Database Develop

How To Make A Theme??

Im new to the whole idea of having a rooted phone. Just let me say its pretty cool! Ive messed around with some rom cooking but nothing serious. Can anyone point me in the direction of creating a theme for my eris?
Thanks
-paperweight

sure, but ur gonna need the following first:
1. photoshop skills
2. linux
3. patience
4. an idea
one u have all of those, ill show u the thousands of pngs u need to edit

I got the skills to pay the bills... Time is what Im lacking, My family takes up most of my time. Maybe fathers day I can sit down and dink around.
Thanks for your help
-paperweight

SoCalSpecialist said:
sure, but ur gonna need the following first:
1. photoshop skills
2. linux
3. patience
4. an idea
one u have all of those, ill show u the thousands of pngs u need to edit
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yup not to mention hex editing etc...I am working on a theme now and let me tell you after being a 8 year Blackberry user its a whole different thing...dont get me wrong creating and editing svg's and layering theme for blackberry wasnt the easiest thing to learn this is just "different".
So not to be long winded any noobs or anyone for that matter interested in starting a theme there are some fantastic tutorials and loads of helpful fellows over in the heroc forum. Hopefully in the not so distant future we as the Eris community will have our own talented group of themers instead of just porting or simply being able to flash a hero theme. Good Luck and be patient.

sure, but ur gonna need the following first:
1. photoshop skills
2. linux
3. patience
4. an idea
one u have all of those, ill show u the thou
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yup not to mention hex editing etc...I am working on a theme now and let me tell you after being a 8 year Blackberry user its a whole different thing...dont get me wrong creating and editing svg's and layering theme for blackberry wasnt the easiest thing to learn this is just "different".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So!? Have you thought about cooking up a blackberry-esque or bbstorm-esque theme theme. That, would be such a wonderful idea! :-D (i was a former bb storm user btw)
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Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App

what are some of the other files to edit png's in other than framework-res.apk and com.htc.resources.apk? the wifi, gps, etc. on and off widget/icon and the dialer keypad in particular. using the leakbase rom jcase posted if it matters. thanks.

iflip : a blackberry theme already exists via marketplace for GDE
magnum : the way i started was via windows. i was grab each apk .. edit the extension to .zip extract it and dive in the MDPI folder ( thats the folder ur gonna want to get into to edit themes.)
if ur using linux just jump in the apk and check out the icon_launcher's. thats gonna be a great starting point..since at least 22 icons need to be changed for a theme LOL
i kno i kno..its a p.i.a. but u asked ...

SoCalSpecialist said:
magnum : the way i started was via windows. i was grab each apk .. edit the extension to .zip extract it and dive in the MDPI folder ( thats the folder ur gonna want to get into to edit themes.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, yea i'm on windows, takes a little time going through all the png's lol.

HtcDialer.apk and Phone.apk will contain the png's to change the phone dialer.

I was looking into making a theme or at least just changing some things around in the one ROM I'm running now. The two questions I have is how do I re-zip the ROM and how do I sign it so it will work? I'm running snow leopard on a macbook pro just as an fyi.

Themeing for Slide

I remember when I had my myTouch, you could essentially pull the framework-res.apk file, modify it using a program like 7zip which keeps the file verified, then push it back to the phone.
It was nice and easy changing the graphics. Was wondering if anyone's tried this with their Slide so far? I know sometimes (only if done wrong) it could cos infinite boot = nandroid. Not sure I want to try it just yet, anyone out there doing any themeing so far? If so, how'd you do it?

