Database Info

[Beta] Win86emu: Running x86 apps on WinRT devices

The project is abandoned.
As I no longer own a Windows RT device and I'm not willing to use Windows RT anymore, unless Microsoft would make it more open (at least to run your own desktop apps) - I've decided to stop working on this project.
As usual I'm publishing complete sources of this tool. Feel free to use them in your own projects or to continue developing this one - only leave my copyrights somewhere.
Don't ask me how to build the sources or to explain anything in them. Figure that out yourself.
The project is abandoned. Sorry.
I'm presenting a tool that allows running a set of x86 Windows applications on Windows RT (ARM) tablets. Its goal is to support all apps except for those that:
- require much CPU power,
- use complex features that were cut out from WinRT like D3D9 extensions or OpenGL,
- require drivers or specific services,
- make heavy use of COM interfaces,
- use undocumented windows internals,
- apps that use .NET framework,
- x86 Metro apps,
- 16 or 64 bit Windows programs,
- buggy apps that require special workarounds.
The tool is currently on a beta stage, so don't expect much from it. It is far from being complete, but at least it runs something.
Current version: 0.061
Just a minor update. The project is not dead, I just had no time to continue the development.
Attached the fixed ntdll.nt.dll that works under Windows RT 8.1 (Microsoft removed some NTDLL exports, so I had to add more stubs). This fix is not needed on RT 8.0.
To install it: extract the attached 0.061-ntdll.nt.dll.zip to c:\x86node\windows\SystemNT\ overwriting the existing file.
Autostarting x86 programs does not work on RT 8.1 ("can't install CreateProcessInternal hook"). I'll look on this later.
Don't ask on jailbreaking the 8.1 beta in this thread - there is a good progress on it, more info would be on release (in october or when WZOR would leak the RTM).
Current version: 0.06
Seems that archive is too big to be attached, so I've uploaded it to google drive and here
Installation: extract the archive on your unlocked Windows RT device, run the MSI file and follow the instructions.
Note: Uninstall the previous version before installing a new one.
List of compatible apps is in this post: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=40924456
Trademarks
Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. ReactOS is a registered trademark or a trademark of ReactOS Foundation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Disclaimer
This software is provided "as is". Use it on your own risk. I make no warranties as to performance, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or any other warranties whether expressed or implied. No oral or electronic communication with me shall create a warranty of any kind. Under no circumstances should I be liable for direct, indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages resulting from the use, misuse, or inability to use this software, even if I has been advised of the possibility of such damages.
I'm trying my best to make the software working, but I can't guarantee that it is free from defects.
All beta versions of this tool would be freeware. You may freely use it for your own, embed it into your tool, but you can't use it commercially without my confirmation. You can disassemble, analyze or modify this tool for yourself - later I'll provide SDK and document its internals. The only thing that is prohibited is changing embedded copyright notices. I reserve the right of making the project commercial, but this does not mean that this would ever happen.
This software contains unmodified binaries from the ReactOS project: a registry editor, cmd.exe, ole32.dll to name the few. Those binaries are left unmodified and are covered by LGPL license. Future versions may contain redistributable binaries provided by Microsoft and/or other companies.
Some more information may be found in my blog. If you want to support development - use the link or press the button on the left side of the post.

Changes:
15 may 2013: DInput and DInput8 changes for Fallout2 keyboard compatibility.
12 may 2013: A minor update. Fallout 2 now works, tested on Russian version from 1C.
01 may 2013: Added the ability to automatically launch x86 applications. Added the shell32 interfaces - so that installers now work (at least NSIS and InstallShield installers are known to be working).
05 apr 2013: Fixed a few bugs.
04 apr 2013: Uploaded a new build after a long delay. Now emulator supports 256-color modes. But due to a limitation on an updated Nvidia driver - 640x480 and 800x600 display modes are no longer supported on Windows RT. You'll see the black lines to the right and bottom of the screen if the program tries to set such mode.
25 feb 2013: The tool now outputs its version to log. Now one x86 program may launch another - so some of the installers and, for example, 7Z GUI frontend can now run under emulation. Added ~80 DLLs. Some of them are stubs (like D3D9.DLL), others are mostly untested. I have not done all that I've planned for this build, publishing it just as an update to show that the work is going on. Do not expect it to run much more than the previous build.
13 feb 2013: more informative errors from launcher. Emulator now supports program paths with spaces. EXE files with relocations are now processed correctly. Some bugfixes in kernel32 and advapi32.
11 feb 2013: fixed a typo in winmm.dll emulation, now pinball has sound. Also updated the launcher.
10 feb 2013: now the program reached the beta stage.
Known problems
No D3D and most of COM interfaces. Lots of programs would crash, don't run or have different issues.
Notes:
The program keeps its settings in the HKCU\Software\x86node\Settings registry key. Supported REG_SZ (string) values are:
DosboxCore: "dynamic", "simple" or "normal". Dynamic is the default as it is the fastest, but the most buggy core.
LogFile: path to the log file. If not present - log file is %temp%\win86emu.log
Supported REG_DWORD values:
LogLevel: 0=no log (default), 4=max logging
added 13 feb 2013: now default log level is 2: warnings+errors, so you don't need to edit registry
There are several compatibility hacks that may be useful. Compatibility settings are stored in HKCU\Software\x86node\Compatibility\[filename.exe] key. "filename.exe" - a name of the emulated EXE file without path. All values are DWORD:
SetProcessAffinityMask = bitmask. Specify which CPUs to use for running a program, read SetProcessAffinityMask description in MSDN. 0 or unset == run on all cores.
NoRaiseException = 1. RaiseException would just return. Now exceptions are emulated correctly, so this hack is no longer needed.
UseDirectRegistry = 1. Do not redirect emulated registry keys to HKCU\Software\x86node. Be careful when using it.
MaxProcessorFeaturePresent = max processor feature number that is "supported". See the IsProcessorFeaturePresent function in MSDN. All requests for the value above specified would return 0. Default: 0 (IsProcessorFeaturePresent always returns 0).
SimulateAdminRights = 1. Lie to installers that call OpenSCManager function to determine that it is running as administrator, allowing these programs to run without elevation. Redirect the "common start menu" and similar folders to the per-user folders.
You can fake the OS version to a running program. Default XP SP3:
OSVersionLo=dword:00000001
OSVersionHi=dword:00000005
OSVersionBuild=dword:00000a28
OSServicepackLo=dword:00000000
OSServicepackHi=dword:00000003
Some information on the project internals may appear in my blog: http://mamaich-eng.blogspot.ru, but this thread on XDA would be the main discussion place.

I may be missing something...but this won't run for me. The exe just tells me it can't be run like normal exe does. I am jailbroken and can run arm compiled exe.

That is very impressive, mamaich.

lucas.scott said:
I may be missing something...but this won't run for me. The exe just tells me it can't be run like normal exe does. I am jailbroken and can run arm compiled exe.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Reread the directions ?

I don't have an ARM tablet to test this on, but this type of development is what will get me onto an ARM tablet for the next go-round. I love my S7S, but I really hated paying the price.

dan-htc-touch said:
Reread the directions ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ugh...embarassed.
Great work mamaich. Thank you!

Notepad from Windows 95 seems to run too.

wow,this is an awesome project!

Amazing! Thank you!!!!!!!

Would you mind giving a technical explanation?

mamaich said:
I'm presenting a prototype of a tool that allows running Windows programs compiled for a desktop PC (x86) on an unlocked Windows RT (arm) tablet. The tool emulates x86 instructions and passes Windows API calls to WinRT kernel with necessary modifications.
This build is an early alpha version. It can run only very simple apps that use rather small subset of Win32 API that I've already implemented. Archive contains clock.exe from NT4 distribution as an example of such app. As I'll continue work on the project - the list of supported applications would grow up.
This tool would support only 32-bit windows native applications. It would not allow running drivers or .NET apps that were written for old .NET versions nor Win16 or DOS apps. And current version supports emulation only of EXE files that contain relocations section (this would be fixed later).
Instructions:
1. Unlock your device with this tool: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2092158
2. Unzip the archive to any directory
3. Run _start_clock.cmd
This would execute the clock.exe from NT4 in the emulation mode.
This post would be updated as I'll make more progress.
Note: This is an early alpha version, and do not expect that it would run anything except the provided file. Do not ask me what programs would be supported and when the next builds would appear - I don't know, as I work on this project only on spare time. I would not publish the complete sources of the tool, but it would be extensible by users, and some plugins (at least bochs/dosbox emulation engines and some of the API wrappers) would be opensource.
"Yact" in the file names stands for "yet another code translator", it was the original name of the project.
Edited 13.01.2012:
- added a few ARM WinAPI workarounds, added calc.exe as a second example (run _start_calc.cmd).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
heh, is this a port of the app you showed off back in the CE days? -awesome getting that ported over

This is great, really opens up a lot more things and means that we don't need to recompile everything either.

