[MOD][PORT][THEME] Notification Menu Power Control Widgets for Sense - 3.70 - THEMES! - EVO 4G Android Development

First of all, major thanks to JsChiSurf for his amazing work on this port!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=877003
This is a separate thread for themes of this mod.
I've always wanted a clean, slick looking shade on the notifications pull down and thanks to JsChiSurf, it's pretty easy to theme it.
Here are two that I made today. I haven't gotten around to skinning the buttons yet though.
Try these, static images don't do them justice, it's neat seeing the way they move. For more details on flashing these, please refer for JsChiSurf's thread above. These already contain the updated 2.1.1 services jar.
After zipping, you can use this:
http://circle.glx.nl/
to restore your battery %. Thanks chogardjr!
PCS_v2.1.1 Brushed_Metal_Grate_Small_Circular_Light
PCS_v2.1.1 Brushed_Metal_Grate_Small_Circular_Dark
PCS_v2.1.1 Brushed Metal Grate Small Circular Dark Industrialized
PCS_v2.1.1 Brushed_Metal_Grate_Small_Dark_Industrialized_Android
PCS_v2.1.1 Brushed_Metal_Grate_Small_Dark_Industrialized_Android_v2
PCS_v2.1.1 Brushed_Metal_Grate_Small_Light_Industrialized_Android_v2

Neo3D said:
First of all, major thanks to JsChiSurf for his amazing work on this port!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=877003
This is a separate thread for themes of this mod.
I've always wanted a clean, slick looking shade on the notifications pull down and thanks to JsChiSurf, it's pretty easy to theme it.
Here are two that I made today. I haven't gotten around to skinning the buttons yet though.
Try these, static images don't do them justice, it's neat seeing the way they move. For more details on flashing these, please refer for JsChiSurf's thread above. These contain the 2.1.1 services jar.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wrong section to post this in, however, nice MOD.

Hi. How do i go about installing this mod please?

Jason Black said:
Hi. How do i go about installing this mod please?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
jschisurf has intructions in his thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=877003
since he originally ported this, it's best to refer back to his thread.
oh, i already included his latest 2.1.1 services jar, so there's no need to flash twice.

SteelH said:
Wrong section to post this in, however, nice MOD.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry Thanks for moving it to the correct section!

Using with Myn rom
I think the brushed metal version looks great and want to install, but would that change myn's black notification menu power control back to white or just add the metal screen drop down. I like the black notification menu power control over the white version.
Thanks

terence74 said:
I think the brushed metal version looks great and want to install, but would that change myn's black notification menu power control back to white or just add the metal screen drop down. I like the black notification menu power control over the white version.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm, honestly, I'm still new at this, so I don't know. Can you make a Nandroid image, then flash it and let everyone know?

terence74 said:
I think the brushed metal version looks great and want to install, but would that change myn's black notification menu power control back to white or just add the metal screen drop down. I like the black notification menu power control over the white version.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, it will.

This is all very easy. If you have done this much then you can do it all. I have faith in you.

chogardjr said:
This is all very easy. If you have done this much then you can do it all. I have faith in you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is it just a matter of replacing the PNG's?
What PNG optimization do you recommend?
Also, how do you change the color of the fonts? I tried to look at the xml files but they open up as strange characters in any text editor I use (Notepad++, notepad, etc)
I also noticed that I lost my battery % after flash jschisurf's mod?
Thanks for your faith! The hardest part is knowing where all the PNG's are that need to be replaced!

Replacing png's is the noob way to do it. But is is the best place to start. You need to find apktool and learn how to use it. This will solve most of your problems with xml's. You also need a program called xml editor. This is my starters list. Here is a link you might learn a lot from.
http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/tools/index.html
As far as learning which png's, most are in the drawable-hdpi folder. Stay away from .9.png files untill your ready for them. Apktool will let you know when you make a mistake and where the mistake is to fix. Search youtube and do a lot of reading in this forum. It seems like a lot but after a while you will start to understand how the OS works and manages the files. Happy Themeing!
Neo3D said:
Is it just a matter of replacing the PNG's?
What PNG optimization do you recommend?
Also, how do you change the color of the fonts? I tried to look at the xml files but they open up as strange characters in any text editor I use (Notepad++, notepad, etc)
I also noticed that I lost my battery % after flash jschisurf's mod?
Thanks for your faith! The hardest part is knowing where all the PNG's are that need to be replaced!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Neo3D said:
I also noticed that I lost my battery % after flash jschisurf's mod?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go to the sticky where the rom wiki is and at the bottom of that page you will find kitchens. One is for changing battery icons. That one is the easy fix to getting the icons you want into the his mod. But if you must know more, there are 3 xml files in the drawable folder that needs to be replaced to work with more png files than his stock ones. All I can say is APKTOOL and 7ZIP is the bread and butter.

