Develop Bugs

ThemeGenCE question

Wasn't quite sure of the correct forum to put this one, so I hope this is all right.
I'm taking a stab at creating my own theme and using ThemeGenCE to do it. It's pretty slick and I've been able to figure out most of it, but there are a couple of things that have me stumped...
How do you change the text color in Start Menu items?
How do you change the softkey button and text color?
How do you change the task panel text color?
As for the start menu thing, it's particularly frustrating because I can make the change in the program, but it never seems to "take" on my phone, except for the word "Start" in the titlebar. The menu items themselves stay the same color. The file is getting saved correctly, judging my the timestamp, but the start menu color settings don't seem to have taken.
Peculiarly, though, the highlighted start menu items have taken (but now refuse to change to anything else!) I'm sure it's just a step that I'm missing somewhere.
Thanks!
AJ

Here's an example of what I'm talking about with the inconsistency. ThemeGenCE shows the start menu font in a gold color, but the actual result on the windows mobile device has a black font...which doesn't work well with my theme
Any help is appreciated.
{
"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"
}
AJ

Update...
I've tried a few things now and I have some curious results to report.
One, I've discovered that the colors in the start menu appear to remain as whatever they were the last time the start menu theme was successfully changed. That is, if I install the Windows Default green theme, then install my theme, a highlighted menu item is still black text on a green background, even though ThemeGen clearly shows it should be gold text on a grey background.
I also have tried a demo version of Thememaker M. I imported the theme generated by ThemeGen and found that the menu text and the softkeys were colored just as I had expected them to be, but re-generating the theme and copying it to my device resulted in the same them...the colors didn't take for these elements, nor for the volume bubble or the task list. This indicates that the issue is with the device rather than the theme creators.
Has anyone else experienced this? Can you provide insight on how to get past it? This is getting pretty frustrating as it's my first serious attempt to create a theme for my device.
Thanks!
AJ

TERMINATOR 4: SALVATION - a new notification style

Just inspirated by the first trailer of T4
www.terminatorsalvation.com
(btw: who's afraid the next movie? ;-) )
I've made a new notification of message.
It covers and manipulates of whole screen of any Windows Mobile device
(PPC or Smartphone), no matter what is on the screen,
at the moment when the new message received.
I like the idea of this trailer, when title music and video frames, try to break our normally wathed screen.
It's fun to have something similar in personal computer. To have some spice in mobile device.
Of course, if we aren't afraid, this will happen in the future. For real.
So, this notification replaces the default notification of message,
in a style of the above T4 trailer.
Several screen deformations and manipulations are built-in.
Below screenshots are samples only.
In reality, the smooth animation of visual effect is playing,
together with the title sounds (music).
{
"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"
}
It plays a sound, only when your Profile allows you, and the alerts volume is more than zero.
Functions:
You can switch directly from this notification to reply to the Sender of message: UP/DOWN KEY or TAP-MOVE vertically.
You can switch directly from this notification to the Inbox: LEFT/RIGHT KEY or TAP-MOVE horizontally.
You can play the notification again: ACTION.
To close this notification: ANY OTHERS buttons, or just tap on the screen anywhere.
Because of Warnerbros. copyright, I realized this version as freeware.
And I have no deal with them.
Another way, I think this is a good example,
how the advertising could be positioned (placed) into mobile devices, without users action needs.
This program (notification) user installs on your device, and that's all.
There is no settings, no user-enable application, no dialog, nothing to use.
Then user will not see any icon or running program.
It displays on the screen, and become enabled, only when new message is incoming.
Imagine, the top content of this notification could be downloaded from some network server,
and automatically. What I have not included in this version.

Finally, it displays the last received message (scrolled up from the bottom of screen).
In the background, it displays (some time) a Sender photo, if it's found in your Contacts.
The above screenshot is just a sample, you will see there some photo from your Contact.
And the text of message will scroll up from the bottom of screen, till a whole message will display.

Eeee... freeware files:
http://www.jgui.net/t4.notification/T4.NOTIFICATION.SETUP.exe
http://www.jgui.net/t4.notification/T4.NOTIFICATION.SETUP.cab
(please do not copy theses files, only link to these url if you want)
Due to reason of notification, it's recommended to install in main memory.
This is alpha version, I just tested in a few devices a week only.
I don't know if everything is fixed there now. Please try.
Uninstaller is included.
You cannot just break this notification. You have to unistall.

G1 Wallpaper Template in PSD Format

I just got a G1 a few days ago and wanted to make a wallpaper for it. As you know there's several screen breaks: three when viewed horizontal and three more when viewed vertical. I tried downloading a couple templates from various blogs and forums, but none were very thorough, so I made my own.
It's a tradition of sorts that I make a wallpaper for my phones featuring Keith Olbermann, so I named it after him cause I'm a big gay dork like that.
The template has two color coded Layer Sets: Each set of layers has three sub-layers that highlight the screen breaks and viewable area that occur on either of home screen's orientations.
I also included a layer of bars that align with the bottom row of icons for each orientation. I got the idea from another wallpaper I downloaded, I don't remember which but I tweaked it a little since it wasn't quite right when viewed horizontally.
The part at the bottom with my website link on it is never visible on the phone, so you can replace it with your credit there if you use it.
Some screenshots:
{
"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"
}
And the link to the template:
http://drop.io/olbermann

From one nola geek to another, good job!

or use any image thats 800x600 in res.

k34m0n said:
or use any image thats 800x600 in res.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You missed the point of the template. It has overlays that let you see beforehand exactly which parts of your wallpaper will display on all the Android "screens" whether landscape or portrait. Nothing worse than picking a wallpaper, no matter the res, and not being able to see the best part of it unless you open the keyboard and flip left.

k34m0n said:
or use any image thats 800x600 in res.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, but when you're viewing in landscape mode about a third of the image is cut off. Plus, some of us like to use something other than just 'any image'
... and the resolution is 640x480.