heh, is this a port of the app you showed off back in the CE days? -awesome getting that ported over
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not exactly a port, it is a clean remake based on the old ideas.
clrokr said:
Would you mind giving a technical explanation?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The idea is very simple:
- a PE file loader (load files, process relocs, run TLS callbacks in an emulation mode). Support import loops (DLL A imports B while B imports A), ordinals, etc.
- a set of wrapper x86 DLLs (kernel32_stub.dll and so on) that "look like" the corresponding Win API functions for an emulated program:
Code:
#define DEFINE_FUNC1(name) \
static const ModuleDef str_##name={DLL_NAME,#name}; \
EXTERN_C DW STUB_EXPORT stub_##name(DW p1) \
{ \
DW *p=&p1; \
__asm { mov eax,p } \
__asm { jmp f1 } \
__asm { mov eax,offset str_##name } \
f1: __asm { in eax,0xe5 } \
__asm { mov p,eax } \
return (DW)p; \
}
.....
#define DEFINE_FUNC3(name) \
static const ModuleDef str_##name={DLL_NAME,#name}; \
EXTERN_C DW STUB_EXPORT stub_##name(DW p1,DW p2,DW p3) \
{ \
DW *p=&p1; \
__asm { mov eax,p } \
__asm { jmp f1 } \
__asm { mov eax,offset str_##name } \
f1: __asm { in eax,0xe5 } \
__asm { mov p,eax } \
return (DW)p; \
}
....
DEFINE_FUNC1(AddAtomA)
DEFINE_FUNC1(AddAtomW)
DEFINE_FUNC7(CreateFileA) -- number in macro == number of parameters to a __stdcall WinAPI function.
Compiler automatically generates "ret N*4" at the end of such function.
I've decided to use such c+asm approach instead of making a tiny assebler stub,
as I can easily implement some of such functions in C directly in a stub DLL plus it
simplifies debugging. And the functions have a usual C prologue/epilogue, so that
the emulated program may even patch them in runtime, for example for hooks.
...
- a 32-bit x86 emulation engine (currently 2 engines: from bochs and from dosbox, planning on adding my own) that intercepts the command "in eax,0xe5", determines which API is needed by a program and passes it to a handler.
- native (arm) API handler DLLs (kernel32_yact.dll and so on). They are mostly autogenerated too:
Code:
#define DEFINE_FUNC1(name) \
EXTERN_C DW STUB_IMPORT name(DW); \ -- this behaves like a function prototype to compiler
EXTERN_C DW STUB_EXPORT yact_##name(DW *R) \ -- R - pointer to the x86 stack
{ \
DW r=name(p1); \ // call the func passing it paramers from the emulated stack, p1==R[0], p2==R[1] and so on
LEAVE(1); \ // empty macro, as the stack is unwinded in x86 stub DLL now
return r; \
}
...
#define DEFINE_FUNC3(name) \
EXTERN_C DW STUB_IMPORT name(DW,DW,DW); \
EXTERN_C DW STUB_EXPORT yact_##name(DW *R) \
{ \
DW r=name(p1,p2,p3); \
LEAVE(3); \
return r; \
}
...
DEFINE_FUNC1(AddAtomA)
DEFINE_FUNC1(AddAtomW)
DEFINE_FUNC7(CreateFileA) // as you see - implementation part is identical to an x86 stub, so I can use the same stub-generator tool
Some of the functions require complex emulation due to their absence in ARM or due to the callbacks to x86 code:
Code:
static DWORD WINAPI ThreadProc(
LPVOID lpParameter // [0] == orig func, [1] == orig param
)
{
__EXCEPTION_REGISTRATION_RECORD R;
DWORD *Parm=(DWORD*)lpParameter;
DWORD *TEB=(DWORD*)PeLdrGetCurrentTeb();
R.Next=(__EXCEPTION_REGISTRATION_RECORD*)-1;
R.Handler=(void*)CbReturnToHost();
TEB[0]=(DWORD)&R; // in case of unhandled exception - just return
PeLdrNotifyNewThread(NULL,DLL_THREAD_ATTACH);
DWORD Ret=EmuExecute(Parm[0],1,Parm[1]); // 1 == number of parameters to the emulated function
delete Parm;
return Ret;
}
EXTERN_C DW STUB_EXPORT yact_CreateThread(DW *R)
{
DWORD* Parm=new DWORD[2];
Parm[0]=p3; // TODO: no out-of-memory checking for now
Parm[1]=p4;
DWORD StackSize=p2;
if(StackSize)
StackSize+=1024*1024; // I reserve some space for my own needs (debugging)
else
StackSize=2*1024*1024; // TODO: I don't support autogrow stacks, so reserve 2 Mb
DWORD t=(DWORD)CreateThread((LPSECURITY_ATTRIBUTES)p1,StackSize,ThreadProc,Parm,p5,(LPDWORD)p6);
LEAVE(6);
return t;
}
Some of the COM interfaces are already implemented, for example DirectDraw and DirectSound, though not heavily debugged. On a desktop emulator build I can already run "Heroes of might and magic 3" and old WinRAR, but there are several RT-specific OS limitations I need to bypass before making them run on ARM. Current work in progress is: overcoming the RT limitations, manually implementing the API functions that callback to a program code (like CreateThread, RegisterClassA and so on), adding stubs for other system DLLs/COM objects.
Manually thrown SEH exceptions are fully supported, but access violation, int3 and similar OS-generated exceptions would cause program to crash. Some of the TEB fields (TLS and the fields required by the Borland compilers) are implemented too.
I don't make pointer translation in an emulated code nor make parameter checks passed to API. As a side-effect - the emulated program may trash the emulator in memory, but this greatly increases speed.
Most of the x86 EXE files don't contain relocations section and need to be loaded on the specific addresses (typically 0x400000). This is not a problem on a desktop, as I can rebase my emulator's EXE to any address I need, and free the corresponding RAM addrs for emulated program, but on ARM - this is a main problem. So currently only EXEs with relocs are supported for emulation, but there are ways to overcome this problem. And some EXEs produced by old Borland compilers contain "broken" relocs, this is a small problem too.

HI mamaich, sorry for disturbing you, may i know how do you compile visual studio project for arm ?, i already change windowsarmdesktop to true. But i can't find arm options in build settings. Any suggestion ?

rheza02 said:
HI mamaich, sorry for disturbing you, may i know how do you compile visual studio project for arm ?, i already change windowsarmdesktop to true. But i can't find arm options in build settings. Any suggestion ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is completely unrelated to the topic and has been covered in at least 3 threads, multiple times in each, in the past couple days. Use the search function.

netham45 said:
This is completely unrelated to the topic and has been covered in at least 3 threads, multiple times in each, in the past couple days. Use the search function.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, and I've answered it here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=36644799&postcount=131

Wow, this is awesome work! While recompiling (for native speed, lower memory footprint, launch time, lower battery usage, script transparency, etc.) is still obviously preferred, this finally offers a way to run closed-source or otherwise un-recompilable legacy apps. Well done; I'll be watching this closely.
A thought for making it easier to run the apps (including the aforementioned script transparency): Windows (at least on x86 and x64, and I'm pretty sure on ARM too) supports specifying executable names that, when they would be executed, are instead passed as a parameter to another executable. This is usually used for testing or debugging purposes (for example, always load a given app under a debugger or have Application Verifier hook into it at launch) but it can be used for other purposes too. One, which would be fantastic here, is to always run a program through a compatibility layer... I've never before seen it used for a full instruction set translation compatibility layer, but why not?
Create the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\<IMAGE FILE NAME>
i.e. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\starcraft.exe
Then create a REG_SZ (String) value under that key called "Debugger" and set the value to the full path of the program you want to host the executable.
i.e. C:\Program Files\x86_peldr\peldr.exe
Source: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/824344
I can't promise that this will work for executable images that wouldn't be loadable normally, but it's probably worth a shot. Another, slightly less seamless option: change the extension of the executables (for example, starcraft.ex86) and register your app as the handler for that file type.

GoodDayToDie said:
Wow, this is awesome work! While recompiling (for native speed, lower memory footprint, launch time, lower battery usage, script transparency, etc.) is still obviously preferred, this finally offers a way to run closed-source or otherwise un-recompilable legacy apps. Well done; I'll be watching this closely.
A thought for making it easier to run the apps (including the aforementioned script transparency): Windows (at least on x86 and x64, and I'm pretty sure on ARM too) supports specifying executable names that, when they would be executed, are instead passed as a parameter to another executable. This is usually used for testing or debugging purposes (for example, always load a given app under a debugger or have Application Verifier hook into it at launch) but it can be used for other purposes too. One, which would be fantastic here, is to always run a program through a compatibility layer... I've never before seen it used for a full instruction set translation compatibility layer, but why not?
Create the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\<IMAGE FILE NAME>
i.e. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\starcraft.exe
Then create a REG_SZ (String) value under that key called "Debugger" and set the value to the full path of the program you want to host the executable.
i.e. C:\Program Files\x86_peldr\peldr.exe
Source: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/824344
I can't promise that this will work for executable images that wouldn't be loadable normally, but it's probably worth a shot. Another, slightly less seamless option: change the extension of the executables (for example, starcraft.ex86) and register your app as the handler for that file type.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What I was thinking of for doing that was hooking the 'This doesn't run on this PC' error that explorer gives and making it call this instead of the error.

Nice... but that doesn't cover things like launching a program from the command line (script or manually), or one program launching another, or launching Windows services (although I'm not sure you'd want to emulate those anyhow... the battery hit would suck), or so on. Still an interesting goal.
One other thought for the "it'd-be-awesome" list (not even really a wish-list): support doing this for DLLs loaded into other processes (i.e. somehow get between LoadLibrary and the x86 binary, and interpose your translator). Why, you ask? Plugins. Browser plugins, media codecs (which are DLLs, whatever their extension), Control Panel files, COM objects in general, etc.