Thanks for the awesome tips and info!
I found the .png for the toggle switches (stat_power_background.9.png) and yea, it must be some kind of special PNG cuz I measured it out to be 80x75 but rendered incorrectly.
Sweet, looking forward to learning more about Android!
BTW, just finished looking over that Android page and is this the APKTool you're referring to?
Android Asset Packaging Tool

Thats one of them. Here is a post made by a guy who compiled them all together for anyone who wants them. Use just the tools and use that link I gave to learn about them. APKTOOL is something made by someone here on xda but I can't find his link.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=882742&highlight=apktool
Neo3D said:
Thanks for the awesome tips and info!
I found the .png for the toggle switches (stat_power_background.9.png) and yea, it must be some kind of special PNG cuz I measured it out to be 80x75 but rendered incorrectly.
Sweet, looking forward to learning more about Android!
BTW, just finished looking over that Android page and is this the APKTool you're referring to?
Android Asset Packaging Tool
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I found the website: FWI use v1.3.1 as v1.3.2 has bugs
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...8j1-bcnOf1Rz8k9fA&sig2=4MkcxzG_ROaqAr4-tWwlGw

As stated, just changing the .png's is the starting way of theming. Just make sure you do a nandroid backup before you go around messing with anything.
When you get comfortable with that, the next step is to look into XML. XML is generally easy to learn but can be complicated at parts. I don't really know of a good starting guide to XML for android but I'll post one if I see it.
NinePatches (*.9.png) aren't as complicated as people think. Once you get the concept of it, they are actually pretty easy. I'm creating a guide for it when I have time. But the basic concept is:
The NinePatch tool ads a 1px border to an image.
The new border can be colored black (except the 4 corners).
The left and top borders defines the stretchable area.
The right and bottom borders defines where content is allowed.
Like I said, I'm making a guide to it which will explain it better and have pictures.

chogardjr said:
Thats one of them. Here is a post made by a guy who compiled them all together for anyone who wants them. Use just the tools and use that link I gave to learn about them. APKTOOL is something made by someone here on xda but I can't find his link.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=882742&highlight=apktool
I found the website: FWI use v1.3.1 as v1.3.2 has bugs
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...8j1-bcnOf1Rz8k9fA&sig2=4MkcxzG_ROaqAr4-tWwlGw
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok sounds good, thanks!

Skullmonkey said:
As stated, just changing the .png's is the starting way of theming. Just make sure you do a nandroid backup before you go around messing with anything.
When you get comfortable with that, the next step is to look into XML. XML is generally easy to learn but can be complicated at parts. I don't really know of a good starting guide to XML for android but I'll post one if I see it.
NinePatches (*.9.png) aren't as complicated as people think. Once you get the concept of it, they are actually pretty easy. I'm creating a guide for it when I have time. But the basic concept is:
The NinePatch tool ads a 1px border to an image.
The new border can be colored black (except the 4 corners).
The left and top borders defines the stretchable area.
The right and bottom borders defines where content is allowed.
Like I said, I'm making a guide to it which will explain it better and have pictures.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried the 9patch app and it's pretty easy to use (I have experience with Illustrator and Flash). However, when I replace the original 9path file w/the new one, it shows the 1 px border on my android. Also, it seems to scale it wrong. I attached an example of what I'm talking about. I measured the bkg of the power toggles to be 80x75, but on the Android, it shrinks the graphic and you can see the 1 pixel border?
Looking forward to that guide!

Neo3D said:
I tried the 9patch app and it's pretty easy to use (I have experience with Illustrator and Flash). However, when I replace the original 9path file w/the new one, it shows the 1 px border on my android. Also, it seems to scale it wrong. I attached an example of what I'm talking about. I measured the bkg of the power toggles to be 80x75, but on the Android, it shrinks the graphic and you can see the 1 pixel border?
Looking forward to that guide!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
are you talking about the background of the icons or the entire power area?
the background of the icons look fine to me even zoomed in.
if your trying to make the entire power area be the caution image, then there is an xml edit involved in res/layout-hdpi-v4/status_bar_expanded.xml. ill give you the exact change you need if you cant figure it out.
just keep in mind that ninepatch will only stretch images, not repeat.

Skullmonkey said:
are you talking about the background of the icons or the entire power area?
the background of the icons look fine to me even zoomed in.
if your trying to make the entire power area be the caution image, then there is an xml edit involved in res/layout-hdpi-v4/status_bar_expanded.xml. ill give you the exact change you need if you cant figure it out.
just keep in mind that ninepatch will only stretch images, not repeat.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ahh ok, i wasn't sure how the background of that area worked. so there's a background png and a background png for each widget?
i found this png: stat_power_background.9.png
which other one is for the background of the entire thing?
about the extra 1 pixel showing, you can see on the sides of the background a black vertical line. on 9patch png's, is the 1 px border that defines the 9patch actually supposed to show? i think there might be something wrong with my 9patch png's.
also, if you look at the screen cap again, there's horizontal white space above and below the toggle widget bkg graphics. is there a way to make them larger so they cover the white space? seems like android likes to shrink them to that size (in the screen cap) no matter how tall the image is.

Neo3D said:
ahh ok, i wasn't sure how the background of that area worked. so there's a background png and a background png for each widget?
i found this png: stat_power_background.9.png
which other one is for the background of the entire thing?
about the extra 1 pixel showing, you can see on the sides of the background a black vertical line. on 9patch png's, is the 1 px border that defines the 9patch actually supposed to show? i think there might be something wrong with my 9patch png's.
also, if you look at the screen cap again, there's horizontal white space above and below the toggle widget bkg graphics. is there a way to make them larger so they cover the white space? seems like android likes to shrink them to that size (in the screen cap) no matter how tall the image is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well theres a solid color using a ARGB hex (for the background of the power control area) and a png for each icon background by default. you can set it up so there is an image for each.
the stat_power_background.9.png controls each icon (as you may have guessed already)
i'm not sure why the power control area isnt a solid color.
when in the ninepatch editor, you are supposed to see the black extra pixel but when you load it on your phone, they should dissappear. i honestly dont see them in the ss you provided.
can you send me the framework-res.apk you are working on so i can see if everything is set up correctly?

