Database Develop

Theme Porting Guide

Well Im not great at directions so this is the best i can do.
Summary
There are 2 ways that I know to port a theme to your device.
1. Using the metamorph app if its a metamorph theme.
2. Using 7zip ect.. if its a flashable theme. (most common)
Metamorph Instructions
1. First things first is to download the theme that you want to port.
2. Your theme will be a zip file containing only image files from apk's
3. Put the zip file on your sd card
4. Make sure your device is set to 320x480 resolution or metamorph app will not work.
5. Open metamorph app and start a new project.
6. Locate your zip file and let all the apks load up.
7. Install each apk one at a time. Do not install any jar files as they will cause your phone not to boot.
8. Reboot and your Theme should be working on your phone.
Flashable Theme Porting Instructions
Its not that difficult, once you get the hang of how 7zip works it will be your best freind. Its just a process of dragging and dropping images from one apk to another all within 7zip.
What the metamorph app does is takes themed images and places them into the correct apks res\drawable folders in your system.
Knowing what metamorph does as an app, you can do this manually using 7zip.
1. Download the theme that you want to port. It will be a system folder with an app,framework, and font folder inside of it.
2. Open up that system folder with 7zip
3. Make a copy of the system folder of your current rom and open up that system with 7zip as well. You should now have 2 different 7zips open. Make sure to keep track of witch is witch.
4. Open up the app folder of the themed system and open up the first apk thats in there.
5. Go into the res\drawable folder in the apk in both your system and the themed system.
6. highlight and drag and drop only the images from that folder to the same folder in the other base apk. Make sure to NOT highlight any xmls.
7. Do the same for any images in any other drawable folders the are mdpi.
8. If there are only hdpi folders and no mdpi folders than you will have to convert those images to mdpi size before using them. If there are both, than only use the mdpi images.
9. When finished overwriting those images in that first apk, go back to the other apks in the app folder and do the same thing. You can do all of this from with in 7zip. No need to exit 7zip in this entire process.
10. Open up the themed framework folder and you will see a framework-res.apk file. Open up that file, you will see the same res\drawable folders.
11. Also open up the framework-res.apk from the base theme in the other 7zip as well. And overwrite the images just like the other apks making sure not to overwrite any xmls.
12. Back out of that back into the framework folder itself, if there is a services.jar in the theme than you will want to use overwrite that file as well.
13. Back out of the framework folder, If there is a fonts folder in the theme, You will want to overwrite those files as well.
14. Now you are done modifying your base theme with all the images from the theme.
15. You can now close the themed 7zip that you downloaded and leave open the 7zip containing you newly modified apks. Create a folder on your desktop called "system". Inside that, create a folder called "app", "framework", and "fonts"
16. Move only the modified apks that you replaced images in into the correct folders in your new system folder.
17. Make an androidupdate.tar with 7zip out of your new system folder and you are ready to flash it using nomorootfs method.
Tips:
Using the shift button to highlight mutiple images saves time.
Using the ctrl button to highlight images with xmls between them aaves time.
Switching views to have all images at the top and xmls at the bottom saves time.
If i forgot steps, I appologize.

Excellent guide.
The only thing I would mention is that most of the time services.jar is specific to a particular rom and as such may not work correctly with the target rom. As services.jar really only contains themed elements for the titlebar, you are better off using colorChanger's, apkTool or a hex editior to manually change the titlebar colors.
Also, in some cases (Like ProLauncher) the apk's must be signed. I prefer to use the test keys and this handy context menu here.

simple direct and effective. thanks again for all you do sir.

myn said:
Excellent guide.
The only thing I would mention is that most of the time services.jar is specific to a particular rom and as such may not work correctly with the target rom. As services.jar really only contains themed elements for the titlebar, you are better off using colorChanger's, apkTool or a hex editior to manually change the titlebar colors.
Also, in some cases (Like ProLauncher) the apk's must be signed. I prefer to use the test keys and this handy context menu here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the info man.
BTW, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MYN

Dzo Odex sample with standard theme
Thanks for this info. This will help a million. Could you also put light on how to odex it?
Eg: Dzo's odexed sample of donut has plastic theme, can it be changed to a standard android theme using the steps above and then odex it to create a androidinstall.tar?