[Tut] Android one-click utils in VB.Net

Hello guys,
I know there are multiple guides like this one on the forums, but I guessed: Why should one just have tutorials in Batch and C#? I can program in VB, why not share it?
First: This guide will contain some code out of my own program (Universal Android Toolkit) but only the free stuff
So, I guess I'll start off.
Prerequisites:​What will you need?
Microsoft Visual Studio (2008, 2010 or 2012) for Windows Desktop. I'll provide links.
A computer with at least 1GB RAM, a P4 @ 2.8GHz, 128MB Graphics chip/card, some basic knowledge of ADB commands (You'll learn them here, I guess...)
A cup of coffee or whatever your favorite warm beverage is.
Oh, and some decent music would be good.
Setting things up:​As I've already done this a while back, I cannot provide screenshots, but I'll do my best to explain things.
First, download Visual Studio 2012 for Windows Desktop and open the installer.
It should look somewhat like this, just with a big 'START' button at the bottom.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Once you have installed that, it is advisory, that you download the .Net framework 3.5, 4.0 and 4.5
.Net 3.5 (Includes 2.0, 3.0 and 3.5 SP1
.Net 4.0
.Net 4.5
Once you have installed those, you should bookmark this page and restart your computer.
Then, move to the next step.
Creating a New Project:​Open up Visual Studio. You will be welcomed by a screen, which looks somewhat like this:
Click on 'New Project...'
You will then see this type of screen:
Select 'Windows Forms Application' and give it a name. You may name it whatever you want. You can also change the location it should be stored in. I'll change the name to Android One-Click Tutorial and I'll leave the default location as it is.
Once you have done that, hit OK and wait for the project to load up.
One-Click, Here we Come!:​
Once the project has loaded, you will see a screen like this (Depending on which version of VS you are using..)
You may name the form however you want. I'll name it the same as the project.
Once you have given it a name, you'll want to resize the form to the desired size and give it an icon.
Please excuse the weird highlights, I'm using my old laptop, because my computer broke and my mouse died with it.
Then debug the program, to make sure it is how you want it to be.
If it's OK for you, then let's get to downloading all the ADB-Stuff.
Download the ADT bundle from here and then download the platform-tools.
You might want another cup of coffee for this. Sadly, I can't drink anything warm or with caffeine, because I had an operation to my mouth yesterday (Friday the 07th of June 2013) so feel free to drink one on me
Once it is done downloading, extract the archive to your computer. I'll just put it in my Documents folder.
Once everything is extracted, move to the sdk\platform-tools folder. Make sure that the files 'adb.exe', 'AdbWinApi.dll', 'AdbWinUsbApi.dll' and 'fastboot.exe' are present. If they are, go back to Visual Studio and go to the properties of the project (Project ->> <Project Name> properties) and move to 'Resources'. Change the resource type from Strings to Files.
Then, add the four files from above to the resources.
Once all that is done, we can start coding.
So go ahead and double-click on the form, so that the code file shows up.
It'll look like this:
Type in the following over Public Class Form1:
Code:
Imports System.IO
Imports System.Threading
Imports System.Windows.Forms.DialogResult
Now, as this program is supposedly going to be used by others, probably people without knowledge of coding, and therefore people without ADB, etc., we want the program to look for our files and copy them if necessary.
We want to do this right at the beginning of the program, so we'll do it the Form1 Load Event.
Type the following code:
Code:
If Not Directory.Exists("ADB") Then
Directory.CreateDirectory("ADB")
Else
If Not File.Exists("ADB\adb.exe") Then
File.WriteAllBytes("ADB\adb.exe", My.Resources.adb)
End If
If Not File.Exists("ADB\AdbWinApi.dll") Then
File.WriteAllBytes("ADB\AdbWinApi.dll", My.Resources.AdbWinApi)
End If
If Not File.Exists("ADB\AdbWinUsbApi.dll") Then
File.WriteAllBytes("ADB\AdbWinUsbApi.dll", My.Resources.AdbWinUsbApi)
End If
If Not File.Exists("ADB\fastboot.exe") Then
File.WriteAllBytes("ADB\fastboot.exe", My.Resources.fastboot)
End If
End If
The code folder should now look something like this:
Ok. So now debug the program and check in the project's \bin folder for a folder named ADB and check if all the files were created accordingly.
If your folder looks like mine: You've done a great job! So you can already give yourself a pat on the back!
Now, to move on to the next step:
Adding Buttons and Commands:​
Move back to the designer and add a few buttons like I've done. The buttons I've created will:
Back up the device
Restore the device
Install an app
Push a file
Now, we want to create four more forms. One for the backup, one for the restore, one for the install app and one for pushing a file.
Hit CTRL+SHIFT+A to add new items.
You can name the forms however you want.
I created some with pretty self-explaining names:
Now, double-click on each button in Form1 to create a new code block in the code file.
Once you have done that, copy the following codes into each code block.
Button1_Click
Code:
Backup.Show()
Me.Hide()
Button2_Click
Code:
Restore.Show()
Me.Hide()
Button3_Click
Code:
Install.Show()
Me.Hide()
Button4_Click
Code:
Push.Show()
Me.Hide()
Now open up the Backup form. We'll start here. You can close the Form1-files.
Start designing the form as you wish. Here's how I've done it:
If you're using the same design as me, you might want to use the same code.
NOTE: I rarely use the .Net components in the Toolbox. Only for static operations. For things like dialog boxes, I use pure code.
This is working code. I have debugged and tested!
Code:
Imports System.IO
Public Class Backup
Private Sub Backup_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
TextBox2.Text = "Backup_From_" & Date.Now.ToShortTimeString
If Not Directory.Exists(TextBox1.Text) Then
Directory.CreateDirectory(TextBox1.Text)
End If
End Sub
Private Sub Backup_FormClosing(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.FormClosing
Form1.Show()
End Sub
Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim FolderBrowse As New FolderBrowserDialog
FolderBrowse.Description = "Select the destination of where you wish your backup to be saved to." _
& "Note: Please do not choose locations with spaces in the directories. These may cause errors!"
FolderBrowse.ShowNewFolderButton = True
Dim DialogRes As DialogResult = FolderBrowse.ShowDialog
If DialogRes = Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK Then
TextBox1.Text = FolderBrowse.SelectedPath
End If
End Sub
Private Sub Button2_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button2.Click
Shell("""ADB\adb.exe"" backup -f" & TextBox1.Text & "\" & TextBox2.Text & "-apk -system -full -all", AppWinStyle.NormalFocus, True, 30000)
End Sub
End Class
Once you have that done, move to the next form. This, in my case, is Restore.
To keep the thread clear, I'll carry on in post #2.

Ok, now let's get on with Restore.
Open up the file, and again, design it as you want.
If you're using the same design as me, it is advisory, that you use the same code.
Here is the code I used:
Code:
Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim OpenFile As New OpenFileDialog
OpenFile.InitialDirectory = My.Computer.FileSystem.SpecialDirectories.Desktop
OpenFile.Multiselect = False
OpenFile.Filter = "AB (Android Backups)|*.ab"
OpenFile.SupportMultiDottedExtensions = False
OpenFile.Title = "Select the Android Backup (*.ab) file to restore your device from..."
Dim DialogRes As DialogResult = OpenFile.ShowDialog()
If DialogRes = Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK Then
TextBox1.Text = OpenFile.FileName
End If
End Sub
Private Sub Button2_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button2.Click
Shell("""ADB\adb.exe"" restore " & TextBox1.Text, AppWinStyle.NormalFocus, True, 30000)
End Sub
Private Sub Restore_FormClosing(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.FormClosing
Form1.Show()
End Sub
And now we're ready to move to the third form. As usual; if you're using the same design as me, you'll want to use the same code as me.
I'd like to note: I'll explain all the code in post #3.
The third form (Install an App) will be a bit different than the others. Here, we'll give the user the opportunity to select an entire folder which contains .apk files and then with a mouse-click, the app will install the desired APK.
Note the ListBox, That is where all the APKs will be listed. (Hence the name 'ListBox'.)
I have pulled some APKs from my phone and have put them in a folder (C:\APKs). We will use this folder to list all the available APKs in the listbox.
But before we do that, here is the code for the form. Again, nothing is imported here.
Code:
Private Sub Install_FormClosing(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.FormClosing
Form1.Show()
End Sub
Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim FolderBrowse As New FolderBrowserDialog
FolderBrowse.Description = "Select the folder containing your APK files."
FolderBrowse.RootFolder = Environment.SpecialFolder.DesktopDirectory
FolderBrowse.ShowNewFolderButton = False
Dim DialogRes As DialogResult = FolderBrowse.ShowDialog()
If DialogRes = Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK Then
For Each Item As String In My.Computer.FileSystem.GetFiles(FolderBrowse.SelectedPath)
ListBox1.Items.Add(Item)
Next
End If
End Sub
Private Sub ListBox1_SelectedIndexChanged(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles ListBox1.SelectedIndexChanged
Shell("""ADB\adb.exe"" install " & ListBox1.SelectedItem.ToString, AppWinStyle.NormalFocus, True, 30000)
End Sub
And here are some pictures of the code in action:
FolderBrowserDialog (FolderBrowse):
The list of apps (ListBox):
Ok. We're almost done with our One-Click utility!
We've only got one more form and we'll do that in a dash! Then I'll get to explaining what everything means. Though most of it is pretty much self-explanatory, I'd rather go over it.
Move on to the last form, and the same rules apply.
This form will be using the same method as the Install form - Using a ListBox to display files.
Here is the code:
Code:
Private Sub Push_FormClosing(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.FormClosing
Form1.Show()
End Sub
Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim FolderBrowse As New FolderBrowserDialog
FolderBrowse.Description = "Select the folder containing the file/s you want to push to the device..."
FolderBrowse.ShowNewFolderButton = False
FolderBrowse.RootFolder = Environment.SpecialFolder.DesktopDirectory
Dim DialogRes As DialogResult = FolderBrowse.ShowDialog()
If DialogRes = Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK Then
For Each Item As String In My.Computer.FileSystem.GetFiles(FolderBrowse.SelectedPath)
ListBox1.Items.Add(Item)
Next
End If
End Sub
Private Sub ListBox1_SelectedIndexChanged(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles ListBox1.SelectedIndexChanged
Shell("""ADB\adb.exe"" push " & ListBox1.SelectedItem & " " & TextBox1.Text, AppWinStyle.NormalFocus, True, 30000)
End Sub
Cool! We've got our first One-Click-Utility done in Visual Basic.Net! This is pretty awesome, don't you think? I may have to re-do this thread, but for the moment it'll do, I guess.
Move down to the third post, to read all about what what piece of code does.