Related

Hex Codes For Colors

This is being posted for people who want to edit the colors of certain parts of their phone. This is simply meant as a resource for those folks. This IS NOT a [How To] thread, and if you don't know what to do with these links, this is not the place to ask. I simply wanted an easily searchable resource here on XDA for those who need it. Don't know what they are for? You don't need it. Yet
To those that do need this, Happy Hex-Editing!
Dithering:
http://www.2createawebsite.com/build/hex-color-chart-grid.html
Non-Dithering:
http://www.htmlgoodies.com/tutorials/colors/article.php/3479001
tejasrichard said:
This is being posted for people who want to edit the colors of certain parts of their phone. This is simply meant as a resource for those folks. This IS NOT a [How To] thread, and if you don't know what to do with these links, this is not the place to ask. I simply wanted an easily searchable resource here on XDA for those who need it. Don't know what they are for? You don't need it. Yet
To those that do need this, Happy Hex-Editing!
Dithering:
http://www.2createawebsite.com/build/hex-color-chart-grid.html
Non-Dithering:
http://www.htmlgoodies.com/tutorials/colors/article.php/3479001
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What do I do with this??
Can you show me how to color certain parts of my phone. I'd like to color my entire physical phone blue... how would I go about doing this using these Hex codes?
/s
pseudoremora said:
What do I do with this??
Can you show me how to color certain parts of my phone. I'd like to color my entire physical phone blue... how would I go about doing this using these Hex codes?
/s
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
step one: print copy of hex codes
step two: place phone on top of large, flat surface
step three: cover phone with printout of hex code chart, colorside-up
step four: Hit phone repeatedly as hard as you can with a hammer* until desired saturation is achieved.
*BE CAREFUL! ONLY hit the color that you intend to transfer to your phone, otherwise you may have unintended results!
tejasrichard said:
step one: print copy of hex codes
step two: place phone on top of large, flat surface
step three: cover phone with printout of hex code chart, colorside-up
step four: Hit phone repeatedly as hard as you can with a hammer* until desired saturation is achieved.
*BE CAREFUL! ONLY hit the color that you intend to transfer to your phone, otherwise you may have unintended results!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hahahahaha.
What should I do for transparency?
pseudoremora said:
Hahahahaha.
What should I do for transparency?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Print it on Saran Wrap
i know you said not to ask about these things, but i thought it best to ask here over posting a whole new thread (and this came up in the search results...so...yeah...)
i know vaugly about hex codes and the colors, mainly from HTML structure, but im not to familiar with how android implements it.
my question is simple:
green. the browser loading, highlighted ANYTHING, the box around a floating widget, alllll the greeeeen; is this a global hex edit, or does it have to be stripped down piece by piece, app by app, widget by widget.
i ask because in regawmod, everything that was green was grey. i really liked that, and it proved it was possible, but i also know that ALOT of dev'ing went into that theme (thanks neb!!) and that the simpliest of changes to the theme messed with the whole lot. implying that it wasnt a matter of changing on line, but many. is this fact?
tia&sorry for the clutter :-D
Short answer is no, there is no global hex code that affects all the highlights. There are many png's that must be edited to change all the green to another color. While there certainly is SOME hex involved, it is mostly super-tedious PhotoShop work.
tejasrichard said:
it is mostly super-tedious PhotoShop work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup, basically, me and neb photoshopped pngs for days, and I had to recompile every single .9.png in Eclipse for it to work after all of the changes. I actually did no hex editing for the themed RegawMOD, BUT there are a few things I'm going to be adding that involve that when I get back into this soon.
thanks for the info guys
geuss ill learn to love the green until your next release dan
you could just take all the files of one color and batch hue change them in photoshop and then take all the white files and batch throw a new layer on, paint it green and then set it to overlay...and then just repatch all the 9-patch files...
venumx said:
you could just take all the files of one color and batch hue change them in photoshop and then take all the white files and batch throw a new layer on, paint it green and then set it to overlay...and then just repatch all the 9-patch files...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i thought the green was dictated by hex, not individual images.
im straight, reg and neb are crazy for sitting there for days and turning probably 200 images grey lol.
mountaindont said:
i thought the green was dictated by hex, not individual images.
im straight, reg and neb are crazy for sitting there for days and turning probably 200 images grey lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
a quick secret about the changing green to grey, the "change to black and white" option is VERY fast but still, took a long time to do, then 9patch and recompile them.

