I have been reading a lot of posts about theming and people are talking about decompile apk's and where different images are located within the system and apps, however, I am somewhat confused as to where to start and what they mean. Could anyone shed some light and maybe get me started in the right spot. Trying to learn how to create my own themed phone.
I should mention I am currently running a custom rom, rooted, cwm, and have the basics down.
I think ICS still has issues with the apktool to decompile, need an older version to compile and newer to decompile. So its tricky. But you just pull your systemUI apk for example, make changes and flash it back. Or the real way is just mod the source code directly and compile. Search the apktool thread.
Related
I'm trying to theme for the first time on 4.0.3 AOKP rom I just flashed and I've ran into a few snags. I'm using apk manager to decompile / compile / install.
1. I'm trying to change the color of the overall font in the rom and I've followed many tutorials that half-describe how to do so and haven't had any luck. For example when trying to change the color of the date displayed in the notification drop down by editing /values/styles.xml and adding my hex color code in the Date part of the file by replacing the @android/holo blue blah blah and it doesn't change the color after I recompile and reinstall to my phone. I don't even know where to begin for the rest of the system font coloring.
2. Changing the color of sliders and toggle switches I thought would be as simple as editing the images from drawable-xhdpi before recompiling. I did this for framework-res.apk (not sure if that was the right apk to edit for this) but I did and find the images I was looking to edit and all I did was change the hue values and save and replace stock images before compiling and I installed it on my phone and when it booted up the sliders and toggles were still blue.
Can someone explain to me what I'm doing wrong? I have a feeling I'm going about this the wrong way. Thanks.
I'm not expert. In fact you probably know more about this than me but my guess is that the AOKP elements are not being colored via the usual XML files. My guess is there is custom compiled code for the modifiable elements that exist in AOKP. I've been trying to find the where the source code is for the notification toggles so that I can find a way to port them to a 4.0.4 ROM but since I have no idea where I'm going and I don't know Java its like a needle in a hay stack.
anyway just thought I would put my guess out there. If anyone can shed more light on this situation then it would be helpful for i'm sure quite a few people.
Does any one know how to theme the htc resources with out crashing? im theming MikG 3.11, but every time i theme the resources, it crashes on the weather widget. any help?
Hmmmm.
What are you using to theme it? Have you extracted the resources and right clicked an image and tried using a paint shop program then simply painting over the images? Thats what I am doing on CM7 and did some cool stuff with the widgets and MMS on the latest build (such as blach background and neon edges). What OS are you using? I'll try it since I wanna theme sense now. I'm too new to XDA to post my new roms. I'm focusing on stability and HD modifications but like your idea
alexthesniper21 said:
Does any one know how to theme the htc resources with out crashing? im theming MikG 3.11, but every time i theme the resources, it crashes on the weather widget. any help?
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First thing you will need is an apktool then folow the directions to install the proper framework. Then use paint, photoshop, or gimp to make your changes. Be careful of anything that ends in .9 as these are special pngs and need to be handled differently. I used to theme Sense but stopped due to having to rewrite to many files for the changes I needed and have moved on the AOSP based roms which are much more straight forward.
Thank blaz1nr for this, all info he passed on to me, Hope it helps you,,,Later,,,
When you start working on transparency. The status bar/footer should be 20% less transparent than the background. Header starts at 10% less than background. Pop ups are where is gets a little harder. They must be opposite each other (ie) black/white text or white/black text. Black looks better but is more of pain. Make sure to keep pop ups slightly transparent, you should be able to see through them a little. Once you have the first one done then you be able to see what % to change and where,but these are good starting points. Status bar/header/footer should be the 3 darkest. It should look something like this. Status/[email protected] 60%, [email protected]%,[email protected]% pop [email protected] to 80%. So 100% is solid as you move down towards 10% it gets more see through.
PART 1:
Im going to to try to sqeeze this down as much as possible.Basically I'm gonna give you, the how to do stuff.Then I'm going to give the short cut's to figuring out what to do.First your gonna need some stuff.
1 Java EE jdk, jre
2 Apk tool
3 Android Sdk
4 Eclipse IDE
5 7 Zip
6 M10 editor
7 Cygwin
8 Android Kitchen
9 Notepad++
10 Alot of patience
Listed above is everything needed to build or theme a rom.
You wont need android kitchen or cygwin,if you just want to theme.You will need everything else.
This is a easy way to learn how to set up android kitchen so you can build your own roms from unrooted stock roms----> http://www.androidmerom.com/2012/01/11/4/
How to dev correctly----> http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1273044
Porting things like clocks or widgets---> http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1222746
Adding transparancies to status bar(its in the galaxY s forum but this is what you do) http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1327565
Learn how to recompile and decompile apk's first,Since this is a sense rom, you need 3 things to do this,SystemUi.apk,its in system/apps,
framework-res.apk & com.htc.resources.apk, they are in system/frameworks
PART2
Ok so now I'm gonna give you a bunch of info that will speed up your learning of what to do.
Since this is a sense rom, When you decompile SystemUi.apk it needs dependencies.These are the two apk's you got from system/frameworks.Learn how to use apk tool there's guides everywhere when its time to add dependencies you need to use both of these commands in cmd. apktool if framework-res.apk,apktool if com.htc.resources.apk, i cant stress enough that you first learn building apk's and how to use apk tools. once you know how apk tools works the commands earlier will make sense.Learn how to push your new apk to your phone with sdk.
A system app cannot just be dropped in the system. Unless your rom zip is open and your building it. Here come's the good stuff, when your trying to do something like move you clock to the center of the status bar.What you can do is decompile the apk's from earlier out of a rom that has a feature you like.Open it and find what files you need, copy them to your desk top. Now find the same files you need to change in your rom and look through them to see whats different in yours that you need to change(Notepad ++ is used for this/also M10 editor). 7zip will be your best friend from here on out.In 7zip all you need to do is click open archive. now you can add or remove anything you want,when your done just close it.This works for every zip file.UOT kitchen can be used to do a small amount of theme work.
Build.prop work is done the same way using notepad++. Say you built your own rom,but your not sure how to get your rom name or add 3g/4g/wifi tweaks or hardware acceleration or what ever.There's a lot that can be done in a build.prop that will do some major magic.you could compare mine to yours and see whats different and make changes.Use common sense here.Don't just go changing things if you don't know what it is first. That's it all you need to know right there to get you started. Now all you have to do is search around for whatever it is you want to do. locate the things you need to change and your on your way.
Although basically I've given you everything you need to get you stared.Not everything can done by simply changing lines of code in one spot some things have files located in multiple location that will need to be edited so...RESEARCH RESEARCH RESEARCH.Remember don't be a **** and steal someone's thunder,just so you can say you built a rom. Give props and ask the other dev's if you want you use something they worked hard making.
Hi xda devs,
there was a Thread by BraydenJames that modded a H+ Icon in AOKP. As a T-Mobile user, I find that very useful. All it did was changing case 15 (HSPAP) in statusbar/policy/NetworkController.java/updateDataNetType() to use the 4G Icon.
Problem is, I'm using bigxie's stock JB ROM now and there is no such mod available. (At least, not to my knowledge)
I tried modding it in myself, but got stuck. Windows is bad plattform for developing. Still, I managed to extract the relevant part of the source with dex2jar and edited the 4G Icon into an H+ icon. All left to do would be applying the diff and compiling the source back in an apk.
I zipped the JB SystemUI.apk, the diff and the changed png files and uploaded them to Dropbox:
SystemUI-HplusIcon.zip
I know I'm asking a lot, but I would be very grateful if someone could spend a moment of his time to decompile the apk, apply the changes and compile it
Thanks
ReggX
PS: If I could install it in CWM per update.zip, that would be awesome.
Im currently running aokp build 5 and i did a lot of theming including .9.png files. i want to flash to the new milestone build. Can i simply pull the drawable folders out of my old one and drop em in the new one, or since there are .9.png files, would i have to decompile, put into the new apk, and recompile?
thanks
You may end up bootlooping if the new roms has more images or removed some. Your best bet would be to decompile both and then change out the images and then recompile the new apk.
Come to think about it there are lots of changes so follow the above.
Wayne Tech S-III
I just recently switched my stock rom to be deodexed and I'm now looking at the possibility of theming and mods for my rom.
I already have a little experience modding the signal icons on a different Android device, and I've already downloaded a mod from this forum that turns part of the stock dialer to a holo dark/material theme, but I want to do more with it.
So far I can't seem to find a good tutorial on how to properly mod system files, especially knowing that the stock rom on the Moto G is a Motorola variant of Android KitKat, and not AOSP or similar, although it's close enough that I figure some mods might work since many Xposed modules for AOSP work fine on my stock rom.
Would it be safe to look for a tutorial based on AOSP 4.4.4, or does anyone know a good place to learn the proper way to modify and theme a Motorola stock rom?
chuman72486 said:
I just recently switched my stock rom to be deodexed and I'm now looking at the possibility of theming and mods for my rom.
I already have a little experience modding the signal icons on a different Android device, and I've already downloaded a mod from this forum that turns part of the stock dialer to a holo dark/material theme, but I want to do more with it.
So far I can't seem to find a good tutorial on how to properly mod system files, especially knowing that the stock rom on the Moto G is a Motorola variant of Android KitKat, and not AOSP or similar, although it's close enough that I figure some mods might work since many Xposed modules for AOSP work fine on my stock rom.
Would it be safe to look for a tutorial based on AOSP 4.4.4, or does anyone know a good place to learn the proper way to modify and theme a Motorola stock rom?
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get apktool
with this decompile your apks you want to theme/mod
hapy theming! (there plenty of tutorials of how to edit images or the .9 patch files. with gimp etc.. just search )
after that recompile, if you just have edited some images (ressources) pull them afterwards from the new COMPILED apk out in a folder.
take the original apk & open with 7zip & pull the edited stuff into the right directions.
if you have done some advanced modification such as in values folder, you need after the new apk is compiled, open it with 7zip & pull from the original app the meta-inf folder into the new compiled one (singing) after tthat replace it on that phone