I haven't gotten into zip signing and all that yet. But I was wondering if it's possible or would even make sense to ala carte themes?
I saw a thread on fonts that sort of addressed this, but would it work of the clock and icons or other select things? Where instead of installing the whole theme, you could mix and match which ever you want?
I'm not sure what you mean but I'm guessing you wanna pull some icons from one theme and put it in another, yes that is possible and you MIGHT have to resign the zip and apk's.
You can just put the /system/apps or /framework folder by itself, with the updated apks in it, in an update zip and just flash it.
No that isnt what he means, he wants to know if you can just flash a specific set, such as just the fonts or just the clock or just the notification bar. Right?
While it does seem possible through a couple unrelated threads, the more you brake up the flashes, the more "ugly" the strucure gets/ That is not the correcr word, but it would probably be safer and cleaner to build a theme. But, I believe it is possible. Someone with a better understanding of the entire process, such as Stericson, could address your question with a little more certainty.
i took this as you like a clock that is held in theme A and the fonts in theme B and the icons in theme C and you want to flash those three components, if that is not right then please tell me and try to explain a little better what you meant by this. if you wanted that you would have to either extract those such items from the themes they are apart of(with the devs' permission of course) and then put them all into one zip and resign it, which isn't that hard at all, especially easy if you have windows and you download the auto-signer app. or if you do not want to make the sip and sign it you would have to ask the theme dev to extract the files for you and sign them for you and give them to you.
personally as a theme dev i would probably tell you to figure it out if you wanted parts of my theme, and if in a few days you decided to ask again i would be willing to help you. i certainly wouldn't just take the file you wanted and zip and sign them. i like to help people learn, that would be spoon feeding and i am really against that
My question is about the structure / theory of themes. Right now a theme consists of many things; a clock, icons, background, menu button….. and whatever a dev decides to put in that one update.zip is what you’re stuck with.
I’m wondering if you could have an update.zip that just does the clock without changing the other icons. And visa versa, and update.zip that just does the menu button without changing the clock…. And so on.
So as a theme creator can I create a bunch of clock update.zips.. or a series on menu buttons.. so themes become more like skins, where you can skin just the clock, or just skin the icons.
Can I install an update.zip for the clock. Then immediately after, install an update.zip for the menu button without messing up the install of the clock.
I’m not thinking of anyone’s themes in particular… and I’m not talking about a single update.zip that does the clock and icons.. I’m thinking of multiple update.zips that are either the clock or the icons or the font.. where it’s more ala carte.
theDante said:
My question is about the structure / theory of themes. Right now a theme consists of many things; a clock, icons, background, menu button….. and whatever a dev decides to put in that one update.zip is what you’re stuck with.
I’m wondering if you could have an update.zip that just does the clock without changing the other icons. And visa versa, and update.zip that just does the menu button without changing the clock…. And so on.
So as a theme creator can I create a bunch of clock update.zips.. or a series on menu buttons.. so themes become more like skins, where you can skin just the clock, or just skin the icons.
Can I install an update.zip for the clock. Then immediately after, install an update.zip for the menu button without messing up the install of the clock.
I’m not thinking of anyone’s themes in particular… and I’m not talking about a single update.zip that does the clock and icons.. I’m thinking of multiple update.zips that are either the clock or the icons or the font.. where it’s more ala carte.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, that is very much possible. You WILL have to resign everything you edit though.
This can be done but certain apks contain multiple features (the Launcher.apk contains the clock and the programs drawer).
90% of all graphics, save for icons, are located in just three or four apk's, so you can't really mix and match all that much.
mannyb said:
90% of all graphics, save for icons, are located in just three or four apk's, so you can't really mix and match all that much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unless you are willing to dive deep into the waters, and learn what images are for what aspect and where they reside. Then, you can mix/match/replace as you see fit. My phone has a few icons from Blue Star 5, most from Fade to Blue, most elements are from Fade to Blue, some status icons from Code Name Ninja, a custom status bar & tray handle, a custom designed clock, and some custom text on the lock screen.
But it definitely involves some time and work, figuring out which elements I want, where to put them (or get them from if not creating my own files), resigning each APK, repackaging into an update.zip (or multiple updates, as I do incremental changes often flashing only the modified file over) resigning that, and crossing your fingers that you did everything right. Of course nandroid nandroid nandroid!!!
daveid said:
Unless you are willing to dive deep into the waters, and learn what images are for what aspect and where they reside. Then, you can mix/match/replace as you see fit. My phone has a few icons from Blue Star 5, most from Fade to Blue, most elements are from Fade to Blue, some status icons from Code Name Ninja, a custom status bar & tray handle, a custom designed clock, and some custom text on the lock screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Definitely. Though that is almost as much work as making your own theme from scratch
mannyb said:
Definitely. Though that is almost as much work as making your own theme from scratch
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Except for designing the icons, and all the painful work that Damnitpud put into the .9.pngs for FadetoBlue. It surely wasn't as easy at copy and paste to get it the way I wanted it. But, I gotta say, it is nice to have a theme that I know is unique and holds some really cool elements.