[MOD] Manila Sliders

Hey Guys and Gals...
Just been messing with the sliders and settled on a grey bar across the top of the slider back ground..
I have a small problem with the alignment on the slider icons.
From what I can tell.. There are two bar icons one that is always present and one that appears as you scroll and changes to the tab that you are selecting.
The The top most is the one that changes as you slid across the bar. This one seems a little larger than the permanently visible.
Does any one know the manila files or a method to change so they are the same size or move the topmost down a couple of pixels.
Thanks
Neville
What did you use to change it? If your using HD Wall then I would say not that I know of since it does all the work for you. If you are using Mode9 or CFC_GUI then you can just edit the picture in photoshop.
I used manila editor to extract the PNG of the slider and changed that...
I'm ok with that part Hence the small grey line above the home icon...
I'm looking for a source that will tell how to change the slider foreground or background icons.
Any Idea?
Thanks
I´m not sure that i understand it right.
But you can use HDwall to create a slider. Put the images in HDwall convert and than you find the manila files in the HDwall programm folder. These you can copy to your Windows folder on your Device.
HDwall: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=503511
Hope that is what you want.
Star... Thanks for bearing with me whilst my brain caught up with my hands....
Neville.Holland said:
Star... Thanks for bearing with me whilst my brain caught up with my hands....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I like what you're doing with the slider mate. It's always bugged me the way it is, and what you're doing looks really subtle. Are you planning on cabbing up the manila files when you're done?
johncmolyneux - I may be asking you to cab it
I've replaced the slider with the line above the icon. I – like you – hate the way the slider sits above the tabbar. However I’ve found that making the slider transparent shows that the two icons don’t sit over each other. This has always been a peeve for transparent slider frames.
So I’m now trying to find the foregrounds Icon and turn those transparent, so that it only looks as though there is one icon.
Whilst I’m there I was thinking of making the back ground icons transparent, so that you would only have current tab icon showing, one step at a time...
Thanks for the interest.. here is the slider if you want to try
Not zipped, just rename and remove the ".zip"
Neville
Backup Backup Backup
It's a simple alignment issue. I found the same issue when I made my sliders. I just use photo shop to make the current tab icon a bit bigger an move it ever so slightly over so that it full covers the lower icon. It's not hard just set the two images over one another in a layer to make sure it will cover it properly before uploading back into manila form.
Neville.Holland said:
Hey Guys and Gals...
Just been messing with the sliders and settled on a grey bar across the top of the slider back ground..
I have a small problem with the alignment on the slider icons.
From what I can tell.. There are two bar icons one that is always present and one that appears as you scroll and changes to the tab that you are selecting.
The The top most is the one that changes as you slid across the bar. This one seems a little larger than the permanently visible.
Does any one know the manila files or a method to change so they are the same size or move the topmost down a couple of pixels.
Thanks
Neville
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please can I have Kelly's phone number?
How do you know it's not just a link to Kelly's web cam?!!!!
Wil Badger said:
It's a simple alignment issue. I found the same issue when I made my sliders. I just use photo shop to make the current tab icon a bit bigger an move it ever so slightly over so that it full covers the lower icon. It's not hard just set the two images over one another in a layer to make sure it will cover it properly before uploading back into manila form.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have any information, like what files sit where (foreground / background)?
thewahlrus said:
Please can I have Kelly's phone number?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure! I'll have to ask her?
Neville.Holland said:
Do you have any information, like what files sit where (foreground / background)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If your looking for a list of the manila names and exactly what they do I can't help you there. Depending on the ROM you could have 3 to 4 files that are associated with each tab. The slightly larger one is the foreground image while on the tab. The others are the static,highlighted,and tab selection on the settings page for tab order.
You can go through and change each one at a time till you figure it out or you can wait till somebody responds with the list you are looking for which I don't think will happen. Sorry........
I thought that may have been the case - Thanks anyway - Wanted to do something like this for an ages... will have to mark what the files do when I find them. I'm sure I saw a Wiki page but can't find it at the moment...
Managed to reduce the height on the selector of level one and two.
I know there is a list that will tell you what each manila goes to ie Home,MMS,Email,etc but it will not tell you what it does in relation to the tab as far as foreground,selected,static,etc...
KNows you where that is?

editing the lockscreen

I want to make a minor change to the way the lockscreen looks and want to see if its something easy enough for me to do.
I'm looking to make the gray part with the dots on ether side slightly transparent. I would also like to keep the clock solid. Also not lose any of the functionality of the htc lockscreen.
Is this easy enough for someone with no theming experience to do?
Assuming you are rooted and if you are just changing images it is not difficult at all.
The lockscreen slider is actually in
/system/framework/com.htc.resources.apk
and there are 3 that start with lockscreen_arc
You need to copy the apk to your PC and open it with 7zip (my preferences) and extract the res folder to the PC. Do your graphic changes in that folder. Then reopen the apk in 7zip and drag the modified res folder over the window and drop it in.
Then you just do and adb push to put it back on the phone
You can use the same process to modify other images in the
/system/app/HtcLockScreen.apk
Changes that are not just graphics become very difficult and require de-compiling the apk to edit xml files.
AND Do a nand backup before just in case you mess up.
Awesome, sounds like a good guide. I'll post my results once I finish it.
it seems this is going to be harder than i thought.
I made the part that I wanted translucent only to find that the two pngs under it are not editable enough to remove them from behind it, so I'm left with this. I'm assuming that the only way to fix this is to do some xml editing which is a little above me.
I actually like that
If I could just get rid of the straight parts near the top of the time, I would like it. But simply editing the pngs won't cut it as I have a feeling that the xml extends the top graphic straight down because what is seen there doesn't match up with what the png looks like.
You would be correct. The problem you're running into is the 2 images behind the main lock bar are actually .9.png images and not regular .png images.
Quick, very rough explanation: To save space these images are stretched by xml files at certain points in the image to create a background. When an apk is decoded, these stretch points are represented by a 1px border around the image. This does not show up when you just use a program like 7zip.
Something to try if you want to cheat, not sure if it'll work.. Treat it all as one image instead of 3 separate ones. Make lockscreen_arc.png a taller image, and then put the top and bottom bars on it that way. Then just make the other two .9.png files completely transparent. Since it's a regular .png, it wont get stretched. I know making it smaller works out, so I'm assuming you could also make it larger.
Edit: Just thought about it some more, and that might not work, because if I had to guess, the Verizon and date text are probably set up in the xml relative to that image.
I'll mess around a little more today and see if I can't come up with something.
i also would like to do this but not the stock lock screen but this one..
To look like this...
Just the green and yellow to blue..
If all else fails, you could use the theme kitchen (http://uot.dakra.lt/kitchen). It'll allow basic changes to the whole theme (specifically the lockscreen).
Dude this thread is almost a year old and some people like to do stuff manually