Over 200 downloads so far.. just wondering if anyone is using it and if they are if they have any suggestions?

I'm downloading it now. I'll let you know if I can think of anything useful to share! Thanks for the template.

Thanks! I'm thinking about adding a layer in the horizontal set that gives you letterbox style bands on the top and bottom so you can see what gets cut off when the orientation is flipped.

Just updated it (the 1.5 version) to add letterbox style bars on the tops and bottom to make obvious what will be viewable in each orientation.

[APP] SudokuTouch - A touch input friendly sudoku app

I've tested many Sudoku apps on Windows 8, but most of them are just very awkward to use. Neither mouse nor keyboard were really fun - although the touch input offered so many new possibilities. Partly the sudokus aren't really good, because they often had multiple solutions.
Finally I decided to do this better. I liked the result, but I think, you could judge this way better. Of course I would be pleased to get feedback and suggestions.
{
"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"
}
http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/de-de/app/sudokutouch/b1eb968c-f551-40d8-af8b-e131f798514e

it looks good, but i see room for a few improvements.
a message comes up at the start of a game, and the button to dismiss it is tiny and tucked away in a corner.
the button should be closer to the center of the screen, and it should be a bit bigger(wider)
the difference between generated squares and filled-in squares is too distracting.
perhaps it will work better if all squares are white, generated numbers are black, and filled-in numbers are dark-grey.
the close and move buttons overlap with the 3 and 6, this looks unprofessional.
i suggest you add a little "titlebar‘ on top like with windowed windows in Windows...
perhaps you could add a "game over" if you fill the field with a mistake.
it took me a while to realize that an extra 3 was the reason the clock didn't stop in my first game.
and last one: a paid version.
the ads are very distracting, and in a paid adfree version you could also use this space to display a permanent keypad.

thedicemaster said:
it looks good, but i see room for a few improvements.
a message comes up at the start of a game, and the button to dismiss it is tiny and tucked away in a corner.
the button should be closer to the center of the screen, and it should be a bit bigger(wider)
the difference between generated squares and filled-in squares is too distracting.
perhaps it will work better if all squares are white, generated numbers are black, and filled-in numbers are dark-grey.
the close and move buttons overlap with the 3 and 6, this looks unprofessional.
i suggest you add a little "titlebar‘ on top like with windowed windows in Windows...
perhaps you could add a "game over" if you fill the field with a mistake.
it took me a while to realize that an extra 3 was the reason the clock didn't stop in my first game.
and last one: a paid version.
the ads are very distracting, and in a paid adfree version you could also use this space to display a permanent keypad.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your feedback!.
Many of your suggestions are great and are going to be released in the next version

Btw. there's an option to mark error's in the application bar - so if you don't find your mistakes, you could mark all wrong numbers red

Triangular progressbars

Why are all progressbars rectangular? Is it possible to make them e. g. triangular or trapezium shaped (like standard wi-fi bars in Android or antenna bars in Symbian)?

Well, the quickest answer I can think of say for a triangular one, would be to use three straight progress bars and simply rotate them and 'assemble' them into the shape of a triangle, and then set each one's min/max value to a different set of the range of whatever variable you're tracking, so Bar1 would have a min/max of 0-33, next one - 33-66, last one to 66-99 if you're tracking a var that scales 0-99 etc.
And in Advanced Parameters for each bar use some logic statements to make sure the bar doesn't display any selected value if the the var you're tracking is outside its range. (i.e. to have the selected segment 'jump' from one bar to another if you're trying to make a bar that shows one particular segment highlighted instead of a steady typical progress bar that fills up as the value goes up).

No, it's not what I need. I need a triangle that smoothly fills with solid color depending on a parameter. Imagine a usual rectangular progressbar, cut it diagonally and take a half of it.

Well the same premise would still apply, you would just choose Normal mode so that the progress bar just fills up normally, with no segments, highlights, etc.
I think it's difficult to describe in words, both of what we're talking about, so, do you have a link to some images of what you're trying to accomplish. From anywhere(s).
If I could actually see it I could maybe come up with some solution(s).

Something 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"
}

Absolute impossible!! Cannot be done! You should just give up, buy an iPhone.
Or...
Do it like this - 60 seconds or less:
1. Make your progress bar
2. Make a rectangle slightly bigger than that, place it OVER the progress bar, make sure it is any color except one of these.
3. In the rectangle settings ROTATE IT to your angle of choosing, then....where it says "Drawing Mode" choose "CLEAR".
4. Watch the magic.
Extra Gold star if you can make something like the second two pics. Go bananas. Zooper is fun!!!

This is a better variant, but this rectangle will clear off anything under it. And what will I do if I need to place a text there?

Umm....you put the text...over it?
In the module manager you'll see the order from top to bottom of each element, they are drawn in this order, so if you want to see the text where the rectangle previously cut it out, just drag the text elements to the bottom of the list.
See attached example.
And as bonus tip - to get the jagged edge thing, or any other shape imaginable, create or download a png file that has the background transparent, then place it over your progress bar (or whatevers) and instead of "Clear" choose "XOR" and it will give you the shape as a cutout, like a cookie cutter.