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The new HTC Homeplug looks really good, but there are several issues with it, which I propose to discuss in this thread.
[size=+1]Adding new weather sources[/size]
1. Go to http://wwwa.accuweather.com/world-city-list2.asp (update: try also http://htc.accuweather.com for those having trouble getting their cities to work) and enter your city under "Find an International Location by Name" (the top box) and click Go.
2. Click on the city you want in the results
3. Copy the zipcode query string from the URL, e.g. Coventry, UK is "EUR|UK|UK001|COVENTRY" (don't copy the last pipe).
4. Open both HH_0409_WeatherCities.xml and _HH_0409_WeatherCities.xml from the \Windows folder and copy one of the other lines, replacing the data with the city name and the code from part (3).
It should look something like this:
Code:
<city name="Coventry, UK" locationcode="EUR|UK|UK001|COVENTRY"/>
5. Save the file back to the \Windows directory
6. Select your newly acquired city from the list!
This doesn't seem to work for everyone as it appears to be restricted to certain cities, no one is particularly sure why yet. If after following these steps you get an error downloading data then it probably does not support the city code you entered. To find your city look here: http://htc.accuweather.com
[size=+1]Weather not updating[/size]
No solution yet
[size=+1]Photocontacts in the applications[/size]
See Vijay's solution here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=1312528&postcount=59
(See screenshot atatched to this post)
You can also use the same approach to use VJSMS and VJEmail to open SMS and emails to your contacts.
[size=+1]Making it smaller[/size]
The biggest issue (pun intended) for me is the size of it - there isn't room for much else on the today screen. I know the idea is that it is thumb friendly, and it is, but I would like to make it a little smaller. I've looked through the reg and can't find anything to do this, nor any options anywhere. Probably requires decompilation / impossible.
If you have any ideas / solutions to these problems, or more problems of your own, post them below. I will try and keep the first thread updated, if you have a solution PM me so that I don't miss it.
Thanks
With the Today plugin there's no need to use the "No unread messages" plugin, since they pretty much defeat each other, so there's one thing that can be removed to make more room. I'd like to see an MMS shortcut?
I've removed the messaging plugin too.
With regards to the MMS counter, I think that because the SMS/MMS inboxes are now combined, it might count the cumulative total in the Unread SMS counter? I haven't tested it yet. I also want to find out what happens when I sync my texts to Outlook with Jeyo Mobile Extender, and how it treats MMS.
ronfin44 said:
With the Today plugin there's no need to use the "No unread messages" plugin, since they pretty much defeat each other, so there's one thing that can be removed to make more room. I'd like to see an MMS shortcut?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, that is right. It is double things showing on the Today.
Oliy said:
The new HTC Homeplug looks really good, but there are several issues with it, which I propose to discuss in this thread.
Adding new weather sources
1. Go to http://wwwa.accuweather.com/world-city-list2.asp and enter your city under "Find an International Location by Name" (the top box) and click Go.
2. Click on the city you want in the results
3. Copy the zipcode query string from the URL, e.g. Coventry, UK is "EUR|UK|UK001|COVENTRY" (don't copy the last pipe).
4. Open both HH_0409_WeatherCities.xml and _HH_0409_WeatherCities.xml from the \Windows folder and copy one of the other lines, replacing the data with the city name and the code from part (3).
It should look something like this:
Code:
<city name="Coventry, UK" locationcode="EUR|UK|UK001|COVENTRY"/>
5. Save the file back to the \Windows directory
6. Select your newly acquired city from the list!
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi thanks for the twaek...
But this seams dont work...
Do they not show up in the list? Try a soft reset.
Make sure you update both xml files (one has a _ infront of the name) and make sure the _ file is read only after you save it, works for me
I have managed to put photocontacts in the Applications tab, see first post for details. Not particularly elegant but it works!
Question about icon(s): What are the dimensions? 32x32, or any size and it'll resize it automatically?
The original icon size in VJDialer.exe is 32x32 and 8 bit depth. I managed to replace it with 64x64 pixels and 24 bit colour depth with Resource Hacker so you can have good quality photos. They show up a fixed size on the app tab though.
I'm pretty sure you can use whatever size icon you want, but 64x64 was noticeably better quality than 32x32.
1. Create icons (*.ico) for all the photo contacts you want using GConvert or similar icon creator.
2. Extract VJDialer.exe from VJPhonetools and open it with Resource Hacker.
3. Open the Icon > 1 folder and right click on 2057, which is the icon
4. Select "Replace resource" and replace it with one of the icons you made earlier
5. Save the .exe with a new filename, e.g. contactName.exe
6. Repeat steps 2-5 for each icon you have created.
7. You should now have a set of exes which each have your contacts' photo. Copy these to your phone, for example "\Program Files\Phonetools".