[Q] Background Colors - SMS, Conversation History...

I know this is probably petty, but for me it's sort of a big deal.
I like light characters on a black screen, especially at night. There are flashlight apps to turn the screen white because it's bright and at night I would prefer to have a black screen.
Is there a way to change the conversation history to black, and lso for the background behind the balloons in an SMS?
Is there a ROM that has an option for this?
Thanks for the help!
Go sms. Totally customizable. Backgrounds, fonts, font colors, etc
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk
Ends said:
Go sms. Totally customizable. Backgrounds, fonts, font colors, etc
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Handcent will let you do this too.
If you get GoSMS Pro, grab the Theme builder in the market as well. It will allow you to totally create your own theme.
liquidzoo said:
Handcent will let you do this too.
If you get GoSMS Pro, grab the Theme builder in the market as well. It will allow you to totally create your own theme.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I should have included that I've tried all those. Yes, they're good and very customizable. But I've not been able to get them to work seamlessly and to replace the stock messaging. One of those my keyboard does't display properly with and simple other things. Plus I really like how I can go to messages and slide to the right to call. That's the easiest way to call people. That's my favorite feature and no one else has that.
What's so hard about changing the stock messaging to black with white text? lol At one point there was a night mode that made the conversation history black, but not now.
One question... For example a lock screen. There are different ones to install. Is there a different messaging to install to replace stock that someone has added things to? I don't even know if it's possible to replace messaging or not. I don't really want to install another app... I've just not had the best luck with them having the right feel.
Firstly, are you on GB or ICS? And which ROM?
If GB, you could swap out the AT&T mms.apk with the Rogers version, as they use a dark charcoal background behind matte blue and yellow bubbles (was always my favorite). Or you could try the mms.apk that Sean used to include in his GB ROMs. It was basically stock, but came with 5 themes. If you're on NexusMod GB, somewhere in the thread R4INS posted a CM7 mms.apk which has a light and dark theme.
If you're on an AOSP ICS (which I know you're not since you mention swipe to call), you could try the inverted mms.apk, which is black. If you're on stock ICS, the only thing I can think of is to just decompile the apk and use Gimp to change the colors as you'd like them (which goes for any apk really), although I think the important images are *.9.png's which are tricky. Or since you like TouchWiz, see what the T-Mobile mms.apk from their leak looks like? And if it works? As I don't know the answer to either.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk 2
I'm running ICS that I just flashed. I put in SKYICS also.
Thank you for getting back to me. I'm new to this and starting to figure things out. I opened the mms.apk with WinRar and found most of what I want to change. I've not used Gimp. For colors I usually use Office Picture Manager. I'll have to check out Gimp. I'm starting to understand a little about the xdaAutoTool. I suppose I have to decompile the mms.apk , modify what I want, then recompile it, zip it all back up, then install it through CWM. I can't get the adaAutoTool to run because of the OCX thing and I don't know how to register the files. I wish I knew someone that could decompile the apk, let me change some of the .png files and recompile it for me. I want to change the editor box from this almost black to black beause it looks incredibly grainy at 1% gray or whatever it is. The hard thing for me would be figure out how to change the text color to white if I had to on the conversation list. I think I'll do as you suggested and look for another mms.apk.
You said I like TouchWiz... I'm not exactly sure what that even is. Isn't that something to do with the buttons and how they look at the bottom?
You mentioned the CM7 something. I'm not exactly sure what the CM is. I have CM5 and it said I have a mismatch when I tried to restore my original ROM that I backed up. it was 2.3.6 I think.
Thanks for the help and I'll be back. I'm going to look for another mms.apk...
CodeRedDewd said:
I'm running ICS that I just flashed. I put in SKYICS also.
...
I'm going to look for another mms.apk...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think I may have just come across a solution for you. Did you see this post in the SkyICS thread?? I'd look into that one first before attempting any of the above.
---------- Post added at 05:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:43 PM ----------
CodeRedDewd said:
I'm new to this and starting to figure things out. I opened the mms.apk with WinRar and found most of what I want to change. I've not used Gimp. For colors I usually use Office Picture Manager. I'll have to check out Gimp. I'm starting to understand a little about the xdaAutoTool. I suppose I have to decompile the mms.apk , modify what I want, then recompile it, zip it all back up, then install it through CWM. I can't get the adaAutoTool to run because of the OCX thing and I don't know how to register the files. I wish I knew someone that could decompile the apk, let me change some of the .png files and recompile it for me. I want to change the editor box from this almost black to black beause it looks incredibly grainy at 1% gray or whatever it is. The hard thing for me would be figure out how to change the text color to white if I had to on the conversation list. I think I'll do as you suggested and look for another mms.apk.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now I'm no expert on this or anything and haven't done much research on it, so I don't know everything you're talking about. But when I manually swapped out battery icon images from framework-res.apk, I didn't do any unzipping, rezipping, decompiling, recompiling. All I had to do was *open* the archive with 7zip (NOT unzip). Delete the images in there I wanted to replace. Then drag and drop the new images into the archive. As long as they were the same names and I wasn't adding or removing any images, there was no need to change any of the XML files. And it all worked fine.
As I said though, if I recall (as I actually looked into trying to do this myself with the help of another guy -- I wanted to make the AT&T mms.apk look like the Rogers mms.apk) the background image and maybe the bubble images too are 9-patch files, which are the image_name.9.png files. They require a very special process for editing. So that might require a bit more work.
---------- Post added at 05:58 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:51 PM ----------
CodeRedDewd said:
You said I like TouchWiz... I'm not exactly sure what that even is. Isn't that something to do with the buttons and how they look at the bottom?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha something like that. TouchWiz is the graphical overlay (UI skin) Samsung puts on top of "vanilla" Android, or AOSP. Every manufacture does it. Motorola's is called MotoBlur. HTC's is called Sense. And so on. The Nexus line of phones is the only one to get stock, vanilla Android (AOSP). So it's the reason all android phones from the same manufacture look somewhat the same.