Nice guide.
Thanks for making this.
Ill probably start trying to theme when i finish school in 2 weeks or so.

how to convert hdpi to mdpi

[Q] creating task bar

how would i edit the task bar in asopmod rom i searched through google i found nothing can someone plz help

First you need to read up on theming but in short all those png's reside in the system/framework/framework-res.apk. In that apk if you goto res/drawable-hdpi folder you'll see all of the png's that make up the task bar.
You'll need apkManager and a paint program.

Simmons - I was trying to do something similar but was having no luck -
I wanted to pull the 4G icons out of an Evo rom and put them in place of the 3G icons on CM6 - i thought it would be a riot -
I extracted the 4G's and renamed them to their 3G counterparts names and have them saved on my desktop - but I dont know the right way to extract framework-res.apk, then put in my new icons, then, and probably most importantly, zip it back up so it will flash right !
any thoughts?

Simple how to theme.
Vandelay007 said:
Simmons - I was trying to do something similar but was having no luck -
I wanted to pull the 4G icons out of an Evo rom and put them in place of the 3G icons on CM6 - i thought it would be a riot -
I extracted the 4G's and renamed them to their 3G counterparts names and have them saved on my desktop - but I dont know the right way to extract framework-res.apk, then put in my new icons, then, and probably most importantly, zip it back up so it will flash right !
any thoughts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
heres the How to
An apk is really just a zip file... apk stands for android package (if i remember correctly). So treat it like a standard zip file.
You'll need apk manager this will allow you to sign zips which makes them flashable. get that here
Now get your favorite Rom and make a folder. In that folder make 2 folders one called packed the other called packed. Take your rom and unzip it in the unpacked folder. and then take the original zip and move it to the packed folder.
Next go into the unpacked folder and nav to system/framework.framework-res.apk take this apk and unzip it in this folder and then make a copy of the apk and move the copy to the packed folder.
Now when you want to make a change to the framework-res.apk use the unpacked as a reference. us the packed as the change dir, you do this by opening but not unzipping the apk you want to change and just dragging the files you are replacing into the apk, this will replace them. You might want to make a a 3rd folder sorta of a master copy if you ever mess up the packed roms.
Now that you have an altered framework-res.apk you can just push it to system/framework folder (i think) and reboot and your changes are in. I never do this since flashable is easier to manage I make a flashable.
A flashable is like a but allot smaller, so d/l one of my themes and take the zip file and place in in a folder next to the packed and unpacked folder call it something like staging. now unzip apk manager into the top dir next to 3 other folders you just made.
Now my theme zip can be renamed to whatever you want your going to use it as a place holder for signing flashable zips. go into the theme zip and delete ever thing in the system folder except the framework folder then go into the frame work folder and delete everything.
Your flashable zip folder should only have a a meta-inf folder and a system folder, the system folder should only have a framework folder. Now drag your altered framework-res.apk into the flashable zip folder you just cleaned out.
Ok now you have to sign it copy that flashable zip to the place-apk-here-for-signing folder, this should have shown up when you unzipped apk manager into the folder the also contains unpacked and packed folders.
Now click on the script.bat and you'll see a bunch of option you can do option 16 to sign your zip. it takes a second or two and the date should get updated on the flashable.zip file in the place-apk-here-for-signing folder.
Now you have your new them ready to install. if your changing something else find the apk and replace framework-res.apk in these instruction and it works the same. note that most app reside in system/app so you next to take that into account.
Edit: Maybe I should have made a new thread.

creating task bar
thanks simmons i will let u know how bad i mess up but yes thanks alot man

Miui v4 Icon Format

Hi, I am trying to make changes to an icon theme but keep getting "Wrong theme format" error in the Miui v4 theme manager.
I used the same process I did back on GB that worked... renamed the .mtz to .zip, extracted it, renamed icons to icons.zip, extracted it. Then I edited .png's in the icons folder, zipped all the .png's into a file called icons.zip and removed the .zip by renaming icons.zip to just icons. Then I zipped the files: description.xml, icons, and preview folder. I renamed this .zip to a .mtz, pushed it to my phone and tried to apply the theme but got the error. I've searched but haven't found any solutions.
Has the icon theme format changed for v4? Thanks for any help.

