Database Develop

[Guide] Learning To Theme: Putting the tools to use pt. 1

[Guide] Learn To Theme Part 1: Everything you need to get started
So you want to theme android.
Don't know where to start.
This should help.​
***This is written going in step with editing a theme for the Samsung Epic 4g, but the principle can be applied to any android phone, granted there will be differences in phones***
First off you are going to need the basic tools:
7zip - http://www.7zip.com
Gimp - http://www.gimp.org/downloads/
Second off you need a general understanding of what you are about to do.
The majority of files you are going to edit will be found within framework-res.apk. This is a file located inside of the folders system/framework inside of a rom. A rom of course is a collection of files which combines into your operating system.
To get to the framework-res.apk file you will need 7zip, it's like winzip but is real quick for themeing.
http://www.7-zip.org/download.html
7zip will see any file named *.apk as a file named *.zip. With WinRar, Winzip, and others you have to rename the apk file .zip edit it, and rename it back to .apk. With 7zip this is not necessary. All you have to do is right click a file and choose 7zip-Open archive.
So you have your rom downloaded onto your desktop or in a folder you set up as the root of your themeing.
On my PC I have a folder inside of User/Documents/ called Themes
I also theme for the Samsung Moment so I have all my themes labeled inside of there:
(My folder looks as follows)
Epic Green Mayan Theme
DE03 Stock Theme Template
DI18 Stock Theme Template
Epic Files
Pink Life Moment
Pink Life Epic
Mayan Green Moment
Epic Black Hole
First and foremost, you really need a Stock *** Theme Template. *** being whatever version your phone is running.
The stock theme template serves a number of purposes. First, it is deodexed. This means that all of the files in system/ and system/framework that have the .odex extention are deleted and the stock apps that are included on your phone by default are replaced with files that have been full deodexed files.
This is essential for themeing because if they weren't deodexed, either your apps would ForceClose when you reboot after themeing or they will dissappear from your laucher tray and desktop, meaning essential they are deleted by the phone.
Another good thing about a stock theme template is that it deodexes your phone from an update zip so you can theme the stock rom your running instead of having to install another rom simply to apply a theme.
Download your stock theme template for the Epic 4G here for EC05
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1042386
So lets begin here.
Open your folder on your PC that holds your theme. For me it will be Users/Documents/Themes/NewTheme
Inside of that folder (COPY) your stock theme template to this folder. You will want an original theme template to remain inside of it's own folder cause obviously you are going to edit the one inside of New Theme folder.
Stock_DI18_Theme_Template.zip
Now rename stock_DI18_Theme_Template.zip to the name of your new theme.
NewTheme.zip
Now right click the .zip file and choose 7zip-Open Archive.
Double Click on the folder labeled "system" to Open it.
Double Click on the folder labeled "framework" to Open it
Here you will notice several files including one called framework-res.apk.
Inside your theme folder /Themes/New Theme/ create another folder called framework.
Drag and drop the file framework-res.apk into the framework folder.
Right click on framework-res.apk and choose 7zip-Open Archive.
Double click on the folder labeled "res"
Now you will notice several folders. On the Epic 4g the main one you want is called Drawable-Hdpi
Drag and drop this folder into the same folder you created called framework.
Open this folder and browse around. There are many images in here that your phone pulls in various locations. The first thing I like to do doing this on a new phone is to play with my phone and at the same time look in this folder and try to locate the same files I'm looking on the phone itself. You'll begin to see similarities inside of the drawable-hdpi folder for instance files that begin with the label sys_stat_*_* usually show up in your status bar. The rest you will learn over time.
You will also come across two main file types. The first is .png and the second is .9.png. This write up will not cover those, coming in the future.
A popular start for most people is wanting to alter the status bar. This is an easy one or so it seems.
navigate into the drawable-hdpi inside of the framework folder located /Themes/NewThemes/framework
scroll down until you find a file named status_bar_background.9.png
Since it's a .9.png you already know we can't edit it yet. The reason is the .9.png files are pictures that might hold more then one place on the phone and most probably will be portrait and landscape. The status bar is one size on portrait mode, but when you flip your phone into landscape, it has to stretch to fit the screens. In order to stretch a picture and retain it's looks, a tool called draw9patch in the android sdk is used to show you your image in 3 different stretch modes. Your goal is to set the guidlines on what must be retained at each zoom. After you add these guidlines on the picture, they show up in the picture. You have to program the guidelines inside of the picture and remove them from being displayed. That is done by a program called Eclipse. (Use version 3.5) But all this will come into play later don't rush out and get confused because familiarizing yourself the basic pictures and colors found in framework-res.apk is your current goal. Just because you have no idea what you are doing with the .9.png files doesn't mean you can't change the color of the status bar though. The next best thing is to "borrow" one from a theme that exists so you can get a feel for modding some files. The only one you can't use from another theme is the clear status bar. That has to be done in xml files as well and for now were sticking to the basics. Here's what you do. Find the theme that holds the status bar you like. To make sure you preserve all the files the way they need to be it's best to make a whole new folder in the theme folder called whatever theme you plan to use as a donor /Themes/Donor Theme/. Open the theme zip with 7zip open archive. Navigate to res (double click) and framework. Make another folder inside /donor theme/ called framework. Drag and drop the framework-res.apk. Open this file in 7zip and drag and drop drawable-hdpi into the framework folder. Now open it and scroll down to the status_bar_background you intend to borrow. (Right about now it's not wize to have your windows of "my computer" open full screen you can do this a lot easier with two open explorers side by side swapping files). Side by side, open the drawable-hdpi folders in both theme folders, /New Theme/ and /Donor Theme/. Drag the status bar from the donor theme into the folder for the new theme. Microsoft will give you **** about it choose copy and replace and your done. Now to get this change back in the theme is pretty easy. Your drawable-hdpi folder inside /Themes/New Theme/framework is where you will alter the pictures, framework-res.apk is where your going to put it. In your framework folder is the original framework-res.apk If you closed the instance of 7zip where you had framework-res.apk for new theme open, you need to right click and re-open it. Double click on /res and open it. Drag and drop the drawable-hdpi into the open archive NewTheme.zip where all the other drawable folders are. Make sure not to copy it IN one of those other drawable folders. It will overwrite the one thats already there automatically. Now, you have to stick that framework-res.apk back into NewTheme.zip before your ready to flash it from recovery. First close the 7zip instance of framework-res.apk. Right click and open NewTheme.zip double click on system/framework/. Now drag and drop the framework-res.apk from /New Theme/framework into NewTheme.zip. Your done, now flash the NewTheme.zip in recovery and see how it worked.
Any other file you choose to edit, the steps will be the same. Edit the image in drawable-hdpi, drag it into framework-res.apk, drag framework-res.apk into the theme /res/framework/ folder. You will be doing this a lot.
That's it for part 1. This will give you enough to play with and familiarize you with the images used by most any android phone. If this were a samsung moment you would be doing all of this editing inside the same file structure except in framework-res.apk /res folder you would be editing a folder called drawable-mpdi.
Part two will be out soon enough. I'll go more in dept inside the framework-res.apk/twframework-res.apk

[Guide] Learning to Theme: Required Tools
How To Theme
Required Tools​
First off this is the very 1st guide in my line of theme guides. This one is just to reference you to the required tools, and instructions on how to set them up since it can be a little tricky. The link at the bottom is for guide 1, what to do with these tools now that you have them. At the bottom of that guide is link to a two part Putting the tools to use covering editing images in framework and .9.png files.
Grab you some tools:
Gimp:
www.gimp.org
7zip:
http://www.7-zip.org/download.html
Java6:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html
scroll down and select (under Java Platform, Standard Edition, JDK 6 Update 22) Download JDK
Download and install with the on screen instructions.
Android SDK:
http://developer.android.com/sdk/installing.html
Notice the instructions on Step 2. Downloading the SDK Starter Package.
It says "On Windows, right-click on My Computer, and select Properties. Under the Advanced tab, hit the Environment Variables button, and in the dialog that comes up, double-click on Path (under System Variables). Add the full path to the tools/ directory to the path."
This means if you extracted the folder called android-sdk-windows inside the zip you downloaded @ C:\android-sdk-windows, then when you go to add the path (there will already be other values in your path, type a ";" behind the last one and type in c:\android-sdk-windows\tools
this means you can call any of those scripts inside of android-sdk-windows\tools by typing them at the c:\ in command prompt.
For example, if you did not do this, and you wanted to use adb, you have to open the command prompt and type the following
C:\>
C:\>cd android-sdk-windows\tools
C:\android-sdk-windows\tools>
C:\android-sdk-windows\tools>adb ***
After adding the tools folder to path you can do the following
C:\>
C:\>adb ***
APK Manager 4.9 (Latest Version):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=695701
There is a video on the page as well to give you an overview of how to work it.
I downloaded the zip, created a folder at the c:\ drive called apk manager. Opened the archive (apkmanager4.9.zip) highlighted all the folders and the bat file, drag and dropped them into the folder located at C:\apk manager\.
Eclipse 3.5:
http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/packages/release/galileo/r
This is called Eclipse galileo download the one called Eclipse Classic
Once again you extract this file into a folder on your computer like you did with APK Manager. I created the folder @ C:\eclipse\
Now navigate to this website to learn how to add the adroid sdk into eclipse to have it ready when we are going to need it.
http://developer.android.com/sdk/installing.html
Note the android SDK download at the top, you should already have this. Read right below where it instructs you to add that into eclipse.
Start out like this. Open Eclipse now that it is installed. It's the icon in the eclipse folder that looks like a purple planet. With Eclipse open on your screen click on Window in the tool bar at the top. Click on Help-Install new software. The box that appears, it says "type or select a site" ignore this text input box and go straight to click "Add" button. When it comes up name it Eclipse Plugins and in the field where you put the web address, type the following: https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/ . Click on the box next to developers tools and click next at the bottom. This will install what is called Android SDK and AVD Manager. Eclipse will probably need to restart to add the plugin to the menu list. Alternatively, if you get errors doing this there is a problem with you computer connecting to the secure server (in the web address you typed https: note the S at the end. If, for any reason you do get errors, simply go back to Help-Install New Software, and this time put in the web address field http://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/ When eclipse opens back up, click on Window and select "Android SDK and AVD Manager". Now your screen should look like the pictures in the link.
Now Eclipse Should be upgraded.
After following this all the software should be installed to work on themes.
Next Guide Below
Click My thanks button below