What Does What Piece of Code Mean and do?
In this post, I'll go over what which piece of code does. The practical thing about Visual Basic, is that it uses a lot of words used in the English language. That means: If you can speak English fluently, you can code in Visual Basic quite decently.
But nevertheless, I'll go over each bit, and that bit by bit. Of course, if you have questions, I'm happy to answer.
What does 'Imports' Mean and do?​
Imports
In Visual Basic, as in pretty much every other programming language, has references it uses to communicate to the OS (Operating System).
But, although referenced data is there, it is not entirely available to each form. So you must import that data to the form, where it is needed.
You can imagine 'Import' as if you were importing freight from another country - With the only difference, that you're importing data.
If you're familiar with C++, #includes <stdio.h> is the same as if you were using Imports System.IO in Visual Basic.
If, Else, ElseIf and End If​
What will be explained here, is the If-Statement. Every programming and scripting language has an If-Statement - Even if it is used with a different name.
Basically, what an If-Statement does, is check whether specific criteria is met by a clause you typed.
For example:
Code:
If File.Exists("C:\HelloWorld.vb") Then
MessageBox.Show("The file exists!")
Else
MessageBox.Show("The file doesn't exist!")
End If
This piece of code checks if a specific file exists.
If it exists, it will throw a message box saying that the file exists. Else, it will throw a message box saying it doesn't exist. Make sense?
But then we have ElseIf.
Using ElseIf can make the code more precise.
For example: Imagine you have a form with a text box, and you want to determine whether that text box contains, say http:// or ftp://, you'd type something like this:
Code:
Dim Text As String = TextBox1.Text (We'll get to Dim in a moment)
If Text.Contains("http://") Then
MessageBox.Show("The text box contains http://")
ElseIf text.Contains("ftp://") Then
MessageBox.Show("The text box contains ftp://")
Else
MessageBoz.Show("The text box doesn't contain http:// or ftp://")
End If
End If basically just terminates the If-Statement. I don't have an example for this in C++, but I guess you guys are smart enough to get what I mean
What does Dim mean?​
This is probably the easiest thing to explain, in this entire tutorial: All Dim does and means, is Declare. It declares a variable with a type.
I think in C++, you'd write something like
Code:
int a = 16;
Where the equivalent in VB is:
Code:
Dim a As Integer = 16
Sure, it's a bit more to write, but the code is easier to understand. Which is all VB is about: Easy coding.
For Each X As String In... Whaa?​
Well, here we've gotten to a stage, which I only learned a few months ago, and I've been programming in Visual Basic for five years, now.
Basically, For Each is kind of like an If-Statement. It searches for specific criteria. If that criteria is met, the code will be executed.
I'll use an example from the program written above:
Code:
For Each Item As String In My.Computer.FileSystem.GetFiles("C:\Windows")
This searches for files (FileSystem.GetFiles("") ) and returns these to a variable (Item) as a string value.
Code:
Next
The Next statement tells the computer to move to the next piece of code.
And last but not least:
Shell? But wait.. I know that from somewhere, don't I?​
Yup, you do! Shell is just a command prompt or terminal (Whatever you prefer). All it does, is it executes commands as the computer's shell and it gets a bit more low-level as other commands.
For example:
Code:
Shell("")
This would execute a simple program, without any command line arguments (Command Line Args).
Code:
Shell("""adb.exe"" install")
This would execute a specific file (In this case adb.exe) and would add a command line arg. Which gives you more flexibility and it allows you to interact with the shell-executable.
But the Shell Function can do more than that. It is also still a part of the program, which means it can still tell the program what to do.
For example:
Code:
Shell("""ADB\adb.exe"" install " & ListBox1.SelectedItem.ToString, AppWinStyle.NormalFocus, True, 30000)
This piece of code executes adb.exe, with a command line arg, but adds to the shell (CMD) window.
AppWinStyle: This determines how the CMD window is shown. In this example, we used NormalFocus, which puts the CMD window in the foreground and focuses on it. So the user can immediately interact with it, if necessary.
Where True is: True or False determine whether the program should wait until the shell operation is completed, before moving on to the next step of code. And ultimately, this is also what the integer (Whole number) behind it is for. The number (Must be an integer!) determines how long the program should wait until the program should execute the next line of code, in milliseconds.
And that was that, I guess.
If you feel I've missed something out, or you don't understand something, fell free to let me know and I'll it it to the list.
I'll add the project to my GitHub, so you can all download it.
Once I have the time, I'll re-design the posts, but at the moment, I think it'll do
(Mods: If you think I should, I'll do it right away! )

Downloads:
Download the source code (And pre-compiled binary) from my GitHub.
https://github.com/Beatsleigher/OneClickUtil
This is licensed under the GPL3.0, so feel free to do with it as you wish
I probably won't add to this project, but that should stop you!
Happy developing!

--- Reserved #4 ---

mfastboot.exe flash partition gpt.bin mfastboot.exe flash motoboot motoboot.img mfastboot.exe flash logo logo.bin mfastboot.exe flash boot boot.img mfastboot.exe flash recovery recovery.img mfastboot.exe flash system system.img_sparsechunk.0 mfastboot.exe flash system system.img_sparsechunk.1 mfastboot.exe flash system system.img_sparsechunk.2 mfastboot.exe flash modem NON-HLOS.bin mfastboot.exe erase modemst1 mfastboot.exe erase modemst2 mfastboot.exe flash fsg fsg.mbn mfastboot.exe erase cache mfastboot.exe erase userdata pause mfastboot.exe reboot
---------- Post added at 01:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:48 PM ----------
Plz help me to execute above codes on a button press event
I know how to add mfastboot.exe

Quite useful thanks

coldflid said:
Quite useful thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're welcome
I'm thinking of doing something similar for Java. Should keep people occupied

Looking forward to it

ADB Bruteforcer
I have made a Android Debugging Bridge 0000 to 9999 bruteforcer,
With this I will make a nice interface for it,
When I'm done, I will upload it somewhere at XDA.
Thanks 4 ur upload!

This just one of the great wonders. Nice Job .. Greeting from Mawcot Inc

dear @Beatsleigher first of all i wold like to thanks you for such a nice guide
i have some questions please answer it
1st. how to use multiple adb commands with one button
for example ( adb kill-server , adb start-server )
2nd how to print information to a textbox or label
for example if i want to see the connected adb devices and i use (adb devices ) so i want to print connected devices into a text box
thanks

zameer_yus said:
dear @Beatsleigher first of all i wold like to thanks you for such a nice guide
i have some questions please answer it
1st. how to use multiple adb commands with one button
for example ( adb kill-server , adb start-server )
2nd how to print information to a textbox or label
for example if i want to see the connected adb devices and i use (adb devices ) so i want to print connected devices into a text box
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is a pretty old thread to resurrect. I only saw your reply by chance.
I'm not an active member of this community anymore, just as with all tech-related things.
Those are rudimentary questions. If you're interested in programming, you should read up on some tutorials.
Everything you need to find the answers to those questions is written on MSDN.
Furthermore, the information provided in this thread is outdated. I recommend you check out @regaw_leinad's AndroidLib or my JDroidLib The documentation for both of these libraries can be found on my website.
Good luck with programming. Just don't read these tutorials and documentations and go from there.
Depending on which language you want to use, read the maintainer's website (e.g.: MSDN, or Oracle's JavaDoc) and read their tutorials. They'll teach you the basics, best practises, dos and donts, and more.
NOTE: I will not be providing support for this tutorial any longer. I have since moved on, and don't see any value in helping people make their lives more complicated than necessary. There are plenty libraries out there which allow you to do much more than I showed in this tutorial, and are easier for beginners, as they show you the best-practises of the language anyway.

A few command line utilities for RT

So not to clutter up an 'apps' list, I am putting together pieces to enable my surface rt to have more functionality available for on device scripting and a put together a few utilities to fill some areas I think (?) were missing. I might use these from scripts, nodejs, powershell or anywhere else I might launch processes.
So for starters I made :
csnotify - A utility to simulate the toast notification banners (like what you see for weather or new mail alerts). Unfortunately the api used to actual system notifications are c++ sdk binaries which i can't use, so this is as close a clone as i could make. The options are many and explained in a readme file in the zip.
naudiocon - a simple console mp3 file player which i might use for sound effects but it plays a song just as well. There are many pieces to the open source NAudio library which could be useful for future audio media players.
wget - a simple way to download a file from a url via command line. not a true clone of wget but you can enter wget {url} or wget {url} newfilename. run without any params to see that usage syntax.
cryptocli - a simple command line file encryption and hashing utility. Possibly useful for email or sending between computers which has this utility installed. like most ports this runs on arm or intel windows.
speak - a simple text to speech utility to read text either from command line itself or from file specified in command line.
wscon - command line web server. spin up server on -p port and -d directory from command line or put shortcut to this app in 'shell:sendto' to send a -directory- to it (using default port or 8080)
The files are already signed, but if you download directly to your device you should probably right click the downloaded zip(s) and 'unblock' them on the file 'properties' page. This seems to be required when downloading to NTFS partitions, as it will flag the download as 'coming from an unsafe domain' (internet). If you save the file to non-ntfs sdcard/usb/nas you should not have to unblock.

nazoraios said:
So not to clutter up an 'apps' list, I am putting together pieces to enable my surface rt to have more functionality available for on device scripting and a put together a few utilities to fill some areas I think (?) were missing. I might use these from scripts, nodejs, powershell or anywhere else I might launch processes.
So for starters I made :
csnotify - A utility to simulate the toast notification banners (like what you see for weather or new mail alerts). Unfortunately the api used to actual system notifications are c++ sdk binaries which i can't use, so this is as close a clone as i could make. The options are many and explained in a readme file in the zip.
naudiocon - a simple console mp3 file player which i might use for sound effects but it plays a song just as well. There are many pieces to the open source NAudio library which could be useful for future audio media players.
wget - a simple way to download a file from a url via command line. not a true clone of wget but you can enter wget {url} or wget {url} newfilename. run without any params to see that usage syntax.
cryptocli - a simple command line file encryption utility. Possibly useful for email or sending between computers which has this utility installed. like most ports this runs on arm or intel windows.
The files are already signed, but if you download directly to your device you should probably right click the downloaded zip(s) and 'unblock' them on the file 'properties' page. This seems to be required when downloading to NTFS partitions, as it will flag the download as 'coming from an unsafe domain' (internet). If you save the file to non-ntfs sdcard/usb/nas you should not have to unblock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks definitely going to be using wget. If only we could make a port of bash...
Sent from my SGH-M919 using XDA Free mobile app

Qiangong2 said:
Thanks definitely going to be using wget. If only we could make a port of bash...
Sent from my SGH-M919 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bash shell would be great, git-bash would be even better.
There's a lot of c++ projects that I haven't been able to set up visual studio to compile for arm. vs2013 and 2015 haven't been playing very well so far, I think mamaich successfully did some arm ports with vs2012. Then there's Win10 iot efforts which Microsoft may be more inclined to support officially. They seem to support console c++ apps on win10arm using vs2015 here :
http://ms-iot.github.io/content/en-US/win10/samples/ConsoleApp.htm
I have not even begun trying to set up MinGW/Cygwin which I believe is the toolchain required for cross compiling Linux source projects for win/arm.

nazoraios said:
Bash shell would be great, git-bash would be even better.
There's a lot of c++ projects that I haven't been able to set up visual studio to compile for arm. vs2013 and 2015 haven't been playing very well so far, I think mamaich successfully did some arm ports with vs2012. Then there's Win10 iot efforts which Microsoft may be more inclined to support officially. They seem to support console c++ apps on win10arm using vs2015 here :
http://ms-iot.github.io/content/en-US/win10/samples/ConsoleApp.htm
I have not even begun trying to set up MinGW/Cygwin which I believe is the toolchain required for cross compiling Linux source projects for win/arm.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Windows RT was probably coded using vs2012, that's why it's better to use vs2012. Also, Microsoft removed and changed lots of stuff in vs2013 and even more in vs2015 from vs2012. Vs2013 and 15 probably don't have the right commands built in
Sent from my SGH-M919 using XDA Free mobile app

hey i made batch file with sample commands for csnotify
p.s save the file with .bat
p.p.s i seek a bug, the -m text dont support long words

roxas22 said:
hey i made batch file with sample commands for csnotify
p.s save the file with .bat
p.p.s i seek a bug, the -m text dont support long words
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
since your parameter has spaces in it you should wrap it in quotes like :
Code:
csnotify -t "hi xda!!!" -m "i love xda!!!"

nazoraios said:
since your parameter has spaces in it you should wrap it in quotes like :
Code:
csnotify -t "hi xda!!!" -m "i love xda!!!"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, i have some problems with usising batch language

Well I finally figured out how to tap into speech libraries on windows rt, so I created a command line utility.
You can use it to speak some generic text by using this command line :
Code:
speak -t "hello world this is text to speech on windows rt"
Or you can pass in a filename :
Code:
speak "c:\some path to\filename.txt"
Or you can type "shell:sendto" into the address bar of windows explorer and create a shortcut to speak.exe in there and then you can then send text files to it and it will read them.
File should be attached for download.

