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Just wanted to create a Post so people can bounce ideas off each other as to what would be necessary to change themes on the fly. How does a normal phone change themes?
i just have a folder on my SD card called themes and i update it everyday with everytheme and the latest version of each, the themes folder has all my themes separated into adp1 adp1.1 rc30 and rc33 and i use linda file manager to move them to the root and rename them. i can flash any theme anytime i want. and if a new one comes out while i'm not near a computer i download with steel and try it out.this is the best way as far as i can see, at least with the tools i have access too
anyone seen the iphone emulator? it actually works where it will open a program associated with the icon, could that possibly help get a way to theme similar to how summerboard works?
jdwme said:
anyone seen the iphone emulator? it actually works where it will open a program associated with the icon, could that possibly help get a way to theme similar to how summerboard works?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's not even close to being a theme though.
A proper theme is more than just smoe icons.
IE. iKid has a much nicer looking media player.
i use the exact same method w the themes on sdcard... i take it one step further... i use andftp to upload to my qctx.org server and upload directly tested themes... so i can access and organize however i need
- great for backing up sdcards
This is how I edit my themes on the fly
Walkthrough for creating your own Android theme
First you need to get signing setup properly. This topic is covered in many places and my recommendation is to use the Stericson walkthrough or the Stericson auto-signing setup tool. Once you can click on any zip or apk file and get the option to Resign it you are ready to proceed with making your own theme.
1. Download an archive manager that allows you to open archives inside of archives without creating new windows. My recommendation for this is the application 7-zip. It is tiny, free, easy to use, and on all my computers it has replaced winzip and winrar.
2. Now take a blank theme from Stericson to use as your starting point, this will be the minimum needed to change your theme and will contain all the original artwork.
3. Open the update.zip and inside are typically 3 files, framework, system or app, and META-INF. Leave META-INF alone, you wont be touching that. Inside framework and system/app is where the files are that you can change. In this case we will open update.zip, then double click framework and then double click framework-res.apk (this is where the next archive will open inside the same window, your life just got a little easier).
4. Now you are looking at assets, META-INF, res, and a couple other random files, the resources.arsc can be edited but I will show you that in another tutorial. Now open up the folder res and you will see the treasure we are searching for, folders with the name drawable. All of the folders that start with the name drawable are where we can edit the themes, this includes drawable, drawable-land, drawable-port, and drawable-finger.
5. Now drag and drop the folders drawable and drawable-land onto the desktop. Once they are on the desktop you can edit the .png files in those folders until you are ready to put your theme together.
6. Now in your still open window at \framework\framework-res.apk\res\ you will open the drawable folders one at a time and drag and drop your edited files into the archive, only dragging and dropping the files you edited and not just everything inside the folder.
7. Once you have your new images copied into the archive in the correct place you can just hit the close button or browse up a couple directories and find other files to edit. Any time you edit an apk and browse out of it or close it you will be prompted to update it in the archive by 7-zip (this is my secret shortcut), always press ok.
8. Now you have a freshly created theme ready to install, all you have to do is right click, chose to Resign the file, and once its done you can copy it to your SDcard, make sure its named update.zip, and flash your new theme.
Its literally that easy! And you use this same technique in the system/app folder to edit the apk files for the individual apps on the phone. Explore around in the update.zip and see what you can find, I only told you about the major items but there is plenty more to find and change. You can always copy a folder out of the archive and if you cant edit anything just toss it but if you can find something to edit, do so and throw it back in the archive. You guys now have all the info I had when I started plus all my tricks to making that process 10x easier.
jdwme said:
anyone seen the iphone emulator? it actually works where it will open a program associated with the icon, could that possibly help get a way to theme similar to how summerboard works?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The thing with the iPhone is that the applications are just folders with a .app extension at the end. This allows one to easily replace resources inside of them using just simple scripts.
In Android, the applications are zip files with an extension of .apk and must be signed. This makes it harder to replace resources on the fly.
I use the Discover App from the MarketPlace. I have a folder called Themes in my SD Card which I have separate folders labeled with the name of the theme. Inside the folder I have the update.zip. With discover I just move the update zips in and out of the folders to change themes.
Rich
I have created 4 PNG files to place on my phone to replace the background in all tabs as another user showed but I am having trouble converting to QTC to put in the Windows dir. I tried m9 editor but dont know what to do!
Also I cannot access the Windows directory from my PC, is there a way to do this?
So I'm a bit of a noob. I'm attempting to create a theme and I cannot figure out where to edit the noti bar as well as the lockscreen image. For the lockscreen, I just want to keep the same tw lockscreen, but I want to change the padlock/background. Any help would be amazing as I am truely stumped.
