Database Develop

HTC Calculator Skin doesn't support horizontal screen mode?

Has anyone else noticed that installing the HTC Calculator Skin stops the calculator being used in horizontal mode?
When I load the calculator, then sliding the keyboard open (to switch to horizontal), I get the following error:
Code:
Error. Cannot load the skin file:
\Windows\SpbCalc_L.gif
Same error occurs if I switch to horizontal screen mode first, then try to open the calculator app.
I assume this is caused by having certain horizontal resources missing from the skin. It's interesting though that the file is name 'Spb...'. I've never installed any Spb apps Could just be a coincidence though...

Yep...same thing happens to me...
Nikos.

I might try adding some resources manually to the Windows directory (i.e. make up a dummy SpbCalc_L.gif) and see what these images actually are. They're probably just a copy of the existing resources but with a different aspect ratio.
If I can successfully mock up all the resources required, I'll attach them here.
EDIT
----
Should have tried the search a bit harder I think our problems are already solved in this post.

Still seem to have some problems here:
1. Can't install the cab file from the above post because the original cab can't be un-installed.
2. Can't use the .png files that people have been creating at the above thread because the app is looking for a .gif
3. Can't seem to get the calculator to work correctly if I convert the png to a gif myself. The screen looks fine, and everything works... except the 7, 8 and 9 buttons

japher said:
3. Can't seem to get the calculator to work correctly if I convert the png to a gif myself. The screen looks fine, and everything works... except the 7, 8 and 9 buttons
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think this is probably just a palette problem in my gif. I suspect the colours need to be exact for the button region map to work correctly.
I'll give this another try tonight with a correctly created GIF. Hopefully that'll fix this.

To anyone getting this problem, try dropping the attached file into your Windows directory.
EDIT
-----
Doh! Forum has scaled/converted this when I uploaded it. Ignore this image.

Ignore the above image, the forum seems to have converted the GIF to a different size/format. Try unzipping the attached instead.

This is a known issue. The touch is a Portrait device & originally the Calc skin didn't include the landscape file. Look for the new post with Touch calculator skin P+L.

Calculator Skin in Landscape (Horizontal) Mode
Hey, you may be having the problem you're having because the SpbCalc_L file, which the calculator uses to display in landscape (horizontal) mode, is in the wrong format. It may be that it's a .gif image. You need to convert the image to .png format. Then, once in that format, the calculator will recognize the file and you won't have the problem that you're having. I'm not sure what phone model you have, but I have the 8525 (HTC/AT&T) model. This is what I did, and it resolved the problem for me. There is a free program that you could download from www.cnet.com. It is called FastStone Image Viewer. This program will convert the file for you.
Perhaps you could help me out, too. In the process of installing a bunch of new skins for the calculator, I accidentally erased the original/standard files. I no longer have the original SpbCalc_L and SpbCalc_P files, which allow the calculator to be viewed in its orignal, factory-setting format. Do you mind e-mailing them to me? I'd appreciate it. I'd like to roll back to the original version.
Thanks, and I hope we could help each other out. Take care.
japher said:
Has anyone else noticed that installing the HTC Calculator Skin stops the calculator being used in horizontal mode?
When I load the calculator, then sliding the keyboard open (to switch to horizontal), I get the following error:
Code:
Error. Cannot load the skin file:
\Windows\SpbCalc_L.gif
Same error occurs if I switch to horizontal screen mode first, then try to open the calculator app.
I assume this is caused by having certain horizontal resources missing from the skin. It's interesting though that the file is name 'Spb...'. I've never installed any Spb apps Could just be a coincidence though...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Just a short feedback for others users of a Palm Treo 750. After installing the HTC calc. skin on this device, I got the error msg that file SpbCalc_S.gif is missing in the windows dir.
I downloaded the zipped SpbCalc_L.gif from this thread and renamed it from ...L into ...S. After that the application runs but the right column with the operators is missing. Can anybody be so kind to send me the original SpbCalc_S.gif - file?
Rgds
Henry

hghouse said:
Just a short feedback for others users of a Palm Treo 750. After installing the HTC calc. skin on this device, I got the error msg that file SpbCalc_S.gif is missing in the windows dir.
I downloaded the zipped SpbCalc_L.gif from this thread and renamed it from ...L into ...S. After that the application runs but the right column with the operators is missing. Can anybody be so kind to send me the original SpbCalc_S.gif - file?
Rgds
Henry
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here it is http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=3282780&postcount=44