I added a command line version of simplewebserver, which is called 'wscon' (webserver console).
bundled readme :
This is a console/parameter based version using much of the same code as SimpleWebServer program, but created for command line/script invocation.
The use case for this app is when you frequently change hosting directories and just want to spin up a server on some port and directory.
You can specify port and directory with -p and -d command line options or you can create a shortcut to this wscon program in your shell:sendto folder and right click a directory and 'send to' it.
If you use sendto it will use the default port set in wscon_settings.xml file, which is automatically generated in same folder as executable. Once this file exists you can override the default port of 8080 to be something else if you want.
If you launch from console with just -d option it will use default port in wscon_settings.xml also.
By default this application serves up only to local machine (localhost), if you run it as admin it will be visible to other computers (provided firewall allows).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

## PRO-TIPS for your (non-pro) Windows RT ##

Well I guess this is more of a 'list of utilities, commands, and features' that might be buried so deeply into windows rt that you didn't know it was there. I don't know about other surface/winrt users but I have gotten more advanced configuring my surface rt than I ever did on an x86. Now I usually end up needing to configure my x86 devices to provide the same functionality I expect on my tablets.
So I don't think we have a list like this and I'm sure a lot of you have your own 'pro-tips', so maybe we can compile a list of hidden gems we can use with windows rt into this thread so that we collectively can reference or individually don't forget
So here is a short list to start off :
Utilities -- Many more utilities can be found by browsing c:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
WF.msc (type at command prompt or Win-R key run window) : (Windows Firewall with Advanced Security) although they removed the control panel applet it seems they left in this mmc plugin.
gpedit.msc : group policy editor... somewhat hidden but they left this in
resmon (Resource Monitor)
msconfig (System Configuration)
msinfo32 (System Information)
steps (Steps Recorder) : this is a utility that will capture your activity as screenshots to play back or upload for others to see.
Modify whether links or html files open in Desktop or Metro versions of Internet Explorer :
Open desktop Internet Explorer, click on gear icon and choose Internet options. Now click on 'Programs' tab and select your preference from the 'Opening Internet Explorer' section dropdown.
Keyboard Shortcuts :
Metro snap via keyboard : Hold Windows and tap . (period) Keep holding down windows key and tap left, right, up, or down
Win-Tab : While alt-tab lets you cycle 'desktop' programs, Windows key + Tab cycles through 'metro' app list
Win-X : Show advanced start menu (same as right clicking start menu)
Win-D : Show/Hide desktop
Win-P : Pick from various multi-monitor configurations (duplicate/extend/pc only/external monitor only)
Console Commands
'HELP' : Show a list of all commands you can get more help on.
'WHERE' : Type where wf.msc (for example) and it will tell you where that program/file exists if it is in any of your PATH'ed folders.
'WMIC' : a very deep well of information, type WMIC /? to see list of all modules
wmic volume list brief (shows all mounted drives/volumes)
wmic qfe list brief (shows all installed windows updates)
'SYSTEMINFO' : another system info command, sort of a command line version of msinfo32
'TREE' : show an 'ascii-art' tree of sub-folders for the folder you are in.
'ASSOC' : command line ability to set file associations
'CERTUTIL' : can be used (among other things) for computing file hashes
certutil -hashfile [filename] [MD5|SHA1|SHA256] so for example :
certutil -hashfile myfile.zip sha1
Associations / Context menu / 'Send To' programs :
Create a shortcut to control.exe /name Microsoft.DefaultPrograms to quickly go to this control panel applet.
Use command line ASSOC to set file associations
Manage 'Send To' folder by opening 'windows' explorer, typing shell:sendto into the location bar to be taken to a folder showing all your 'send to' programs'. You can drop shortcuts to other programs (provided those programs accept command line arguments). Now you can right click a file in windows explorer and 'send to' programs like 7-Zip, Paint.NET, notepad++, etc.
Add an "Open with Notepad++" or other top level context menu for all files :
Open registry editor and browse to : HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell.
Right-click on “shell” and choose to create a new key, calling it “Open with Notepad++”
Create a new key below that one called “command”
Double-click on the (Default) value in the right-hand pane and enter "c:\path_to_npp\notepad++.exe" $1
To have the menu item show the notepad++ icon do these extra steps :
Right click the "Open with Notepad++" key (which you created) and add a new string value called "icon"
Double click new "icon" value and set its string value to "c:\path_to_npp\notepad++.exe"
In all steps above make sure you enter the path to notepad++ on your machine instead of the path entered.
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/wind...th-notepad-to-the-context-menu-for-all-files/
Make 'command prompt here' context menu when right clicking folder in windows explorer : http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/wind...-always-display-for-folders-in-windows-vista/
Enable 7-Zip Context Menu :
Run regedit (Registry Editor), and drill into / expand HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers.
Now right click on 'ContextMenuHandlers' and choose 'permissions'.
Click 'Advanced' button.
On advanced Security Settings screen (at the top) choose Change (owner) link.
When selecting a user or group screen comes up click 'Advanced', then 'Find Now', and in search results choose 'Administrators' (may need to widen column to distinguish from singular 'Administrator').
After highlighting Administrators, click OK button to go back to Advanced Security Settings screen.
Now you are able to click on 'Administrators' and click 'Edit' and select 'Full Control' and click ok to apply permission.
Keep clicking ok on dialogs till you are back at registry editor.
Now run 7-Zip as administrator, go into tools menu and select options.
Then on 7-Zip tab choose 'Integrate 7-Zip to shell context menu' and click ok to close dialog.
Context menu should now appear when right clicking on files in windows explorer.
Disabling Connected Standby :
This is only a good idea if your tablet will always be left on a charger or 'shut down' when not in use. If you turn off connected standby and set your display to turn off after... say 5 minutes, then after 5 minutes your display will really power off (backlight as well) but any desktop programs will continue to run. You might want to do this if you are running a web server or some other process in background. When you disable connected standby, many other options appear in your power options 'advanced power settings' page. If you do this I recommend you 'Create a power plan' on the 'Choose or customize a power plan screen first'.
To toggle connected standby feature on or off, modify the :
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\CsEnabled key, setting to 0 for 'off' or 1 for 'on' and reboot to take effect.
Node Chakracore :
This is really an undocumented bonus 'add-on', made by Microsoft which you can run even on windows rt devices which are not in test-signing mode. For those who are not familiar, NodeJS is a console-based javascript scripting environment. Standard Node.js uses v8 javascript engine (same as google chrome), however this 'node-chakracore' version uses the chakra javascript engine (which is the latest version used in edge browsers). Microsoft is providing this for raspberry pi users running Windows 10 on ARM but they also work on Windows RT.
I made a utility here if you prefer to try an automated means of installing
Install Node.JS (node-chakracore) :
Download the latest ARM release from : https://github.com/nodejs/node-chakracore/releases
Extract that archive to (for example) c:\nodejs
Add that directory (which you extracted to) to your path environment variable.
(Optional) Install/Setup NPM (lets you install packages from npm repository) :
Download https://github.com/npm/npm/archive/master.zip, save somewhere.
Extract it to (for example) c:\npm.
Open windows explorer and type %AppData% into the address bar and hit enter.
Within your AppData directory, create an "npm" directory.
Double click on npm folder you just created from windows explorer
Click into the address bar to see the full path and remember (or copy) this path for next step and later.
Save the following to file named "npm.bat" and save into the directory you just created/copied
Code:
@node c:\npm\npm-master\cli.js %*
(If you extracted npm elsewhere, update the batch file to reflect actual location)
Create an etc directory under this appdata npm folder
Create an separate etc directory under your node folder (c:\nodejs if you used suggested default)
Copy .npmrc file from c:\npm\npm-master to c:\node
Rename and get rid of the '.' from the filename so the filename is just npmrc
edit that npmrc file In notepad and add the following lines :
Code:
globalconfig=c:\users\username\appdata\roaming\npm\etc\npmrc
prefix=c:\users\username\appdata\roaming\npm
(make sure to substitute your username in the above this base folder is the folder I told you to remember/copy in previous steps)
Having saved those changes to npmrc under c:\node\etc, copy that file to your appdata\npm\etc directory as well.
Add the path of your appdata\npm directory your path environment variable. If you install global packages they will install commands/batch files into this folder. If it is pathed you can exec them as native commands. This path is also where we put the npm.bat so it can be run from anywhere.
A useful demonstration if you have configured the both npm and node correctly is to install cash (an implementation of unix shell commands) by typing from a command prompt :
Code:
npm install -g cash
That should take a several minutes to complete (hopefully successfully). When done you can run 'cash' or just '$' at a command prompt to bring up simulated Linux prompt from which you can type 'help' to see supported commands. These commands interop with windows commands as well so you can mix (see cash link above).​
(Thanks to @black_blob for discovering this node/npm)
I will add more info or cleanup as needed, feel free to post your own, if needed I can compile it into first post to work towards a guide if anyone wanted to make one.

