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Android Themes Basics 4:
Finally got round to making the requested .9s video:
-Retrieving and backing up the original framework-res.apk
-Using the Draw9Patcher tool to create the required guides
-Using eclipse to apply the guides to the image
-Pushing the file back to your phone
I hope the video is helpful, I know a lot of people do not like .9 files at all
Android Themes Basics 3:
Back after a long break. Easy one to get going again: Changing system font.
-Backing up original fonts from your phone
-Replacing with new ones
Sorry been lazy recently =o)
Android Themes Basics 2:
Second Part of the video series is now finished =o). The topic this time is changing the status bar:
- Pulling necessary files from phone
- Extracting files required
- Editing the status_bar.xml file and classes.dex file to change status bar colours
- Repackaging the dex file
- Pushing modified files back to the phone
The video is split to 2 parts unfortunately due to Youtube having a 10 minute limit and I didn't want to cut anything out to keep it simple.
Android Themes Basics 1:
Just finished my first video tutorial for creating android themes. The topic of the first video is changing basic images so covers:
- Pulling files from the phone
- Extracting images from APK
- Placing edited images back to the APK
- Pushing the file back to phone.
I know this is very basic and most of you know perfectly how to do this but I thought I would start from the very basics
Let me know what you think and any areas you would like me to cover in future videos, Ideally I would like to create a series of videos that new people can work through to create full themes.
Videos:
Android Themes Basics 1: Changing Images
Android Themes Basics 2: Changing Statusbar (1/2)
Android Themes Basics 2: Changing Statusbar (2/2)
Android Themes Basics 3: Changing System Font
Android Themes Basics 4: Changing Buttons (The .9s video)
Upcoming:
- Changing the battery display
.FxN
video
How are you I just tried to view the video an youtube is saying that the video is not available
Just yesterday I was hoping someone would do something like this. Thank you. Much easier than I thought it would be.
Looks good, now just do one on .9's for the love of god PLEASE!
Do you know how to create an update file with the Mac?
Now I use windows to create an update file ... is there a signing script available for the Mac?
very cool
thanks man
cant wait for the upcoming vids and some .9 vids
T3hFurious1, maybe it was your post I saw yesterday that gave me the idea then, it was on this forum someone mentioned would be nice =o)
MurderDeathKill & smackiesfunkies, added the .9s video to the upcoming, I'll start scripting it out soon for you guys.
cybapaddy, absolutely no idea as I wouldnt touch Mac with a veeeeeeeeeery long stick, only reason the video is in windows is cause I thought it would be more helpful to majority than the linux version
.FxN
cybapaddy said:
Do you know how to create an update file with the Mac?
Now I use windows to create an update file ... is there a signing script available for the Mac?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the file somewhere hold on.
Edit: http://www.417photography.net/mac.zip comes with all 3 files!
Added a second video now with details on changing the statusbar, details in the first post
.FxN
awesome man
these videos are a big help
i was wondering tho if you could add voice walkthrough as you are goin through it?
just a preference and a lil bit easier to follow along as youre doing it :]
if not its still very helpful
I was thinking of that but couple of reasons why I decided to go without tho, mainly I do these whilst I'm at work tho
I'll see what ill do for future lessons, although I do think the first 2 should be clear enough without audio, even tho the 2nd video gets bit tricky at times.
.FxN
fxn said:
I was thinking of that but couple of reasons why I decided to go without tho, mainly I do these whilst I'm at work tho
I'll see what ill do for future lessons, although I do think the first 2 should be clear enough without audio, even tho the 2nd video gets bit tricky at times.
.FxN
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ohhhhh lol got it
yeah the first two are easy enough to follow
good job with em
Could you make a tutorial on pushing a framework-res.apk?
fxn said:
Android Themes Basics 2:
Upcoming:
- .9s (as requested)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im waiting for this too
Great job, dude. Thanks!
t3hfurious1, if you have a look at the 2nd part of 2nd video it pushes the framework-res.apk to the phone, is that what you meant?
fxn said:
t3hfurious1, if you have a look at the 2nd part of 2nd video it pushes the framework-res.apk to the phone, is that what you meant?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha, woops, didn't notice it. Thanks for pointing it out.
Hi,
big thanks for the Videos.
Now I have one problem:
The Text is white and quite good. But the clock isn't white. It's still black.
Could you please help me and say where my problem is?
could you do a video on how to do these changes if you wish to upload a zip to the public. also if you pull the apk from your phone does it physically take it out of your phone till you put it back in? Because what i'm thinking is that instead of pulling every .apk why not just download a stock 1.6 rom and use the files from there. i just dont know how to sign it/make the zip so that i can flash it on my phone.