8. Create shortcuts to each of these exes and place them somewhere in \Windows\Start Menu. I use \Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Speed dial".
9. Go to the HTC Homeplug and add new button. Select your photo contacts!
Can you simplify these? For some reason it didn't work. I was able to add the shortcut, but wasn't the same. Didn't show an icon I made and showed me an error
Oliy said:
The original icon size in VJDialer.exe is 32x32 and 8 bit depth. I managed to replace it with 64x64 pixels and 24 bit colour depth with Resource Hacker so you can have good quality photos. They show up a fixed size on the app tab though.
I'm pretty sure you can use whatever size icon you want, but 64x64 was noticeably better quality than 32x32.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry to be a pest. Just not grasping using the Resource Hacker. I followed the steps, but I'm missing something. Is there a laymans version or a cheat-cheat for dummies? lol
I didn't explain it very well, here is an alternate explanation:
Create icons for all your contacts out of pictures
1. Use GConvert or similar to open an image file and save it as an icon eg contactName.ico.
2. Do this for each contact you want to display.
You now have an icon file displaying each of your photo contacts
Create a series of VJDialer.exe files each with an icon of your photo contact
1. Use Resource Hacker and open VJDialer.exe from VJ's cab
2. In the pane on the left, click on "Icon" to expand it
3. Click on "1" below "Icon" to expand that
4. The object below "1" is the icon, right click on it and select "Replace resource"
5. Select one of the icon files you created earlier
6. "Save as" a new name, for example contactName.exe
You now have an instance of VJDialer.exe with the photo for an icon for each of your photo contacts
Create links to the exes in the start menu
1. Bring up the context menu on one of the exes and "Create shortcut"
2. Edit the shortcut to include the phone number of that contact as documented on Vijay's website
3. Copy the shortcut to the \Windows\Start Menu directory.
4. Do this for each instance of exe
5. Add all your contacts to HTC Homeplug
ronfin44, just have a play around with it, one or two of my icons didn't work properly the first time I tried, if in doubt try another icon just in case.
Thanks bo. I opened VJ's dialer shortcut in Notepad and did a quick edit of it so it would dial a specific number, but now I'm gonna try your instructions.
my icons etc work fine. ...the only issue is when im recieving a sms through the plam threader the plugin cant reconize that i recieved a sms. Is it because its through the threader emails etc show up but my guess is because im using the plam threader.
I'm stuck on how to edit the exe once I make it, like how do I add the number? Not too clear on VJ's website. It shows the example, but what do I use? When I tried it in Notepad it gives me an error when I try to Launch it:
No recipient found!
Format eg:
VJDialer123
Please Donate! etc etc
Not sure if this is part of the new Touch stuff, but the new battery icon in the top bar (in line with the start button) blocks the time/date from showing where it normally would.
Is there a way to remove this icon so the time and/or date can be displayed there?
hahaha I figured it out! I'm an ass! I kept selecting the wrong icon in the menu, and NOT selecting the shortcut! lol Thanks for all your help guys! -fin
Oh, I make awesome icons if anyone wants some!
even the new weather info wont help
i really need the weather to work, can any one prove to me that it works for CHAMPAIGN ILLINOIS UNITED STATES
http://www.accuweather.com/world-index-forecast.asp?partner=accuweather&locCode=NAM|US|IL|CHAMPAIGN&metric=0
Updating HTC Weather Plug-in with GPRS....
I can update weather via wifi and active sync but i cannot connect and update via gprs. I can surf the web just fine, Windows live mail works fine, just cant update HTC weather plug-in. Used Weatherpanel with Dymond with same gprs setting and it worked as well. Anyone else having these issues.
using Tmobile USA Blackberry Connect plan
Thanks
OK, I have been with a blackberry now for 2 years and my WM skills are very rusty. I have a TMO Dash running the latest HTC ROM posted here. I remember on a pocket pc you could reorganize, add/delete things on the home screen. How do you do this on the Dash?
My homescreen displays the following in order:
Blackberry: Connected
Owner: Tedy
Get More... 10:20PM
WiFi: Off 1/28/2008
Profile: Normal
Text Messages (1); Email: (0); MMS: (0)
Enter a Password
No Upcoming Appointments
"a bunch of one-click icons"
How do you rearrange these items, e.g. I don't want to display owner info, or I want to move Blackberry:Connected to the bottom. How do you do this?