I modded the Windows 10 Chakra(non-core) to run on 8.1 as a part of my earlier NodeJS port. By the way, I also had Microsoft Edge running with it at a time.(EdgeHTML)
I wonder if I should continue my backports from Win10

You mean other programs/frameworks? You have brought over some great stuff, so yes absolutely! Anything you have in mind?

nazoraios said:
You mean other programs/frameworks? You have brought over some great stuff, so yes absolutely! Anything you have in mind?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have in mind to backport the UWP framework, or maybe even a FrankenKernel(10 kernel, 8.1 userspace). Microsoft Edge works without needing UWP, as you can use edgehtml like mshtml for embedding

You would definitely be my hero if you could bring over Edge, preferably with somewhat recent (EdgeHTML? rendering) and Chakra javascript engine.
Not sure how FrankenKernel and UWP support could work out but both could potentially be awesome... guess its the details which I'm sure you have a better idea than me. So do you think we would be able to run (open source?) Windows 10 apps and would the 'developer mode' be brought over with the kernel or is that 8.1 userspace which would require 8.1 developer license signing (and renewing every 6 months)? Or would the UWP part just be for console or node-chakracore like it is on IOT?

nazoraios said:
You would definitely be my hero if you could bring over Edge, preferably with somewhat recent (EdgeHTML? rendering) and Chakra javascript engine.
Not sure how FrankenKernel and UWP support could work out but both could potentially be awesome... guess its the details which I'm sure you have a better idea than me. So do you think we would be able to run (open source?) Windows 10 apps and would the 'developer mode' be brought over with the kernel or is that 8.1 userspace which would require 8.1 developer license signing (and renewing every 6 months)? Or would the UWP part just be for console or node-chakracore like it is on IOT?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Windows 10 kernel & system, Windows 8.1 explorer.exe, dwm and other tiny GUI bits
I have a Windows Server ARM64 build, but that's not 32-bit

Yea that sounds daring... Don't brick your device please Too bad no 32bit gui bits to borrow. I doubt they would bring the Ubuntu for Windows 10 subsystem to arm, but technically i'm sure they could since Ubuntu has arm and pi2 image.... still would be neat. Also I think they added ssh server to pi2 but not sure if it would be easy to 'extract' and borrow.
We will be watching you commander...

nazoraios said:
Yea that sounds daring... Don't brick your device please Too bad no 32bit gui bits to borrow. I doubt they would bring the Ubuntu for Windows 10 subsystem to arm, but technically i'm sure they could since Ubuntu has arm and pi2 image.... still would be neat. Also I think they added ssh server to pi2 but not sure if it would be easy to 'extract' and borrow.
We will be watching you commander...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Ubuntu support uses the Linux binary compatibility SubSystem, also known as Astoria

black_blob said:
I have in mind to backport the UWP framework, or maybe even a FrankenKernel(10 kernel, 8.1 userspace). Microsoft Edge works without needing UWP, as you can use edgehtml like mshtml for embedding
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That would be even more amazing than a running build of Windows 10 Mobile. So you'd have a "full" OS with the befinits of running UWP. That would def. insure the future of Windows RT.
It would be even better if astoria would work on it too. So you'd even able to run android apps.

I need help for the nodejs and the npm instructions. Can you explain it out in details for morons?

Sorry late reply... which steps are you getting confused at (for node/npm install) ? So for starters :
- if you open a command prompt and type "node -v" does it tell you the version of node your running? If so, what version does it say?
- if you type "npm -v" does it tell you the version of npm you are running or give an error? Tell version or error.
So i'll start with that to make sure your paths are set up.

I created an installer utility to install node-chakracore along with NPM. Hopefully this will make it easier for other or myself to install or upgrade as new versions of node-chakracore and npm come out.
The final step in the process (updating the system PATH environment variable) requires admin permissions so right click executable and run 'As Administrator'. If you prefer to set the environment variables yourself, this step will tell you the paths it would add.
9/13/16 : Updated default node chakracore download link to new 7.0.0-pre9 release, added a 'Complete' tab with links to further resources and made UI fix

[SOURCE CODE][DEV TOOL][SDK 21+]6thGear RomControl v2.+ for Devs

6htGear Rom control V2.1
By @Wuby986 & Daxgirl
Hello everyone!
So here we go again... V2.0
Big thanks:
We would like to begin from crediting people, who gave us ideas, inspiration and, most importantly, their free time, in order to make v2.0 a reality.
To our dearest friends and talented developers, @tdunham and @DaOldMan:
Guys, you OWN this. You made this happen. You pushed us and we pushed you, and together, you, us and rom control, have grown to be what we are today.
No thanks can ever be enough for long nights of applying patches, merging sources, connecting through teamviewer and working out kinks together. @Wuby986 and I are forever in your debt.
Why different thread?
1. The entire application is different. It barely qualifies as an update anymore.
2. All the preferences are different. The way they work is different. It requires new way of doing things. Radically new.
3. new support library and new basic structure.
4. To sum it up... it's too different to maintain same thread for both versions
Project characteristics:
1. Rom control is an open source project, designed to provide rom builders with a core code for compiling android application for controlling core functions of their roms and mods through Content Provider of Settings.System sqlite table
2. Rom control is designed with consideration of the fact that most rom builders do not have sufficient skills in original android development to build application with this functionality on their own
3. The emphasis is given in this version (even more than previous one) to outsource most conditions and attributes to xml, and so to minimize the need of the user (rom builder) to be subjected to java programming
4. In addition to familiar utilization of ContentResolver to pass data between RomControl and system, the project offers additional properties, such as file based preference, URI selection preference, Direct intent to shortcut app preference, preference listing image thumbnails for previews, script running preference, automated template for "About Us" section, automated dialog for changelog, backup and restore finctionality and more.
5. The project is designed to be compiled in Android Studio using the latest sdk tools and gradle tools.
6. The project essentially is designed to be a system application with privileged access, and therefore needs to be installed in /system/priv-app to be granted some of its permissions
7. The project requires root access for some of its functionality. Mainly running shell scripts with su and killing some app processes.
License and sharing policy:
1. This project is distributed under GNU General Public License as open source code. The copy of said license can be obtained and reviewed here
2. As such, this project is protected from claiming exclusivity by anyone.
3. Any developer wishing to use this code, with accordance to the license, must provide full source code for each updated version. That means, for any new version of the rom including updated RomControl application, a link to full source code of the latest version must be provided.
4. By modifying and using this code, you automatically accept the License conditions and must be compliant with GPL, as stated below:
You are not required to accept this License in order to receive or run a copy of the Program. Ancillary propagation of a covered work occurring solely as a consequence of using peer-to-peer transmission to receive a copy likewise does not require acceptance. However, nothing other than this License grants you permission to propagate or modify any covered work. These actions infringe copyright if you do not accept this License. Therefore, by modifying or propagating a covered work, you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
5. You're under no obligation to thank us, credit us or tag us in your official postings while distributing your copy.
6. You ARE, however, prohibited from removing our copyright information from our source code.
7. You are obligated to keep the code open under GPL. Failure to provide sources for updated copies of your work will result in complaint first to XDA officials for license infringement and further to GPL legal department.
8. Using the source code on any other forum outside of xda is of course allowed with accordance to the license and sharing policy, provided the sources are kept open and obtainable by anyone.
9. Using apktool to compile a copy of this code after making changes in the decompiled form of someone else's application is strictly prohibited, as the developer will not be able to provide full open source of their version. Any illegal use of any copy of this project can be and should be legally stopped by the owner of the code copy.
10. This voids rule number 12 of xda promising a developer exclusivity over their product. This product is yours, but the code belongs to the public. You are NOT TO HOLD COPY OF ROM CONTROL EXCLUSIVE.
To protect your rights, we need to prevent others from denying you these rights or asking you to surrender the rights. Therefore, you have certain responsibilities if you distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it: responsibilities to respect the freedom of others.
For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether gratis or for a fee, you must pass on to the recipients the same freedoms that you received. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their rights.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Open source libraries included in this project:
1. RootTools by Stericson
2. Sergey Margaritov's ColorPickerPreference modified to adopt to our needs
3. CircleImageView by hdodenhof
Project requirements:
1. Installed and updated android sdk, including but not limited to:
Android SDK Build-Tools 24
Android SDK Platform-Tools 24
Android support repository 33
Google repository, rev 29
Latest android support library
2. Android studio version AT LEAST the latest stable version (currently 2.1.2), you can use the canary channel as well, currently on 2.2.0 preview 5.
3. Updated gradle tools
4. Working knowledge of importing project into Android Studio and troubleshooting gradle sync. If you don't know how to, Google it.
5. EXTENSIVE knowledge in android modding:
This project is for rom developers and modders. It helps coordinate between your users and your mods. If you don't build roms or don't have mods, this project means nothing to you.​
What support you can expect to get:
1. Code explanation regarding major functionality
2. Adding new preferences and navigation items
What support you CANNOT expect:
1. Setting up android studio
2. Debugging gradle issues and compiling
3. Changing colors, strings, adding themes, design, changing setup... - Android documentation is vast and Stackoverflow is even vaster.
4. Smali modding
5. Private messaging support - DO NOT EVEN TRY
6. Asking for compiled apk file.
This is NOT an application thread. This is NOT an application. This is a SOURCE CODE for MAKING application.
The answer to a question "Can someone give me a compiled version" is "And what are you going to do with it?"​
Project main Git repository:
Here
Thread list of contents:
Starting the project
Adding navigation drawer items
Running android app: where, how, builds, gradle tasks and you-name-it
Preferences - Part 1: Introduction
Preferences - Part 2: Types of preferences
Themes, About Us activity and Changelog dialog
Backup and Restore
XDA:DevDB Information
6thGear RomControl v2.0, Tool/Utility for all devices (see above for details)
Contributors
daxgirl, wuby986, tdunham, DaOldMan
Version Information
Status: Testing
Current Stable Version: 2.1
Stable Release Date: 2016-08-26
Created 2016-07-06
Last Updated 2016-08-26
Latest Update details:
Post number 195

Step 1 - Importing the project:
1. Perform full installation of the latest stable version of Android Studio in your environment. You can find info about stable and canary releases here
2. You can have more than one version of android studio installed on single platform. For more information please read further on the same page in section Using Multiple Android Studio Versions. I personally do recommend the latest canary build, which is currently AndroidStudio 2.2.0 preview 5. But you can always go with the stable release. Or beta channel.
3. Make sure your sdk is updated, including sdk for platform 24 (nougat). The compile sdk for this project is 24.
4. Make sure your support repositories are configured and updated.
5. Click on our github repository link on the OP first post and make sure you're connected with your github account. If you don't have one - create it! Why? because you will need to share your sources for this project. And because you all use as mantra that you can mod android apps because it's open source. So BE OPEN SOURCE. Have your name on github.
6. Once you're logged in into github, fork our repository. In the right upper corner of our main git repository you have those buttons:
Click "fork" to make a copy of this repository in your own repositories. Now you have your own repository.
7. On YOUR repository find this green button on the top right above the code, which says "Clone and Download". DO NOT DOWNLOAD ZIP. Instead, click the little "clipboard" icon to copy the .git uri and return to studio.
8. In studio: File > New >Project from Version Control > Git
9. Paste the git uri and choose destination. Click ok. Android studio will import the project from git and open it for you.
10. At this point if you're asked to update gradle build tools or anything else, do it. Wait for gradle to sync with project files. If you get errors, resolve them as referenced. If you cannot, google is your friend.
We WILL provide some support for initial importing of the project and setting it up for a very limited period of time. Gradle can be a tricky business. Please be sure to provide us with specific error from gradle log and a line in the gradle script on which the error is made.
11. We WILL know if your errors are because you didn't update sdk and build tools. And we will kick your butts for posting without following instructions. Remember, our time is valuable and given to you for free. Our instructions are clear and we made a huge effort to write them. If you can't be bothered with following them, beware.
12. Once the gradle is done syncing without errors, just in case, click Build > Rebuild Project. Once that is done without errors and it says BUILD SUCCESSFUL, you can start building your project following the instructions on the next post.