I took some of my friends complex line drawings, used one for the status bar, and three different ones for the launcher drawer. I also used a photo I had taken for the clock, while placing the minute/hour hands outside of the numbers - keeping the rest transparent so it would work on any background.
But, yeah, to the OP - anything is possible. But it can turn into you creating your own theme for the most part.
Cute girl too!
mannyb said:
Cute girl too!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's my wife, I get to keep her forever now. We got married just under 7 months back. on a supposedly very lucky day 8/8/8. And, yeah, she is very cute!
Related
Hey there guys.
Just a quick one.
I have seen a couple of screen shots around (although can't remember where now) of a slightly differend clock widget background containing a little android Droid.
Anyone know how this is done? Maybe through applying a theme?
I have root and JF1.3 RC8 etc etc so not probs there.
Thanks
Phil
usually it's done through a theme, but you can actually just take the clock icon out of someones theme that has it, it's in the drawable folder of launcher.apk.
If you pull your launcher.apk file just copy the clock you want to the drawable folder on it and push launcher.apk back to your phone.
Cool.
Where is the launcher.apk?
Sorry... just starting with this phone and not totally fond my way round its files etc yet.
Thanks
it'll be under apps in any theme update file....
check out my theme... it has a ubuntu feel, with old themed clock like ubuntu's wallpaper
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=469710
also changed fonts, and boot screen
Sorry. I meant where on the phone is the file (where would I copy from/to in order to put the custom clock image into the launcher.apk file.
Like that theme but don't really fancy any themes at all and just want the clock on its own really.
Thanks
Phil
You would have to edit the launcher.apk like they said then push it by its self to your G1 then you will have the clock and the rest of your theme will stay the same.
What they are leaving is that you must open the firmware package of your choice and edit the launcher.apk from the correct sub-folder. To be honest if you're not well adjusted to hacking up a firmware I wouldn't just start experimenting without proper guidence and reading of the available documentation on this platform. If you go about it half assed that's what you're gonna get.
For those who don't know since he kinda just posted it while i was over there looking at Brandenks Theme Jonny posted Smorg for Akirah!!!
http://www.alldroid.org/viewtopic.php?f=54&t=159
But now he calls it Blackened i guess
i used smorg a while back and i loved it..but it would be nice to have stericsons new lock screen
I love your Blackened theme. I even love the icons, but since I don't have replacement icons for all of my other apps, it annoys me to have some full color icons and some of your nice ones. Is there a way to edit your theme to remove the modified app icons? I'm new to the android, but I've been around the block a time or two for themes on WM. Thanks for your beautiful work.
Fail
"Helpful" is spelled with only one L.
swivel said:
"Helpful" is spelled with only one L.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, helpful is spelled with two l's.
mr.incredible said:
I love your Blackened theme. I even love the icons, but since I don't have replacement icons for all of my other apps, it annoys me to have some full color icons and some of your nice ones. Is there a way to edit your theme to remove the modified app icons? I'm new to the android, but I've been around the block a time or two for themes on WM. Thanks for your beautiful work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you wanted stock icons you could replace everything in the system/apps/ folder except Launcher.apk with stock apks, and then resign the update. you'll lose some of the theme, but that would be the easiest way to have stock icons
If you use a home replacement app, then you could download the modified milk icon pack I uploaded. Its in the same subforum as the theme, in a thread called extras.
jonnybueno said:
If you wanted stock icons you could replace everything in the system/apps/ folder except Launcher.apk with stock apks, and then resign the update. you'll lose some of the theme, but that would be the easiest way to have stock icons
If you use a home replacement app, then you could download the modified milk icon pack I uploaded. Its in the same subforum as the theme, in a thread called extras.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
actually, if he can sign the file, then he can use this with just the icon version. then replace the icons in the the .apk/res/drawable folder, then sign it, so that he would still have all of the elements of the theme without the icons.
david1171 said:
actually, if he can sign the file, then he can use this with just the icon version. then replace the icons in the the .apk/res/drawable folder, then sign it, so that he would still have all of the elements of the theme without the icons.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, that would be better, then he'd still have the widgets and junk.