Just take a MIUI icons set (like Cain HD for ex)
- open the .mtz using 7zip (no need to rename or change extension)
- double click on "icon", drag and drop ur icons.
- then close everything, it will ask u if u want to update/refresh the file. say YES and that's it

Raulinho7 said:
Just take a MIUI icons set (like Cain HD for ex)
- open the .mtz using 7zip (no need to rename or change extension)
- double click on "icon", drag and drop ur icons.
- then close everything, it will ask u if u want to update/refresh the file. say YES and that's it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would've tried this method but unfortunately I have a Mac and haven't been able to find a good 7zip equivalent :/ Any idea why it worked when I decompressed/compressed mtz's on GB but not ICS? The format all seems the same.

iamchrisc said:
I would've tried this method but unfortunately I have a Mac and haven't been able to find a good 7zip equivalent :/ Any idea why it worked when I decompressed/compressed mtz's on GB but not ICS? The format all seems the same.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My guess is that somehow you didn't package it correctly. Double check to see if that's the issue.

i did it this way
if i have an iconpack in wrong size, i first resize the icons
then i mark all icons and add them to an archive with 7zip
now i take the icons.zip and the description.xml add it to a new zip
inside the zipfile, i rename the icons.zip into icons and you are ready^^

Have you tried using the 'store' option - I.e. no compression?
Changing the extension while inside the theme zip will also help to avoid certain issues.

Well I was able to get it working by using StuffIt Archive Manager to replace icons without uncompressing/compressing the mtz. Still strange it doesn't work when I uncompress it. I'm positive I package it back in the same way, I've triple checked. Guess I'll just have to use the StuffIt Delux trial for now.

converting icons to miui

is it possible to change/mod icon sets to work with miui? how do i get icon packs in the psd, png, jpg format into an mtz to work with miui, i was specifically looking at the pace icon set and dope icons by filipovsky.

it's easy, download a miui icons themes or a miui theme .mtz, change .mtz in .zip. Open it with winzip or 7zip. Inside u may have a icons file, unzip it and add .zip in the end. Then open it with winzip or 7zip.
now u have the icons of the theme.
If U want to replace some or all , be care to keep the name of the icon u replace, because it's the name of the Application in miui.

thank you for your reply i will give that a try.

buzzandwire said:
thank you for your reply i will give that a try.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hmm everytime i try it says successfully applied but always just replaces the icons with the stock MIUI set, i opened up the icon.zip inside the .mtz file deleted all the old.pngs and put the new ones i want in converted in and thats it right?

buzzandwire said:
hmm everytime i try it says successfully applied but always just replaces the icons with the stock MIUI set, i opened up the icon.zip inside the .mtz file deleted all the old.pngs and put the new ones i want in converted in and thats it right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have to zip it properly. open the icon folder and select all icons, then right click and go to 7zip add to archive. take resulting zip and rename to icon and put it in the theme folder . select all files in the theme and right click and 7zip add to archive again. rename to .mtz and apply

buzzandwire said:
hmm everytime i try it says successfully applied but always just replaces the icons with the stock MIUI set, i opened up the icon.zip inside the .mtz file deleted all the old.pngs and put the new ones i want in converted in and thats it right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need rename each image to right package name, or it will not work with miui, when you done , put all theme in one folder, zip all files ( not folder ), and change archive name to "icons" with out extension , then add "description.xml" and maybe some preview image, and zip both these thing to one zip file and rename to "YOUR_NAME.mtz" and it should work .
Sorry my bad english :fingers-crossed:

tung91 said:
You need rename each image to right package name, or it will not work with miui, when you done , put all theme in one folder, zip all files ( not folder ), and change archive name to "icons" with out extension , then add "description.xml" and maybe some preview image, and zip both these thing to one zip file and rename to "YOUR_NAME.mtz" and it should work .
Sorry my bad english :fingers-crossed:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
"You need rename each image to right package name, or it will not work with miui," i think this is where im going wrong but i dont quite understand what im supposed to be renaming them to? i've been trying to convert these....
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=27402389&postcount=16
so some of the names are cup.png , microphone.png, what would i rename those too before i zip them all up?
thanks.

Well the easiest way would be to take an existing icon folder from a theme with many icons and copy the icon names to the corresponding icons in your folder.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
I went ahead and converted those for some practice. I removed the ones I didn't know what to do with, like the cup and star, for example. all are working except the $ which I wanted to be Wallet, but I haven't figured out the name yet.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/22845252/Circimal icons.mtz

hoppermi said:
Well the easiest way would be to take an existing icon folder from a theme with many icons and copy the icon names to the corresponding icons in your folder.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
I went ahead and converted those for some practice. I removed the ones I didn't know what to do with, like the cup and star, for example. all are working except the $ which I wanted to be Wallet, but I haven't figured out the name yet.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/22845252/Circimal icons.mtz
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sweet, thanks for doing that, great to see an example, gonna check em out, thank you!

How to remove background color from apps

Hey guys,
you might have discovered that on your Mate 7 all app icons (that shouldn't have a background) have a background set by your phone.
However, this does not always look good (in my opinion at least) - so I tried to fix it.
There is basically a simple solution to it which I want to share with you here.
Requirements
7zip or any other similar tool on your computer
A file manager app on your phone that supports accessing the whole file system (for example "FX File Explorer")
My solution will probably work with other apps and programs too but I will only describe it for these exact ones.
Part 1: Copying the theme to an accessible location
Copying a preinstalled theme
Open FX File Explorer on your phone. Locate the System category and open it.
Navigate to /system/themes and copy the file you wish to modify. (long press -> copy). The default theme is "Golden.hwt"
Now go back to the main window in FX.
Go to Main Storage and paste the file there. (click on "CLIPBOARD" in the top right corner and click paste in the sidebar that just opened)
Copying a user-installed theme
For user-installed themes this process is optional and mostly unnecessary. However, I will explain it anyway:
Open FX File Explorer on your phone. Locate the Main Storage category and open it
Navigate to HWThemes and copy the file you wish to modify. This time you might have to copy all the .hwt files because they aren't named the same as the theme.
Step 3 and 4 are the same as for preinstalled themes.
Part 2: Modifying the theme
Connect your phone to your computer. Open it with explorer or the file manager you have installed if you are not using Windows.
In the folder Internal Storage you should now find the themes you copied in part 1. Move them to your computer.
For user-installed themes you have to locate the correct theme first. To do that, you have to open each file with 7zip and look for the name in the file description.xml inside the zip (The name is always the entry "title")
Once you have found the correct theme, open it with 7zip. then doubleclick on icons inside the zip.
Download the universal transparent icon pack from the attachment. Open it in a seperate window of 7zip.
Copy all the files in the downloaded zip to the image folder in the theme.
Now navigate up one directory inside the theme zip. Open the file description.xml again and change the name inside the title tag. (Example: <title>XYZ</title> -> <title>XYZ_modified</title>
Close 7zip and copy the file back to your device. YOU HAVE TO PLACE IT IN THE "HWThemes" FOLDER!
Now you can enable the theme just like you activate any other theme (in the Designs app)
Congratulations, you have removed the icon backgrounds from your theme.
Sorry if my english is not that good... It's not my native language

I tried this on Ascend G6 (EMUI3.0).
Srangly enough, it works for some icons, but some icons (not the stock ones!) still have a coloured added background.