Adding items to the Navigation Drawer:
1. Switch to project view.
It will be easier for you to navigate through project files. For that:
On the left panel on top, below the android studio menu, find this:
This is what your project will look right after you import it. This is module view. By default it is categorized and to work with it you need some understanding of this view.
Click the 2 arrow icon which is circled in blue and select "project"
Your structure will now change.
Navigate into the project by the following path: Project name > app > src > main
Now you will see directories, like: java, res, assets... and so on.
This is your working directory. You will be making your code changes here.​
2. Find a file called nav_drawer_arrays.xml. It is located in res/values folder. Double click on it to open.
You will see the following 3 arrays inside. The first one is a reference array (simple typed array) and the other 2 are strings arrays.
Those are WORKING ARRAYS. When you run the app as it is now, you will see all the items created in the navigation drawer based on this info.
Please read the comments we wrote in the xml file for you:​
Code:
<resources>
[COLOR="Green"][B][I]<!--The following array is for icons you want to use for your items
You can create new icons bu right clicking the drawable folder and choosing
New vector drawable
You have a great selection of items in xml vector format.
Those are supported starting lollipop.
YOU SHOULD NOT USE PNG. not even material one. Vectors will work best with any device density.
Once you have created the vector, reference it as regular drawable in the array below.
MAKE SURE THE ITEMS IN ALL 3 ARRAYS CORRESPOND IN ORDER AND ALL 3 ARRAYS ARE SAME LENGTH-->[/I][/B][/COLOR]
<array name="nav_menu_prefs_drawables">
<item>@drawable/ic_system_ui</item>
<item>@drawable/ic_phone</item>
<item>@drawable/ic_framework</item>
<item>@drawable/ic_notification_panel</item>
</array>
[COLOR="green"][B][I]<!--This array is for your items titles.
Use @string reference, so later on your app can be translated with ease
KEEP THE ORDER BETWEEN ALL YOUR ARRAYS-->[/I][/B][/COLOR]
<string-array name="nav_menu_prefs_titles">
<item>@string/systemui_prefs</item>
<item>@string/phone_prefs</item>
<item>@string/framework_prefs</item>
<item>@string/notification_panel_prefs</item>
</string-array>
[COLOR="green"][B][I] <!--This array is the most valuable one
Here you put the file names of the preference files you create in your xml directory
THEY MUST BE PRECISE AND CASE SENSITIVE!!! DO NOT ADD .xml SUFFIX-->[/I][/B][/COLOR]
<string-array name="nav_menu_xml_file_names" translatable="false">
<item>ui_prefs</item>
<item>phone_prefs</item>
<item>framework_prefs</item>
<item>notification_panel_prefs</item>
</string-array>
</resources>
3. Let's say you have 10 preference files in directory called xml. That means you will want to have 10 items referring to your preference files in the navigation drawer. That means you will need to have 10 items in EACH array. Create 10 empty preference files. DO NOT COPY THE ONES FROM RC v1.0. Just right click the xml folder, choose "New" and choose "New XML resource file". Give it a name and click ok. Leave them empty for now. create all the icons you need for them in the navigation drawer.
4. Populate the arrays with titles, icons and xml names. You're done. You now have a working items in the navigation drawer. You do not need any changes in java files. the items are being generated on run time and their onClicks redirected accordingly. If you run the app right now you should have 10 empty preference files.
We strongly encourage you to keep the ui_prefs.xml file and references to it in your project while you're working on it. It contains most valuable information about the kinds of preferences we have included and their various usages. You can remove it from arrays before making the release version. You can have it as last item in your arrays and use it as test dummy to see how things should work properly

Run!
Installing and running your builds in Android Studio:
First of all - data or system app?
The simple answer is SYSTEM. And not just system - we need some high level permissions, so definitely /system/priv-app. Why?
So for that we dig deeper into android permission system.
1. Writing settings into settings storage database:
This permission was revoked from data apps on Marshmallow. Meaning, THEORETICALLY, that only system apps can write into Settings.System. So how come we can write when the app is installed as data app? Oh, this is where THEORETICALLY part comes in. Permission to write system settings is declaired in framework in such a way, that it allows data apps to write there if they target sdk lower than 23 in their build. That permission level is called "pre23". That is why in our gradle we have a somewhat peculiar sdk division for building. Let's look at the image:
As you can see, target sdk is set to 22. This is not by mistake. This is by design so if you want to test the basic functionality of the app by installing debug version in data, it will not crash every time you flip a switch.
This is the definition of pre23, we target sdk 22 so the pre MM permissions can be achieved by running the app in data.
Although all of you will be including this app in your roms in system priv-app, you will be working with it quite alot as you build it. We want you to be able to run it from data if you wish so. if we target sdk 23 and up it will never run from data, unless installed also in system.
You are free to change this to 23 or 24. But NEVER run it while installed only in data then. It will crash like a drunken monkey.
Also, changing it to 23 or 24 for TARGET sdk is meaningless. It's not better because it's a higher number. For target sdk it makes no difference.​
2. Running reboot
We run reboot functions in a proper android shutdown sequence. Any of you that are familiar enough with linux kernel based platforms KNOW the system should not be shut down by killing it's process.
Therefore all reboot functionality in our app is native android reboot. For THAT we absolutely need the app to have an initial copy in priv-app. If the app is only installed in data, clicking on any reboot option, either from reboot menu or from reboot dialogs, will result in FC in your face. the following permissions cannot be obtained by data apps NEVER EVER.
Code:
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.REBOOT"
tools:ignore="ProtectedPermissions"/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.DEVICE_POWER"
tools:ignore="ProtectedPermissions"/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECOVERY"/>
3. But we have root permissions? Isn't it enough?
So here is the thing you should remember:
Android doesn't give a damn about root permissions. When we run command under su we talk to the linux kernel through shell. We do not run it on android level. Android is NOT linux. There is NO android permission which is compiant with su.​When we are talking about android application permissions, we are talking about PackageManager, which is android framework system service, that grants the permissions to perform certain action. Package manager does not know su. It is not part of linux platform. It is android. Android is not designed to have root access. Not on any level. it does not recognize unix commands by default.
So when we execute your scripts, android doesn't do it. Our application code doesn't do it. We just pass it to the kernel as runtime command. Remember that, when you come complaining that your scripts don't run. We can't help it. If the kernel refuses to execute them, something is WRONG in the script syntax or structure.​
4. So data or system? The answer is - when you build and test run your app - BOTH
Can you run apps from android studio while one of the copies is installed in system? Absolutely. As any system app, app is allowed to have an update.
The most important thing is for that update to have same signature and same package as the app in system. Once the app is installed in priv-app it has privileged permissions. You can after that, as oyu build, install updates in data, so you don't have to push every single test build into system and reboot, and all privileged permissions will work.​​
Gradle, baby!
Gradle is a build tool. You can read on history of gradle online. It was not developed with any relation with android. Google decided to adopt gradle as their primary build tool for their primary development environment for android and hence, android gradle plugin was born.
Build tool is a way to "put things together in orderly fashion". In essence, android application is a bunch of files in folders. Making it into a running product is a matter of some complexity. Connecting java to resources, signing, packaging, updating manifest, setting primary configs and build related configs, compiling java, compiling dependencies, including multiple modules, being able to have several builds and flavors in one project - this is what gradle does for us.
If you wish to learn more about gradle for android, please watch this amazing video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ9j7MvGPkU.
Gradle, in a manner of speaking, is a bunch of tasks. Tasks are executed in specific order. Files are being copied, deleted, compiled and packaged as result of single button click.
Android gradle plugin comes with specific predifined tasks. We can also write our own tasks, which we usually do, for our own usage. We will talk about OUR specific tasks later on in the advanced section.
For now we will talk about basic android gradle tasks, such as assembleRelease, assembleDebug, installRelease, installDebug and so on.
1. Clicking RUN button
If you have a look on the top panel of android studio you have this green "play" button next to a selection box which, usually, says "app". Like this:
This is what will appear on the run menu when you first open the project and it's done syncing with gradle. If the "app" selection box has a red "X" on it, means gradle is syncing now or has failed to sync and you need to find out WHY and fix it. Once there is no red "x" current configuration is ready to run.
When you click the green run button, it will run whatever task is in the selection box. When it says "app" in the selection box and you click run, it will do the following:
1. Compile debug build
2. Install it on your connected device
3. Run it​
So what is "app"? App is the main of the module we want to run. It is the only module in our project. So by running "app", we run the RomControl application on a device in DEBUG mode.
Why is it good to run in debug mode? For 2 reasons:
1. Run "app" configuration supports instant run. You can read more on instant run here. This will push the code changes into your running app on device and apply immediately. It's very handy if you add a preference or 2 and want to test how it looks or works. If instant run is impossible for your current build tools, android studio will tell you and it will tell you why. It usually means that you need to upgrade android gradle plugin. This can be done with ease.
2. Running app module in debug mode will give you full stack trace if there is an error. It will be easier for you to copy the log here for us to have a look at and debug. Or debug yourselves.​
The downside of running debug mode?
1. It's somewhat slow. Meaning the app on the device is a little slow in debug mode (although now it's not as slow as it used to be)
2. Debug mode by definition runs from data. So none of the reboot options will work. So if you want to test actual changes that require reboot from our app, you need to have a system priv-app version installed. You can have a debug version installed in priv-app and then you can use instant run, like we spoke before.​
2. So how do we make a release version?
1. Generating signing key
For that we need a signing key. We already made a full prepared platform for you to run release build in our app gradle build file. All you need to do is create a signature and make some little edits. So, let's roll.
To create a signature please follow these instructions
Please remember or write down the following:
1. Path where you create the signature
2. Key password
3. Store password
4. Key alias​You do not need to generate the release build just yet. Just finish creating your own keystore and remember where you put it.
Now go to the parent folder where your rom control project sits. For example if you put it in AndroidStudioProjects folder, in the same folder create a folder called "keys" (no caps, just "keys"). Copy your keystore there. Or originally create it there.
Now go back to android studio. to the left project panel (provided it is in project view, like we asked you to make it) and scroll down... You will see at the very bottom some singleton files, like gradlew, gradlew.bat, gradle.properties and so on. One of the files there is called key.properties. Double click on it to open.
Inside you will see 4 strings. Like this:
Out in your actual key information. The one you used to create your key. you need to make changes to all 4 fields.
for example:
As you can see we used relative path to the keystore. Which is why it's supposed to be in the parent folder of your folder containing your project in direcroty called "keys".​
2. Telling gradle to use our signing key for release builds
On the left project panel look inside the "app" module folder. On the bottom of it, after the AndroidManifest.xml file, you will see a builg.gradle file. Double click to open it.
This is a gradle file for building our app module. You will see there are alot of configurations related to android build there. It will look something like this:
You need to un-comment the sections pointed to with red arrows. To comment or un-comment the section in android studio, select the section and click "ctrl + /"
Now you should be ready to build the release version. Let's test that:
1. On the right upper corner of the studio window you will see little vertical "gradle" tab. Like this
Click on it. A side window till open with gradle tasks. Like this:
2. Open app > tasks > build
3. Find a task called assembleRelease and double click on it.
4. Wait for it to finish. You will see tons of things running in the gradle console window on the bottom. Provided you didn't mess up any of the previous steps, it will work fine.
5. Once it's done, check that you did now have errors and that build was successfull.
6. If all is good, open in file manager your project folder > app > build > outputs > apk. There you should see your freshly compiled release version. Release version is called simply RomControl.apk. it is already zipaligned and signed. You can go ahead and use it in your rom, push it into priv-app and test. So on.
3. So every time I need to run assembleRelease and push the apk into priv-app and reboot? NO!!!
1. Once you run your first assembleRelease, take that apk and push it into system priv-app. Reboot your device.
2. Now look again into the app > tasks in the gradle window on the right. You also have there "install" tasks. Open it and find "installRelease". Connect your device with app installed already in priv-app and double click on installRelease. This will install the release as UPDATE in the DATA apps. This is so you don't need to push the app to device as you're building and testing. You can make code changes, install release as data and run it FULLY. Becasue you have the original sitting in the system, it will have all the premissions for the reboots. So you can build and test from data.
3. Please remember that as you build and test only the data version of your app is updated. So once you are done testing and the build is final, run assembleRelease and take the final apk from the outpute/apk folder to include in your rom.​
4. Do I need to go to the gradle menu on the right all the time to run installRelease? NO!!!
After you run a task from the gradle menu have a look at the run button on the top panel. Surprise! It doesn't have "app" selected anymore. it has the latest task you ran!!! Look:
Now if you click the "run" button it will run the selected task. If you want to select another task from the tasks you used in the past, Just select from the selection box menu and click run.​
So which build to run and when?
1. If you're building and testing continuously, we recommend keeping the app as debug in data only and NOT TO USE the reboot options.
For adding preferences and building your ui you don't need to use reboot options. Just click LATER on reboot dialogs if you include reboot options.
So you can use instant run, switch to "app" configuration and keep running in debug mode from data as you build.​2. When you go further into preference testing, we recommend uninstaling the debug version. creating signed release version and push into priv-app. From this point on run installRelease task to instal release update in data as you build and correct and test scripts and reboot options.
3. When ready to go final release with your rom, use task assembleRelease to build your final version and include it in your rom zip
4. Commit latest changes to your github repository​
Uploading sources to git
1. Provided you followed our instructions and forked the project source code and then cloned it to studio, it is now connected to your forked git project.
2. Any new file you add will ask if you want to add it to git. And will turn it's color to green if added. Any file that is not added will have brown color.
3. To add brown colored file to github, right click it, choose git > add
4. You should have the following available on the top panel:
The green arrow is for commiting and pushing changes to github. Once you push it the following window will open:
5. Check what files you would like to commit. For example, never commit key.properties file which contains your key password.
6. Write description of your commit and choose from the blue button selector box commit and push.
7. Make a habit of committing your work daily or at least on a new feature basis. It easier to follow for you and also serves as backup.​
We would be happy to talk more about gradle and various tasks, but this post had a specific purpose. To teach you how to manipulate build types and use it to you advantage. Please ask us specific questions about gradle tasks related to your build.