Thanks for the tips. I just realized I wasn't actually asking jonnybueno directly. Thanks for responding. Good thing you were paying attention.
Does each internal .apk have to be signed or the overall?
You can just sign the whole update zip. No need to individually sign each apk.
It really would just be easier to install the icon pack I posted and use "Bettercut" (2 dollars on the market) to change shortcuts on the desktop. Unless you're concerned about the app drawer... then you should be doing what you're doing.
I chose those milk icons not only because I like them, but also because I hate mismatched icons as well. I think there are around 200 icons.
Current version:
Version 3.5
Multiple firmwares, multiple battery versions - means a confusion of frameworks! Tried to keep it simpler by keeping the version number to represent changes to the icon content of the framework, and putting the FW version/ batt mod in the filename.
So, there are currently a total of 12 variants of v3.5, representing the combinations of FW version, battery mod and reduced notification bar icon size. The filename should tell you exactly what you are getting!
To keep things simpler, I have uploaded to 4shared. Just follow the folder structure, and you should find the version you want!
DOWNLOAD LINK
Installation instructions
As we don't have a custom recovery yet, the easiest way to put these on the device is via ADB, either over USB or wifi. As always, back up any important info/apps first. Once connected, use the following ADB commands:
Code:
adb push framework-res.apk /sdcard/
adb push services.jar /sdcard/
adb shell
su
stop
cp /sdcard/framework-res.apk /system/framework/
cp /sdcard/services.jar /system/framework/
chmod 644 /system/framework/framework-res.apk
chmod 644 /system/framework/services.jar
sync
start
These are primarily based on, and inspired by, the excellent Desire themes by Esk0dro0id and Alexdiaz, so credit where it's due. Feel free to modify and tweak this however you want, just maybe acknowledge where it came from
Needless to say, only attempt this if you are comfortable modifying system files. As we are using the SDE for this, the potential risk of bricking/ irreversible damage is low, but you should still have some idea what you're doing!
Changelog
Version 3.5 (02/05/2011):
Fixed a couple of issues with cut-off text on buttons and some overlapping highlighting
FW 2.1.08 variant confirmed to work with Urukdroid 1.0
FW 2.3.26 varaint confirmed to work with Urukdroid 1.1 beta 2
Version 3.1x:
as 3.0, with reduced notification bar icon size
Version 3.0x:
full set of custom png's
properly working resizable 9.png files - say goodbye to stretched, distorted images!
comes with wdl1908 battery (3.0a) and Honeycomb batt (3.0b)
screenshots in post 1
Version 2.6a:
Tidied up some alignment issues
Replaced Archos wallpapers to reduce size of apk
Version 2.6:
Updated to work with Urukdroid 0.7 (internal and SD card install)
Tidied up some of the blue highlights etc
Changed many of the menu icons
Changed Home screen menun icons
Added new icon for Buttons mode on Power menu
Version 2.3:
Finalised all icons green --> blue
Removed all orange highlights, selection boxes, text field etc - now blue
Replaced progress-horizontal.xml with blue version (volume bar etc)
Version 2.2:
Customised notification shade
Version 2:
Mainly changed notification icons:
Battery icons
Ringer/vibrate/silent icons
Wireless/ Bluetooth/ flightmode icons
Upload/Download icons
USB connected/debugging etc
Icons on Power menu
USB storage icon
Progress bar form grey to blue (when installing apps etc)
Alarm in notification bar
"Wait" spinner now a smooth circle, rather than segmented
Google account sync icons now in colour
Emoticons blue not green
Version 1:
unreleased proof-of-concept
wdl1908 battery icons
Honeycomb battery icons
Hmm, very nice. Will definitely try this out soon.
Thanks fisha21
Awesome work. I'll definitely be doing some tinkering of my own.
I was thinking about the battery issue from the time I first noticed it reported the percentage like that (theming is a mental illness) and my guess was the battery icon itself is your regular series of icons and the percentages are overlaid on top. Is that what is going on? In which case if you use the same number/basic shape of battery icons, the percentages should overlay on top of them no problem.
Time to change the notification shade . . .
d31b0y said:
Hmm, very nice. Will definitely try this out soon.
Thanks fisha21
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks!
p0rk burn said:
my guess was the battery icon itself is your regular series of icons and the percentages are overlaid on top. Is that what is going on? In which case if you use the same number/basic shape of battery icons, the percentages should overlay on top of them no problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting thought. I used 100 icons, but they had numbers as part of the png. Might try without the numbers. Stock Archos framework only has 6 icons for battery, so it may only change the displayed icon at set battery intervals?
Time to change the notification shade . . .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, that's my next step too!