android007 said:
I remember when I had my myTouch, you could essentially pull the framework-res.apk file, modify it using a program like 7zip which keeps the file verified, then push it back to the phone.
It was nice and easy changing the graphics. Was wondering if anyone's tried this with their Slide so far? I know sometimes (only if done wrong) it could cos infinite boot = nandroid. Not sure I want to try it just yet, anyone out there doing any themeing so far? If so, how'd you do it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there is a theme forum for this phone, please post this in there(there is also already a post in there full of people trying)

android007 said:
I remember when I had my myTouch, you could essentially pull the framework-res.apk file, modify it using a program like 7zip which keeps the file verified, then push it back to the phone.
It was nice and easy changing the graphics. Was wondering if anyone's tried this with their Slide so far? I know sometimes (only if done wrong) it could cos infinite boot = nandroid. Not sure I want to try it just yet, anyone out there doing any themeing so far? If so, how'd you do it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im working on one right now...i got the red slide but it has no red themes to speak of...the Fuzzy_Kittens one has a kindof a red theme to it, but all the selectors and highlights and button_press's are all still blue, and its UGLY. so im working on eradicating all the blue, in favor of red.
For the most part its the same as themeing for the G1. There's a LOT more apks in /system to make changes to, and ive found that theres TWO frameworks to take care of, the normal android framework-res.apk, and the also in /system/framework there is com.htc.resources.apk, which is apparently htc's version of framework-res. it contains all kinds of images called common_<whatever>.png and this is where i found the files that make up the default "Nest" theme. all the other themes that you can choose for the Slide are in .apk form and up until we had root i was modifying and installing the apk's to theme this puppy, but i could never find the .apk for the default theme...well thats why, the default theme is in com.htc.resources.apk, and its the default espresso theme, not a tmobile theme.
Im still working on my theme, its not ready yet, i just had yesterday to work on it, and ive made some progress, but i still have to get a generic 2.1 ROM to build so i can extract the xmls from it to inject into the ROM to change colors that are coded like progressbars, white backgrounds, etc. so whenever i get time for that ill be rollin...then i wanna try to get colorchange.jar to work on SlideMEROOT2 so i can change the clock and notif. text and stuff...alll in due time!
-BMFC

You have to de-odex the framework-res and the com.HTC.resources to theme
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Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App

thatguythatdid said:
You have to de-odex the framework-res and the com.HTC.resources to theme
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, but im afraid you're wrong...i didnt de-odex anything, and my theme is working fine...i can upload screenshots if you dont believe me.
-BMFC

bmfc187 said:
Sorry, but im afraid you're wrong...i didnt de-odex anything, and my theme is working fine...i can upload screenshots if you dont believe me.
-BMFC
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
even though you sound like a di*k. Good find I had been theming using de-odexed files but I'll give this a try.

Sorry, but im afraid you're wrong...i didnt de-odex anything, and my theme is working fine...i can upload screenshots if you dont believe me.
-BMFC
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
even though you sound like a di*k. Good find I had been theming using de-odexed files but I'll give this a try.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Honestly you're kinda right, I do come off sounding like a **** a lot...sorry didn't mean for it to come out that way...
anyway yeah you can do it without deodexing, I'm just using winrar to extract the whole ROM to a folder, then I go into and extract all .apks using 7zip (winrar doesn't recognize .apk files, you hafta rename them to *.apk.zip, but 7zip works on .apks without renaming them at all). Then I just modify or replace whatever images then inject them into a copy of the ROM .zip and resign and reflash...works great for me!
-BMFC
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Sent from my ROOTED MyTouch3G Slide

Themed System Apps not Working

I'm just trying a bit of theming myself, found plenty of guides on the topic however I have found one slight problem. No matter how I try to install my modded system apps, it always fails to install or doesn't change the original app at all.
I use APKmodder to do the editing if that affects anything, however the same issues arrise when using NinjaMorph on my NS.
I have tried multiple methods of getting the apps onto my device. Using adb push, creating a custom update.zip (which is all set out properly), NinjaMorph and even just the regular apk install, all of them either don't update the apps or are pushed to /system/apps but are not in the app launcher.
Any ideas? I have searched for hours about this and I haven't found anything to help me. Finally, if it helps I have tried with Launcher2.apk and Camera.apk.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

Any ideas at all? I've never had much luck with Modding apps full stop. Could it be my copy of APKmodder?
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

is your rom deodexed?

