I was wondering if there is a way to create a theme for one of the Home apps thats out there, like; aHome, Open Home, Home++ etcs.... How would I go about doing so? I know I would change the apk file to a zip and unzip then create your images accordingly, but how would I go about posting it back as a APK file? or better yet put it on the market.
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I'm trying to edit a few things but I'm not sure how to go about repackaging them as .apk even though I know they're archives. If I open the archive and extract everything how should I go about putting it back together? Is it as simple as throwing it in a .zip file, renaming it to .apk and signing it or am I missing something? I tried doing that with Rosie.apk because it has a lot of wallpapers I won't ever use and I wanted to throw some of my ringtones into it too.
Dyonas said:
I'm trying to edit a few things but I'm not sure how to go about repackaging them as .apk even though I know they're archives. If I open the archive and extract everything how should I go about putting it back together? Is it as simple as throwing it in a .zip file, renaming it to .apk and signing it or am I missing something? I tried doing that with Rosie.apk because it has a lot of wallpapers I won't ever use and I wanted to throw some of my ringtones into it too.
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there is already another thread somewhere farther down about this, but in short, you need to resign. Stericson did a one-click signing tool, but I was never able to get it working on my machine. I use the same tools, but I have to do the manual sign option, it is still easy, it just uses one more click.
As far as repacking rosie.apk, you should just be able to locate the .png and small.png files you want to replace. Find your new wallpapers, rename them to the names of the wallpapers you want replace. (you will need to resize your 480x320 wallpapers to the small wallpaper dimensions, they are 80x60. easiest way to resize is in MS paint or Gimp. once you rename just drag the files into the open winrar window. For rosie i think wallpapers are in the drawable 480x320 folder. When winrar brings up a prompt, just make sure you have the options selected to add and overwrite existing files or something of the like. It is also a good idea to adb pull your Rosie.apk just in case things go bad you can push a backup to revert you to where you were before. If you got any questions send me a PM or hit me on gtalk- [email protected]
Dyonas said:
I'm trying to edit a few things but I'm not sure how to go about repackaging them as .apk even though I know they're archives. If I open the archive and extract everything how should I go about putting it back together? Is it as simple as throwing it in a .zip file, renaming it to .apk and signing it or am I missing something? I tried doing that with Rosie.apk because it has a lot of wallpapers I won't ever use and I wanted to throw some of my ringtones into it too.
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Click to collapse
You can open Rosie.apk with something like winrar and replace the images without the need to resign. I've done it countless times. There's not much point in removing wallpapers in Rosie though, it will just reduce the size of the apk without any noticeable speed improvment. Most Hero devs use the stock Rosie apk.
As for ringtones, they don't reside in Rosie.apk. You can put them on your FAT32 (or EXT if you have one). Just put the mp3's in /media/audio/ringtones. I highly suggest putting them on ext because when the SD card is mounted in your computer your phone can't access the ringtones. Ext isn't mounted (on windows atleast) so they are still accessible.
Thanks guys, I seem to have it almost done now with this and what I stumbled through
Well I haven't had much time lately to make themes but I figured i got enough time to explain how. This is how i do it in windows 7.
1) First thing i assume that you already have androidsdk on the root of your C drive. Lets go ahead and add it to your system path. If it's not called androidsdk go ahead and change it to that. Now open up your startmenu, right click computer, click properties, then click advanced system settings, in the advance system settings select environment variables. In the second box down look for path select it and choose edit. copy and paste this
Code:
;C:\androidsdk\tools
in there. Click okay.
2) download the jre and jdk from here and install them. Now you need to add them to your system path so copy paste this
Code:
;C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre6\bin;C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jdk1.6.0_20\bin
to your system path just like you did in the first step.
3) Download apk manager from here. Now run it and when it says clean out all current projects click yes. Now thats ready to go.
4) Download an image editing program. I use gimp. Also if you don't have it 7-zip
your all set to go now so lets start over with the numbers
1) choose a mymode apk and extract it with 7-zip. Open up the res folder select a png that you want to change and change it with the image editor you chose.
2) when you've changed the images you want open up the original apk as an archive with 7zip. Then place the res folder of the modified unzipped apk into the archive and close the archive.
3) Now open up apk manager and place the mymode apk into the place here for signing folder click script batch choose no then type 15.
4) Now put the newly signed apk into your androidsdk/tools folder and close apk manager.