TouchWiz does consist of those buttons at the bottom and how they look (I assume you're talking about the docked apps - Phone, Contacts, Email, Apps). But it's also the system apps (Messaging, Email, Phone, Contacts, Settings, etc.) and how they look and act. The swipe right to call / swipe left to message is a feature of TouchWiz, which is why I said you liked TW because you like that feature.
---------- Post added at 06:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:58 PM ----------
CodeRedDewd said:
You mentioned the CM7 something. I'm not exactly sure what the CM is. I have CM5 and it said I have a mismatch when I tried to restore my original ROM that I backed up. it was 2.3.6 I think.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
CM stands for CyanogenMod and consists of a more AOSP feel, unlike Samsung's TouchWiz. So it doesn't have the swipe to call feature; usually just tap the contact picture inside Messaging and it gives you the option to call. CM7 was their Gingerbread build. CM9 is their Ice Cream Sandwich build.
Basically CyanogenMod has created a replacement/aftermarket firmware to replace Google Android (AOSP). It's sort of different than just a custom ROM because a custom ROM is usually just built with one phone in mind (whichever one the developer owns). CM is a firmware built the same way, with the same features, for as many phones as they can support. So your specific phone still needs to be supported and have its own specific build, but once you have it on you phone, it will look and feel just like any HTC, Motorola, etc. that is also running CM.
So it's based off of Google Android (AOSP), it's completely self-contained as its own operating system (somewhat anyway).
We have an unofficial alpha of CM9 in the development section if you want to give it a shot! (Unofficial means it's not being built by or currently supported by the actual CyanogenMod team. Just a private individual is using their source code to make it work with our Skyrocket.) It works rather well and is like 99.5% a daily driver.
Wow, thank you for that information. Some of the fuzzy things are a little clearer now but not much. lol
What you said about replacing a png - I opened the ROM in 7Zip, clicked down to the Mms.apk. I right clicked and copied to desktop. I opened that in 7Zip and dragged and dropped the png into that. I changed the file extinsion to .zip and put in on my phone. When I tried to install it though CWM touch it just aborted.
I'm not 100% sure, but I edited the png in paint. I magnified it 800 times and could see a perfect rectangle inside of this other stuff. I only made the perfect rectangle black and saved. The one I'm doing is textfield_default_dark.9.png. I don't quite think I edited it wrong since it wouldn't even install. My editing wrong would make it FC or not show right?? I don't know how to troubleshoot.
In the meantime I'm going to check out some of your other suggestions. However I would LOVE to be able to fix what I want. Why make a black that's not black and can't be displayed right by the display because the pixels are just barely on?
Suggestions on my proceedure? I read somewhere earlier that there has to be some something done to the png for permission or something strange....
I checked out the dark themed Mms.apk you mentioned at the top. This is what it says.
This is not flashable. what you'll need to do is navigate to system--> app, rename your current mms.apk to something like "mms.apk.old" or "mms.apk.bak". Then paste the attached into the same folder. Reboot your phone and voila.
I lost root access and cannot get it back when I installed SKYICS. I'm running UCLD2. I haven't been able to put together what to do about this. I tried to install my original backup and it said CM5 mismatch or something. I do believe I need root access to navigate to the system folder because I can't find it?
yeah. you need root. you dont really need to "flash" in CWM. Just replace the original in the system. But you do need root. Reboot into recovery and flash superuser
I did that a few times and nothing. I gave up on rooting for a while then now I'm rooted. Titanium, when I opened it, asked for permission. It wouldn't do that yesterday. I'm just going to have to say okay I'm rooted.
I'm trying to find the system directory right now...
CodeRedDewd said:
I'm not 100% sure, but I edited the png in paint. I magnified it 800 times and could see a perfect rectangle inside of this other stuff. I only made the perfect rectangle black and saved. The one I'm doing is textfield_default_dark.9.png. I don't quite think I edited it wrong since it wouldn't even install. My editing wrong would make it FC or not show right?? I don't know how to troubleshoot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea so like I said, since it's a 9-patch file (*.9.png), I'm not sure if you can just edit the image and throw it back in there. I'm guessing that Paint only recognizes it as a *.png, and so saves it as such. 9-patch images need to be recompiled, as far as I know. So that might've screwed you up, even if you installed it right.
CodeRedDewd said:
What you said about replacing a png - I opened the ROM in 7Zip, clicked down to the Mms.apk. I right clicked and copied to desktop. I opened that in 7Zip and dragged and dropped the png into that. I changed the file extinsion to .zip and put in on my phone. When I tried to install it though CWM touch it just aborted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So about installing it. Everything above sounds like the correct process EXCEPT for changing the file extension. A CWM flashable zip isn't just any old zip file. It's has a certain structure to it and includes a script file that tells CWM exactly what to do with the information contained inside the zip. With a system apk, all you need to do is get the file on your phone somehow (microSD, USB cable, Dropbox, etc.), and then copy and paste it into the /system/app directory, afterwards setting its permissions to rw-r--r--. To do this, yes you will need root access. It shouldn't be that hard to just root again if you lost it somehow. Or judging by your last post, you may have successfully rooted again.
CodeRedDewd said:
I checked out the dark themed Mms.apk you mentioned at the top. This is what it says.
This is not flashable. what you'll need to do is navigate to system--> app, rename your current mms.apk to something like "mms.apk.old" or "mms.apk.bak". Then paste the attached into the same folder. Reboot your phone and voila.
I lost root access and cannot get it back when I installed SKYICS. I'm running UCLD2. I haven't been able to put together what to do about this. I tried to install my original backup and it said CM5 mismatch or something. I do believe I need root access to navigate to the system folder because I can't find it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which brings us back to this mms.apk. Definitely give this app another shot using the above method once you obtain root again. You will need an app such as Root Explorer, which can be downloaded from the Market.
As far as restoring your backup, the error you received was an MD5 checksum mismatch error. You can Google what MD5 means, and possible reasons why CWM gave you that error. I think it gives it to you sometimes when you rename a backup file and put a space in the file name.