If this needs to be in general, please move me
The file(s) that you are looking for are located in the framework-res.apk package located in a ROM/Theme. Inside of the .apk is a folder called res, and inside it is a folder called drawable-hdpi. This folder contains the majority of images used to make a theme look a certain way. In order to change the status bar, you need to edit the file statusbar_background.png. The lock screen one is in this folder too.
Nice. Thank you sir
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
I figured since the question has been answered I could just hijack this thread instead of making a new one. I am pretty new on modifying Android ROMs and would like to know where I should start first if I wanted to create my own theme? I would like to do some simple modifications first like icons and colors. Where can I find the necessary materials to get started? Like a fresh Touchwiz 2.5 template from the epic? Or do I just extract them from the stock ROM, if so, how? Thanks.
The files are accessible from the ROM if you open the zip and go to /system/framework then extract framework-res.apk
From there, you can open the apk with a tool like WinRAR and navigate to /res/drawable-hdpi as thomasskull666 mentioned. You can extract the png files from there and then just drag them back in once modified. Then just drag the framework-res.apk back into the ROM zip and flash it and bask in the glory of your handiwork.
Best advice is organize your workspace. You will have so many folders in folders your head is going to spin! What I do is copy the framework-res.apk, twframework-res.apk into a folder on your PC called STOCK DI18 Theme. *Make sure you pull these files from a deodexed rom or you'll have issues! Drawable-hdpi folder inside of both framework-res.apk files is where the brunt of you mods will be. If you are feeling daring, after changing the images in there you can begin to pull the drawable-hdpi from apps as well as long as you drag out the drawable folder, make your edits, then drag the edited folder right back in the zip, you'll be fine. Don't touch .9.png files if you don't know how to program them, I'm guessing you don't. Don't worry, edit everything else first to get that "feel" for what you are getting into. From there then research the .9.png files.
I highly recommend using 7zip for all of this, it is less of a headache. This is the basics of what you'll be doing to everything. Lets say you were going to do all this right off of your desktop. Make a folder on your desktop called STOCK DI18 Theme. Copy your framework-res.apk and twframework-res.apk into that folder from your deodexed rom. ANY TIME YOU NEED TO TAKE THESE FILES TO EDIT FOR YOUR THEME, COPY THEM FROM THIS FOLDER, NEVER SAVE THE CHANGES BACK INTO THIS FOLDER. This is important because you want easy access to all your stock files. Copy your system/framework and system/apps in here.
Now if you want to work on the framework-res.apk first. copy it to the desktop. Right click and choose 7zip-open archive. You can see the file structure of the apk. Click twice on res and you will see all the folders including drawable, drawable-hdpi, etc. Drag and drop drawable-hdpi to your desktop. Edit anything you want in there except a .9.png. Save the files into that same folder. Then drag and drop the folder right back into the archive where you got it in the first place. Then say your all done. Drag framework-res.apk back into the zip your going to flash on your phone in the same method.
Another quick tip, if you don't have an update zip and you have no idea what you are doing, download any working theme from here. Grab one of mine, and copy your framework-res.apk, twframework-res.apk, apps, etc over what in there. Make sure not to leave nothing it will show up in your theme! Any thing you need clearing up on, PM me, this should be plenty to get you started. To theme an app, right click say alarmclock.apk choose 7zip-open archive and do your magic again. As long as you only change the pictures in there you won't alter the signature on them so don't be afraid to mess with it.
Lastly, the Epic's framework is LOADED with files that it doesn't even use so be careful you not spending too much time editing a file you never seen on your phone before!
dreamsforgotten said:
Lastly, the Epic's framework is LOADED with files that it doesn't even use so be careful you not spending too much time editing a file you never seen on your phone before!
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Click to collapse
Excellent tip, this is especially helpful if you are trying to port a theme as not all of the .png's will match up. Make sure you know what you NEED to be replacing as opposed to what is optional. Also I don't know if it was mentioned before but there are some files (especially in twframework-res) that have a .9 before the .png. These are not your run-of-the-mill png files, and they need to be specially edited to preserve their formatting. I recommend avoiding these if at all possible, but there is a way to edit them if you are feeling really adventurous. Here is the link to that post:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=5206698
My suggestions for success: If you really want to make sure you are editing only the files that you need to edit in framework-res.apk, download a few custom themes or ROMs and extract the framework-res.apk from them. Then use a program such as UltraCompare to compare the files and folders inside each to find common files. This will help you pinpoint exactly what needs to be edited and what needs to be left alone. Lastly, like dreamsforgotten stated, be sure to have a good work directory from which to edit these .apks, as you will be working with folder after folder after folder. Organization is key, and patience is required
Does anyone know how to hide the HTC clock (not flipping it up to make it smaller) completely while keeping TouchFlo3D activated?