I imagine so, running CM7 and I can't find any odex files in /system. I also read somewhere else that CM6 was deodexed so I figured it would be the same.
What difference would it make if it wasn't deodexed? Would you need to remove the odex or something?
Sent from my Nexus S

Jonathon Grigg said:
I imagine so, running CM7 and I can't find any odex files in /system. I also read somewhere else that CM6 was deodexed so I figured it would be the same.
What difference would it make if it wasn't deodexed? Would you need to remove the odex or something?
Sent from my Nexus S
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
CM7 is deoxed. It's probably because you're changing the apk, don't understand why you're playing with it but whatever.
No idea, my recommendation is to not mod it.

I am not familiar with the tools you're using, but I've heard that people have had trouble with them in the past.
The best tool for theming is Apkmanager 4.9 used along with Apktool 1.3.1.
However, if you're simply swapping some images, just do so in WinRAR or 7zip. No deed to decompile, resign anything. Just put your system apps in a Flashable zip in this order: Zip/system/framework/framework-res.apk and Zip/system/app/<your system apps> and drag and drop your images in the right locations.
Also, your zip must have a META-INF folder with the proper update script.
You can use any one of my themes as a template.
Hope this doesn't sound too convoluted.
Cheers.

Thanks for that, some changes are image based but there are also some XML based changes which I require, would the 7zip method work there?
And sorry if I'm being vague, but Im not near my computer now, but how would you use two tools in conjunction? Because I have used apktool before but not the other.
Thanks very much though! I am finally getting somewhere
Edit: thanks for the template offer, I will have a look and see what's different to my tests. Just one final question, is there any difference between an update-script and updater-script?
Double EDIT: For future reference if anyone finds this, there is a difference between update-script and updater-scripts. From Android 1.5 onwards, Google moved to updater-script's, leaving update-script's behind. Make sure you remember this!
Sent from my Nexus S

Jonathon Grigg said:
Thanks for that, some changes are image based but there are also some XML based changes which I require, would the 7zip method work there?
And sorry if I'm being vague, but Im not near my computer now, but how would you use two tools in conjunction? Because I have used apktool before but not the other.
Thanks very much though! I am finally getting somewhere
Edit: thanks for the template offer, I will have a look and see what's different to my tests. Just one final question, is there any difference between an update-script and updater-script?
Sent from my Nexus S
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For xml changes you have to decompile/recompile the apk. Apkmanager is a GUI for apktool so you don't have to learn/remember the java commands.
If you download Apkmanager, it comes with Apktool 1.3.2, be sure to replace it with 1.3.1. It's way more stable and reliable.
Not sure about the difference between updater and update, maybe one has Amend scripts and one doesn't.
I am not a developer so can't say for sure , but the one person to ask would be ogdobber.
He literally knows everything about everything .

sonnysekhon said:
For xml changes you have to decompile/recompile the apk. Apkmanager is a GUI for apktool so you don't have to learn/remember the java commands.
If you download Apkmanager, it comes with Apktool 1.3.2, be sure to replace it with 1.3.1. It's way more stable and reliable.
Not sure about the difference between updater and update, maybe one has Amend scripts and one doesn't.
I am not a developer so can't say for sure , but the one person to ask would be ogdobber.
He literally knows everything about everything .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok thankyou very much for the help once again. I have finished school for the week so I should have time to test these methods out now.
If I need any further help I might drop ogdobber a note then.
Thanks for all your help!
Sent from my Nexus S

[APP] [Themed] NS4G MMS with Autosplit DenverG/1Dynasty Themes

**Make a Backup**
This is AOSP's mms.apk from oICS with AutoSplit for NS4G.
ICONS:
If you want to mix and match Icons, it's really easy to do and you don't have to decompile/recompile or anything like that. So I'm going to give you instructions on doing so rather than put up 15 or so versions of the same thing with different icons Go Here to see the instructions and to download the Icon Zips.
1Dynasty has created about 20 or so themes now so he's given me permission to include his many themed MMs apks, so this thread is going to get large quick. But here we go...
1Dynasty also got a hold of the information we needed to get the border lines out of this thing - which translates to GTalk as well. I'm going to update this thread throughout the day and probably tomorrow as well, as I get screenshots and such to put up.
If you download one of mine, you can thank me if you'd like. If you download one of 1Dynasty's, head over here and spank his like button At this point, this is a collaborative effort
So I'll start with my first borderless version, this is based off of the version I put into HoloBlue, I made a few subtle changes and removed the borderlines.
If you'd like to have vertical lines seperating the messages, here you go - grab HoloMMs_v1.1.zip
Go HERE to grab all of 1Dynaty's Themed MMs apks