MrStickmanPro1 said:
Hey guys,
you might have discovered that on your Mate 7 all app icons (that shouldn't have a background) have a background set by your phone.
However, this does not always look good (in my opinion at least) - so I tried to fix it.
There is basically a simple solution to it which I want to share with you here.
Requirements
7zip or any other similar tool on your computer
A file manager app on your phone that supports accessing the whole file system (for example "FX File Explorer")
My solution will probably work with other apps and programs too but I will only describe it for these exact ones.
Part 1: Copying the theme to an accessible location
Copying a preinstalled theme
Open FX File Explorer on your phone. Locate the System category and open it.
Navigate to /system/themes and copy the file you wish to modify. (long press -> copy). The default theme is "Golden.hwt"
Now go back to the main window in FX.
Go to Main Storage and paste the file there. (click on "CLIPBOARD" in the top right corner and click paste in the sidebar that just opened)
Copying a user-installed theme
For user-installed themes this process is optional and mostly unnecessary. However, I will explain it anyway:
Open FX File Explorer on your phone. Locate the Main Storage category and open it
Navigate to HWThemes and copy the file you wish to modify. This time you might have to copy all the .hwt files because they aren't named the same as the theme.
Step 3 and 4 are the same as for preinstalled themes.
Part 2: Modifying the theme
Connect your phone to your computer. Open it with explorer or the file manager you have installed if you are not using Windows.
In the folder Internal Storage you should now find the themes you copied in part 1. Move them to your computer.
For user-installed themes you have to locate the correct theme first. To do that, you have to open each file with 7zip and look for the name in the file description.xml inside the zip (The name is always the entry "title")
Once you have found the correct theme, open it with 7zip. then doubleclick on icons inside the zip.
Download the universal transparent icon pack from the attachment. Open it in a seperate window of 7zip.
Copy all the files in the downloaded zip to the image folder in the theme.
Now navigate up one directory inside the theme zip. Open the file description.xml again and change the name inside the title tag. (Example: <title>XYZ</title> -> <title>XYZ_modified</title>
Close 7zip and copy the file back to your device. YOU HAVE TO PLACE IT IN THE "HWThemes" FOLDER!
Now you can enable the theme just like you activate any other theme (in the Designs app)
Congratulations, you have removed the icon backgrounds from your theme.
Sorry if my english is not that good... It's not my native language
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But do I have to downl. your file to get bckgrnd removed ?
Can u show us one screenshot of icons ? how it looks like ?
Thnx

helped!!! BROTHER THIS REALLY HELPED A LOT.. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.........
mrstickmanpro1 said:
hey guys,
you might have discovered that on your mate 7 all app icons (that shouldn't have a background) have a background set by your phone.
However, this does not always look good (in my opinion at least) - so i tried to fix it.
There is basically a simple solution to it which i want to share with you here.
requirements
7zip or any other similar tool on your computer
a file manager app on your phone that supports accessing the whole file system (for example "fx file explorer")
my solution will probably work with other apps and programs too but i will only describe it for these exact ones.
part 1: Copying the theme to an accessible location
copying a preinstalled theme
open fx file explorer on your phone. Locate the system category and open it.
navigate to /system/themes and copy the file you wish to modify. (long press -> copy). The default theme is "golden.hwt"
now go back to the main window in fx.
go to main storage and paste the file there. (click on "clipboard" in the top right corner and click paste in the sidebar that just opened)
copying a user-installed theme
for user-installed themes this process is optional and mostly unnecessary. However, i will explain it anyway:
open fx file explorer on your phone. Locate the main storage category and open it
navigate to hwthemes and copy the file you wish to modify. This time you might have to copy all the .hwt files because they aren't named the same as the theme.
step 3 and 4 are the same as for preinstalled themes.
part 2: Modifying the theme
connect your phone to your computer. Open it with explorer or the file manager you have installed if you are not using windows.
in the folder internal storage you should now find the themes you copied in part 1. Move them to your computer.
for user-installed themes you have to locate the correct theme first. To do that, you have to open each file with 7zip and look for the name in the file description.xml inside the zip (the name is always the entry "title")
once you have found the correct theme, open it with 7zip. Then doubleclick on icons inside the zip.
download the universal transparent icon pack from the attachment. Open it in a seperate window of 7zip.
copy all the files in the downloaded zip to the image folder in the theme.
now navigate up one directory inside the theme zip. Open the file description.xml again and change the name inside the title tag. (example: <title>xyz</title> -> <title>xyz_modified</title>
close 7zip and copy the file back to your device. you have to place it in the "hwthemes" folder!
now you can enable the theme just like you activate any other theme (in the designs app)
congratulations, you have removed the icon backgrounds from your theme.
sorry if my english is not that good... It's not my native language
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thİs really helped bro.. And it works too. Thanks again.. I have beeen looking for this for ages... But i found itnow..