I want the home screen has has completely nothing on it to show the whole wallpaper.
freshgear.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/htc-touch-hd-screen-main.jpg
Like from the picture above, I want to hide:
The Time (10:20)
The date
The alarm off text
The call history and calander text
So just a blank screen w/o anything while keeping TouchFLO3D running.
Hi
yes it is possible
I have to know what kind of phone you'v got, to help you
lumisab said:
Hi
yes it is possible
I have to know what kind of phone you'v got, to help you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the Touch HD T8282 with WindowsMo 6.1 (one that came with the phone)
netwr said:
Does anyone know how to hide the HTC clock (not flipping it up to make it smaller) completely while keeping TouchFlo3D activated?
I want the home screen has has completely nothing on it to show the whole wallpaper.
freshgear.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/htc-touch-hd-screen-main.jpg
Like from the picture above, I want to hide:
The Time (10:20)
The date
The alarm off text
The call history and calander text
So just a blank screen w/o anything while keeping TouchFLO3D running.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can use TouchFlo Detacher to assign operations (show/hide/close)
Hi
what you have to do is,you have to change 17 manila files to transparency and the mode9 file 1c684cd8_manila.I did it already for you,because I changed my homescreen too.Important is,go in you phone windows directory (Windows) and save all the files what you will overwrite with this procedure to you computer to be on the save side,because it could be you change you mind sometimes,and you never know what could get wrong.If not,you will have to make a hard reset with you phone to go back to you original state,copy all the files in your PHONE WINDOWS DIRECTORY (WINDOWS)
lumisab said:
Hi
what you have to do is,you have to change 17 manila files to transparency and the mode9 file 1c684cd8_manila.I did it already for you,because I changed my homescreen too.Important is,go in you phone windows directory (Windows) and save all the files what you will overwrite with this procedure to you computer to be on the save side,because it could be you change you mind sometimes,and you never know what could get wrong.If not,you will have to make a hard reset with you phone to go back to you original state,copy all the files in your PHONE WINDOWS DIRECTORY (WINDOWS) I make a download link underneath with all the files in it.keep me posted
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are all the files from your ZIP stored under a specific folder in Windows? I browsed the Windows folder in my phone and found the exact file names that matched the ones you have attached, but they are not in PNG (all the files just have a Windows icon), are those the ones?
Hi
I'v got something better for you,use the cfc_gui tool from chainfire,what you have to do is,copy all manila files to you computer,open it up with the cfc_gui tool,it takes a couble a secound to open it, in this tool you will then find all you manila files,if you tick of one file you will see all his content,size,name and picture, you can than save each one on you computer separately and work or change something on it with photoshop or others, if you in the cfc_gui tool go to the (home\vga files) because that a the files for the clock,if you make all the files transparent than the clock will disappear,you can do a lot with this tool,of course you have to be connectet with you phone to the computer to save the alteret files back again to you phone,and don't worry this tool save all you files to the right place in you phone if you use the cfc_gui tool than you don't need the zip file any more you can choose you own method and do what you want, underneath the download link.
lumisab said:
Hi
I'v got something better for you,use the cfc_gui tool from chainfire,what you have to do is,copy all manila files to you computer,open it up with the cfc_gui tool,it takes a couble a secound to open it, in this tool you will then find all you manila files,if you tick of one file you will see all his content,size,name and picture, you can than save each one on you computer separately and work or change something on it with photoshop or others, if you in the cfc_gui tool go to the (home\vga files) because that a the files for the clock,if you make all the files transparent than the clock will disappear,you can do a lot with this tool,of course you have to be connectet with you phone to the computer to save the alteret files back again to you phone,and don't worry this tool save all you files to the right place in you phone if you use the cfc_gui tool than you don't need the zip file any more you can choose you own method and do what you want, underneath the download link.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think I cannot use this method because I do not use a Windows computer and cannot connect between computer and phone.
Basically, I just need the things highlighted in neon green in the attached photo to disappear while keeping everything unchanged.
From your first method, I found the files that you put in the ZIP under my phone's Windows folder, but the ones in the phone's Windows folder are not PNGs.
Can you confirm if those are the correct files to replace?
Also, if I just need the few things from the attached photo to disappear, do I have to replace every file with the ones from your ZIP?