How to make a backup zip (return to stock)
You can make a backup a couple of ways, either make a flashable ZIP with your original APK in it, or use an application like Root Browser/Explorer to rename the original APK.
I wrote this with mms.apk as an example. However, you can use this method to make a backup of any system app...
To make a flashable backup...
1. Make of copy of the ZIP file you downloaded. Name it MMS_Orig.zip (or something similar)
2. Use Root Browser/Explorer and navigate to system/app and copy mms.apk to your SD Card. Copy mms.apk from your SD Card to your desktop.
3. Open the copied/renamed zip file. Open the system folder. Open the app folder. There, you'll find the APK.
4. Right click on the apk and pick Delete. Take your original APK and drag and drop it into the system/app folder from the zip file.
To make a back up file...
1. Use Root Browser/Explorer and navigate to system/app and select mms.apk and choose to rename it. Rename it to mms.apk.bak.
2. To return to stock, use Root Browser/Explorer and navigate to system/app and delete mms.apk and then select mms.apk.bak and choose to rename it. Rename it to mms.apk.
3. Reboot.
Backup Apps...
1. Find and use an app like Titanium Backup to back up your stuff....

Deodexed for ICS?
Edit: Also lol, "why the **** not"

i like how this looks on my phone , great job ... cant wait to see what other changes you make

sweeeeeet!
ns4g via xda app

polobunny said:
Deodexed for ICS?
Edit: Also lol, "why the **** not"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep. AOSP hooked us up with the autosplit for his oICS ROM. I should add that to the OP...

haha I was actually planning on doing something like this,very nice and thanks
Sent from the other side of town.

Nice. Thanks!
Edit.....up and running on beezy's AOSP 4.0.3 rom. Looks great. If its alright, I'll post a link over there.
Long days and pleasant nights............

Probably a dumb question, but will this work on CM9 alpha 18 nightly?
Thanks

Wow looks great! The send icon is a little dark tho. Also would be cool if you could make the bottom bar in messages dark like the top one. Thanks!
Edit: I also noticed the no contact picture icon in the phone app is darker. I think the white one in the mms app is a bit overpowering. Might it look better with the darker phone app icon?

Noob question(s):
So you are saying the mms.apk in oICS has auto-split built in? I am not interested in the themed colors, but I would like an auto-split stock MMS for the ROM that I am using. So can I just harvest the mms.apk from the oICS files, and then push it to my system folder and overwrite the one that is there? Is it 100% stock other than the auto-split feature? I didn't see autosplit mentioned in AOSP's OP, so I wasn't aware of it even when I was using that ROM for a few days.
Sidestory, I tried once to take stock MMS and add auto-split functionality myself by editing some values in an XML file... and it should have worked I thought, but for whatever reason it didn't. Probably something to do with me not knowing how to sign an apk. :-(

The111 said:
Noob question(s):
So you are saying the mms.apk in oICS has auto-split built in? I am not interested in the themed colors, but I would like an auto-split stock MMS for the ROM that I am using. So can I just harvest the mms.apk from the oICS files, and then push it to my system folder and overwrite the one that is there? Is it 100% stock other than the auto-split feature? I didn't see autosplit mentioned in AOSP's OP, so I wasn't aware of it even when I was using that ROM for a few days.
Sidestory, I tried once to take stock MMS and add auto-split functionality myself by editing some values in an XML file... and it should have worked I thought, but for whatever reason it didn't. Probably something to do with me not knowing how to sign an apk. :-(
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Search aosp's posts in his thread. He posted the mms.apk separate from the rom. It's not included in his last version yet. I'm using it on a Pete's rom and it works fine.

xuser said:
Search aosp's posts in his thread. He posted the mms.apk separate from the rom. It's not included in his last version yet. I'm using it on a Pete's rom and it works fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And yes, its 100% stock other than the auto split.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA App

Nice job
I think it'd be cool to have the text dividers ICS blue.. I like the dark theme tho

Thanks denverg! It looks phenomenal
BEST DAMN PHONE BECAUSE WE HAVE THE BEST DAMN DEVELOPERS!