TIA.
It depends on how much pc and scripting knowledge/background you have.
If you're proficient, you can copy over the *.xml file found in \Application Data\Home.
Open it up on your pc with an xml editor app or directly in notepad, and at that point re-script it to show the plugins and other information in the order and arrangement you prefer.
You're second option is to install some ready-made homescreens which take the onus of choosing what to display on your homescreen and how to arrange it. (If you search this forum for "home screen" or "themes" you'll get the necessary resources)
Suggest a google search for "Q home screens" minus the quotes. Then drag and drop the xml and images to "application data\home" on the excalibur
that or goto http://www.madbeetle.com, where they have a freeware homescreen builder, no XML nowledge required!
This was from the windows mobile team blog. More to follow but wanted to post it for those who don't read that.
Original link: http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile/archive/2008/06/03/customizing-the-sliding-panel-homescreen.aspx
Customizing the Sliding Panel Homescreen
from Windows Mobile Team Blog by Jorge Peraza
Hi, my name is Jorge Peraza; I am a Developer on the Windows Mobile team that was responsible for the new “Sliding Panel” home screen in Windows Mobile 6.1.
When we were working on the visual style and functionality of the home screen we tried to make something that looked both professional and appealing while still showcasing all the information the user is going to need to know what’s important and requires attention. While I think the default design looks really cool, we added some customization features to enable users to make it their own.
Customizing the layout
The home screen layout can be modified using the same home.xml file from previous versions of WM, the schema of the file was extended to allow the customization of many of its elements, this includes the art assets that are used for most of the plug-ins.
When you open the SlidingPanel.home.xml file (inside \ApplicationData\Home) you will find the plug-in element that corresponds to the sliding panel home screen (its CLSID is {E9267CAB-02EE-4f37-8216-6BF6A8FF5A71}). All the child elements inside it are designed to tweak and customize the way the home screen will look.
The top level element is the plugins tag, this has one attribute called “Order” and it’s used to list the plug-ins that will be shown and the order they are going to be laid out on the screen.
The built in plug-in names are:
1)CClock – The big clock
2)CAppointments - The calendar plugin
3)CHome – The notifications plugin
4)CMyPhotos – The photos plugin
5)CMessage – The message center (this is off by default on all sliding panel built in layouts.
6)CMusic – The music plugin
7)Settings – The settings plug-in
8)Custom Plugin – Users can specify custom plug-ins with static content that can be displayed on the home screen.
For example, the XML snippet bellow moves the photos plug-in to the first position and enables the message center (which is turned off by default on both "Sliding Panel" and "Sliding Panel Media")
<plugin clsid="{E9267CAB-02EE-4f37-8216-6BF6A8FF5A71}" name="Bronze" height="266">
<Plugins Order="CMyPhotos;CClock;CMessage" />
</plugin>
There are many other ways of customizing the home screen using the plug-in settings like overriding the default images or even adding your own custom plug-ins that display static content, I'll post and updated entry latter on on how to do this in detail but for now, you can use the provided home.xml files to start experimenting with this.
The notifications plug-in and message center
In the sliding panel home screen, the notifications plug-in by default serves as a dual-purpose notifications/gateway to all you phone/message accounts where every page represents one account (so, if you have multiple notifications in one category they will be shown as one summary page).
There is however an alternative behavior where individual notifications are added as independent pages (Similar to what the T-Mobile shadow home screen does) and the plug-in only shows accounts that have new notifications in them. One cool feature of this alternate behavior is that each individual notification can be dismissed without having to leave the home screen.
You can enable this alternative behavior by setting the following registry key to a value other than 2 (The actual value indicates how many pages of each notification type will be added to the home screen before collapsing them into a summary page. We have tested 2 and 5 but feel free to experiment with other values)
[HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Chome\Chome]
PageCollapseThreshold: DWORD
Note that this prevents you from being able to access the email/phone account data if there are no notifications for it. If you still want to be able to do that you can always re-enable the message center as described in the previous section as a separate plug-in.
There is one more behavioral change you can make that allows you to “dock” the condensed view of the first plug-in to the top of the screen when it is not active, we added this for people like me that want to have the clock always visible. To enable just set the following registry key to “1”
[HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Chome]
DockOperatorBar: DWORD
Advanced layout modification
There are even more advanced things you can do to further tweak the look of the home screen but it is unsupported by Microsoft at this moment so you’ll have to experiment on your own J (Hint, look at the following files \windows\CHome_240x320.cpr and \windows\CHome_320x240.cpr).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks to djNutz for posting this information & OrganicM for his efforts.
