A status bar notification allows user to notify an event without interrupting their current activity. Also, we can attach Intent to the notification, and the system will initiate the intent when the user clicks on the notification.  
Here is the screenshot of my application, where I have an activity with 2 sets of buttons, “Show” and “Cancel”, dynamically placed over LinearLayout. And the output will looks something like the image placed below. Here image (A) displays the notification in Status bar, and image (B) displays the details of the notification, while user expands the notification.

To achieve this here are the simple steps we can follow.
Step 1: Create and android project

window_title.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout
      xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
      android:orientation="horizontal"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="40dip"
    android:gravity="center_vertical"
    android:paddingLeft="5dip"
    android:background="#FFFFFF">

    <ImageView 
        android:id="@+id/header" 
        android:src="@drawable/objectechenica_logo"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content" 
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
    
    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_weight="1"
        android:gravity="right|center_vertical"
        android:paddingRight="5dip">
    
        <TextView 
            android:id="@+id/title"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content" 
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:textSize="11dip"
            android:textColor="#0000FF"
            android:paddingRight="5dip" />
                    
        <ImageView 
            android:id="@+id/icon" 
            android:layout_width="wrap_content" 
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>
                
    </LinearLayout>

</LinearLayout>

Step 3: Declare the theme resource in values folder.

custom_title.xml

<resources>
    <style name="CustomWindowTitleBackground">
        <item name="android:background">#323331</item>
    </style>
    
    <style name="CustomTheme" parent="android:Theme">
        <item name="android:windowTitleSize">35dip</item>
        <item name="android:windowTitleBackgroundStyle">@style/CustomWindowTitleBackground</item>
    </style>
</resources>

Step 4: Once we are ready with the theme/resource. We can use the theme in the AndroidMainfest.xml using the android:theme attribute. Here is my complete “AndroidMainfest.xml” code.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    package="com.objectechenica.droid.ui"
    android:versionCode="1"
    android:versionName="1.0" >

    <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="8" />

    <application
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:theme="@style/CustomTheme"  >
        <activity
            android:name=".CustomWindow"
            android:label="@string/app_name" >
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>
    </application>

</manifest>

Step 5: My example using the below images, please do download and place it in drawable asserts folder. You can also have your own images placed in “drawable” folder.




Step 6: Now, here it comes to your activity class. Activity class should override onCreate() method. Here you can load the layout or the xml file using setContentView(R.layout.main). But in this example as we don’t have any actual screens, I have taken the layouts declared dynamically and added to the activity using addContentView().
We can also use the full screen mode, by hiding the notification bar using

getWindow().setFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_FULLSCREEN,  WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_FULLSCREEN);

Find the complete code here:

CustomWindow.java

package com.objectechenica.droid.ui;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.ViewGroup.LayoutParams;
import android.view.Window;
import android.view.WindowManager;
import android.widget.LinearLayout;
import android.widget.TextView;
import android.widget.ImageView;

public class CustomWindow extends Activity {
    protected TextView title;
    protected ImageView icon;
    
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        
        requestWindowFeature(Window.FEATURE_CUSTOM_TITLE);
        
        LinearLayout ll = new LinearLayout(this);
        addContentView(ll, new LayoutParams(LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT, LayoutParams.FILL_PARENT));
                
        // to hide notification bar and making full screen
        getWindow().setFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_FULLSCREEN,  WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_FULLSCREEN);
        
        getWindow().setFeatureInt(Window.FEATURE_CUSTOM_TITLE, R.layout.window_title);
        
        title = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.title);
        icon  = (ImageView) findViewById(R.id.icon);
        
        title.setText("Home");
        icon.setImageResource(R.drawable.info);
    }
}

Here you go. Just compile and run. You will get to see a screen with the title as shown in the image above.
Thank you.