It works!
Many thanks, dennisI !!
Rgds
Henry

[REF] Theme Developement Resources

I want to make a thread for both those that are already Dev'in themes, and those that want to start, can trade info and techniques. For example:
(Program)
Photoshop Editor:
Then a description of a given process...
Etc.
I know that there are How To's, http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=471586 but I'd like a more direct, and detail orientated place to discuss the specifics. I've tried a few attempts myself and found that some programs work, some don't. Plus, since the prices of some of these programs are as high as $600, and the fact that there are thousands of web-based programs, it'd would be nice to see what works best for who, and how.
Hopefully, this will turn into a good resource, and we'll soon have a forum full of the most excellent themes.
MODS: Let me know if I'm outta bounds and I'll fix. This is my first time makin a thread so it ain't all that.
To Do:
*search and post Theme Developement info for Windows, Linux, and Mac
These are links to useful threads related to different parts of theme developement...
Key Files Chart:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=r_ua-t_U23ci5_oxwQ4mGrg
Creating your boot animation:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=527200
Progress circle style/color editing:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=540830
Editing .XML's:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=479019
How to use baksmali/smali:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=537779
General Theme Developement:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=467639
Using DrawPatch-9:
http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/tools/draw9patch.html
Signing made easy:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=473580

photoshop is my primary weapon of choice but I've also found that for minor edits like color changes touchups transparency changes and resizes photoscape and fotoflexer work pretty well especially when I'm at work and decide to mess around because I can't install photoshop on my work computer due to administrator locks I just downloaded photoscape and installed to the documents folder and fotoflexer is an online image editor and both are free

Okay... here is something very usefull...
You know those pesky indexed files right? they corrupt if you open them in photoshop?... I figured out how to remove the indexing... first you need to download and install Paint.NET off of the web... and then install(of course)... and then open any indexed file in Paint.NET... then save it... and it will be un-indexed... ... this will be very usefull for lots of people... cuz it is for me!

I like paint.Net myself. Its free and if you load the plugins available you can get a lot done quickly and easily.
Best tip is to make sure you save stuff in layers so that if you only need to edit part of an image you can.
Another tip is after you finish your edits you can expand the canvas on all sides by 1 pixel then use solid black for doing the .9 marks. Once done you can dump your files right into the latest eclipse and draw9 isn't even needed which saves a lot of time.
Also 7-zip is just amazing. You can use the file manager to move files between zip files and apk and even jar files without unpacking or packing over and over.

I agree with beagz 7zip is a must it makes it a hell of a lot easier when porting your themes for new builds another life saver is the android sdk lot s of useful information in there and eclipse for compiling .9 images which there are samples of in the android sdk to show you how to do the guides properly like beagz was talkin about in his previous post because if you mess one of those your phone can end up totally screwed

This is easy
Apps
.zip/.apk management: 7-zip (the most important part of theme development)
image manipulation: GIMP
Software
sign/resign files: Java JDK
.9.png editing: Eclipse to compile the apk
Pre-reqs
ADB working properly through the command prompt

Applications that make theming possible for Jonnybueno
I use Photoshop for images. Hue and Saturation(ctrl+u) is my best friend for changing the color of stuffs. For hex editing, I use HXD, outlined in this thread by Stericson: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=479019.
For signing, I use Stericson's Autosign.bat. If you don't know, you can double click on this to pull up the command prompt rather than launching the command line and then typing "autosign". Also, you can copy the file path by right clicking while holding the shift button on Vista.
And finally, for notification text, I use Ohsaka's colorChange.jar. Along with this really simple batch file.
White text:http://sharebee.com/b6b43290
Which is just one line(that I'm too lazy to type everytime I update)
Code:
java -jar colorChange.jar theme.zip ticker=FFFFFFFF clock=FFFFFFFF date=FFFFFFFF ongoing=FFFFFFFF latest=FFFFFFFF clear=FF000000 network=FFFFFFFF roam=FFFFFFFF
Resources
For viewing source to reference those xml files, I use these sites
Cyanogen source:http://github.com/cyanogen
Android reference (stock): http://developer.android.com/reference/android/R.attr.html
And then this website for finding just the right RGB codes: http://www.colorschemer.com/online.html
Tips
I've learned that it is totally possible to rotate .9.png files using windows without having to redraw them and that images don't have to be the original size. There is a limit to how big you can go... but i have no idea what that limit is.
Oh and for different colored(other than black) notification text for downloads, edit the only xml file in DownloadProvider.apk/res/layout. For example, 0800001C 000000FF becomes 0800001C FFFFFFFF. In case you're confused, whats happening is that you're changing an ARGB code (which is backwards, so you're looking at BGRA... see stericson's thread please) from black (000000FF) to white (FFFFFFFF).

Working from Linux (Ubuntu) I've found File Roller to work as nice and easy as 7zip in Windows for working with zip/jar/apk.
GIMP is my gfx editor of choice in both worlds. Glad I discovered you don't need draw9patch to put the .9 guides in - draw9patch is a pain to use!
In Windows I use XVI32 a hex editor, ghex in Linux.
testsign.jar is all you need to sign - very simple from command line in both Linux and Windows
/Mats

I use Adobe fireworks for image editing a little easier then photoshop and has styles for lazy ppl like me and winrar full version for managing the apk's and zips and png crush setup to right click and crush pngs for compression if your update is too big.

I know this thread has been dead for a while but I see new phones linking to it as a resource for themeing, so I wanted to let you know that I have compiled a huge amount of information into one guide, see http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=667951 for detalis

As a side note: you might want to note the fact that my tutorial for changing/creating boot animations is for pre-2.1 builds (unless someone really decides they want a pre-2.1 boot animation on their phone, of course). I havent got around to updating the boot animation tutorial for 2.1+, cause thats going to be a looooong post.

[Q] 8 bit? Themers Please help

Hi all, i am trying to work on a theme for the Droid X. Can anyone tell me why some of the images open in photoshop incorrectly and more to the point how to fix them?
I cant post a link apparently to the image or a http link since i'm new but
You can view the image here. http:/ / dl.dropbox.com/u/6769503/8bit.jpg
Is there a setting or something I can change in PS to open these correctly?
Thanks for your time.
KraYzeE

krayzee said:
Hi all, i am trying to work on a theme for the Droid X. Can anyone tell me why some of the images open in photoshop incorrectly and more to the point how to fix them?
I cant post a link apparently to the image or a http link since i'm new but
You can view the image here. http:/ / dl.dropbox.com/u/6769503/8bit.jpg
Is there a setting or something I can change in PS to open these correctly?
Thanks for your time.
KraYzeE
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What is the original file extension? .png?
I had this same problem with some .png files wich had transparency in windows image viewer, but not in photoshop.
My solution was to open it in Paint.net and save it, rewriting the original image. Please be sure to set the transparency correct whilst saving in paint.net.
Download Paint.net

Thanks for the reply, yes it was a PNG, ill try paint.net but i would really like to use Photoshop. I cant understand how it can mess up the transparency and anti alias like that.

Update: Paint.net does indeed open the file correctly... so while i do now have a solution. I would still like to find out why Photoshop (both CS4 & CS5) open it incorrectly ?

Well technically 8 bit pngs are indexed images with a varying amount of colored pixels and then varying amount of transparent and semi transparent pixels so some programs might not like this. I would recommend gimp over ps as its similar but doesn't have this issue.
Sent from my HERO200 using XDA App

that image actually seems correct, can you post an image of the alpha channel? then we will know if photoshop is not reading the file correctly

As one poster said, it's because the images is indexed. If you do Image > Mode > RGB, it will un-index it. I must warn you though, PS is HORRIBLE with indexed images. Use GIMP/Paint.NET to un-index it to save yourself a headache

JAguirre1231 said:
As one poster said, it's because the images is indexed. If you do Image > Mode > RGB, it will un-index it. I must warn you though, PS is HORRIBLE with indexed images. Use GIMP/Paint.NET to un-index it to save yourself a headache
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ahh but then you lose the 8 bit optimization, even running optpng will not put it back to index png cause it will ossy optimize it. So just use gimp.

Thanks for the replys guys.
Here is an example image.
http:/ / dl.dropbox.com/u/6769503/btn_circle_pressed.png
If you open it in PS, you will see what i mean, changing it to RGB does not change the image. I can open it correctly it Fireworks, then save it without making any changes, and then i am able to open it in Photoshop correctly.
This will do for now in case anyone else runs into this issue. The file size isn't too much bigger this way, so it will work for now.
Thanks again to all that helped.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1631008/btn_circle_pressed_fixed.png
Here's the image fixed, it was indexed... all I did was open it up with osx Preview and save it again. Or you can try this gimp they all talk about but I think it's overkill to switch to another program just because 1 or 2 images are weird, especially after you paid for your copy of Photoshop.

DBBGBA said:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1631008/btn_circle_pressed_fixed.png
Here's the image fixed, it was indexed... all I did was open it up with osx Preview and save it again. Or you can try this gimp they all talk about but I think it's overkill to switch to another program just because 1 or 2 images are weird, especially after you paid for your copy of Photoshop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your help. I don't have OSX and i absolutely cannot get used to Gimp. but opening it in adobe fireworks and saving it again right away does the trick, so although it's a pain, its simple to do.
If anyone ever figures out a way to directly open these types of files in Photoshop i'd be glad to know.
Cheers
KraYzeE

krayzee said:
Thanks for your help. I don't have OSX and i absolutely cannot get used to Gimp. but opening it in adobe fireworks and saving it again right away does the trick, so although it's a pain, its simple to do.
If anyone ever figures out a way to directly open these types of files in Photoshop i'd be glad to know.
Cheers
KraYzeE
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes that works but your removing the indexing. Android uses indexed pngs wherever possible because this saves space and resources, if you changed every file in the android system to rgba your phone would be noticeably slower.
If you change it to rgba and then run optipng on it you'll see it will not index cause it can only lossy optimize, but if you set the mode to index and then optimize it you'll notice then file will be considerably smaller with little or no image quality loss. So in short your removing a vary important optimization feature of the android system.
If your looking for a quick image conversion tool try image magick, this will allow you to write scripts to convert them png24/32 to png8 and back whole folders at a time.

well as we do with video it's always better to work with uncompressed, high res images. Then when everything is done and set in stone we compress and optimize without loosing too much image quality.
If i had to start a theming project I'll probably do the same, convert everything to high res, work on it then compress to a more optimized format.

DBBGBA said:
well as we do with video it's always better to work with uncompressed, high res images. Then when everything is done and set in stone we compress and optimize without loosing too much image quality.
If i had to start a theming project I'll probably do the same, convert everything to high res, work on it then compress to a more optimized format.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah for video thats fine, but in theming and specifically for this file gimp will allow you to work on the indexed file and you literally can not tell the difference with the indexed file being atleast 50% smaller. Maybe this would make sense with an image that has alot of quality or is high res but in this instance it a loss of time and added steps when the same could be accomplished with industry standard tools.