I'll have to research that MD5 thing...
I got the Mms.apk copied to the right directory and my changes worked. I have to use something other than paint that allows me to keep white as the transparant color. This is pretty awesome... Maybe I'll post my result when I figure out what's going on. I'm thinking the text field is a box within a box. I got a black box with a very dark gray one in the middle... But it's progress! Thanks for your help!
CodeRedDewd said:
I'll have to research that MD5 thing...
I got the Mms.apk copied to the right directory and my changes worked. I have to use something other than paint that allows me to keep white as the transparant color. This is pretty awesome... Maybe I'll post my result when I figure out what's going on. I'm thinking the text field is a box within a box. I got a black box with a very dark gray one in the middle... But it's progress! Thanks for your help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's awesome man, good job! Wanna post a screenshot for me? A before and after if you have it?
But if you need something better than Paint, I'd look into Gimp. It's what most of the guys on here use. It's basically the Linux version of Photoshop. And being Linux, it's free and open source... and has been ported over to Windows. It works great for quick image editing. Just takes a bit of Googling to learn all the buttons haha.
I'm using Gimp because it keeps the transparant background. I had a big white box around my box from paint.
Update: When I used paint, it seemed things worked correctly besides the white box around the editor. The transparancy was lost. In Gimp, if I change 1 pixel I get a whole distorted image for the editor. In paint, I made the blue line gold and the box black. That looked great. Nothing seems to be working right with Gimp. Wait, in Paint I did notice one thing. The box was a true black, but with a lighter black, wide stripe in the middle from end to end, as if it was another png inserted into it. Hmmm... In Gimp it looks like nothing is getting inserted and the small image is stretching all the way across with the thin blue line getting super fat. I didn't jack the image up. I only changed one pixel to red in the middle of the black. I'm thinking there's more to this. Someone posted something about a decompiled image that had extra dots around the edge and one a one pixel line on two sides or something. I didn't break anything, because I put in an untouched png and it fixed things, so it's just the image.
Any ideas? I'm headed out to watch a movie, but I'm determined.
Look for a brush diameter or feathering option in Gimp and change it to the smallest one you have. I've had to do that in both Photoshop and Gimp before to get the apk changes I've made to look right and not have that outlining that you're referring to.
I understand what you mean, but this is different.The .9.png looks exactly the same when I edit it. I'm just making it darker. The .9.png files are made of 9 sections taht are stretched individually so the image is not distorted. In my case, Gimp is destroying that ability and the image is getting stretched the wrong way when displayed. For example, if you stretch a line along its lengt it still looks like the same line only longer, which is what they do. But if you stretch it across its width, it becomes this fat line, which is what is happening in my case.
I think you're editig just .png and not .9.png files?
CodeRedDewd said:
I understand what you mean, but this is different.The .9.png looks exactly the same when I edit it. I'm just making it darker. The .9.png files are made of 9 sections taht are stretched individually so the image is not distorted. In my case, Gimp is destroying that ability and the image is getting stretched the wrong way when displayed. For example, if you stretch a line along its lengt it still looks like the same line only longer, which is what they do. But if you stretch it across its width, it becomes this fat line, which is what is happening in my case.
I think you're editig just .png and not .9.png files?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you think some information in this tutorial could be of any help? There's also a video tutorial available.
Yes it's possible that would be very helpful. I found either that or another tutorial last night. It was interesting how the .9.png files are sectioned. I conda figured that out on my own, because it would have to be to get bigger and not distort fine lines. I'll have to find that tutorial itself, because that post you linked has no links in it. I went to a 9patch website or something that had all the stuff, but it got too deep pretty quickly. In the short time I studied it, I had no clue how to even begin to install and use the program.
What baffles me is how Paint didn't screw up the .9.png. It worked fine with my edits, only it had no transparency so there was a white border. It was able to scale fine to landscape and portrait. It looked great. I totally though I had it figured out. :/ Have you looked at how to do .9.png files?
CodeRedDewd said:
Yes it's possible that would be very helpful. I found either that or another tutorial last night. It was interesting how the .9.png files are sectioned. I conda figured that out on my own, because it would have to be to get bigger and not distort fine lines. I'll have to find that tutorial itself, because that post you linked has no links in it. I went to a 9patch website or something that had all the stuff, but it got too deep pretty quickly. In the short time I studied it, I had no clue how to even begin to install and use the program.
What baffles me is how Paint didn't screw up the .9.png. It worked fine with my edits, only it had no transparency so there was a white border. It was able to scale fine to landscape and portrait. It looked great. I totally though I had it figured out. :/ Have you looked at how to do .9.png files?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The tutorial is contained in the OP of that post I linked to. It contains links for all the tools you need and a short description of the process to follow. And then I think the video tutorial might just guide you through the OP of that first link.
But yea, that's really interesting how Paint worked so well. Did you happen to take any screenshots of the Paint-edited apk running on your phone?
And no, I actually have never looked into editing .9.png files. Didn't really even know how they worked until you explained them a little bit in one of the above posts.
I attached an image. I'm not sure if it's going to show up in the post as an image; we'll see.
There is a white box around what is suppose to be shown as the editor. In the center of the black box it's not true black as the black surrounding it that I changed in the .9.png. The center must be another image.
I'm thinking I'm just going to make the white black, find the other gray images the buttons are on and make that one black. Who needs transparancy when it's all black, which is what I want anyway. lol
I'm going to look into the 9patch some more... It just seems so complicated with how to install and get working. It would be nice to work with someone who is actively editing .9.png's to get me on track....
Do you have an interest in editing those png's? lol

