
                    case 0:
                        break;
                    case 1:
                        break;
                    case 2:
                        break;
                }
            }
        });
        AlertDialog alert = builder.create();
        alert.show();
    }

I don't know if this works as DDMS returns some bytecode or something when i Log it. And after that it Force Closes because of ArrayStoreException..

Now my question is; is this the best way to do this? if yes, how can I fix the ArrayStoreException? If no, what are better ways to let my user choose a country (a whole new view maybe)? Furthermore, how can I register what country someone tapped?

EDIT:

I slightly changed the sample code below and I get an NullPointerException now..

public void KiesLandMenu(){
    ArrayAdapter<Land> arrAdapter;
    ArrayList<Land> alleLanden = getLanden();
    arrAdapter = new ArrayAdapter<Land>(this, android.R.layout.simple_list_item_single_choice, alleLanden);

    ListView list = (ListView)findViewById(R.layout.lijstview);
    list.setAdapter(arrAdapter);
    list.setChoiceMode(ListView.CHOICE_MODE_SINGLE);

    list.setOnItemClickListener(new OnItemClickListener() {

        public void onItemClick(AdapterView<?> list, View view, int position,
                long id) {
            Log.e("item clicked", String.valueOf(position));
        }
    });
}

The NullPointerException is at list.setAdapter(arrAdapter);

Answer 1

Make a layout with a ListView, then set that layout in your onCreate. To make the list, you can do something like:

public class RunTestProject extends Activity {

@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.main);  //whatever you want your layout to be
}

// getLanden() implementation goes here


public void KiesLandMenu(){
    ArrayList<Land> alleLanden = getLanden();
    arrAdapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>(this, android.R.layout.simple_list_item_single_choice, alleLanden);

    Dialog dialog = new Dialog(this);
    dialog.setTitle("Kies land");
    dialog.setContentView(R.layout.withList); // The dialog layout
    ListView list = (ListView) dialog.findViewById(android.R.id.list); //note that it's not simply findViewById
    list.setAdapter(arrAdapter);
    list.setChoiceMode(ListView.CHOICE_MODE_SINGLE);

    list.setOnItemClickListener(new OnItemClickListener() {

        public void onItemClick(AdapterView<?> list, View view, int position,
                long id) {
            Log.e("item clicked", String.valueOf(position));
        }
    });

    dialog.show();      
}

}

When the user chooses on an item, you can see in the log that the item's position in the array is shown.

Your layout file can be something like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    >
    <ListView android:id="@android:id/list"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="0dip"
        android:layout_weight="1" 
         /> 
</LinearLayout>

Answer 2

You could probably extend AlertDialog and give it a ListView as a view. Then bind the ListView to an ListAdapter which uses your ArrayList.

Edit:

ListView lv = new ListView(context);
ArrayAdapter aa = new ListAdapter(context, viewid, lijst);
lv.setAdapter(aa);
AlertDialog ad = new AlertDialog(context);
ad.setView(lv);

There is a bit more work than that though. You need to specify viewid which is the View representing each item in the ListView.

The sdk reference is very good you know.

Answer 3

new AlertDialog.Builder(this)
            .setIcon(R.drawable.alert_dialog_icon)
            .setTitle(R.string.alert_dialog_single_choice)
            .setSingleChoiceItems(<ListAdapter> or CharaSequnce[] , 0, new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
                public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int whichButton) {

                    /* User clicked on a radio button do some stuff */
                }
            })
            .setPositiveButton(R.string.alert_dialog_ok, new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
                public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int whichButton) {

                    /* User clicked Yes so do some stuff */
                }
            })
            .setNegativeButton(R.string.alert_dialog_cancel, new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
                public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int whichButton) {

                    /* User clicked No so do some stuff */
                }
            })
           .create();

Note : Please see This link to Api for Bold text mentioned below

.setSingleChoiceItems(CharacterSequnce[] , 0, new DialogInterface.OnClickListener()....

Hope this helps . Thanks :)