What?
A quick article on how to display a OK/Cancel popup which I use as a message to the user for debug purposes.

Why?
It's similar to javascript's message box or confirm box, only Android let's you redesign the dialog. For my purposes I have used an XML as the layout.

How?
This displays a standard Ok/cancel message popup which you attach to some event 
import android.app.AlertDialog;
import android.content.DialogInterface;

new AlertDialog.Builder(this)
        .setTitle("Some Title")
        .setMessage("some message")
        .setPositiveButton("OK", new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
                public void onClick(DialogInterface arg0, int arg1) {
                        // Some stuff to do when ok got clicked
                }
        })
        .setNegativeButton("cancel", new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
                public void onClick(DialogInterface arg0, int arg1) {
                        // Some stuff to do when cancel got clicked
                }
        })
        .show();


Additional: Pre-populating default value and returning input
Lots of confusing answers out there on the web but here's an all-in-one where I
  • Open an AlertDialog designed with a custom XML layout
  • Set the hint text of a specific user input field (EditText)
  • Store the input in a TextView (invisible or visible) held in the calling XML
/* 201411041253 */
private String hangar_aircraft_name;

public void editHangarAircraftName(View view) {

        // get current value for hint
        TextView currentName = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.hangar_aircraft_001_header);
        hangar_aircraft_name = currentName.getText().toString();

        // get the AlertDialog XML layout file
        final View v = getLayoutInflater().inflate(R.layout.my_custom_dialog, null);

        // set the hint of the EditText in the AlertDialog
        EditText inputText = (EditText) v.findViewById(R.id.hangar_item_menu_name_field);
        inputText.setHint(hangar_aircraft_name);

        // Start building the AlertDialog
        AlertDialog.Builder b = new AlertDialog.Builder(this);

        // set the view of the AlertDialog along with changes (eg. changed "hint")
        b.setView(v);

        // set OK button action
        b.setPositiveButton(R.string.button_ok, new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
                @Override
                public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int whichButton) {

                        // Get the f !!!
                        Dialog f = (Dialog) dialog;

                        // this is the EditText that has the value I want
                        EditText inputTemp = (EditText) f.findViewById(R.id.my_input_field);  

                        // this is the TextView to store the value in (not the AlertDialog but main xml)
                        TextView newName = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.hangar_aircraft_001_name);  

                        // setting header text to returned input
                        newName.setText(inputTemp.getText().toString());  
                }
        });

        // set Cancel button action
        b.setNegativeButton(R.string.button_cancel, new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
                @Override
                public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int which) {
                        dialog.cancel();
                }
        });

        // create and show the alertDialog
        b.create().show();
}
The key mistake I was doing was trying to recalculate which view the main activity item was in.