I'm aware people may look at this and think it's a horribly complicated way of doing things! Am trying to simplify, but if anyone has any suggestions, feel free to post/PM. Oh, for a custom recovery!
fisha21 said:
Interesting thought. I used 100 icons, but they had numbers as part of the png. Might try without the numbers. Stock Archos framework only has 6 icons for battery, so it may only change the displayed icon at set battery intervals?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what I would guess: its set up like your standard Android phone where it switches at 80, 60, etc or whatever the breakdown is. When I get around to it I'll give it a try unless you beat me to it.
I've never used rootexplorer so it will be interesting to see how badly I bungle this trying it my way.
edit: Also, this type of stuff makes Uruk on the SD card a lot more attractive. Set up an SD as sort of a testing ground for the framework process and worse comes to worse you just pull out the card and rock Uruk from the internal. After I give it a shot I'll be able to give you feedback on the internal memory process, but I'm sure its the same as doing it on the card.
p0rk burn said:
That's what I would guess: its set up like your standard Android phone where it switches at 80, 60, etc or whatever the breakdown is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, have put icons for 80-100% in 1% increments into framework. Notification bar shows the 100% icon until batt drops to 80%, then shows 80% icon. So percentage is overlaid as you said, but it will only change the batt png at set intervals. Thanks for pointing that out, clears up one of the issues that was bothering me!
From what I remember of my Desire modding, to get the icons to change at 1% increments required changes in the kernel. Little over my head!
Just curious, what widget is that you have loaded on the main screen where it has wifi, bluetooth, portrait/landscape, audio, and brightness? All the combo ones I found have phone in it as well which is useless, but this one looks perfect.
ExploreMN said:
Just curious, what widget is that you have loaded on the main screen where it has wifi, bluetooth, portrait/landscape, audio, and brightness? All the combo ones I found have phone in it as well which is useless, but this one looks perfect.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the Dazzle Switcher - I really like it as you can choose exactly what toggles to include. I'm using LauncherPro, so have resized the widget (usually 5 toggles would take up 5 homescreen slots).
Here's a link to it on the web version of the Android Market:
https://market.android.com/details?id=org.hermit.dazzle
p0rk burn said:
(theming is a mental illness)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're not wrong there, bordering on OCD or something....
Time to change the notification shade . . .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure how you got on, but have uploaded a new version with custom notification shade (screenshot attached). Also a little heads up - Archos use a 180x180 pixel png for the notification background, and then tile it to fill the whole area. I got around this by creating a 1024x600 png to use instead. Hope that saves you a bit of time!
fisha21 said:
That's the Dazzle Switcher
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you sir!
Thanks Fisha. No surprise here, but your method works with Uruk on the internal so anybody that was waiting to find that out before going this route, don't worry!
Your shade looks great - so good in fact that I may just ride your coat tails. Honestly I'll probably use your setup for a while and make notes of tweaks I'd like to make before branching off of yours. No promises to anybody about a p0rk theme release, but I hope we start to see more people pick up on this so we can get a variety of flavors out in the open.
You definitely deserve some props for getting it started.
p0rk burn said:
Thanks Fisha. No surprise here, but your method works with Uruk on the internal so anybody that was waiting to find that out before going this route, don't worry!
Your shade looks great - so good in fact that I may just ride your coat tails. Honestly I'll probably use your setup for a while and make notes of tweaks I'd like to make before branching off of yours. No promises to anybody about a p0rk theme release, but I hope we start to see more people pick up on this so we can get a variety of flavors out in the open.
You definitely deserve some props for getting it started.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your comments. Good to know it works just as well with Uruk on internal SD.
Have to say, the notification shade came from alexdiaz's Desire theme, so credit to him really - I just edited a bit.
Look forward to seeing your tweaks - always on the lookout for new stuff! I like orange about as much as I like green, so my next step is to replace all the orange highlights etc with blue....
fisha21 said:
Thanks for your comments. Good to know it works just as well with Uruk on internal SD.
Have to say, the notification shade came from alexdiaz's Desire theme, so credit to him really - I just edited a bit.
Look forward to seeing your tweaks - always on the lookout for new stuff! I like orange about as much as I like green, so my next step is to replace all the orange highlights etc with blue....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've got a rough one in place now but I can sympathize with all the devs that complain about the touch buttons. My battery icon is overlapped. A few more tweaks and I'll probably start a thread for it. I'm partial to blue myself, so it's basically just a port of JRummy's LithiumMod blue theme (unless he gets back to me at DroidForums that he doesn't want me sharing the plagarism).