Formel-LMS, There are two files to change, one of them will change text and the other changes the clock If I remember correctly, both files we're covered on the video however but it could be that some things have changed...I wouldn't know haven't done any of this stuff for months
MFK DGAF, No doing a pull on an APK doesn't remove it from your phone just takes a copy of it, the reason I pull the files from my own phone before making changes is because I use a custom rom and it could well be that the person cooking the rom (Cyanogen/JAC) have made a modification to that file or other files which would make the stock file incompatible with rest of the rom.
Toying with the idea of making another video, feeling lazy as hell though so dunno if that'll happen
3rd Video up, easy one mind you but hopefully will be putting another one up shortly =o)
I searched the forum to see if someone had done this and couldn't find it. I back ported the weather widget from 2.0 in case anyone is interested (works fine on donuts). This is the beginning of my development work. Hope this helps!
Please just take the .zip file and rename it to .apk
copy to your sdcard and install with any file explorer or
connect your device to your pc with development enabled
type "adb install MotAccuWeatherWidget.apk"
Red
G1 with latest Cyan
Thank you to this site and all the developers for their inspiration and hard work.
This has been around for a while...
Good work, though. Kudos and thanks for the effort.
Oh, sorry. I guess I'll probably get flamed by like 30 ppl now. lol. I guess I will try my hand at the Dock applications, unless that has been done too?
Red
redd12345 said:
Oh, sorry. I guess I'll probably get flamed by like 30 ppl now. lol. I guess I will try my hand at the Dock applications, unless that has been done too?
Red
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If anyone flames you, they're stupid. You did good work, even if it was in vain. Car Dock has been ported to Donut, though I don't think the little nightstand Dock from Droid is running on anything prior to 2.0... Not sure, though, as it doesn't interest me all that much.
thanks for the encouragement. is there a list of things that show what needs to be back ported or which ones have already been? I want to contribute.
Red.
redd12345 said:
thanks for the encouragement. is there a list of things that show what needs to be back ported or which ones have already been? I want to contribute.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not to my knowledge. It might not be a bad idea for one of the leading devs to start a thread here on things we want from new phones to run on our phones, and check them off as they are accomplished. 75% of the list would be from the Nexus One, at the moment. You really want to help? See what you can do to get Launcher2 from the Nexus working on Dream... Just changing the build.prop doesn't work, so we'll have to fix errors one by one. Hope you're better at coding than I.
There is also more info in the Dream app section, where these apps are usually released...good work, keep it up!
Hi, there's a version that does not work with 1.6 (only 2.X). Which version is?
BR.
I'm not sure. I pulled this weather widget from Eugene373's AOSP Rom port and hex edited the AndroidManifest.xml to make the MinSDK 3 instead of 5. I can't tell you much more than that. I hope this helps you.
Red.
Give this widget a shot and see if it's the one you are looking for. At least one person might make use of it. haha
Red
yukkio said:
Hi, there's a version that does not work with 1.6 (only 2.X). Which version is?
BR.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, does anyone know if this will work on 1.6? Cyanogen MOD ROM?
It will work on any 1.6 rom. I am running Cyanogen's 11.1 (most recent.) This widget typically works on most people's "custom roms" as long as the 1.6 base is the same, it's just that there is a MinSDK value that prohibits users on a lower SDK from using the application. I dropped that value to 3, so I think that it should also work on hero roms (1.5 cupcake base) if someone likes the graphics on this widget better than the weather app that is included. Hope this helps.
Red.
Ps. I am going to be trying my hand at creating themes instead. My only experience with programming was C++, Pascal, and Visual Basic and that was close to 8 years ago! lol. I'm a little outdated as far as Java goes.
I'm really looking forward to using Stericson's Metamorph. It is such a great effort for theme development.
i sure could use it im new to xda im non root for now, but i would like to make a few nice add ons to my mt3g till i get the guts to root. is thr some good stuff here for a non root like me
Awesome job. I appreciate the work.
Odd question though, what do you do in the process of back porting? I'd love to learn..
Nice Widget, thanks. I was using weathereye before. I like this one better.
Thanks. In the case of this widget, it was ok to backport it because it doesn't call on any other functions that are proprietary to a specific rom (ie. Happenings widget from Blur calls tons of other functions in the home.Blur). There are a few places online when you look up backporting (I'll try to remember to post the links for people.)
You want to start by unziping the aplication you want to backport. Just rename it to a .zip file.
When you look in the file, you will see AndroidManifest.xml. This file has been compiled out as a binary file so you can't read it like a normal .xml file. You want to then download AxmlPrinter2.jar and run that to change the AndroidManifest.xml to AndroidManifest.txt by typing "Java -jar AmxlPrinter2.jar AndroidManifest.xml > AndroidManifest.txt"
The hard part is to find the byte offset in the AndroidManifest where it says the MinSDK value is. The MinSDK value needs to drop from 6 or 7 down to "2" so that you can use the widget on Cupcake or higher. There is a program online and I will post the link when I get home that you use with Eclipse to find the byte offset and then you have to use a Hex editor to change the value in the original .xml file.