I wanted to create a post with info about what the different keys do in the CHome section of the registry. So, I'll start with a brand new one, that I bet nobody knows about....
[HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Chome\Chome]
PageCollapseThreshold: 2 or 5 (DWORD Value)
This will collapse your Notifications panel to only show active notifications. You can enable this alternative behavior by setting the following registry key to a value other than 2 (The actual value indicates how many pages of each notification type will be added to the home screen before collapsing them into a summary page. 2 and 5 were tested and work pretty well.
More to come of course....
should this change be made to the security section too, or does that matter? actually, do changes to the security section ever matter, cause they seem to apply even when you only edit the software section.
p.s.
i'm pretty sure people are gonna ask, so maybe i'll save some trouble instead of looking like an ass by answering preemptively. This DWORD value must be created with your registry editor, it's not already there, at least on ricky v24.
2 = default or normal (i assume cause it looks the same as before) and 5 = condensed.
But for the rest of us who don't have the time to be on every WM blog and forum at once here's my favorite:
To “dock” the condensed view of the first plug-in to the top of the screen when it is not active, set the following registry key to “1”
[HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Chome]
DockOperatorBar: DWORD
This is so you can have the clock always visible, no matter which panel you're on. You could also set it so that CHome Weather's compact view is always on top. Whatever plugin is first on the list.
More info from MS coming down the pipe:
We can get the day of the week on the clock plugin at the top of CHome by doing this:
Replace this portion...
<!-- Date --> <Text ID="Date" Left="180" Top="83" Width="110" Height="19" FontFamily="Segoe Condensed" FontSize="9" FontStyle="Bold" Wrap="False" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Trimming="EllipsisCharacter"></Text>
With this!
<!-- Date -->
<Text ID="Date" Left="180" Top="83" Width="110" Height="19" FontFamily="Segoe Condensed" FontSize="9" FontStyle="Bold" Wrap="False" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Trimming="EllipsisCharacter"></Text>
<Text ID="Day of Week" Left="65" Top="83" Width="110" Height="19" FontFamily="Segoe Condensed" FontSize="9" FontStyle="Bold" Wrap="False" HorizontalAlignment="Right" Trimming="EllipsisCharacter"></Text>
I will incorporate this in Chome Weather fore sure!
Here you go, the first is my Home
2nd is Scroll Down once
3rd is Scroll Down twice
4th is Scroll Down Thrice
heh
Edit: Tried Month in cpr, no luck.
will keep trying
I'm glad people are finally getting this information out. It makes customization that much easier. I'm adding the tips to the wiki as well, as they come out.
How to Reload the Homescreen
I have two questions:
1. After editing my CHome cpr file, how do I reload the homescreen without having to reboot the device?
2. How can I show any text on the clock panel? Regular text is defined by Text ID = "xxxxx", where xxxxx is something like Time, Network Name, etc. However, suppose I want to have the text "Knowledge Rules", how do I set it up in XML?
I have very little programming and Excalibur experience. So, I apologize if these questions are too naive or have been answered before.
Thanks a lot in advance.
you can use this if you dont use OrganicM Chome Weather
I don't think Microsoft has put out much documentation on the sliding panels plugin yet. Most of the CHome configurations use
Code:
TextID="text 1"
as the delimiter for static text. But that's not to say that the clock plugin will recognize that as a valid section. Could work. Could make your phone useless.
beartard said:
I don't think Microsoft has put out much documentation on the sliding panels plugin yet. Most of the CHome configurations use
Code:
TextID="text 1"
as the delimiter for static text. But that's not to say that the clock plugin will recognize that as a valid section. Could work. Could make your phone useless.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do not understand. How do I make the phone know that:
text 1 = Knowledge Rules?
Typical syntax seems to be Text ID = "xxxx", where xxxx is a variable name, which is recognized by the device. If Text 1 is a valid variable for the device, how do I assign it a value? Am I rambling here?
No, you're not rambling. As far as the information coming from Microsoft and disseminated here on this site goes, it's a best guess right now.
someone at msdn blog asked the same question.
Someone at msdn blog asked the same question. Let's wait to see if we get an answer from there...
From http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile...ustomizing-the-sliding-panel-homescreen.aspx:
"Jorgeba, thanks for taking the time to educate your user. I have some questions.
How do you change the text in the condense clock? The .cpr file has Text ID="Text 1". How is "Text 1" define? I would love to add the date to the condense layout.