Hi
to you first question:how do you copy the files in you phone without computer
to you secound question:that what you highlighted on you phone that is exactly the 17 manila files,you will find in the new zip files the description of all the manila files
to you third question:the manila files a all alteret from PNG to QTC otherwise it would nothing happen when you copy them to the win directory,it was my mistake I should have mention it early in the post before, apology for that
to you fourth question:use the files in the new zip for what I will make a download link underneath thats the right files
to you fifth question:yes all the few things on you photo is all the 17 manila files, look in the description in the new zip file you will see that you need all the files,it is all explaind
something else use the mode9 file 16c84cd8_manila only if you can still someting see on you clock and screen
as you can see on my homescreen no clock
lumisab said:
Hi
to you first question:how do you copy the files in you phone without computer
to you secound question:that what you highlighted on you phone that is exactly the 17 manila files,you will find in the new zip files the description of all the manila files
to you third question:the manila files a all alteret from PNG to QTC otherwise it would nothing happen when you copy them to the win directory,it was my mistake I should have mention it early in the post before, apology for that
to you fourth question:use the files in the new zip for what I will make a download link underneath thats the right files
to you fifth question:yes all the few things on you photo is all the 17 manila files, look in the description in the new zip file you will see that you need all the files,it is all explaind
something else use the mode9 file 16c84cd8_manila only if you can still someting see on you clock and screen
as you can see on my homescreen no clock
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To answer your question, I only use bluetooth to transfer files between my computer and phone.
By replacing the files with ones above, will it cause any problem if my ROM isn't english?
Is there a quicker way to backup all 18 original files in case someday I want the clock back, instead of copying one after one from the Windows folder?
Just to confirm, your ZIP above has 18 files (excluding the capture.PNG)
One last question, how do make the menu bar transparent (like from your home screen above) and change all the icons at the bottom of the screen?
Hi
no it cause no problems for you ROM,
no quicker way to copy files from you win phone folder,if you would have a connection to you phone via computer it would take a few secound to copy,
zip files have 18files 17 manila and one mode9 file,+PNG
for you last question:to get the transparency for the taskbar I cooked it in my ROM after that I flashed it to my phone,I'v got a cab file that promised to do that same with the taskbar,I never try it because I cooked it already in my ROM,if you want to try it I will make a download link, if it dosen't work you can delete it again from you device,to the icons you can use the HDWall tool to create the icons
So i wanted to finally try uccw after hearing so much about it. I dont know how to use the app to make my own themes it looks so complicated. But I found a couple that I like on the web. I downloaded the file and need help importing it. I unzipped the downloaded file and inside it has 4 files: one is a true type font file, second is a uccw file, and the last two are png images. My question is where do these go?
So far after reading around the web I know to put .uzip files in the uccw folder on my sd card.
I put the uccw file into the uccw folder but dont know where to put the font , and png files. i tried placing them all in that folder but when i go to import from the app it doesnt show anything..
Could someone please explain where to put these files and correctly import them? This is all new territory to me,
Bump. Anyone?
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium
I found out that uccw file goes in the uccw folder. The font goes in a fonts folder on the sd card. But where do the png image files go? I have a image_fonts folder inside the uccw folder so I put them there for now. When I open the app I still can't get it to import the skin. However when I use the widget the skin is there. But it's not displayed properly. It's not using the png files I don't think. And there is also an ugly logo.
Here is a pic of what I mean
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium
This what my uccw folder looks like and all of them work properly. You see a folder with the same name as the uzip file under each uzip, the .PNG or picture is in that folder. The weather icons are in a folder named weather. This app definitely has a bit of a learning curve but is pretty cool once you get the hang of it. Hope this helps and good luck!
okay ill try making a folder of the skin and putting the png files in there. But the files I have are uccw files not uzip files. I think its from an older version.
I hope I understand your question correctly. You should be able to import the uzip files directly into UCCW. In the app, press menu, select 'import skins,' navigate to where you have the skins (uzip files) stored, then select that file. UCCW should load everything up, placing all the files within the uzip file in the appropriate directories, and, voilà, you can now use the skin of your choice. Hope this helps. Good luck.
nostreborderaj said:
I hope I understand your question correctly. You should be able to import the uzip files directly into UCCW. In the app, press menu, select 'import skins,' navigate to where you have the skins (uzip files) stored, then select that file. UCCW should load everything up, placing all the files within the uzip file in the appropriate directories, and, voilà, you can now use the skin of your choice. Hope this helps. Good luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True, basically don't unzip or do anything with the .uzip file. And if I remember right, you can import the file from wherever you downloaded it to. It really is a cool app once you get used to it. With hotspots and all it has become my all in one widget basically. Good luck with the import, just remember, the app does the work. I'm still trying to build my own, that is taking some time to learn. I'm not sure if you know of this, but here's a spot where there are lots of premade files. They are throughout but there are some great ones in there.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1387518
Enjoy.
Thanks for all the help guys appreciate it.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using xda premium
ok i don't know where you guys see the import option but in the latest version is missing
Just restored my phone, but UCCW will not let me import any of my saved files. There isn't even an 'Import' selection when I use the 'New' button...what's up? The file I want to import is already on my phone, as a .uccw...
Most frustrating...had a few brief moments where I could create my own by getting my images from Photos, but that stopped working, too...