Once you use the hex editor and save your changes, you zip up all the files and use the apkbuilder.exe that is in the sdk tools directory by typing "apkbuilder application_name.apk -z application_name.zip"
that will make an apk from a zip file and then you right-click and resign the apk file. From there, you just copy it to your sd card and you know the rest.
It is a pretty dirty and painful approach to porting an app. That is why I am more interested in working on themes. You can just unzip the apk's you want to use and edit the /res directory and then rebuild the app and sign it. Photoshop works great for it.
I'm planning on making a theme/rom that uses hero (1.5) for a base, but slimming it down and using widgets that are smaller like the one that I ported and changing a lot of the graphics for the clocks and such.
I hope this helps for anyone interested in developing.
Red.
Wisefire said:
Awesome job. I appreciate the work.
Odd question though, what do you do in the process of back porting? I'd love to learn..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Long time lurker, first time poster... I have been learning a lot really fast about customizing different aspects of the eris, but what I have been really searching hard for is a way to customize certain components to add to an already great rom. Right now I am running Eris_Official_0.8.1T2 btw. Anyways what I am really looking for is something like this forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=654852 Mostly the Launcher is what I really want to change but to be able to tweak everything else would be great too. If someone knows how to do this or can point me in the right direction to maybe even learn how myself I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks
unzip the rom files
system/framework/com.htc.resources
once in there go to
res/drawable-port-mdpi
the file named common_app_rosie_navbar.png
is the launcher, and thats the main thing u need to edit.
and also go to
system/apps/rosie.apk
one inside the apk go to
res/drawable-normal-mdpi
and
drawable-normal-port-mdpi
edit those to your liking
Wow I feel dumb now lol... Ive been poking around in com.htc.resources for a couple days now and completely overlooked that... Thanks alot... Only question I have now is how do I remove the word phone that overlayed on the launcher? I would post a screenshot of my home screen but since im a new user its not allowing me.
Thanks for the help
well I uploaded a photo to my album so if you feel like checking it out just go to my profile... Im starting to like the phone (icon and word) over the orb but if anyone knows how to remove the word for future reference please let me know... I am also trying to find out how to change the status bar's clock color, which searching around has brought me to editing the services.jar or services.odex file but Im still uncertain on how to do this. Any input would be great.
Im going to sound like an idiot, but i can't open the apk to edit, im missing something.. help?
Right click and open with winrar or 7zip. Once you have edited the images you will have to resign either the .apk or the rom. Depending on if you are editing the whole rom or not. Hope I was able to help
First off, I would like to say, I know nothing about themeing Android, which is why I'm posting this.
My basic knowledge is: framework.apk in /sys is where the theming is kept. I know how to pull it from my phone, but do not know how to edit/open a .apk once its on my computer. Thats it. Thats all I know when it comes to theming. I don't know how to use the SDK or command prompts(I use root explorer) or what the individual files are in the apk are.
What I do know is graphic design, which makes me want to get into this.
What I'm trying to do is take part of a theme I like and port it to a different ROM, with my own added touches. I contacted the original developer, but since he doesn't have the phone I have(Droid A855), he has no experience on how to port it himself. In fact I was able to port his theme over from a CM ROM to Bugless v0.5 using a program I found online. However I'm unable to port the theme to Bugless v0.6. I assume this because v0.6 has bits of Gingerbread in it, and things aren't lining up.
More specifically, I'm looking to do the following:
-Take a theme that works on Bugless V0.5 and get it to work on Bugless V0.6
-I'd be happy with just porting the status bar and all the icons that come with the status bar(Wifi, battery, downloading, downloading complete, sms etc...) and the notification menu with the ability for me to change a few of the icons.
-And theming the keyboard
I understand that this may be or may not be a lot of work for someone to tell me how to do this, due my 0 knowledge of anything like this.
Thanks in advance.
Dude just a search for theme Porter, there's a couple of them and there's a sticky at the top of the forum how to theme.
My sig has links that could be useful to you also.
Hope this helps.
dully79 said:
Dude just a search for theme Porter, there's a couple of them and there's a sticky at the top of the forum how to theme.
My sig has links that could be useful to you also.
Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you read my post, you would see that a theme porter doesn't work.
Besides I'm looking more into how to do it for future reference too, the sticky at the top is lacking.
As I say there's a few theme porters, 1 may work better than another unless you've already tried them all.