5) open command prompt and type this
Code:
cd\
cd androidsdk/tools
adb install whatever.apk
I'll update this with pics a more thorough guide.
Thanks to everyone that made this easy
reserved for themes to come
Thanks been waiting for a thread like this.
thanks, if i ever get any free-time between jobs and kid and fiancee i will look into this a little more
This is an awesome guide! I messed around with theming mytouch/g1 back when I had one.. so this will be great to make some themes for the slide..
One question though.. let's say you pull the nest theme.. theme it and re install it.. will it just override the nest theme or in the theme listing will it appear as a new theme and still allow you to have the original theme?
Sent from my T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide using XDA App
ryanolson7 said:
One question though.. let's say you pull the nest theme.. theme it and re install it.. will it just override the nest theme or in the theme listing will it appear as a new theme and still allow you to have the original theme?
Sent from my T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide using XDA App
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Click to collapse
The nest theme is in the framework, its not an .apk like the rest, its built into the system. The rest of the mymodes themes are .apks and if you edit those they will override the stock "nest" theme. The only way it will show up different in the theme chooser is if you edit the preview snapshot to be a preview of your theme. If you wanna keep the original theme, the nest theme is it and you should edit a different theme .apk...
-BMFC
Sent from my ROOTED MyTouch3G Slide
Okay so I got the next three days off and I already got two mymode themes pretty much done well their done but I just learned of a way to change the name so they are there own standalone apk instead of using another apk name. I've been using puppypride (which by the way isn't puppies those are full grown dogs) and switching out the pngs and you couldn't have the regular puppypride now you can have both
hope you don't mind but I did a mod of your themes and took out the bubbles since some people always create threads about it
Help with following guide
I am a newb at this so please don't attack me if I am doing something wrong. I have been struggling with following the guide posted to make mymode themes. I have successfully got up to the step of signing the apk file. I modified the files in the free_kick.apk. When I try to use APK Manager 4.8 and using the directions given the file just gets erased and nothing happens. My log file just shows errors. Any help with a more detailed directions one what to do in APK manager as I am trying different things and not getting anywhere. I use the option 15 like told in the guide. I can send my modified apk file to anyone if they can get this to work and get it installed that would be appreciated so much. I hope I can figure this out my own but thought I would try get help from the forums. Thanks in advance.
impimms said:
I am a newb at this so please don't attack me if I am doing something wrong. I have been struggling with following the guide posted to make mymode themes. I have successfully got up to the step of signing the apk file. I modified the files in the free_kick.apk. When I try to use APK Manager 4.8 and using the directions given the file just gets erased and nothing happens. My log file just shows errors. Any help with a more detailed directions one what to do in APK manager as I am trying different things and not getting anywhere. I use the option 15 like told in the guide. I can send my modified apk file to anyone if they can get this to work and get it installed that would be appreciated so much. I hope I can figure this out my own but thought I would try get help from the forums. Thanks in advance.
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Click to collapse
Actually the guide needs to be fixed a little because i'm guessing your getting compiling errors when using apk manager? But the best way to do this is to open up the mymode theme (using 7zip) as an archive delete meta-inf folder then replace the pngs with ones of your choice as long as they are the same scale. Then resign. and install
totally lost
I've followed these directions to a T and when it comes to using the apk manager i am getting nothing, please help
You guys that are having trouble with apk manager...its honestly not necessary to use Apk Manager for this. Mymodes themes are system .apks and shouldn't be re-signed. What you need to do is forget about apk manager (for now) and drop the UNsigned .apk into the ROM update you are using, and resign the whole ROM using the autosign tool created by jesusfreke. Or just adbpush the .apk. but don't resign the .apk.
Here's the link for the autosign tool to sign ROM updates. its in the THIRD POST and its auto-sign .zip, NOT the signing.zip in the first post. you can put it anywhere you want and you just drop (a copy of) your ROM update in the autosign folder, rename it update.zip, then run the sign.bat to sign. it will create another file, update-signed.zip. you shouldnt need to wipe when flashing the same ROM over itself, but i cant guarantee this is true for all ROMs.
you can also make an update that will only flash the .apk to /system/app, and nothing else will be changed. basically just make a copy of the update for the ROM youre using, then delete everything but the /system directory from the zip. then go into that /system directory and delete everything but the /app directory, then go into it and delete all the .apks and odex file or whatevers in there. ALL OF IT. when you are finished you should have an update with nothing in it but a /system/app directory. you put your modded .apk in there in /system/app, and thats it for that.
then you must edit the update script and remove MOST of its contents so that it only does what you want it to. THIS IS IMPORTANT! Go here to learn how to create an update script. what youll need is way simpler than the examples, youll want it to look basically like this...
Code:
assert compatible_with("0.2") == "true"
show_progress 0.1 0
copy_dir PACKAGE:system SYSTEM:
show_progress 0.1 10
this update script will copy ANYTHING in the /system directory to /system on your device, regardless of subdirectories. that means anything in /system will go in /system, anything in /system/app will go to /system/app, etc. but since you only have one .apk in there it wont mess with anything but what you put in there. this way, you have a NOWIPE update for...well, whatever you want to put in it.
so you just drop the new shortened update-script in /META-INF/com/google/android/
and then use the autosign tool to resign your new update then flash away! This also takes less time cus its only flashing one file instead of flashing a whole ROM just to replace that one file...
hope this helps...
-BMFC
Sent from my T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide using XDA App
So you cannot do this on t-mobile's rom which is 2.1 right now? I'm leery of rooting in case they ever release froyo
Tbrewer80 said:
So you cannot do this on t-mobile's rom which is 2.1 right now? I'm leery of rooting in case they ever release froyo
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Click to collapse
I'm having issues with this as well... After I do the whole signing apk thing, it installs fine, but when I go to MyModes, the preview is black and when I select it, the MyModes app force closes. I don't get it.
How would one do this? Could I just get a theme's .apk and edit the files inside it, resign it and install? Is there any console or anything to make one?
I am making my first theme for the CM7 chooser and I'm doing a total conversion so I have a few questions..
1. Is it possible to load a theme into the Android emulator in the SDK so I don't have to keep loading them to my phone?
1a. Can I even get CM7 onto the emulator?
2. I want to change *everything*. Is the only way to do this to extract the image files from an already created theme, repaint them by hand, and then resign them?
3. Is there any kind of templates that show how each image file goes together? For instance, is there a template I can paint on and then have it extract to the correct images?
4. What about icon sets? How do I get an icon set I use (or create) to go into a theme I make?
5. How do I make an icon set?
6. If I choose a custom clock, etc, how do I get that to stick into the theme?
7. How do I theme things like swype that a user may or may not have installed?
Thanks
no one? the message I entered is too short
another bump. i dont know where to go for help if it's not here
Bumping this thread.
1. No it isnt possible. The emulator is basically a bare version of android. As far as I know you can't change anything about it. Only install/test applications.
1.a. no
2. Pretty much. Or you can change the color via xml
3. no
4/7. After you decompile a theme go to the apps folder and then open one of the apks in that folder. Edit it, then repack it. Same thing applies for swype
5. Making an icon set is basically making icons for the things on the phone. Its pretty straight forward. Use gimp or photoshop or whatever to make an icon. Make it 72x72 pixels then save it as png.
6. its in the framework/res/drawable folder. edit and save
After you do everything build and sign then youre good to go.. look for tutorials
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=964391
I have Go launcher ex and some icon packs,
how to i manually say that i want a specific application (in app drawer) to use a specific icon in the icon pack?
long press the app icon on the dock and you ll get more option like to change the shorcut or change its icon
That's for the dock icons. I want to change the icons in the drawer
Sent from my HTC Incredible S using XDA Premium App
i use to download themes when i used go launcher. try some themes
yup,but i don't get to choose the specific icons i want, i don't get the icons i really one from just one theme
you would need to use apk manager for that, just decomplie a application, replace the icon with the one of your choice, recompile, install and walla! its time consuming though.
that is more tiring if you get tired of the icons abd want to change em again..
why dont you try editing the theme itself ?
fatexo said:
that is more tiring if you get tired of the icons abd want to change em again..
why dont you try editing the theme itself ?
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Click to collapse
how can i do that? i'm using go launcher ex
backup the theme apk on sdcard then transfer it to ur PC.
rename the .apk extension to .zip extract it
delete the 'META-INF' folder and navigate to res/drawable
here you will find all the icons,docks and many things.
mess with them as you want then come back to where you deleted the META folder and create a new zip file.
drag and drop all folders and files as it is in the new zip file.
rename the .zip extention to .apk.
sign it on PC using the auto sign tool and then install on ur phone
you can even change the look of widgets and things using this method.
hope i helped instead of confusing you..
Folder Organizer should be able to do it for you.
thanks i'll give the folder organizer first. looks like easier to try first