Updated to Market v.2.3.4
Have been trying out some modified Market apks, thought I'd post them here as well (thanks to woti23 for trying the blue/white version)
I found them on Esk02k's thread here, but credit also goes to 00.ante and pendo. All I've done is extract the .apks and upload them here!
To install, rename the .apk to Vending.apk, drop into /system/app using Root Explorer, and set permissions to: Read for user, group and others, and to Write for user.
Also, I really like the functionality of the Notion Ink keyboard (as posted here), but I wasn't too keen on the colour.
So I have edited the png's to a darker colour. One side effect is that is shows up the low quality of the original png's, and I will at some point try and neaten things up a bit. Just thought I'd share it with you guys anyway, in case anyone's interested.
Just put the keyboard.apk into /system/app, make sure permissions are set to Read for user, group and others, and to Write for user.
Enjoy!
you might want to put in the instructions that you need to rename the apk in your download from "fisha12 2.3 framework-res.apk" to framework-res.apk else people are going to end up with no framework-res.apk and therefore a nonworking tablet!
thefunkygibbon said:
you might want to put in the instructions that you need to rename the apk in your download from "fisha12 2.3 framework-res.apk" to framework-res.apk else people are going to end up with no framework-res.apk and therefore a nonworking tablet!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for that. I uploaded the wrong zip, correct one up now. The file in the zip is just called "framework-res.apk" so no need to rename it.
Uploaded a new version compatible with Uruk 0.7.
Next step is to combine this framework with wdl1908's battery mod.....
fisha21 said:
Uploaded a new version compatible with Uruk 0.7.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What is the difference between the normal and the Uruk version?
I was wondering if there is an easy way for me to see which of the icons under the SystemUI.apk/res/drawable-hdpi folder are actually used in my rom? I am going to modify the colors but notice that a bunch of those are not even used.
I noticed that I can do that with the UOT kitchen, but when I installed the new SystemUI.apk not all of the icons were changed to the color I put in. So, I figured I will just go in and do it manually. It will be a learning experience anyway.
I am just getting into customizing and it is pretty fun. As long as I don't screw it up too much.
Thanks,
Jeff
My suggestion would be to grab another theme for the rom you are running, from an established themer, and rip the drawable-hdpi folder out of that SystemUI.apk to see what they have themed. Also helps in pointing out those real pesky icons that you only rarely see but are used.
oh.. and keep an eye out for those crazy .9png's!!!
Hello i was wanting to know how to change the image in the pulldown bar like you see in the UOT kitchen and if its possible to change the top buttons images like the wifi on / off and 4G on /off ect or the whole button itself
there in the SystemUI.apk located in system/apps
res/drawablehdpi folder
just edit in any image editor but try and stay away from the .9.pngs they are special and a pain in the bum.
you can just change .apk to .zip to unzip then rezip and rename.apk
you want the quicklaunch icons for the drop down icons
and status_bar_background for the actual background
thank you bro for such a fast answer
no problem i just happen to be trollin through
do you happen to know were the battery images are ?
and if i could just remove all the stock ones with ones from another theme for my phone ?
battery images are in framework-res
system/framework
if using ones from another phone you'll probably need to do some renaming
most roms currently on our phone use full 100 % increments
if i remember correctly there are 203 total 100 unplugged
100 plugged and a full empty and unknown
thanks again you have been a huge help
anytime
if noone shares the info this stuff can be a royal pain.
If you use the UOT Kitchen and keep getting errors, try un-checking Patch9 autofix. This will not decompile the 9patch images and may allow your theme to build. It worked for me with modding ACS Ice Cream Sandwich Theme (modded battery only).
thank you
and are there any other theme kitchens or rom kitchens for our phone ?
oh and i noticed there are two different default pull-down backgrounds one under systemUI.apk and one under the frameworks.apk and both are different sizes and dimensions , witch ones do i change ? or do i change both ?
the one you want for the drop down background is
status_bar_background.png
in SystemUI.apk
mjcollum said:
anytime
if noone shares the info this stuff can be a royal pain.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm fairly new to Android, coming from my FrankenPre to the Epic Touch. I want to begin editing the icons and images on my phone, and I've been exploring some ROMs ansd themes and switching up some icons, which have worked fine. However, I have no idea exactly where all the images are kept. For instance, I tried to change the stock Email icon, but the images I changed weren't right, and I was somehow left with the "Android Robot" icon.
My question is, seeing as how you know where these images reside on the phone, how do I go about knowing which icons are where, and which ones I need to change? Is there a list somewhere of the stock system images and their locations, or is it trial and error to figure out where they are? Thanks for the help.
mjcollum said:
no problem i just happen to be trollin through
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
haha "just rollin thru""