Meta Morph tutorial
by Dreamsforgotten​
This is a primer in using MetaMorph on the Samsung Epic, at the time of writing I'm using a froyo leak with the Bonsai 2.0.1 rom so MetaMorph being a little buggy for us now will probably clear up when official is out. The bottom of the guide addresses what I'm talking about.
Create a folder on your desktop. Call it froyo (or whatever).
Inside that folder make one called framework-res (don't put the .apk)
Inside that folder put the folders you need to edit example
If I want to change the images in drawable-hdpi, make the folders like this
froyo/framework-res/res/drawable-hdpi
so inside the froyo folder create "framework-res". Inside framework-res create "res". Inside res create "drawable-hdpi". It follows the same structure as apk manager when you decompile. If you want to edit the styles.xml, that gets recompiled into resources.arsc. If you are in apk manager and you goto projects, you'll see unsignededitedframework-res, open it and right inside you'll see resources.arsc, androidmanifest.xml, res, meta inf, etc. So to MetaMorph the resources.arsc, your NEW resources.arsc goes into
froyo/framework-res/
Do this for any .jar or .apk file, create your folder structure and put only the new files into the folder, you don't have to flash an entire drawable-hdpi folder only the files you are changing.
Next thing you need to do is make a xml file that tells metamorph what files your editing and links the folders you created to that file. Do that like this:
Inside the froyo folder, create a text file. Either open Notepad and save the file into this folder or right click choose new file, text file. Set your .xml file up like this:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<themename>Crystalline Froyo</themename> <--You can call this whatever
<themeversion>2.1</themeversion> <--Number that whatever number you want
<screenshot></screenshot> <--include a screenshot if you like. put the screen in /froyo and type the file name here
<author>Dreamsforgotten</author> <--your name
<authorweblink>http://forum.xda-developers.com/member.php?u=2551535</authorweblink>
<phone>Samsung Epic</phone>
<rom>Bonsai 2.0.1</rom>
<themedescription>UI Improvements for Crystalline Froyo</themedescription>
<item>framework-res.apk</item>
<path>/system/framework/</path>
<description>**** a Reboot Required</description>
Now the line right above this <item, path, description> You have to follow this for any folder your updating. Notice in the <item> space, you put the actual apk name being edited. So here I have <item>framework-res.apk</item> This tells metamorph to put your edits from the folder you named framework-res into framework-res.apk in the same structure as you set up, ie /res/drawable-hdpi or /res/anim whatever it is you might be editing. It's that simple. Now say you wanted to theme the market. You can use metamorph to theme system apps, but NOT market apps!!!!!! You would do this
<item>vending.apk</item> <--name of APK
<path>/system/app/</path <--path to the APK
<description>Market Update</item> <--whatever you like for descripton
You would put somewhere inside the xml as well. You can put the instructions for MetaMorph to flash in any order you like, You can theme apks first, framework-res first, however you like, BUT its good practice to put the framework-res last because it causes a reboot and anything behind it won't flash. Samsung devices pay attention, TWframework-res and framework-res both require a reboot, so you have to have two separate metamorph zips.
Now, moving along. You have your xml file with all the fields written properly, you have your folder structure set up you just need to do two more things. Inside your original froyo folder on your PC, create a blank text file. Name it .nomedia that (dot).nomedia don't forget the period. This tells media scanner not to add all your images from this zip into your gallery. It's very important. Now the final step, zipping it all up to flash. Whatever you chose to name that xml file for example I used this on the last one I created. crystalline2.1.xml This was the name of my theme control file (the .xml file inside of froyo) so your zip file HAS to be named the same exact thing. If your xml is theme.xml, then your zip has to be theme.zip. If your xml file is theme1.2.xml then your zip file has to be theme.1.2.zip. It will error if the zip and xml file don't match. That's it copy it to your SD card under AndroidThemes, open MetaMorph and apply!
Keep in mind MetaMorph has a 500 file limit and gets buggy when you push it toward the 500 mark. Break large themes into 2-3 different files if you must. You already have to have two separate flashes for our two frameworks on the Epic so you might as well split the images between the two anyway.
One last note on MetaMorph on the Epic. I'm using the latest and I noticed sometimes you open it and it closes right back, or you go to extract a new theme and it closes. Seems that the free version has issues with displaying the ads (which could be due to the host file on Bonsia I'm running, not sure, but when you open MetaMorph, give it time for the ads to load before hitting the start checks button. If the ads at the top and bottom of the app don't load soon, and it doesn't close on its own, proceed. If you give it time for the ads to load and it crashes, just open it right back up. Sometimes it takes me 2-3 times opening MM to get it to stay on the screen but after it does, the flash goes smooth every time.

[GUIDE] Learning to Theme: Putting the tools to use
APK Manager:
This is one of my favorite programs it makes the whole process smoother imo.
Navigate your harddrive to c:\apk manager\ or wherever you extracted the progam to.
Grab the framework-res.apk from a theme template/rom/etc.. and drop it in the folder called "place here for modding"
Double click on Script.bat. Leave the apk manager window with the folders (where Script.bat is) open.
Look into the second section called "Advanced tasks Such As Code Editing
Type "9" to decompile apk
Immediately type 11 to recompile apk (This step is because I have ran across framework-res.apk's before that wouldn't recompile even if no changes were made and this could save you some time down the road.
Minimize the window, Maximize the apk manager window
Open the folder called projects
Open the folder called framework-res.apk
Open the folder called res
Here is where there are plenty of files you can edit. These are the XML files that control the look and behavior of android. If you are lost at this point, lets work on a file together to get the feel for what is possible in here. Scroll down and click on the folder called "values" and open it. Inside you will find a file called colors.xml. Right click on the file and choose open with and choose notepad if you have nothing else that works as a basic text editor. Me personally, I use Notepad++. It's a free download. Either way once it is opened, you will see many values that look like this:
(This is not stock Epic colors.xml file so don't be confused)
#ffb97f7d
#ffffffff
#ff000000
#00000000
#ff000000
#ffffffff
These are text colors for your primary and secondary text on your phone, as well as background highlight colors.
Note Background_dark background_light. That is the background color so if it is the same as your text colors you won't be able to see the text. I made this mistake before so you can change every text color in this file but leave the backgrounds alone, or use a color your text will show up on.
#ffb97f7d
#ffb97f7d
#ffb97f7d
#ff64917d
#ff64917d
#ff64917d
#ff64917d
#ff808080
Here, the color name=" describes the text, the "#ffb97f7d" is actual code for the color.
So if you want to change this color, where do you get the codes from?
Easiest way for me is to use the color chooser in Gimp, when you pick a color, either background or foreground, it will show you the hex value on the screen. But remember that the color codes Gimp gives you hold 6 places ie #000000. The values in the xml files hold 8, so when you compile there will be an error. That is because the first two places describe transparency. You need to add "FF" in front of any value you get from Gimp. So if the code in Gimp is 000000 in the xml file you need to put #ff000000. Always start the code with a "#".
Now the question is what text is described by dim_foreground_dark? Two ways to find out. Change it, compile it, flash it. Or dig around the "out" folder in apk manager and look for text xmls. The next one is located in /apk manager/projects/framework-res.apk/res/color
You will see primay_text_(dark)(dark_disable_only)(dark_focused)(dark_nodisable)(light)(light_disable_only)(light_focused)(light_nodisable)
Search_url_text
secondary_text_(dark)(dark_nodisable)(light)(light_nodisable)
tab_indicator_(text)(textv4)
and a few more. You can open each of these xml files and see what's inside. We'll use primary_text_dark.xml as an example. Right click and edit with notepad++
Take a look at this line in the code:
android:color=" (this tells the xml what color to display. The @color tells where to pull the value from. So you either find color.xml like we did above and edit the field bright_foreground_dark_disabled to render the color your after, or you can simply put the hex color code right here bypassing the need to look up @color(color.xml). It would look like this if you did that. and the "#ff000000" would give this text color the value of black. Instead if you had used the color "#ffffffff" you would get the color white.
Here note android:color in the code. That's because some of the values are for text, and some are for background. In the text lines elsewhere, as seen below, we will use android:textColor instead.
Now this is all general text colors. If you want to edit status bar text, both in the status bar, and when it's expanded, you'll need to dig in a different folder. Navigate to this folder in apk manager on your c:\ drive. C:\apk manager\projects\framework-res.apk\res\layout. You are looking for the following file called status_bar.xml.
Keep in mind when your looking through these xml files, you will see this value in a lot of fields "android:id="@id/icons" or something similar. These are keys to what you are editing. The first line you might want to edit in status_bar.xml would be line #13 which looks like this:
The only thing that's important on this line is @id/tickerText which tells you a color value here would let you change the color of the ticker text. The ticker text is the text that pops up in the status bar for things like a text message being recieved, and if your phone is set that way, the content of your text message.
There is just one problem here. In most lines where you can edit color you will see this already in the line android:textColor="********" and that value is NOT in the ticker text line. But being that this is a text view line because the id is ticker text, you can add the value android:textColor in right before the words "android:id=". The edited line will look like this:

Learn To Theme Putting The Tools To Use Part 2 .9.pngs
We are going to walk through editing a .9 file and getting it back in place to do this as you read the guide.
Before you begin, check out this video from fxn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNvGgmJDqPQ
Now the guide will get you lined up with the instructions in the video.
Open "my computer" and navigate to C:\apk manager\.
In another window open C:\*\Documents\Themes\
Browse to the folder in Themes that holds your theme template
Right click and Browse your stock di18 theme template or rom.
Navigate to system/framework/
In your apk manager window, open the folder called place here for modding
Click and hold framework-res.apk in your second window which is the 7zip browing the zip file.
Drag the apk into place here for modding folder.
Now you can close the zip file window.
Back out of the place here for modding window and you should be back in the apk manager folder.
Run Script.bat and choose the option "9" and hit enter.
Click open the folder called projects
Click open the folder named framework-res.apk
Click open the folder named drawable-hdpi.
Find the file icon_highlight_rectangle.9.png Pay attention to the screen while your scrolling. Apk manager decompiled all the .9.png files exposing the lines that were used in draw9patch by default.
Right Click the file and choose edit with gimp.
Now in gimp you will see the picture, and the lines drawn in for draw9patch. This will save you time. Edit the picture as you see fit. Change the color, or completely redesign the image. Then when you goto save it, choose file save as. Keep the same file name but save it on your desktop, creating another folder naming it new theme nine files. Save the image.
Open up Eclipse.
Click on file-new-android project
When it Opens, click in the field named Project Name type "nine files"
In the field called "Built Target", choose Android 1.5, click the check box next to it.
In the field called "Application Name" type "ninefiles"
In the field called "Package Name" type "com.example.ninefiles"
No Quotes in any field.
Uncheck the box labeled "Create Activity".
Now your Workspace should be open in eclipse, and on the left pane there should be a folder labeled ninefiles. Double click on it and it will expand a folder tree. Look for res. Then click it if it's not expanded as well. Look for drawable. There will be a file in there called icon.png. Leave that file alone. Now on your desktop, open the folder called new theme nines. Click, drag and drop the edited icon_highlight_rectangle.9 file right into that drawable folder in eclipse. You are skipping using draw9patch because the lines were there from the start.
Now go back to the parent folder in Eclipse, the one labaled ninefiles where all the other folders come from. Right click on it and choose android tools all the way near the bottom. Then slide over and choose export unsigned application. This will bring up the save prompt on your screen, choose the desktop once again, and export it. It will show a message about the export and telling you to zip align it and sign it with a device key. Ignore all this, your just using Eclipse to target that .9.png. Keep in mind every time you open Eclipse now, it will show you the workspace with ninefiles. Expand the folders, delete the last image you used Eclipse to work on and add new ones in, bypassing the need to create a new android project each time.
Lets say your new .9.png image is nothing like the original and it won't display correctly using the lines on it after decompiling in apk manager. You need to feed the image through draw9patch.bat located in c:\android-sdk-windows\tools\
Double click it and a shell will open, then another one will open on top of it that has a square with a down arrow in it. Save your image from gimp into the folder on the desktop called new theme nines, like you did above. Then Drag and drop the saved image on top of the windows inside the square, and on top the arrow lol.
The picture will be transformed in draw9patch concentrate on the outer edges along the entire image. Bring your mouse over to the left of image around dead center. Click once and draw a pixel. Next go dead center on the top just like you did on the left and draw the 1 pixel. Now expand that line up and down on the left side looking at your 3 preview pictures on your right hand side. If there is no gradient or fade effect to your image the center pixel will be about good enough but if your image fades, expand that line up and down and your 3 previews will give you an idea if you capture it or not. Once you have the left side of the image looking good, begin the same process on the top. Use as little line as possible to have the image looking right. Never have a gap in the line that you draw.
Now focus on the right side and the bottom. The two lines drawn there should be about the size of the entire image minus a few pixels at the very end. You can get the idea from the one you pulled from apk manager and adjust the lines to work on your changes. When your done with draw9patch, click file save 9 patch. It will save in the folder on your desktop. Now drag and drop this image into the drawable folder of Eclipse/ninefiles as described above.
This should be a shortcut to getting you busy with 9 files. Any questions or anything noticed missing, please let me know.
One last bit of advice. Sometimes when you open a file in draw9patch, the image is zoomed in too big and you can't get to the outer edges to draw the top and bottom lines. There is a bar at the bottom of the program that will allow you to zoom in and out of the main image and zoom in more to the 3 preview images. Use these to adjust the image to where you can work with them.
All these introduction guides should get you started, your own drive should take you the rest of the way. I'm not the first to write a theme guide I'm just sharing with the Epic community because the amount of new users who are requesting how to do these things. All my information came from asking questions to those that were theming before me like Khanning, Crake, Chibucks, the list is never ending. Also this list of videos here have helped a lot:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=593932

.9.pgn write up posted.

Just AMAZING thank you so very much...

No problem I hope I wrote it so anyone starting fresh could understand
rjmjr69 said:
Just AMAZING thank you so very much...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do as thou wilt be the whole of the law

I'm really digging these guides as I really want to get into theming and eventually (with any luck!) cooking ROMs. i'm a self made techie and pick things up pretty quick, so I thought theming was a good place to start off.
any chance you'd consider a writeup on extracting a theme from a themed ROM, pitfuls and things to know/watch out for etc... i think that would be a helpful supplement to see how themes are implemented in ROMs and know what certain files affect. maybe even a list of what parts of a theme/ROM are in what files (such as lockscreen i think is android.policy.jar etc...)
thanks again for your time and effort into putting this out there

No doubt, there is definitely more write ups to be done my goal was to get some guides out that just touch on the basics so people who never tried before can begin to get their get wet.
Do as thou wilt be the whole of the law

hey so i wanted to come back and thank you again for these. i've read but havent dived into editing .9.pngs just yet, but i've really been playing with the rest of the stuff to mostly modify existing themes that i like most of, tweaking a bit. its really cool and i cant wait to actually start putting some of my own stuff together. i know the threads havent gotten a lot of love but its appreciated!

Hey, this is amazing, thx so much for it.
I'm running into a prob and wondered if you could assist.
I've already modded (only replaced/changed some png colors on photoshop), and have flashed it successfully to my phone with no problems. However, when I pull the framework res back out, decompile (with no problems), then try to recompile immediately (as instructed), that part seems to fail. It errors, then asks if it is a system apk (yes?)...then creates a temp folder and asks me to delete the resource.asc if I've modded an xml. Even though it errors, I made a change to the strings xml, compiled, with same error, then signed and flashed- it seems to work fine, but the change I made to the xml didn't hold.
any ideas or suggestions?
Thx again so much.
sent from my RAZR

decalex said:
Hey, this is amazing, thx so much for it.
I'm running into a prob and wondered if you could assist.
I've already modded (only replaced/changed some png colors on photoshop), and have flashed it successfully to my phone with no problems. However, when I pull the framework res back out, decompile (with no problems), then try to recompile immediately (as instructed), that part seems to fail. It errors, then asks if it is a system apk (yes?)...then creates a temp folder and asks me to delete the resource.asc if I've modded an xml. Even though it errors, I made a change to the strings xml, compiled, with same error, then signed and flashed- it seems to work fine, but the change I made to the xml didn't hold.
any ideas or suggestions?
Thx again so much.
sent from my RAZR
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i "think" thats because you are recompiling edited images. i think thats what he mentions elsewhere in these threads, always compile with stock images, then drag and drop your edited images. so you probably want to start with a stock framework, not one that already has edited images in it. i'm learning too though so dont quote me.
EDIT: hey dreamsforgotten, getting an error exporting: Failed to export NineFiles: C:\eclipse_workspace\Nine Files\bin\NineFiles.apk doesn't exist!
EDIT2: looks like somehow my ADB got wiped out from the tools folder so Eclipse couldnt find it, reinstalled, pointed to it in Eclipse preferences, works like a charm.

I think you are correct.. Ive just gotten so far away away from the original.. On my (own) 5th revision . That's cool though. I did try decompiling and re compiling immediately on an untouched framework, and it did in fact work.
sent from my RAZR

hey i was wondering if you have already posted your 2nd tutorial? If not is there going to be one anytime soon?

dreamsforgotten said:
Where do you go from here?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=817998
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
see above bro! each one has a link to the next, if your a little tech savvy they should be enough to get you started, i learned off of them so if you have any questions feel free to ask!
useruser25 said:
hey i was wondering if you have already posted your 2nd tutorial? If not is there going to be one anytime soon?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Noob Questions- I'm new to theming but i catch on very quick. I just have a few questions tho..I'm running on the Midnight ROM (CWM3)..I like the DK28 Gingerbread Theme 1.8 but would like to change the text colors a lil..So I Decomplied and recompile with zero errors..i ended up with a smaller file and it was named unsignedframework-res.apk..So i changed the name to framework-res.apk and put it back into the DK28 Gingerbread Theme zip so that i could flash it..I tryd to flash it in CWM3 but it told me it was aborted bc it was a bad file..so my two questions are how to get a theme to be CWM3 compatible and what im a doing wrong when it comes to decompiling and recompiling? Any advice would be greatly appreciated Thanks in advance

Noob Questions- I'm new to theming but i catch on very quick. I just have a few questions tho..I'm running on the Midnight ROM (CWM3)..I like the DK28 Gingerbread Theme 1.8 but would like to change the text colors a lil..So I Decomplied and recompile with zero errors..i ended up with a smaller file and it was named unsignedframework-res.apk..So i changed the name to framework-res.apk and put it back into the DK28 Gingerbread Theme zip so that i could flash it..I tryd to flash it in CWM3 but it told me it was aborted bc it was a bad file..so my two questions are how to get a theme to be CWM3 compatible and what im a doing wrong when it comes to decompiling and recompiling? Any advice would be greatly appreciated Thanks in advance

I haven't made a cwm3 zip yet but for a short cut you can find a theme created for it and copy the files from your theme in leaving the meta inf folder alone. I've noticed in the past as well when I recompile the file gets smaller and smaller according to the pc but that end up flashing all the same. Hope that helps.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

chris378 said:
Noob Questions- I'm new to theming but i catch on very quick. I just have a few questions tho..I'm running on the Midnight ROM (CWM3)..I like the DK28 Gingerbread Theme 1.8 but would like to change the text colors a lil..So I Decomplied and recompile with zero errors..i ended up with a smaller file and it was named unsignedframework-res.apk..So i changed the name to framework-res.apk and put it back into the DK28 Gingerbread Theme zip so that i could flash it..I tryd to flash it in CWM3 but it told me it was aborted bc it was a bad file..so my two questions are how to get a theme to be CWM3 compatible and what im a doing wrong when it comes to decompiling and recompiling? Any advice would be greatly appreciated Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can't decompile and recompile a framework with different images. The .9s will show funny
You need a edify script for cwm 3
Sent From Da Hood.

[GUIDE]Changing System Icons + MISC MODS

All mods are at the bottom of this post.
Here is a simple way to change system icons on your application drawer. I was looking for a guide to do this but I couldn't find any so I gave it a try and it worked. So I decided to post the method here for like minded people who wanted to change the system icons in their app drawer and not only on the homescreen.
I will show an example of changing the contacts icon. To change the icons of some other app you just have to pull the relevant apk. I know this looks long and tiresome but bear with me and the results will amaze you. After a few times it becomes really easyYou have to be rooted to do this
A couple of things to note
a. You can change icons in framework-res.apk, SystemUI.apk or any other apk this way too.
b. Please note that the icons you replace should be of the same dimensions.
c. The specific icons name inside the drawable_hdpi might change. Sometimes its icon.png. Sometimes its ic_launcher_XYZ. Just use your head and replace the correct png.
d. The files are located either in system/app or data/app depending on whether its a system file or a data file. System files have to be pushed. Data files have to be installed.
Changing Icons works for all ROMS
1. Download android-sdk from here http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html
2. Install all libraries.
3. Install jdk from here http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html
Make sure you download jdk and not just jre.
4. Download apk manager from here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=695701
5. extract apk manager inside platform-tools inside android-sdk folder. Should be something like this
C:/Android-sdk/windows/platform-tools/("extract apk manager here")
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6. Open cmd
7. Navigate to the platform-tools folder. (Simple DOS commands)
8. Do "adb pull /system/app/HtcContacts.apk" (-Do this without the quotes. If you want to change the icon for, lets say the camera, then instead of HtcContacts.apk, type HTCCamera.apk. To see all the system files just navigate to system/app on your phone using es file explorer or root explorer or any other file explorer you fancy. You can see all the system apks and you can pull anyone you want)
9. Ok so now the HtcContacts.apk should be in the platform-tools folder. Paste it into the folder "place apk here for modding".
10. Start script.bat (apk manager) from the platform-tools folder.
11. Choose option 22 to select a project
12. Choose the number of the project. In this case it would be 1.
13. Choose one again on the next screen. This will extract the apk to the projects folder.
14. Now get to the folder res/drawable-hdpi/ on your windows explorer.
15. Replace people.png with the icon of your choice. Please remember that your new icon has to be of 72x72 dimension and should have the same name. You can also replace other pngs like dialer and stuff.
(Next step is only for system files)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16. Select option 3 on the apk manager cmd
17. Now select 8. This is a system apk and so we have to retain the system signature.
18. Enter the full path of the file ( system/app/HtcContacts.apk)
Follow these steps for data files
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
19. Select 7.
20. Wait for install.
Here are my mods. Please note that I have not made these icons and tweaks. I have just put them all together in one place. If you want to give any credit then please follow the developers.
These are designed for sense based Roms. Please DO NOT try with any other rom. Just download and push to system/framework/framework-res.apk. Please note : This is for the older sense (sense 2.0) Do not try with newer sense.
To get transparency you have to use this file -- Transparency Hack -- through metamorph. I will make this into a flashable zip once I understand how to do that.
App icons are from Tenuis theme - Images
My framework-res
Screenshot - http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/9167/snap20110125163003.png
Download
System Icons Zip
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18171691/Mms.apk

Hello,i just use Bettercut.apk available from market .

Marcdu81 said:
Hello,i just use Bettercut.apk available from market .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi I dont use bettercut but does it let you change the system icons in the app drawer. you know the drawer that comes up when you press the menu on the launcher???
Edit: OK i just tried bettercut. Using this you cannot change system icons in the app drawer. You are only changing icons on the homescreen, basically shortcuts. You could do that with launcherpro, desktop visualizer and 10 other apps.

CREDITS
CREDITS
MultiCulti for giving me the idea to get the services.jar for transparency
Icons from MIUI framework
Icons from Gingerbread aosp ROM
sopL87 for his guide
he_stheone64 for his awesome transparency hack
Ps. tell me if I have forgotten to credit anyone and I will add your name here. Thanks to all of the above for inspiring and helping.

Good work
Check this out too:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=10157000
Simple Java app to edit .apk files with a nice GUI

You're Just Awesome THNX man !

Nice guide

Ninjamorph lets you edit and change out images within apk files right on your phone. Its a free app on the market.
Still a very nice guide though!

thanks .. i was just looking to put up something which you could use to edit any apk on your phone .. the thing with ninjamorph is that it wasn't working for me. And plus I prefer to do it this way. Gives me more area.
EDIT: Anyone wants to see an MIUI framework on your sense?? I am thinking about getting the exact MIUI framework over to our sense based ROMs. As you can see in my framework I have already copied some of the elements. I am thinking about getting the power toggles and removing the current apps from the notification pulldown.

hi could u help me to change the battery icon plzzzz
i know about kitchen. any thing else i have some pic of a battery icon but dont know how to make one..... htc desire hd rom runny 3.37

Can't extract file
I tried to put option 22 where project start. Then I enter the project name as 1 and following another option 1 to extract files. However, the CMD just close by itself and I opened the project file and still empty inside. Please help!!

[GUIDE][UPDATED 5/5/2013]Ultimate Guide to Android Misc. Editing

Ultimate Editing and Theming Guide​
Preliminary Requirements:-
PC with Windows(Please avoid Windows Vista)
Java JRE or JDK
APK Multitool
framework-res.apk, SystemUI.apk, twframework-res.apk, com.htc.resources for installing
7-zip
Notepad++
Android Device for testing
Photoshop or equivalent image editing software
android-sdk(for 9 png editing)
Lots and lots of patience and mind
What this guide includes:-
1. Easiest Decompiling and Recompiling Guide *Must Read before continuing*
2. Explanation of 9 pngs and how to edit or make them
3. How to Batch edit pngs (Not 9 pngs) (Changing color, etc)
4. APK png resources(General Location of General pngs)
First Step:
Decompiling: [MUST READ]
We are assuming that you have installed JAVA, Android SDK and apk-multitool without any problems
1. Copy your mobile's framework-res.apk, SystemUI.apk and twframework-res.apk in others folder in directory where you have extracted apk-multiool
2. Open Setup.bat. Choose 2 :- Installing Framework-res
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Setup.bat​
Choose 1 (framework-res.apk)
Choose 2 (twframework-res.apk) [similarly install OEM specific files such as com.htc.resources , etc]
Choose 4 (SystemUI.apk)
Window will close each time you choose an option
You will have to restart Setup.bat each time
3. Now place the apk you want to edit in place-apk-here-for-modding
4. Now open script.bat. (If you see any error, either you haven't installed JAVA and SDK[adb] or they aren't implented, Please install them properly before continuing). Click any key to continue
APK-Multitool Window​
5. You will see the above window. Now, make sure you have installed all frameworks and Compression level is set to 9.
6. Now, we will choose our project. Click 24. A list of files present in place-apk-here-for-modding will be in front of you. Choose any file
7. Click on 9. Now decompiling will be in process.
8. After it is complete, go to projects folder, you will see a folder with the name of apk you decompiled
Decompiled apk example​
If it is decompiled properly, then there will be apktool.yml file in it
9. Do your modifications. Now, you can edit .9.png files (they will be discussed later) and xml files which were uneditable first
You will notice that there will be many new folders which weren't present in compiled form of apk. These all folders are generated from a file called resources.arsc present in compiled form which is absent in decompiled form
Such an example is of values folder which contains crucial xml files like styles.xml, strings.xml, ids.xml, etc
Always open xml files with Notepad++, it will mark commands and syntax making it look aligned and making it easy to understand
Example of decompiled xml file ​
Also, you can edit 9 patch files also which will be changed from now on
Example:-
We will discuss 9 png in detail later on
10. After you have done your modifications and you are ready to recompile the app, choose 11 (Compile System APK) if you are editing System App or 12(Compile Non-System App) if you are editing other than System App
11. a) If System App:-
After some time it will ask that if you want to copy additional files other than signatures to ensure less amount of errors, then choose y
After extracting some files, it will ask you to delete files from keep folder
Simply go to keep folder,
If you edited any pngs and there are many and you are lazy enough to delete one by one, then delete the whole folder in which you edited pngs
If you edited any xml file, then delete that xml file AND ALSO DELETE RESOURCES.ARSC
Why? Because we told that values and several other folders are generated from resources.arsc while decompiling
Now, if we don't delete resources.arsc, the modification we did in values folder will be reverted to original state
After doing this, go to script.bat again and press any key to continue
11. b)If its not system app:
Just recompile it and sign it man through the menu in apk multitool man.
It is easy as hell. Tutorial of non-system app has been ended here
12. Now, you will get another apk name System_ apkname.apk
Open both apks as archives by 7-zip
13. Last and most important step:-
Just drop the files you edited from new apk to old apk in correct folders. By now, you may have understood that resouces.arsc INCLUDES your edited xmls
14. Now, the final apk is not System_apkname.apk but apkname.apk (the original file you started with). Push it and enjoy
9 PNG Discussion
These are special types of pngs that can be stretched to fit the need of program or different scenarios or cases. It contains 1 pixel lines on each border of different lengths for different things
As told above, we can't edit 9 png in compiled form as it will lose these lines which define its properties. So, we first need to decompile apk in order to edit 9 pngs
So, after decompiling apk, open 9 png in Photoshop and select the part inside that 1 px border and edit anything you want (Hue, Saturation, Bevel, Emboss, ANYTHING)
Now save it (save it as a normal png and then rename it as .9.png because photoshop doesn't recognise 9 png extension and image will loose its RGB format)
Explanation of 9 png:-
You can read this for more information
If you have doubt that you have gone wrong somewhere or you have made a new png from scratch and want to test if it is correct or not:
(Check all 9 png files you edit as they can cause Force Closes or bootloops)
Go to folder where you extracted android-sdk and go to tools folder and open draw9patch.bat
A window like this will open up:-
Drop you 9 png here
A new window will open with you 9 png on it
Tick on show bad patches
If you see red rectangles, you have a bad 9 patch image. You will need to delete or add those lines in png to remove all red boxes. If you want to delete, press Shift and start moving cursor over lines you want to delete. You can choose method of hit and trial to remove all rectangles and move the lower scale to see how your image size is adjusted
Or you can do what I do:
1. Remove all lines
2. Add single dot on top centre and left centre border of image (That can be taken as stretchable area)
3. Add lines on right and bottom of image where you want to fill content. Now, click on Show Content
The purple area you see in image is the content area (Text will be filled there. Eg:- Popup Menu)
4. Now, you can adjust these lines acoording to your need that what you want for stretchable area and content area until an unless there comes an red triangle
5. When it is done. Save the file. DONE
Easy, isn't it?
That's what theming is
Batch Editing pngs in Photoshop
Well the scenario is you have 200 pngs and you want to change their color, hue, add effect to them, etc. Definitely not worth the time you will spent doing this one by one. So, here, I will cover how to batch apply same edits on to your infinite pngs. Here, I am taking example of changing color of battery png from green to purple, you can apply any attribute to your image in the same way. I repeat it is not for .9.png files. Read above guide for reference
Let's start
1. First copy all your pngs you need to edit in a separate folder. I have made a folder named Battery Base and pasted my all pngs of battery there.
Now create another folder where your edited pngs will be saved. For eg:- Battery Done. (Don't create it inside Battery Base folder)
2. Open Adobe Photoshop and Choose Window>Actions or Alt+F9
3. Click on the note like file (Create new Action)
Rename it to anything you want . I have chosen Battery_color
Then click on Record. Now, you will see that red circle is enabled and now everything you do on image will be recorded and will be applied on each image.
4. Now, do this very carefully, don't miss any step.
We will do every thing that we want Photoshop to do with each file we want to edit.
a) So, first we want Photoshop to open the image. So , click on Open and choose any png from Battery Base folder (Choose a file with more color so that you know what color exactly your file will be after editing. That is why I chose 90 percent battery here).
b) Now, after opening, we want to change Color of png from green to purple. So, choose Image>Adjustment>Hue and Saturation or Ctrl+U
A dialog box with 3 sliders will appear. Move upper slider to change color. You can move other slider to change saturation and brightness if you want. Now, if you got it right, click on OK.
Every step of yours is being recorded, so don't do unnecessary stuff you don't want to do on other images. Nonetheless, if you have done it, then Drop down the Battery Base Action in action palette and you will see your every action there, If you want to delete any action , you can delete it from there. You can also add any action before pre completed action by clicking above that action and performing it.
Now, you can do anything you want to be done on your rest of pngs.
c) Now, we want Photoshop to save this png to carry on working on others. So, Go to File>Save as... and save it as a png in Battery Done folder. Photoshop will ask you to choose, so choose smallest compression and no interlace.
d) Image is saved but we also want Photoshop to close the png so that it does not open 200 tabs for editing 200 pngs. So, click on close (Small cross on title bar of png). If, it asks that do you want to save changes to png . Say no, because if you say yes, the png in Battery Base will be changes and when batch processing is done, that png in Battery Done will be of different color that all others.And also, your all green pngs in Battery Base folder will turn purple too. But we want purple images in Battery Done and green in Battery Base.
5. Now, we hae done what we want, so, we will stop recording the Action. Click on that square in Actions Palette.
6. Fun Starts. Now we will do the batch processing.
Go to File>Automate>Batch
In the dialog box, Choose the action to be Battery_Color (or obiviously any action you created)
Source folder: Battery Base
Destination Folder: Battery Done
Tick both Override Action 'Open' commands and Override Action 'Save as' commands
Click on OK. Sit back for 3 to 5 minutes(204 pngs) and TADA
You can apply any action in same way. Such as bevel, glossy, pale, etc to innumerous amount of pngs
General APK png Resources
Here I will tell you where to find some pngs to theme your Phone
Note: Here I will tell location of pngs but that may differ based on modification done to your ROM by OEMs or devs. These pngs are found after decompiling or extracting the apk files. For more reference, read this.
In this part, there is only brief information, but for a very good guide, please go here. I haven't covered it all up as d3cka himself has done a marvellous job in making that guide. All the things present in that guide should solve all your queries.
General location of apks:
SystemUI.apk - /system/app/
framework-res.apk - /system/framework/
twframework-res.apk - /system/framework
framework.jar - /system/framework/
lidroid-res.apk - /system/framework/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Variable list:
I have referred to some locations as drawable-xdpi. X here stands for
X: m, l, h, xh
Meaning pngs can be in drawable-mdpi, drawable-hdpi, drawable-ldpi, drawable-xhdpi depending on resolution of your phone
In some places, I have just added * in order to fill spaces that are not common in each png
[?] means maybe only for GB or Samsung
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Battery Icons -
(i)Ice Cream Sandwich/Jelly Bean: SystemUI.apk/res/drawable-xdpi/stat_sys_battery**.png
(ii)Gingerbread: framework-res.apk/res/drawable-xdpi/stat_sys_battery**.png
Status Bar icons - SystemUI.apk/res/drawable-xdpi/
Note, some, however very few status bar icons are also present in framework-res.apk
Platlogo - framework-res.apk/res/drawable-nodpi/platlogo*.jpg
(image that pops up when repeatedly clicked on Android Version)
In Gingerbrad, its a single file but in ICS and JB, they are many images.
Default Wallpaper - framework-res/res/drawable-xdpi/default_wallpaper.jpg
Default Lockscreen Wallpaper[?] - framework-res.apk/res/drawable-xdpi/zzzzzzzz_default_lockscreenw.jpg
Spinners[GB] - framework-res.apk/res/drawable-xdpi/spinner_****_**.png
(The loading circles)
Menu Icons - framework-res.apk/res/drawable-xdpi/ic_menu_**.png
These icons may also be present in twframework-res.apk for Samsung Touchwiz ROMs
Notification Toggles
(i)With lidroid 15 toggles : lidroid-res.apk/res/drawable-xdpi/
(ii)Without lidroid mod : SystemUI.apk/res/drawable-xdpi
These were some general pngs of system apps that may be used to theme the phone. You can find respective pngs to theme in their apks.
Will add more soon...
This is a work in progress.
Will add more things soon
Don't hesitate to ask any questions about anything
Credits:
@d3cka for teaching best about 9 pngs
@deathnotice01 for helping me
Miscellaneous Google and xda posts

Reserved

great
Great Guide Areeb...I THINK THIS SHOULD BE DISPLAYED AGAIN IN PORTAL
reserved

puneeth.007 said:
Great Guide Areeb...I THINK THIS SHOULD BE DISPLAYED AGAIN IN PORTAL
reserved
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not Now
It's incomplete
It'll ruin this guide then!

RE
+1 Thanks for this great guide

highly detailed guide, with of course nice pictorial representation!
:good:

This guide is awesome !
Unfortunately I don't know how to use photoshop correctly I still have not learned it , first by myself , and 2nd on school. I am just 13 2/3 YO . Anyway , i didn't have such knowledge about .9 png-s. Thanks

I had always got errors while editing compiled 9.png files. Hope this guide, help me to figure it out that...
Sent from my GT-S5830i using xda app-developers app

Added Batch editing in Photoshop

Sniper Killer said:
This guide is awesome !
Unfortunately I don't know how to use photoshop correctly I still have not learned it , first by myself , and 2nd on school. I am just 13 2/3 YO . Anyway , i didn't have such knowledge about .9 png-s. Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have covered Photshop Now. Hope it helps you
And added path thickness changing guide too

iamareebjamal said:
1. Easiest Decompiling and Recompiling Guide
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not bad. :silly: Bookmarked ready to be added to mine, but could you please include tw somewhere in the thread title as it will be easier for People browsing mine looking for help for tw files.

[GUIDE]MAKE APK'S ON YOUR PHONE-for kustom live w'paper app ONLY- inc playstore ready

This tutorial is for lollipop & marshmallow rom users only !​​
Works with or without Root !​​For making apk's for kustom live wallpaper app only !​​​
The apk's should run on any ROM 4.4 upwards​
Newbie Friendly !​​​
DISCLAIMER ​
I, in no way take responsibility for any damage you may cause to your phone by following this tutorial as ApKTOOL app is capable of accessing your system folders and thereby you changing or deleting something you shouldn't,
That said the instructions I give do not use any system locations, so if you follow them properly you will be OK!​
Welcome to my tutorial for making apk's for kustom live wallpaper ( klwp ) on your PHONE.
Please don't be put off by the length of the tutorial, its IMHO very easy to follow and I have tried to write it in such a way that anybody can follow and understand it and have an end result without too much head scratching.:fingers-crossed:
No major knowledge needed, just the skill of being able to navigate around your phone files and being able to follow instructions as is, and finally, the ability to revel in your own glory for making your first pc-less apk. :victory:​
Top tip, (as if you didn't know this already)
Have this tutorial up on your PC whilst following it, no keep swapping between recents on your phone then.:good:
I would like to thank @plegdroid AKA Pete Nolan for introducing me too and walking me through the stages needed to use ApkTOOL :good:
If your making apk's for personal use to share from a cloud I.e. dropbox etc, you do not need to use zipsigner as the ApKTOOL app can sign for this kind of sharing.​
Apps and stuff you will need to download for this 'magic' to take place are...
ApkTOOL, download here (github link here).
Klwp sample apk, download here
Komp sample apk, download here
Android asset studio (launcher icon generator) link here (bookmark this !)
Droid edit, play store link here
Zipsigner (only if you want to publish to play store), play store link here
Photo Editor (if you don't already have one), play store link here
!!Do not install ApKTOOL or klwp/komp sample apk's yet, please wait for instruction to tell you to do so!!​​​​
Sounds like a lot to do, right?....
Setting up everything up the first time takes a bit of time, But once you've done it, and got used to the fairly simple instructions, you'll be making apk's in MINUTES on your phone....
FYI.
I deleted and uninstalled all associated with this tutorial so that I could write the instructions as a person following this tutorial I.e. installing the apps first then writing the instructions step by step as I went through each stage, thereby hopefully getting them as clear and succinct as possible :good:
There is a thread for ApkTOOL here for kitkat, although it is a general thread as ApKTOOL can do much more than just make apk's for kustom, but please don't post on this thread about it as I don't use it on kitkat and only use it for kustom, so if this interest's you please post your queries there.:good:
Also as this is my first "proper" tutorial, I would really appreciate any feedback...
How easy it was to follow.
Any problems you had.
Conformation that it worked for you
Suggestions
Etc.​
CREDITS
@plegdroid - for all your help(and contiued help):good:
@rkucheran - for also helping out (and continued help):good:
@Brut.all - original creator of ApkTOOL
@iBotPeaches - current maintainer of ApkTOOL
@frankmonza - for klwp app and sample apk's
Roman Nurik - for android asset studio
André Restivo - for droid edit
Ken Ellinwood - for zipsigner
Dev.macgyver - for photo editor
@browcantor - for confirming, working without root .:victory::good:
@TheKrates - for confirming working on marshmallow ROM :good:
If you find this tutorial helpful then please take the time out to subscribe and rate thread, oh and press thanks if you feel like it :good:​
Let's get started, move on to post 2.​

Installing ApKTOOL
And getting things ready​
Using your file explorer for steps 1, 2 and 3..
1, Make a folder on your sd card (internal memory, not on micro SD) and call it [highlight]Apktool[/highlight].
2, Move [highlight]ApKTOOL.apk[/highlight] to the folder you just created and install [highlight]ApKTOOL.apk[/highlight], (If you can't install the ApKTOOL.apk, then goto your phone settings select security then check allow unknown sources, then install ApKTOOL.apk again.) when its finished installing press open, it will then ask you to install an update, install the update and when its finished press done.
3, Also move [highlight]klwp.sample.apk[/highlight] and [highlight]komp.sample.apk[/highlight] to the Apktool folder you created in step 1, [highlight]BUT DO NOT INSTALL THEM[/highlight].
4, Go into your app drawer and open [highlight]ApKTOOL[/highlight] app.
(If you are rooted open the three dot menu top right of the screen, press settings, scroll to the bottom and check the root option, there's no need to really do this, I do just because I can :laugh
5, Navigate to [highlight]sdcard[/highlight] then the [highlight]Apktool[/highlight] folder you made earlier,select it, now your screen should now look like this...
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
6, Click on the [highlight]klwp.sample.apk[/highlight] and pick [highlight]decompile resources[/highlight], leave it to do its thing for some moments (sometimes up to 40 seconds), once complete you should get this on your screen...
Press OK.
7, Your Apktool folder should now have the decompiled apk called [highlight]klwp.sample_src[/highlight] in it and should look like this...
Now thats all set up, lets move onto next post​

Making your asset (launcher) icons
These are the small pictures that show on people's phone's when they use klwp app.​
You can skip this post if you want to use Andi as your asset launcher icon..
he comes as default.​
Note..
Also if you already have a ic_launcher.zip from previous apk's you have made then you can skip straight to step 5.
1, Firstly using a photo editor, make, crop or resize a picture to a size of [highlight]256x256[/highlight], it can be whatever you like a photo, an image you've made or just text on a background, remember it will end up small though so too much detail may be hard to see and if making an app for playsore be considerate of copyright laws etc..then save it.
2, Goto Android asset studio (that I asked you to bookmark in post 1) In your browser, and click the word 'image' near the top of the page, this will then give you the option of choosing an action . Navigate to the image you made in step 1 and pick it..
3, The Android asset studio page should now look like this, but obviously with your picture .
You can play about with the settings on the page if you like, but I just leave them the way they are.
4, Press the download zip button, this will then put the zip in your downloads folder, it will be called [highlight]ic_launcher.zip[/highlight].
For steps 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, use your file explorer.
5, Go into your download folder and extract the [highlight]ic_launcher.zip[/highlight], once extracted open the folder which will be called [highlight]ic_launcher[/highlight] and then open the res folder and delete the [highlight]mipmap-xxxhdpi[/highlight] folder as this is not needed. Copy the other 4 '[highlight]mipmap[/highlight]' folders.
6, Navigate to your [highlight]sdcard[/highlight] then open your [highlight]Apktool[/highlight] folder, click on the [highlight]klwp.sample_SRC[/highlight] folder, select [highlight]res[/highlight] folder and paste the 4 '[highlight]mipmap[/highlight]' folders you copied, in there.
7, click on [highlight]mipmap-hdpi[/highlight] and copy [highlight]ic.launcher.png[/highlight], then go back into the [highlight]res[/highlight] folder and click on [highlight]drawable-hdpi[/highlight] folder then paste the image you just copied, you should get a prompt with options , choose overwrite.
8, Copy step 7 for the remaining 3 [highlight]mipmap[/highlight] folders, taking care to make sure you copy and paste/overwrite from and into the correct folders
9, Now delete the four [highlight]mipmap[/highlight] folders (not the drawable folders, which I did once and had to do the whole procedure over again ) and exit your file explorer..
Suggestion.
If you are planning to make ultra fast apk's as detailed in post#7, then use a default ic_launcher pic I.e.your avatar that way you can use the same launcher pics for all your apk's and can skip this post
Right, that's the boring bit over, Let's get to the cool geeky bit and start building ..​

Building your APK​
[highlight] Due to changes in the way that klwp saves your wallpapers or komponent you now need to rename your klwp/komp file with a .zip at the end either before or when you place them in the assets folder [/highlight]
Use your file explorer for step 1
1, Decide which [highlight]klwp zip/s[/highlight] (yes you can add more than one) you want to make into an apk, you can find these in your kustom/wallpaper folder, copy the one/s you want and navigate back to your [highlight]Apktool[/highlight] folder and select it, then click on [highlight]klwp.sample_src[/highlight] and then select the [highlight]assets[/highlight] folder, then select [highlight]wallpapers[/highlight] folder , paste the [highlight]klwp zip/s[/highlight] you copied here, (you will see a [highlight]read me[/highlight] file here also, it just tells you to put your wallpaper zips in this folder, [highlight]delete[/highlight] it), exit your file explorer.
2, Open [highlight]ApKTOOL[/highlight] app from your app drawer and navigate to [highlight]Apktool[/highlight] folder and click on it then click on [highlight]klwp.sample_src[/highlight] folder select [highlight]browse[/highlight]
your screen should now look like this.
3, Just to check you zip is in there click on [highlight] assets[/highlight], then click on [highlight]wallpapers[/highlight]
And your screen should look like this, with one or more zips (obviously your zip name will be different)
4, Navigate back to your [highlight]klwp.sample_src[/highlight] folder, then select [highlight]res[/highlight] folder then click on [highlight]values[/highlight] folder then click [highlight]strings.xml[/highlight], you will then be prompted to open with, pick the [highlight]droid edit[/highlight] app you downloaded from post#1.
Your screen should now look like this.
On this screen only edit (with your app name and description )what is written in WHITE, Using only text and numbers you may also use capital letters and spaces...like so..
If you delete anything else by accident, unless you know what your doing I suggest you exit droid editor and start from step 4 again.
Once edited press the little icon I've arrowed on the left of the option ribbon.
And press [highlight]save[/highlight]
5, Navigate back to your [highlight]klwp.sample_src[/highlight] folder, then click on [highlight]AndroidManifest.XML[/highlight], again you will receive a promt and again open with [highlight]droid edit[/highlight] and edit (with your app name ) ONLY what I've highlighted in next pic.Use lowercase text only and no spaces.
So it looks like this
Click on the little icon I arrowed earlier and press [highlight]save[/highlight]
6, Navigate back to your [highlight]Apktool[/highlight] folder and click on [highlight]klwp.sample_src[/highlight] folder, select [highlight]recompile[/highlight] if you have done everything correctly you should get a pop up that looks like this..:fingers-crossed:
Click OK.
7, you should now have an extra apk in your [highlight]Apktool[/highlight] folder called [highlight]klwp.sample_src.apk[/highlight] with ( if you have made one) your own launcher icon..
Click on your new [highlight]klwp.sample_src.apk[/highlight] and pick [highlight]sign[/highlight] you should then get a pop up like this..
Press OK
Then you will notice another apk in your [highlight]Apktool[/highlight] folder called [highlight]klwp.sample_src_sign.apk[/highlight] if you long press on this apk and select [highlight]rename[/highlight] you can then name it the name of your app but don't forget to leave the [highlight].apk[/highlight] on the end..(if you are using the apk for the play store, don't rename it yet this will happen in following posts). Like so..
if you want to go onto the next stage and make the apk play store ready, then keep the [highlight]klwp.sample_src.apk[/highlight] otherwise you can delete it.
8, you can now test your newly built apk by installing it, either by clicking on it now and selecting [highlight] install[/highlight] or installing it the usual way you install apk's, its also ready for you to share via your favorite cloud etc..
Note....
To make a komponent/s apk follow the same instructions from post#2 step 6 but instead use the [highlight]komp.sample.apk[/highlight]. (But obviously copy your komponent zip/s into the komponent folder in post#4 'building your apk, step 1.
Suggestions...
Do not delete the decompiled [highlight] klwp.sample_src[/highlight] folder as this can be used for making ultra fast apk's as detailed in post#7.
If you are planning to update your app then leave the finished apk in the [highlight]Apktool[/highlight] folder for ease of update (copy it somewhere else for backup if you want, though).

Making your apk play store ready.​
1, Using [highlight]ApKTOOL[/highlight] app, navigate to your [highlight]Apktool[/highlight] folder, click on it then select [highlight]klwp.sample_src.apk[/highlight] then from the menu list select [highlight]zipalign[/highlight]. You should get a pop up like this.
Click OK.
You should now have a [highlight]klwp.sample_src_zipalign.apk[/highlight] in your [highlight] Apktool[/highlight] folder, as below..
Exit [highlight]ApKTOOL[/highlight] app.
2, Open [highlight]zipsigner[/highlight] app from your app drawer, press the 3dot menu on top right of screen, select [highlight]my keys[/highlight] from the menu list then press the 3dot menu again and select [highlight]new keystore[/highlight] scroll to the bottom of the new page and click [highlight]continue[/highlight] and fill in the form like so..
Note.You can change the directory if you want but I use my internal storage (sdcard0) then after I have finished all the steps to register my keystore I find the keystore file on my sdcard0 and copy it to my sdcard1 (external storage/micro sd card) as a backup.
Click [highlight]continue[/highlight] then fill out the next page like so..
Obviously I have blacked out my key name/alias, it is 'cert' by default but you can change it if you like and for the key/verify passwords make sure you use the same one that you entered on the previous page, don't change anything else on this page unless you understand what it means. Press [highlight]continue[/highlight].
On the next page leave the defaults as they are (unless you know what your doing) and fill out the form as per the instructions (I just put my name and country code I.e.GB (GreatBritain). Close [highlight]zipsigner[/highlight] app.
3, Now we can sign your new apk...
Open [highlight]zipsigner[/highlight] app again, and press underneath the [highlight]key/mode[/highlight] option which will bring up a menu and amongst the options will be either [highlight]cert[/highlight] (if you didn't change your key name/alias) or your new key [highlight]name/alias[/highlight] (you may have to scroll the menu to find it. Then select it.
Next click [highlight]choose in/out[/highlight] this will bring up a page of folders select [highlight]Apktool/[/highlight] then select [highlight]klwp.sample_src_zipalign.apk[/highlight], your screen should now look something like this..
(I have blacked out the key/mode as its my alias and you may not have the word 'emulated' in your file names that's just a quirk of my old galaxy s3 i9300 I think )
Click [highlight]sign the file[/highlight], you will then get a pop up screen asking you to enter your keystore password, enter it and press OK. You should then get a toast message saying [highlight]file signing operation succeeded![/highlight]
Note...
For future apk's that you make you now have you keystore and can skip steps 1 and 2. :good:
4, last bit ......
Open [highlight]ApKTOOL[/highlight] app from your app drawer and navigate to your [highlight]Apktool[/highlight] folder and open it, you should now have an apk called [highlight]klwp.sample_src_zipalign_signed.apk[/highlight], like so...
Long press on the [highlight]klwp.sample_src_zipalign_signed.apk[/highlight] and select rename from the menu, then rename it the name of your apk remembering to leave the [highlight].apk[/highlight] on the end (and you can delete the other stage apk's now if you want, just long press on them and select [highlight]delete[/highlight])
like so...
[highlight] Your APK is now ready to publish to the Play Store.[/highlight]
[highlight]Voilà [/highlight]
Suggestion...
If you are planning to update your play store app then leave the finished apk in the [highlight]Apktool[/highlight] folder for ease of update (copy it somewhere else for backup if you want, though).
Important notice
If you are publishing to the play store and you are using other people's klwp or komponent ,as is or altered,
Please ask for thier consent first ....
Especially if you are publishing it as a PAID app.​

How to update app version for Play store.​
1, Using [highlight]ApKTOOL[/highlight] app, navigate to your [highlight]Apktool[/highlight] folder, click on it then select the 'play store'.apk you wish to update, mines called taxi (obviously yours will be different so from now on certain folders I reference I will write 'your app name') click on it and select [highlight]decompile resources[/highlight] and wait for it to do its thing...you then should get a pop up like this...
Click OK.
You should now have a new folder called [highlight]'your app name'_src[/highlight] like so...
Use your file explorer for step 2.
2, Depending on what you are updating....
If you're adding a [highlight]klwp.Zip/s[/highlight] to a collection then copy the extra [highlight]klwp.Zip/s[/highlight] you want to add from [highlight]kustom/wallpaper folder[/highlight] then goto [highlight]Apktool[/highlight] folder then click on [highlight]'your app name'_src[/highlight] then [highlight]assets[/highlight] select [highlight]wallpapers[/highlight] and paste the [highlight]klwp.zip/s[/highlight] here.
If you are updating an existing [highlight]klwp.zip[/highlight], then firstly goto [highlight]Apktool[/highlight] folder then click on [highlight]'your app name'_src[/highlight] then [highlight]assets[/highlight] select [highlight]wallpapers[/highlight] and delete the [highlight]klwp.zip[/highlight] already there, then copy your updated zip from [highlight]kustom/wallpaper folder[/highlight], navigate back to [highlight]Apktool[/highlight] folder then click on [highlight]'your app name'_src[/highlight] then [highlight]assets[/highlight] select [highlight]wallpapers[/highlight] and paste the updated [highlight]klwp.zip[/highlight] here.
Exit file explorer.
3, Open [highlight]ApKTOOL[/highlight] app again from your app drawer and navigate to [highlight]Apktool[/highlight] folder and click on it, then select [highlight]'your app name'_src[/highlight] folder and from the pop up select [highlight]browse [/highlight].
(You can check if your zips are in the assets/wallpapers folder if you want)
Click on [highlight]apktool.yml[/highlight] file. Open with [highlight]droid edit[/highlight] app, then this should be on your screen.
4, Edit the [highlight]version code[/highlight] to [highlight]2[/highlight] and edit the [highlight]version name[/highlight] to [highlight]1.1[/highlight] as highlighted below.
Any further versions will be increments of 1 also I.e. 3 & 1.2 etc
Now press the little icon arrowed in post#4 and press [highlight]save[/highlight]. Exit [highlight]droid edit[/highlight] app.
5, Open [highlight]ApKTOOL[/highlight] app again from your app drawer and navigate to [highlight]Apktool[/highlight] folder then click on [highlight]'your app name'_src[/highlight] then click [highlight]recompile[/highlight]. You will now have a folder called [highlight]'your app name_src.apk[/highlight], click on this folder and select [highlight]zipalign[/highlight], you will now have a folder called [highlight]'your app name'_src_zipalign.apk[/highlight]
6, now open [highlight]zipsigner[/highlight] app and press the [highlight]choose in/out [/highlight] button and select the [highlight]'your app name'_src_zipalign.apk[/highlight] then press [highlight]sign the file[/highlight] (your key mode should still be the same as previously used I.e cert or your own alias) and enter your keystore password.
Exit [highlight]zipsigner [/highlight] app.
7, Open [highlight]ApKTOOL[/highlight] app again from your app drawer and navigate to [highlight]Apktool[/highlight] folder then click on it.
You should now have a [highlight]'your app name'_src_zipalign-signed.apk[/highlight], like so.
Now you can delete [highlight]'your app name'_src.apk[/highlight] and [highlight]'your app name'_src_zipalign.apk[/highlight], and also the [highlight]'your app name'_src[/highlight] folder, by long pressing on them and selecting delete.
Lastly long press on the [highlight]'your app name'_src_zipalign-signed.apk[/highlight] select [highlight]rename[/highlight] and rename it [highlight]'your app name' V1.1.apk[/highlight]
[highlight] Your updated APK is now ready to publish to the Play Store.[/highlight]
And Hey-presto..

Make personal apk's ultra fast!​
Now everthings set up we can make personal apk's I.e to share via cloud (not play store) by just changing zips and XML's.
Using your file explorer for step 1.
1, You should already have a decompiled [highlight]klwp.sample_src[/highlight] folder in your Apktool folder as per suggestion at the end of post#4.
Copy which kustom wallpaper you wish to apk next, from kustom/wallpaper folder. Navigate to [highlight]Apktool[/highlight] folder,open it then click on [highlight]klwp.sample_src[/highlight] folder, then [highlight]assets[/highlight], then click on [highlight]wallpapers [/highlight] and paste your copied wallpaper here, then [highlight]delete[/highlight] the previous wall (unless you wish to keep it in the apk)
Exit file explorer.
2, Open [highlight]ApkTOOL[/highlight] app and navigate to [highlight]Apktool[/highlight] folder, open it and click on [highlight]klwp.sample_src[/highlight] folder and select [highlight]browse[/highlight], then click on [highlight]res[/highlight] then [highlight]values[/highlight] then click on [highlight]strings.xml[/highlight] and open with [highlight]droid edit[/highlight].
3, Edit the names you have previously used to your new name, only using upper/lower case letters and also spaces (as per highlighted pic)
Now press the little icon arrowed in post#4 and press [highlight]save[/highlight]. Exit [highlight]droid edit[/highlight] app.
4, Navigate back to [highlight]klwp.sample_src[/highlight] and select [highlight]AndroidManifest.xml[/highlight] and open with [highlight]droid edit[/highlight] app and edit to your new app name, only using lower case letters with no spaces (as per highlighted pic)
Again press the little icon arrowed in post#4 and press [highlight]save[/highlight]. Exit [highlight]droid edit[/highlight] app.
5, Open [highlight]ApkTOOL[/highlight] app and navigate to [highlight]Apktool[/highlight] folder and click on it. Then click on the [highlight]klwp.sample_src[/highlight] folder and select [highlight]recompile[/highlight] from the pop up list, and wait for a few seconds for it to recompile, and if you've done everything correctly you should get a pop up like this..
Press OK.
6, Now you should have an extra apk in your [highlight]Apktool[/highlight] folder called [highlight]klwp.sample_src.apk[/highlight], click on this and select [highlight]sign[/highlight] from the pop up list and click OK on the next pop up .
7, Now you will have another apk in your [highlight]Apktool[/highlight] folder called [highlight]klwp.sample_src_sign.apk[/highlight], long press on it and select [highlight]rename[/highlight], then rename it to your new app name.
You now have your new apk ready for sharing via your favorite cloud etc.
Delete the [highlight]klwp.sample_src.apk[/highlight] now as its no longer needed.
So to summarize your ultra fast apk build
Transfer new klwp zip/s
Edit strings.xml
Edit AndroidManifest.xml
Sign
Rename
Done :victory:

Reserved

Reserved one more

Might as well reserve this one also :laugh:

First! Ha, moved here and if any more assistance is needed, just ping JJD. Thanks and great job here.

Judge Joseph Dredd said:
First! Ha, moved here and if any more assistance is needed, just ping JJD. Thanks and great job here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
:laugh: Thank you JJD , and be sure I'll take you up on your offer if needed :good:

Awesome! That's some impressive detailed job.. Well done and thanks for sharing it with us.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

BRKotucs said:
Awesome! That's some impressive detailed job.. Well done and thanks for sharing it with us.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you , for you great response:highfive: and your very welcome.:good:
And when you've created your first apk using this method please don't forget to report on your success on the thread. :good:

Awesome tut for noobs and pro's. Subscribed to this thread... ?
Gesendet von meinem LG-D802 mit Tapatalk

Awesome!
What a great source for reference this is, as well as one of the best tutorials I have come across! Great job buddy.

Steve, corkin Matey, love your writing style, and thank you for the Playstore signing guide. And yes I will continue to help if needed ?
ⓐⓝⓓⓡⓞⓒⓛⓓⓔ ⓘⓢ ⓝⓞⓣ ⓐ ⓢⓘⓝ

Matze060906 said:
Awesome tut for noobs and pro's. Subscribed to this thread... ?
Gesendet von meinem LG-D802 mit Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
phonefixguy said:
What a great source for reference this is, as well as one of the best tutorials I have come across! Great job buddy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you both for your great comments , its appreciated :good:

plegdroid said:
Steve, corkin Matey, love your writing style, and thank you for the Playstore signing guide. And yes I will continue to help if needed ?
ⓐⓝⓓⓡⓞⓒⓛⓓⓔ ⓘⓢ ⓝⓞⓣ ⓐ ⓢⓘⓝ
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cheers Pete, your comments mean a lot..
Your welcome (play store signing)
And I suspect yours and @rkucheran 's tech help is gonna come in useful as you've both been using this method far longer than me.
Thanks again mate :good:

Right, so ive spotted my first (and hopefully only) mistake. I've updated post#4 'building your apk', instruction number 1, where I ask you to paste your copied wallpaper zips into your asset folder , there is an extra step and very important copy the zips into the wallpaper folder within the assets folder....
Sorry about that....

TWRP theming tutorial

Tutorial how to theme twrp using PC.
Includes how to :-
*Decompile twrp image
*Recompile twrp image
*splash.xml
*Ui.xml
*Portrait.xml
*Fonts
*Images
*Languages
*General ui tweaks
*Open discussion
*notes
*Dodgy screenshots
If you want to learn to theme twrp for yourself here is a comprehensive guide with chat and help. Sign up and start theming twrp today.
**Note this is not a request site for themes**
Visit https://t.me/MKDeltaBlack for tutorial.
##################
List of tools:
*PC
*Twrp image:- https://twrp.me/Devices/
*Android image kitchen:- https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2073775
*Notepad++:- https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2380786
##################
##################
HOW TO DECOMPILE &
RECOMPILE TWRP
##################
Step 1:- Open android image kitchen zip by right clicking it and select Extract all, then hit the extract button and open the first 2 folders until you see 5 files
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Step 2:- Get your twrp image and drag and drop or copy and paste into that android image kitchen window and rename it to recovery
Step 3:- Drag and drop the recovery you just renamed ontop of the unpackimg file and a command window will pop up . Don't worry you dont need to type anything as it's all automated. After 5-10 seconds it will prompt you to press any key on keyboard. Press any key
Step 4:- You now have 2 new folders ramdisk and split_img
Open ramdisk by double clicking it and scroll down to twres folder and open that. These are the folders and xml's you will be editing.
The next step is to edit the files, but while were here I'll show you how to recompile. You can try now as a practice. This will just recompile standard twrp.
Step 5:- Click the back button twice to go back to the kitchen and double click on repackimg
The command window will pop back up and do its thing then just press any key
You now have image-new, that is your new twrp.img
Drag this and move it to desktop and change it's name to recovery.img
Step 6:- Clean up your kitchen, you will be left with extra files, just delete the files crossed out by double clicking cleanup and deleting the original recovery this will leave the original files like when you originally opened android image kitchen then close the window.
Step 7:- transfer new twrp image to phone and flash in twrp as image. Done
So it's just literally a few clicks of a mouse to decompile and recompile twrp
#1 fonts :- add any TrueTypeFace (.ttf) font in here (or several if you like) by copy and paste or just drag file to this folder. This will include that font in your twrp. Now you need to say where you want that font. That will be covered in languages, splash and ui
#2 images:- When you open the images folder it will show you all the "drawable" images for the whole of the twrp image like this.
The next bit is down to your own imagination. Copy the images folder and go to your favourite art app or pics you have made and replace the ones you want to change. If you put the mouse over it, it will show you what size and format the pic should be. This is .png and 162 x 161 so make it the same size format and name ie. Pic shown is backspace so your new pic should be backspace.png wih size 162 x 161
Here is the one I have replaced, you can see its same size, fomat and name
Do this for all the "drawable" pics you want to change then put the new pics in the images folder in android image kitchen. If it asks to replace say yes to all.
#3 Languages:- double click the languages folder and it'll show all the language xmls
Now you will need notepad++ to edit the xml files.
Right click on the zip and select extract all. Double click the notepad++.exe and install
Go to your languages folder in twres folder and right click on a language and select edit with notepad++ and it will open the xml file
At the top you will see the fonts. You can replace the name of font to the one you put in the font folder. ie my font is called MKUltraBlack.ttf so replace name by deleting the current name and typing or copy paste your font name in that place
If you're replacing font for all languages (recommended) you will need to open all the font xmls in notepad++, to do this go to your languages folder in android image kitchen and right click on top language and select edit with notepad++, it'll open the xml now just close the notepad++ window and go back and do the second, third etc until all done. You will notice all the files are now in notepad++
Now go to search on toolbar and select replace
Type your font you want to change in the "find what" box and put your new font name in the "replace with" box then select Replace All in All Open Documents. You can see in the box it will say how many it has changed it should be 18 or something, I just did a few for example
Now go to file in the toolbar and select save all
That's how to change font for the most of twrp there are 2 more places that will be covered in ui and splash.
The rest of the language.xml is made up of "strings" which just means the words that will be displayed on the screen. The only one I personally ever change is the twrp_header
Just replace the text between the >example< to >my words< on any "string" and press save on the toolbar after
ie I replaced the twrp_header string >Team Win Recovery Project< with >MKUltraBlack< and this is the result
because some words are different in other languages replace all can be used but will miss some out if the words are different so it is better to replace strings by opening a single language.xml and change all the strings you need to then save and do the next
#4 Portraits:- portrait.xml is how the "pages" of twrp are arranged ie main_page will be your main screen in twrp where it says install, wipe etc and where the buttons go. It is a big(ish) xml so we can discuss this through chat on how to rearrange buttons etc If you want to just change the name of a button you do that in all language.xml's and save as described before
#5 Splash:- This is the "Splash screen" the first image that it shows when you boot into twrp
Right click the splash.xml and select open with notepad++ and you will see this (its a small xml)
This xml also has a font to change if you want, just highlight the RobotoCondensed-Regular.ttf and change to your font name that you put in the font folder ie MKUltraBlack.ttf
This will only change the font of the splash screen text under the team win logo. Note it will not change the bit that says team win as that is a .png and not text
Screen height/width leave this as all twrp from 3.0 onwards use this ratio and auto resizes to your screen size
There are 3 colours under that
#1 background_color
#2 header_color
#3 accent_color
Just change the #222222 to your hex colour ie #000000 (pure black) and do same for all 3.
Here is what they change
As you move on you might want a totally different splash. To do this make a pic that you want for splash screen. It should be 1080x1920 and png format. Call splash.png and put it in twres images folder
Now open the ui.xml with notepad++ and add this highlighted line anywhere in resources near the start and press save button that looks like a disc in toolbar (pic)
Now delete the highlighted lines
And add the following highlighted lines and save by pressing the save button on the toolbar that looks like a disc
#6 ui:- Right click and open with notepad++
Leave the first bit, the next bit is fonts. Just do as before and change the name of the fonts to your name ie MKUltraBlack.ttf
Next bit is images this is a list of images that can be found in your images folder. This is where you add the "splash line" for your personalised splash screen
Scroll down a bit and you will see variables from about line 177 to 193 are what to look at in this area for the time being
They are pretty self explanatory, just change the hex code to colour you want
Here's a rundown of what they are
#1 background_color
#2 accent_color
#3 accent_color_semitransparent
#4 text_color
#5 text_button_color
The rest are text colours for flash successful text, error text etc
Down near the bottom of the ui.xml is 2 areas for keyboard. 1 is for when format data, name backup etc and the other is the terminal keyboard
Here there is a few hex colours to change like keyboard background, keys, text etc just change these to the colours you want and press save button that looks like a disc in toolbar.
##BOOTLOOP##
If the image is wrong in some way you may end up in bootloop. If you do just put your phone into download mode, vol down, power and home until you see green download screen (on Samsung's might be different combo for other devices) then simply flash your correct recovery.img.tar to the AP section in Odin. When the flash finishes in Odin quickly press the twrp button combo (vol up, power and home on Samsung's). Then your good to go again.
# Background Picture.
In your decompiled image open up the ui.xml with notepad++
Add in <resources>
<image name="background" filename="background"/>
Keep scrolling down in ui.xml past resources and variables to templates. The first <template name="page"> is the main page that will be displayed in all sections of twrp. In this template add the line
<image>
<image resource="background"/>
<image>
*Now save*
Make your background image a 1080x1920 png and call it background.png and add it to the images folder in the twres folder in your decompiled image and recompile.
You can also put a different background for each page.
Open the portrait.xml with notepad++ and use search to look for <page name="
You can then use the same method as background. Just name the "background" different in the stages.
For example call it advanced:
Add advanced.png to images folder in twres folder
Add <image name="advanced" filename="advanced"/> to resources
And add the
<image>
<image resource="advanced"/>
<image>
Under the <template name="page"/>

Next section coming soon, how to add keyboard background picture

Instructions unclear, accidentally flashed twrp to the master boot record of my pc.
Sent from my RF28K9580SR using a carton of milk

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DavidxxxD said:
Instructions unclear, accidentally flashed twrp to the master boot record of my pc.
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Please don't "meme" here, it's a thread for passing on information
Sent from my Note 8 using XDA Labs

Amazing thread. Well outlined and detailed. Thanks

MKUltraBlack said:
Please don't "meme" here, it's a thread for passing on information
Sent from my Note 8 using XDA Labs
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I sent you a DM, can you please check and reply?

lawrencee said:
I sent you a DM, can you please check and reply?
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Replied :good:
Sent from my Galaxy S9+ using XDA Labs

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Can you please tell me how to lower it?