notification bar icons?

Is there a way to change the color of the icons and clock in notification bar. I'm looking to make them yellow
ubigdumy said:
Is there a way to change the color of the icons and clock in notification bar. I'm looking to make them yellow
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could try Team EOS3 JellyBean ROM. I believe it has some options for changing the color of the status and notification bar icons and clock.
I tried that rom for a bit but I use my tablet for too much daily stuff to stick with it until it gets a little less buggy, great build though. I wonder if it is possible to pull out that part of it and port to ICS.
You'll probably have to decompile the framework-res.apk
Edit some XML and or png
baseballfanz said:
You'll probably have to decompile the framework-res.apk
Edit some XML and or png
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was thinking that and I was going to use a zip someone has here for the back, home, menu, and recent apps and just change image in there but don't know about images on other side like clock, sd card, batteries, etc... I never tried anything from scratch like that and don't think I am knowledgeable enough. I have read guide on how to theme and have the programs but I am not a developer so some of it gets confusing. Any ideas on a zip out there that have those in it that I can redo would be great.
ubigdumy said:
I was thinking that and I was going to use a zip someone has here for the back, home, menu, and recent apps and just change image in there but don't know about images on other side like clock, sd card, batteries, etc... I never tried anything from scratch like that and don't think I am knowledgeable enough. I have read guide on how to theme and have the programs but I am not a developer so some of it gets confusing. Any ideas on a zip out there that have those in it that I can redo would be great.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Everything there except the clock can be done with simple png edits. To get all the batteries right without going throught each of them individually throw it through photoshop in batch sort of thing. The clock is the only thing which is done in xml
mrevankyle said:
Everything there except the clock can be done with simple png edits. To get all the batteries right without going throught each of them individually throw it through photoshop in batch sort of thing. The clock is the only thing which is done in xml
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
DO you know what xml is to be edited to change the notification clock to blue?
wolfspirit68 said:
DO you know what xml is to be edited to change the notification clock to blue?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I havent really done much actuall xml editing but i did some googling and this thread seams to explain it pretty well
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1800049

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