Thanks! Looks nice. Running fine on Crossbones 0.0.2.
Don't know if its been addressed but you cant see the cursor when entering text.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk

I'm loving it. Been waiting for something like this since I can't stand a white background.. just needs an "ICS blue" cursor keep up the good work!
ns4g via xda app

HateMeILoveIt said:
Thanks! Looks nice. Running fine on Crossbones 0.0.2.
Don't know if its been addressed but you cant see the cursor when entering text.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I noticed that last night... looking into it today

bearsblack said:
I'm loving it. Been waiting for something like this since I can't stand a white background.. just needs an "ICS blue" cursor keep up the good work!
ns4g via xda app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I find it, that's what color it will be
*EDIT* I'm afraid it's part of the keyboard... I'm going to crack that open now.
*EDIT 2* In the phone app, when you search contacts, the cursor is white, so maybe it is part of mms.apk...

jblazea50 said:
Probably a dumb question, but will this work on CM9 alpha 18 nightly?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probably so.

Signing modded apk?

I decompiled my systemUI apk and made changes on it (Fergie's mods). Now I don't understand how to get it on my phone.
It's fully recompiled. But apparently I have to sign it. There's so many different things people do:
-zipalign
-optimizing apks
and more stuff I can't even remember. What do I have to do to get this mod onto my phone? If anyone can please tell me how to do this I will be very grateful.
Also, I used apktool, not apkmanager if that matters.
(As you can see, I'm fairly new at this. I just added the mods by following Fergie's guides, don't understand 95% of what I did).

onasri15 said:
I decompiled my systemUI apk and made changes on it (Fergie's mods). Now I don't understand how to get it on my phone.
It's fully recompiled. But apparently I have to sign it. There's so many different things people do:
-zipalign
-optimizing apks
and more stuff I can't even remember. What do I have to do to get this mod onto my phone? If anyone can please tell me how to do this I will be very grateful.
Also, I used apktool, not apkmanager if that matters.
(As you can see, I'm fairly new at this. I just added the mods by following Fergie's guides, don't understand 95% of what I did).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Signing is the one thing that prevents me from making things to share with all of you. So I just become greedy and use it all for myself hahaha
You should also say which OS you're running. I run Ubuntu, hence the reason I Google "Android xda Ubuntu Sign apk" or in my case: the latter but "rom" replaces apk. I couldnt explain how SEO works, because I can't sign using Ubuntu!!!!!!!!!! Ahhhhhhhrrrrrggggg!!!!¡!!
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA App. Developer of brickROM, and OP of XDA Thread of The Year 2011.

I'm using w7. This is unbelievably annoying right now. I can't figure it out.

onasri15 said:
I'm using w7. This is unbelievably annoying right now. I can't figure it out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know you need to use the sdk.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA App. Developer of brickROM, and OP of XDA Thread of The Year 2011.

onasri15 said:
I'm using w7. This is unbelievably annoying right now. I can't figure it out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi... I am a Windows 7 user as well. I use ApkTool, but mostly APK Manager.
When I need to sign an APK, this is how I do it.
I open the original APK with 7zip and copy out the resources.arsc file and META-INF folder.
I then take the APK that APK Manager spit out - unsignedwhatever.apk and I open that and replace the existing resources.arsc and META-INF folder with those from the original APK that I copied out.
I then rename unsignedwhatever.apk to whatever.apk, place it in a flashable zip and flash it. Works every time... unless I've screwed something else up
Good luck!