Hi,
This is something I was eagerly looking forward on my new Y6 (EMUI 3.1).
I have followed all your steps unto 6.
Bit confused with "Copy all the files in the downloaded zip to the image folder in the theme.".
Can you please clarify the above for me?
Thanks in advance :good:
MrStickmanPro1 said:
Hey guys,
you might have discovered that on your Mate 7 all app icons (that shouldn't have a background) have a background set by your phone.
However, this does not always look good (in my opinion at least) - so I tried to fix it.
There is basically a simple solution to it which I want to share with you here.
Requirements
7zip or any other similar tool on your computer
A file manager app on your phone that supports accessing the whole file system (for example "FX File Explorer")
My solution will probably work with other apps and programs too but I will only describe it for these exact ones.
Part 1: Copying the theme to an accessible location
Copying a preinstalled theme
Open FX File Explorer on your phone. Locate the System category and open it.
Navigate to /system/themes and copy the file you wish to modify. (long press -> copy). The default theme is "Golden.hwt"
Now go back to the main window in FX.
Go to Main Storage and paste the file there. (click on "CLIPBOARD" in the top right corner and click paste in the sidebar that just opened)
Copying a user-installed theme
For user-installed themes this process is optional and mostly unnecessary. However, I will explain it anyway:
Open FX File Explorer on your phone. Locate the Main Storage category and open it
Navigate to HWThemes and copy the file you wish to modify. This time you might have to copy all the .hwt files because they aren't named the same as the theme.
Step 3 and 4 are the same as for preinstalled themes.
Part 2: Modifying the theme
Connect your phone to your computer. Open it with explorer or the file manager you have installed if you are not using Windows.
In the folder Internal Storage you should now find the themes you copied in part 1. Move them to your computer.
For user-installed themes you have to locate the correct theme first. To do that, you have to open each file with 7zip and look for the name in the file description.xml inside the zip (The name is always the entry "title")
Once you have found the correct theme, open it with 7zip. then doubleclick on icons inside the zip.
Download the universal transparent icon pack from the attachment. Open it in a seperate window of 7zip.
Copy all the files in the downloaded zip to the image folder in the theme.
Now navigate up one directory inside the theme zip. Open the file description.xml again and change the name inside the title tag. (Example: <title>XYZ</title> -> <title>XYZ_modified</title>
Close 7zip and copy the file back to your device. YOU HAVE TO PLACE IT IN THE "HWThemes" FOLDER!
Now you can enable the theme just like you activate any other theme (in the Designs app)
Congratulations, you have removed the icon backgrounds from your theme.
Sorry if my english is not that good... It's not my native language
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Hi ArnoJeroen,
Huawei Y6 / EMUI 3.1
I am facing the same problem It works for some icons but not for all ... did you find out any solutions to resolve this? any feedback will be much appreciated.
ArnoJeroen said:
I tried this on Ascend G6 (EMUI3.0).
Srangly enough, it works for some icons, but some icons (not the stock ones!) still have a coloured added background.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse