Database Info

[Theme Request] Code Name Ninja

Can somebody make or instruct me how to rework the theme "Code Name Ninja" so that it will for with CM5.0.6. Right now its only out for Enomther's rom at Nexus-nation.com
Thanks in advance for any help or advice

Quick and dirty port guide:
Make x folder some where on your computer, for ease you can name it code_name_ninja_port
Open theme.zip file with 7-zip (what I use, so I understand how it works better than any of the others) or whatever file archiver you use.
Make a folder inside of the folder you just made for each .apk inside of the theme.zip with the name of that .apk.
Make a folder named res inside of each of those folders.
Now drag any and all folders with the part or all of the name drawable from inside each of the .apk's inside of the theme.zip. Those folders will be located at appname.apk/res/.
Now you will need to delete any and all .xml files out of the folders.
That is how you isolate all the images in a theme to make it easy to port to new/different ROMs.
You can now go to the MetaMorph sticky section and figure out how to easily make a morph from the way you just set that up. Really, all you need, if you set it up exactly that way is a .nomedia (so none of the images show up in your gallery, you can get a .nomedia from pretty much any morph) and a .thm (soon to be obsolete but still works with free version of metamorph) and a .xml (should make one anyways since on the 31st of April .thm files will no longer be used in the free version of metamorph) file, and package them all up in a .zip and you are good to go.
You may need to make the text a different color, but all the instructions/guides you need are in the sticky. Good luck on porting it.

[How-To]Themeing your hero

well since there have been ALOT of threads asking how to theme a hero I figured I would go ahead and make a quick guide. I am sure that I will miss stuff so if anyone else sees what I miss let me know and I will add it to the post.
ok first things first there are a few programs that you are going to need. The first is some kind of archive program such as 7zip or winrar. I personaly use winrar but 7zip is free you can download it here.
http://www.7-zip.org/download.html
next you will need a image editing program the favorites are Photoshop and gimp. if you dont have photoshope already and dont want to buy it then download gimp. it just as good and once again its free. You can download gimp here.
http://www.gimp.org/downloads/
Now that you have those programs it is now time to start making your theme.
1. download the ROM of your choice that you want to use since not all files are the same across all ROM's
2. I have 2 folders on my desktop one named "theme apks" and one named "working apks"
3. Use 7zip to unzip the rom you downloaded.
4. in the newly unziped ROM find and open the "system" folder, you will see a list of several sub-directories. The two that we are mainly concerned with are "app" and "framework".
5. Open the "app" folder and move any of the apps that you want to change to the "theme apks" folder that you created earlier in a sub-directory named "app" then open the "framework" folder in the unziped Rom and find and move the "com.htc.resources.apk" and the "framework-res.apk" to your "theme apks" folder into a sub-directory name "framework".
6. now that you have your files seperated out into your "theme apks" folder choose an apk that you want to edit and use 7zip to unzip the .apk into the "working apks" folder you created.
7. now in your "working apks" folder you should have a folder named "res" in this folder there will several other folders. the main ones we need are "drawable", "drawable-mdip" in the 2.1 builds and "drawable", drawable 480x320" in the 1.5 builds" there maybe others depending on what you are trying to change.
8. open the proper drawable folder and find the image you want to edit and open it with your image editor (gimp, photoshop) and make your changes then save it using the same name into the "working apk" folder.
9. now that you have your images edited there are a few ways to add them to your apk the process described here is how I do it since I find it to be the easiest way. go back into your "theme apks" folder and find the apk that you edited. Use 7zip to open NOT unzip the apk. Inside 7zip open the "res" folder and then the proper "drawable" folder now pull up you "working apks" folder and select the edited images and drag them into the 7zip window. A dialog should pop up asking if you want to add and replace existing files and just choose yes. you can now close 7zip.
you have now themed your apk. just repeat steps 6-9 for the rest of the apks you want to theme. then just push the files back to your phone using ADB. I push them back after I am done editing each one before I clear my "working apks" folder so that I can make sure that it looks the way it should that way if I need to make changes then I dont have to go through all the steps again.
after you have created and tested your theme if you want to share it you will want to make an update zip. there are a few ways to do this. by far the easiest way is to use the fresh pre-kitchen to sign it. for this process you will need to follow these steps. download the pre-kitchen here
http://geekfor.me/android15/fresh-pre-kitchen-02/
1. if you followed the steps above then this will be a snap. just open your "theme apks" folder and create a folder named "system"
2. then select either the app folder or the "framework" folder or both depending on what you changed and move them into the "system" folder you just created.
3. now use 7zip to zip the system folder and name it whatever you like.
4. now open fresh pre-kitchen and go to the tools section and choose the sign a zip option. Follow all the prompts and you should have a signed update zip that anyone can flash.
a few side notes
the process above works great for regular images such as png, jpeg and the like now you will find that to change some things they will be in the dreaded ".9.png" format. these images need extra steps to edit them. that I am not going to go into in this guide but they can be found here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=5206698
also there is another method to making an update zip that I am not going to go into in this guide but all the tools and how to do it can be found in this thread here. in the first post 4th section.
http://htcpedia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1404
if you are completely new to themeing I would suggest trying a 1.5 ROM first as they are a little more straight forward because in 2.1 they spread the images for some of the more popular mods over several different apk's.
I want to give a few quick thanks to the great devs here that give us these ROM's to work Flipz, Toast, Damage, Obalisk, Zenulator, and any that I missed thank you. Also to some of the people that have helped me out emensly in my quest to learn how to theme. Noj you have been such a help, Godzson, Chubbzlou and the others that have helped thank you as well.
I hope that this helps some people on their way to customizing their Heros.
if there is anything that someone sees that I missed let me know and I will add it to the post.

I din't see anything about the META-INF folder with update-script to make it flashable. I don't use Fresh kitchen so I'm not sure if it does it or not. I would visually include the layout of the folders before zipping.I might have missed something you typed.
/system/app/
/system/framework/

Looks right. But my name is chubbzlou.

chubbzlou said:
Looks right. But my name is chubbzlou.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sorry cubbz was trying to do it from memory but its fixed now.

Thanks for the how-to write up

No prob just busting chops. The how to looks good. Now we need a how to for the .9.png images.
wtphoto said:
sorry cubbz was trying to do it from memory but its fixed now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I din't see anything about the META-INF folder with update-script to make it flashable. I don't use Fresh kitchen so I'm not sure if it does it or not. I would visually include the layout of the folders before zipping.I might have missed something you typed.
/system/app/
/system/framework/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't add anything about META-INF because the pre kitchen adds it but that's why I added the link to the other way of signing it explains all that
@chubby that is also why I put the link to the other post I think its a pretty easy to understand guide for the .9.pngs
Sent from my HERO200 using the XDA mobile application powered by Tapatalk

added to wiki

This is just what I have been looking for. Thanks for putting it together.

[Q] How to edit .xml files within and .apk

Im not trying to re-engineer an app, but I simply want to check out an apk to look at the placement of a certain line of code. When i open up the files within the apk though, i get a bunch of nonsense. How do I edit the files within the apk...i know theres a way, or else we wouldnt have custom roms.

Apktool (or some wrapper like Apk Manager). It's quite outdated, so you won't be able to decode some newer apks though.

Brut.all said:
Apktool (or some wrapper like Apk Manager). It's quite outdated, so you won't be able to decode some newer apks though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
gahh, i was hoping there would be an easier way than that xP...I experimented with apktool, but it wasnt recognizing the .apk i was typing in...i just suck with command prompt stuff
....thanks anyway though

schwartzman93 said:
gahh, i was hoping there would be an easier way than that xP...I experimented with apktool, but it wasnt recognizing the .apk i was typing in...i just suck with command prompt stuff
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Brut.all also mentioned APK Manager in his post which is a script wrapper for his apktool that automates much of the process. It's available at the link I gave for both Windows and Linux. All you should need to do is run the script, place your apk in the appropriate folder created by the script, have the script decompile your apk, then you can find the decoded xml file(s) of interest.

thanks guys

i was having a bit of trouble with apk mananger, i couldnt get it to do anything with this one app, i would tell it an action and it just closed the script
EDIT: I figured it out

Hi guys, i'm using APK Manager and i was able to change the xml without having any trouble by decompressing the apk. I'm wondering what i need to do in order to resign the APK. I have already tried to compress the apk and then sign it, but streight away after I installed the apk i got in boot looping.
The file i'm talking about is the framework-res.apk
Any suggestion?
Thanks in advance.
Edit/
Solved.
Basically i was trying to sign framework-res.apk, instead i have found the solution in this forum that actually worked fine for me:
Code:
1. Place your original "framework-res.apk" into "\place-apk-here-for-modding\" folder
2. Run "script.bat"
3. Set Project (22) and choose the "framework-res.apk" (1)
4. Decompile (9)
5. Place or overwrite new Xmls and PNGs in "\projects\framework-res.apk\res\drawable or drawable-hdpi"
5. Recompile (11)
6. Answer "Yes" when it asks wheter it is system file
7. Answer "Yes" when it asks "would you like to copy over any additional files...?"
8. Script is paused => (don't press a key)
9. Go to the "keep" folder (it's in the same folder than "script.bat")
10. In this "Keep" Folder,
- delete "resources.arsc" file
- delete originals "stat_sys_battery.xml" and "stat_sys_battery_charge.xml" from the "keep\res\drawable" folder
- delete all originals PNGs that were meant to be edited
11. Go back to "script.bat" and press a key to let him finish the job
12. Your new "framework-res.apk" has been created in the "\place-apk-here-for-modding\" folder. It's called "unsignedframework-res.apk".. but he's not working yet.
13. Unzip all the content of the "unsignedframework-res.apk". You should have 5 objects (3 folders, 2 files).
14. Zip these files with Winrar/Winzip (whatever) but you must choose "No compression" method to zip it.
15. Rename this zip into "framework-res.apk".
15. Put it into an update.zip and it should be OK to flash trough the recovery mode.
Thanks anyway!

Circular battery mod for all firmwares(easiest way)

Instructions:
copy "framework-res.apk"to your PC
Rename .apk to .rar(zip) then right click"framework-res.rar"then extract it with WinRAR(WinZip)
Enter framework-res\res\drawable-hdpi and select"stat_sys_battery_0.png" to "stat_sys_battery_100.png",total 101 pictures which from your sources folder and copy all of them to the destination,replace older files like these
When you finish doing that back to find folder"framework-res",then use WinRAR OR 7zip(i used 7zip) to compress it to a .APK file the"archive name" is end with .apk And "Compression method" is "Store"
Modify the attribution of this apk!(from root explorer).
Its attribution is "rw-r--r--"
Modify with Root Explorer or other programs and now copy "framework-res .apk in system/app
Reboot...
n u r with your new battery mod
LINK------http://www.mediafire.com/?6o7r6wy2gu3bnyw
NJOY frnds !!!!
IF BY ANY MEANS I HELPED U,PLEASE HIT THANX

akshatsourav said:
Instructions:
copy "framework-res.apk"to your PC
Rename .apk to .rar(zip) then right click"framework-res.rar"then extract it with WinRAR(WinZip)
Enter framework-res\res\drawable-hdpi and select"stat_sys_battery_0.png" to "stat_sys_battery_100.png",total 101 pictures which from your sources folder and copy all of them to the destination,replace older files like these
When you finish doing that back to find folder"framework-res",then use WinRAR OR 7zip(i used 7zip) to compress it to a .APK file the"archive name" is end with .apk And "Compression method" is "Store"
Modify the attribution of this apk!(from root explorer).
Its attribution is "rw-r--r--"
Modify with Root Explorer or other programs and now copy "framework-res .apk in system/app
Reboot...
n u r with your new battery mod
LINK------http://www.mediafire.com/?6o7r6wy2gu3bnyw
NJOY frnds !!!!
IF BY ANY MEANS I HELPED U,PLEASE HIT THANX
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First copying framevork apk to app folder does nothing, second just adding new graphics to apk without modding xml files does nothing.
I suppose that you have already modded framework (first Chinese rooted ROM had this modd in framework-res.apk) and replaced those .pngs and there is no need to rename and compress just drag and drop using winrar. Of course you could not have any effect if you did not copied this apk to your root/system/framework folder.
There is also charging graphics, after all without modding xml files you can only see few graphics (battery level 0, 10, 20, 40...). And dangerous thing is replacing framework apk with another from other ROM version will end up with "bootloop"...

nedooo said:
First copying framevork apk to app folder does nothing, second just adding new graphics to apk without modding xml files does nothing.
I suppose that you have already modded framework (first Chinese rooted ROM had this modd in framework-res.apk) and replaced those .pngs and there is no need to rename and compress just drag and drop using winrar. Of course you could not have any effect if you did not copied this apk to your root/system/framework folder.
There is also charging graphics, after all without modding xml files you can only see few graphics (battery level 0, 10, 20, 40...). And dangerous thing is replacing framework apk with another from other ROM version will end up with "bootloop"...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
and if i hav a cwm backup i can restore it.....so wat
is a problm it trying...?

Changing the zombie art of a CUSTOM ROM

First of all, what is "zombie art"..??
>>> It is that image that is displayed by your phone when you tap the android version in Settings/About phone
This guide is meant for all Cyanogenmod roms ie. CM7,CM9,CM10,CM10.
What you need..??
1>> your zipped custom rom
2>> WinRAR (for zipping and unzipping roms)
3>> some degree of carefulness.
4>> Working Brain.
First of all please take a nandroid backup of your current rom incase anything goes wrong. I m nt responsible for it.
Steps:
1) unzip your rom into a folder. Name it anything that you like.
2) navigate to system/framework/ and copy the framework-res.apk file to another folder.
3) change the extension from .apk to .zip
4) extract this framework-res.zip file into a folder.
5) inside the extracted folder, navigate to res/drawable-nodpi
6) inside this folder you will find many files. but here we will only deal with platlogo.png
7) Replace this .png file with the one you like but be sure that its name remains "platlogo.png". you can find the .png files for ics and jellybean
in the attachments.
8) Now zip the files (the framework-res.zip) but with the changes made and name it the same ie "framework-res.zip".
9) change the extension of this zipped file to .apk
10) place it back in the system/framework/ directory .
11) zip the rom folders using WinRAR.
12) when you flash this zip file which that was edited this way, you will have the desired image when you tap on Android version in
Settings>About phone
13)please note that you can replace the original platlogo.png with any image file: provided you rename your desired file as platlogo.png.
If you have a .jpeg image, the edit it using Paint or any image editor and save the file as .png one.
PLEASE HIT THE THANKS BUTTON AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE IF I HELPED.
MY DEVICE>> Motorola defy plus

shubhu2604 said:
First of all, what is "zombie art"..??
>>> It is that image that is displayed by your phone when you tap the android version in Settings/About phone
This guide is meant for all Cyanogenmod roms ie. CM7,CM9,CM10,CM10.
What you need..??
1>> your zipped custom rom
2>> WinRAR (for zipping and unzipping roms)
3>> some degree of carefulness.
4>> Working Brain.
First of all please take a nandroid backup of your current rom incase anything goes wrong. I m nt responsible for it.
Steps:
1) unzip your rom into a folder. Name it anything that you like.
2) navigate to system/framework/ and copy the framework-res.apk file to another folder.
3) change the extension from .apk to .zip
4) extract this framework-res.zip file into a folder.
5) inside the extracted folder, navigate to res/drawable-nodpi
6) inside this folder you will find many files. but here we will only deal with platlogo.png
7) Replace this .png file with the one you like but be sure that its name remains "platlogo.png". you can find the .png files for ics and jellybean
in the attachments.
8) Now zip the files (the framework-res.zip) but with the changes made and name it the same ie "framework-res.zip".
9) change the extension of this zipped file to .apk
10) place it back in the system/framework/ directory .
11) zip the rom folders using WinRAR.
12) when you flash this zip file which that was edited this way, you will have the desired image when you tap on Android version in
Settings>About phone
13)please note that you can replace the original platlogo.png with any image file: provided you rename your desired file as platlogo.png.
If you have a .jpeg image, the edit it using Paint or any image editor and save the file as .png one.
PLEASE HIT THE THANKS BUTTON AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE IF I HELPED.
MY DEVICE>> Motorola defy plus
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is a pop up shown after I tap the image, how can I change the op up text ?

leezhijiang said:
There is a pop up shown after I tap the image, how can I change the op up text ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
follow this link n tou will find how to change the text
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1883003