[bootanimation] ABOOTA : make your own the easy way

Dear all my fellow android lovers.
I would like to present to you the alpha2 version of bootanimation maker:
http://aboota.devbro.com/
You can use any animated gif of your choice to create your very own bootanimation.zip to install on your very own custom boot animation.
you can look up fun gifs on sites such as 4gifs.com or senorgif.memebase.com
Current features:
1. upload any gif
2. rotate or flip the picture
3. stop on last frame
4. control animation speed
5. resize
future features:
1. browse section for all created bootanimations
2. add for custom initial animation
3. pre-made initial animations
4. see preview before downloading
5. a native android app to go with the site
6. add audio for boot
License:
It is free to use for everyone as long as my server doesnt crash
please do not use gif files that you do not own the license to.
notes:
1. I do not take any responsibility for any damage that using this site, or files generated on my site, may cause to you, your phone, your family, your cat(s), .... in short use it at your own risk
2. At this point I only support atrix phones, that is why I am posting here.
3. I use bootanimation utility for now to change the created aboota.
If you have any suggestions or found any bugs let me know please.
Some notes for some people that are interested to make their own aboota:
1.adobe flash can export gif instead of swf.
2.there are apps that convert avi to gif, just google
3.it is also possible to convert flv(youtube) to gif files

Hi, I noticed on your link that the "Terms of Service" do nothing. Is there a link this is supposed to got to? When clicking on it nothing happens.
Also, I think this is a good idea for boot animations, but looking through your previous posts, you seem to be requesting help a lot, (not that that is bad, but none of it is relative to this). How did you come up with this site, and where are the uploaded files going to?

CaelanT said:
Hi, I noticed on your link that the "Terms of Service" do nothing. Is there a link this is supposed to got to? When clicking on it nothing happens.
Also, I think this is a good idea for boot animations, but looking through your previous posts, you seem to be requesting help a lot, (not that that is bad, but none of it is relative to this). How did you come up with this site, and where are the uploaded files going to?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for reminding me about that link. I removed it
My background is mostly web development and system managements in php and linux(most redhat and suse). So making this site was not that hard. I had the idea for a while, I only decided to get it done about two weeks ago. I found a few documents describing the bootanimation.zip structure and found a very nicely detailed document inside the atrix bootanimation which gave me a lot of details I wanted. The rest was simply playing around in php and linux to create a simple version of aboota.
For now I am keeping the files on my server so in near future when search and browse are complete we can share our creations with others, and hopefully on other phones too.

Cool. Thanks. I'll try your site when I have time at my pc.
Beamed from WinBorg 4G via XDA Premium

[Q] 4g icon in themes

I ran into a major issue last night.
This was REALLY pissing me off, you know one of those things that SHOULD be working but isn't. Whenever I view the decompiled apk (framework-res, and systemUI)
The files are decompiled everything looks correct, but when I open the image files in cs5 they look all blurry as hell. I have attached some screenshots. Make any sense to anyone?
Just curious why the images would show up that way once they were pulled into PS. Its not just that image, its all the images. Does anyone know how I can resolve this or even prevent it from happening?
Can I not use Photoshop CS5? Dreamweaver CS5 seems to handle the XML files like a pro.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Try without decompiling - its not needed just for replacing icons - use any zip program to open apks

cdesai said:
Try without decompiling - its not needed just for replacing icons - use any zip program to open apks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried that too. The first pic is the picture preview in the folder. It only happens when its open in PS. Very strange. I can open it in paint, and the the icon is normal (just loses the transparency, of course).

Open the img with paint.NET first, then save, then you can open it in photoshop.
I think this is an issue with the img being indexed in photoshop, something like that.

It's an indexing issue, ps dies not do it right. Open the images in either paint.net or the gimp. Switch the mode to rgb, save then you can open them fine in ps

What a pain in the ass. Opening them all in paint.net now, this might take me awhile. lol