AlertDialog styling - how to change style (color) of title, message, etc

Question

I've breaking my head over this quite a bit. What I need to do is, change the style of all AlertDialogs in my android application - dialog background needs to be white-ish, and text needs to be black-ish. I tried creating a lot of styles, themes, and applying from the code, manifest, etc, but no success, with regard to the text colors inside the AlertDialog. Right now, I have the simplest of codes, set like this:

Manifest:

<application
    android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
    android:label="@string/app_name"
    android:theme="@style/AppTheme" >

styles.xml:

<style name="AppTheme" parent="AppBaseTheme">
    <item name="android:alertDialogStyle">@style/DialogStyle</item>
</style>

<style name="DialogStyle" parent="@android:style/Theme.Dialog">
    <!-- changing these background stuff works fine -->
    <item name="android:bottomBright">@android:color/white</item>
    <item name="android:bottomDark">@android:color/white</item>
    <item name="android:bottomMedium">@drawable/dialog_footer_bg</item>
    <item name="android:centerBright">@android:color/white</item>
    <item name="android:centerDark">@drawable/dialog_body_bg</item>
    <item name="android:centerMedium">@android:color/white</item>
    <item name="android:fullBright">@color/orange</item>
    <item name="android:fullDark">@color/orange</item>
    <item name="android:topBright">@color/green</item>
    <item name="android:topDark">@drawable/dialog_header_bg</item>

The items listed below don't work (please read the comments I've put above each element):

    <!-- panelBackground is not getting set to null, there is something squarish around it -->
    <item name="android:panelBackground">@null</item>

    <!-- Setting this textColor doesn't seem to have any effect at all. Messages, title, button text color, whatever; nothing changes. -->
    <item name="android:textColor">#000000</item>

    <!-- Also tried with textAppearance, as follows. Didn't work -->
    <item name="android:textAppearance">?android:attr/textColorPrimaryInverse</item>

    <!-- Also tried changing textAppearancePrimary, to no avail -->
    <item name="android:textColorPrimary">#000000</item>

    <!-- Also need to change the dialog title text, tried it as follows, dint work: -->
    <item name="android:windowTitleStyle">@style/DialogWindowTitle</item>
</style>

The DialogWindowTitle is defined as follows:

<style name="DialogWindowTitle">
    <item name="android:textAppearance">?android:attr/textAppearanceMediumInverse</item>
</style>

So none of these is working. Can anyone tell me what I could be doing wrong, and how can I:

1. Change text color for messages (content text)
2. Change title text color
3. Remove the panel background

Note: I need to support API 8 (2.2) upwards. Also, I've went through most of the related question here, and google groups, but can't figure out, though I have a feeling its right under my nose!

Edit: adding screenshot:

Answer 1

You need to define a Theme for your AlertDialog and reference it in your Activity's theme. The attribute is alertDialogTheme and not alertDialogStyle. Like this:

<style name="Theme.YourTheme" parent="@android:style/Theme.Holo">
    ...
    <item name="android:alertDialogTheme">@style/YourAlertDialogTheme</item>
</style>

<style name="YourAlertDialogTheme">
    <item name="android:windowBackground">@android:color/transparent</item>
    <item name="android:windowContentOverlay">@null</item>
    <item name="android:windowIsFloating">true</item>
    <item name="android:windowAnimationStyle">@android:style/Animation.Dialog</item>
    <item name="android:windowMinWidthMajor">@android:dimen/dialog_min_width_major</item>
    <item name="android:windowMinWidthMinor">@android:dimen/dialog_min_width_minor</item>
    <item name="android:windowTitleStyle">...</item>
    <item name="android:textAppearanceMedium">...</item>
    <item name="android:borderlessButtonStyle">...</item>
    <item name="android:buttonBarStyle">...</item>
</style>

You'll be able to change color and text appearance for the title, the message and you'll have some control on the background of each area. I wrote a blog post detailing the steps to style an AlertDialog.