Basically youll have to use apktool/manager to decompile the apk, swap out your desired images, and recompile. You may also have to edit the xml's inside the decompiled apk to change colours. The sticky can point you in the right direction to the xml's to edit.
Just be aware of. 9png images as they can create head f#$k.
Everything you need to know is already posted its just a case of finding it.
To put the new apk on your phone you can use adb or create an update zip, there's threads for these hanging about too.
Sorry I can't link but I'm sending this from my phone, hope this sheds a little light on the subject.
I've been smashing my head against a brick wall for the past week.
I've been reading, downloading, installing, reading, uninstalling, updating, reading and punching myself in the face for far too long.
Right now I'm at the point where I'm either going to jump off a roof or destroy every piece of technology in my house with a hammer.
All I need - is somebody to talk to to give me a helping hand. I've gone too long just sitting here trying to figure it out, with all your broken links, complicated theories and insane lengths to change one icon.
Why is it so frustrating? Because what I want to do should be so simple, or it should be...
I have a Nexus S i9020, using ADW Launcher with CyanogenMod 7.0.3-NS.
All I want to do is:
-Change the icons in the Icon drawer
-Make a new status bar
-Change the color of the batter/WiFi/GPS/3G etc in the status bar.
In a perfect world this would mean replacing a few PNG images and being on my way.
But oh no - 6 days later and a LOT of frustration later - I have achieved nothing. I've watched too many youtube video's to count, and right now I just need somebody to simplify it all and give me a hand.
Can anybody point me in the direction of a detailed, easy, step by step guide which explains everything? Because NONE of the pinned threads have helped me, and I have to wait until I get 8 posts before I can print screen what is happening and try to explain it properly.
Or can somebody just give me a helping hand?
Since you're on CyanogenMod7, you can make a theme chooser APK. It's really quite simple.
CLICK HERE
Thanks but that looks more complicated than the other threads :/
I'm amazed nobody has made a simple theme builder application like those that exist for the PS3 etc.
I'm in so deep here - I have no idea where to even start.
How about UOT kitchen at http://uot.dakra.lt ?
mendozinas said:
How about UOT kitchen at
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow this is exactly what I needed.
There are still a few things I'd like to change beyond this though. But thanks a lot that has helped me achieve 90% of what I wanted.
Edit:
I got to the summary page, and I don't understand any of it. I feel like giving up right now.
At the end it was asking me to upload things, edit binary, I just have no idea where to start.
I need a 'theming for dummies' book. Seriously I know NOTHING about ANYTHING in this area.
What you need to upload is in your rom.zip unzip it and look in app, you should have some apk's there that uot is asking for
Sent from my HTC Wildfire using XDA App
Lilday said:
Wow this is exactly what I needed.
There are still a few things I'd like to change beyond this though. But thanks a lot that has helped me achieve 90% of what I wanted.
Edit:
I got to the summary page, and I don't understand any of it. I feel like giving up right now.
At the end it was asking me to upload things, edit binary, I just have no idea where to start.
I need a 'theming for dummies' book. Seriously I know NOTHING about ANYTHING in this area.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go from left to right on the tabs up top (battery, icons, etc.) and pick whatever you want to use. When you get to the file upload tab, click system files in the right column and upload the framework-res.apk and systemui.apk from your ROM. When they've finished uploading, go to the summary tab. If any of the items listed are in an orange box, they were done incorrectly. Go back to them and finish. If they're all green, hit 'Submit work to kitchen' and wait for it to finish (it can take a while). Take the zip it makes for you and flash in recovery.
To get the framework-res.apk and systemui.apk from your ROM, open the ROM in Winzip, 7Zip, or whatever you want to use. framework-res.apk is located in system/framework and systemui.apk is located in system/app.
iamthebigcheeze said:
Go from left to right on the tabs up top (battery, icons, etc.) and pick whatever you want to use. When you get to the file upload tab, click system files in the right column and upload the framework-res.apk and systemui.apk from your ROM. When they've finished uploading, go to the summary tab. If any of the items listed are in an orange box, they were done incorrectly. Go back to them and finish. If they're all green, hit 'Submit work to kitchen' and wait for it to finish (it can take a while). Take the zip it makes for you and flash in recovery.
To get the framework-res.apk and systemui.apk from your ROM, open the ROM in Winzip, 7Zip, or whatever you want to use. framework-res.apk is located in system/framework and systemui.apk is located in system/app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When he says it can take a while, he really means it. The first time I used the theme kitchen I was waiting for 30 minutes and was convinced something had gone wrong. During peak hours it can really take a long time, especially if you're creating multiple elements. So just be patient about it after you've submitted the theme for creation.
Also, make sure you take a nandroid backup before flashing anything to your device. Better to be safe than sorry! Nandroid has saved my behind more times than I can count.