The ActionURL and Softkey2 URL in the Appointments plug-in always open calendar in the today view. Is there a way to make one of the button opens calendar in the month view? Setting the default view for calendar does not help."
Easy as pie......
If you know what you are doing.
If you have any xml experience,then you'll know how to adjust x and y values to position things in different places. Yes, you can do that. Just change x=whatever and y=whatever to where you would like them to be. Just know this means that it will start on the left and move x pixels over and y pixels down. If you put in negative values, it will shift them in the opposite direction.
Eg. x=-whatever will move it to the left vs a + value which will move it to the right. Same for y=
Also, you can adjust the valignment and halignment to center, left, or right.
Have fun with these. They apply to everything in your cpr (That's the layout for your homescreen.It's in your \Windows directory on your phone).I mean everything, from where your network displays, right down to your pictures.
That's it. Have fun!
jaymit said:
Hi,
Sorry Im kind of a newbie :s, is it possible to edit home screen panels? I wanted to change the layout and look of the clock plugin.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does anybody know how to change font color for certain panels or certain lines of text in the panel? Is it only possible for the whole homescreen?
As far as I know even as far as old xml coding works, you can only change a font color for a selected word or unselected word. Meaning, if you have the old 6.0 your plugins that are selected could have a different color, but unselected could be another color. This applied to the entire homescreen. I have not seen different colors for different plugins, since each panel style is basically its own plugin (each has its own unique GUID), then I doubt you can change font color for each plugin. You can more than likely only change the active selected panel and inactive panel fonts. I am not sure what their titles are in the cpr, but I know that in the old 6.0, the homecolor was one of the fonts colors and the other was called something else.
Eventhough this is 6.1, it doesn't look like much has changed as far as the fonts color goes. You could, however, always try adding a "fontcolor=" command in the cpr and a hex code and try it, to see if it works.
Hope this helps.
Edit your registry or get CHome Config
Both do the same thing. You want to change the plugin order for CHome. It's located in HKLM\Security\CHome\Default Settings and in HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\CHome. Edit the order you want your plugins to go. Reboot your phone and the new edits should be reflected in your homescreen layout. If you are having trouble cause this is new. Just search this thread for CHome Configurator. It's stickied at the top of this forum. Download it and it will let you select the order in a much easier way. Make sure you reboot, though, or else your changes won't show. Hope this fixes your problem. Later.
tae-xda said:
How to change the default location for where the CMyPhotos plugin
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
rollingondubs1 said:
I have that already, All my games are under a folder which i cant make it as a action url
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
try this
"ACTIONURL" = "\Windows\Start Menu\Games\xxxxx xxxx.lnk
or this
"ACTIONURL" = "\windows\fexplore.exe; \windows\start menu\games"
Yes you can
One last time, I think I've figured out how to help you.
1. Open Chome Config.
2. Scroll to MyApplication and select it with your center button.
3. Scroll to any page you want to edit. Then scroll down to where it says ActionURL. Press menu.
4. Once in the menu select the "1 Change URL" item.
5. Once you have selected that it will take you to a file explorer. Go to \Windows\Start Menu\Games. This is where your games should be. If not, then wherever you store, your games, navigate yourself to that folder and select the file you want.
I think this should cover it. Hope this solved your problem. HOLLA!!!!
rollingondubs1 said:
I have that already, All my games are under a folder which i cant make it as a action url
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How to change the location of CMyPhoto to \Storage Card\My Documents\My Picturs
Anyone knows how to change the shortcuts on the bottom of the several tabs on WM6.1 with TouchFLO 3D 2.1.
I need to change the "All People" on the People Tab and the "Album" on Photos and Videos.
I supose that somehow is possible to point this links somewere else.
Nobody can help me with this?
You can change the Home Soft keys via Regedit:
Go to \HKLM\Software\HTC\Manila
Change Left Softkey Path and Text:
HomeLSKPath
HomeLSKText
Change Right Softkey Path and Text:
HomeRSKPath
HomeRSKText
You can also use the Diamond Softkey Manager app (works on wm6.1), just operate it in Diamond mode (one of the options to tick when you open the app.)
I'm not sure how to change in the other tabs though.
When you select the Programs tab in TouchFLO 3D, there's a 3 column grid of icons that can be used to start specified programs. But...
- Mine have no title underneath, just the icon, yet I have seen screenshots showing titles under the icons.
- Would like 4 columns if possible.
- Cannot 'move' the buttons, only 'remove' and then add in a different place.
Can these be changed in 'options' somewhere or is it down to a registry tweek, a later version of TF3D or a third party utility.
Thanks.