Preferences - Part 1: Introduction
1. Major change in implementation:
1. For this release we made a major change in how preferences are handled. They are not handled anymore. They handle themselves.
2. For that to happen we needed to subclass ALL native android preferences except PreferenceScreen and PreferenceCategory.
3. What does it mean to subclass? That means we created java classses which extend (resemble) native android preferences and we wrote our own implementation of how they should behave, how they should load their values and write their values.
4. That being said - there is no more standard android preferences in this project. No more SwitchPreference, no more CheckboxPreference, no ListPreference... None of those.
5. Two reasons for that:
1. We didn't want you to get lost in special conditions anymore. We wanted you to be able to set if the preference should restart systemui from xml file when you declare preference. For that we needed to add custom xml attributes. For that we needed a preference class to be able to acknowledge that. So we needed a custom preference class.
2. We wanted the preference to manage itself in by reading and writing from and to database. Instead of fragment running endless iterations and conditions. When our new preferences are born (attached to the screen), they get their value from the database directly. No one needs to set values to them. When they are changed, they know to write into database directly. From their own class. Not containing fragment doing that for them.​
2. Types of preferences
1. Two state preferences:
MySwitchPreference
MyCheckboxPreference
FilePreference​
2. Dialog preferences:
MyListPreference
MyEditTextPreference
IntentDialogPreference
ThumbnailListPreference
ColorPickerPreference​
3. Native preferences(PreferenceGroup subclasses):
PreferenceScreen
PreferenceCategory​
4. Slider Preference:
MySeekBarPreference​
5. Special preferences:
OpenAppPreference
UriSelectionPreference
RunScriptPreference
ImageHeaderPreference​
3. Setting defaults:
It is ABSOLUTELY VITALLY IMPORTANT that you set android:defaultValue to all the preferences that change and read values. That means:
MySwitchPreference
MyCheckboxPreference
FilePreference
MyListPreference
MyEditTextPreference
ThumbnailListPreference
ColorPickerPreference
MySeekBarPreference​
4. What happens if we use regular android preferences? Like SwitchPreference or ListPreference?
Nothing! Absolutely nothing will happen nor to this project, nor to your database and, MOST IMPORTANTLY, nor to your mods.
It will act like normal preference. It will not write to database. Your mods will not be affected and WILL NOT WORK.​
5. Custom attributes for value changing preferences and RunScriptPreference
1. app: packageNameToKill
This attribute is of type string and you will need to provide which app you want to restart when this preference changes value.​2. app:isSilent
This is a boolean type attribute, which is by default set to true. That means that if you don't set this attribute and you DO set the package name to kill, it will restart the app you want without warning as soon as the value has been changed. If it is set to "false", upon value change a dialog will appear with app icon and test informing user that for this action to take effect an app restart is required. They can then choose to kill app now or cancel the dialog and kill it later.​3. app:rebootRequired
This is also a boolean type of preference which by default is set to false. If you set it to "true", upon preference value change a dialog will appear, informing the user that reboot is required for this action to take effect. good example for that is changing the default app intent to open on home button double click. That needs framework reload.
If rebootRequired is set to true and you ALSO set package name to kill, reboot takes preference. Package to kill will be ignored.​

Preferences - Part 2: Types of Preferences
1. Two state preferences (meaning - can be true or false)
MySwitchPreference & MyCheckboxPreference
Code:
[COLOR="Teal"][B] <!--Following category shows variety of two state preferences-->[/B][/COLOR]
<PreferenceCategory
android:title="Two stated preferences test category">
[COLOR="DarkGreen"][B] <!--Normal Switch preference-->[/B][/COLOR]
<com.wubydax.romcontrol.v2.prefs.MySwitchPreference
android:defaultValue="true"
android:key="normal_test_switch"
android:summaryOff="Disabled"
android:summaryOn="Enabled"
android:title="Normal test switch"/>
<!--Switch preference which will throw a dialog that app reboot is required-->
<com.wubydax.romcontrol.v2.prefs.MySwitchPreference
android:defaultValue="true"
android:key="kill_app_with_dialog_test_switch"
android:summaryOff="Disabled"
android:summaryOn="Enabled"
android:title="Kill app with dialog switch"
app:isSilent="false"
app:packageNameToKill="com.android.systemui"/>
[COLOR="darkgreen"][B] <!--Switch preference which will in ADDITION to actual work, also silently restart app with given package-->
<!--Note, that isSilent attribute is by default TRUE. So you don't need to specify it if you want silent app restart-->[/B][/COLOR]
<com.wubydax.romcontrol.v2.prefs.MySwitchPreference
android:defaultValue="true"
android:key="kill_app_silently_test_switch"
android:summaryOff="Disabled"
android:summaryOn="Enabled"
android:title="Kill app silently test switch"
app:packageNameToKill="com.android.contacts"/>
[COLOR="darkgreen"][B] <!--Switch preference which will throw a dialog that following it's action device reboot is required-->
<!--Please note, even if you specify the need to kill app, once the rebootDevice attribute is TRUE, kill app attributes are ignored-->[/B][/COLOR]
<com.wubydax.romcontrol.v2.prefs.MySwitchPreference
android:defaultValue="true"
android:key="reboot_required_test_switch"
android:summaryOff="Disabled"
android:summaryOn="Enabled"
android:title="Switch reminding of need to reboot"
app:rebootDevice="true"/>
[COLOR="darkgreen"][B]<!--We can use kill app on checkboxes as well. Same goes for rebootDevice-->[/B][/COLOR]
<com.wubydax.romcontrol.v2.prefs.MyCheckBoxPreference
android:defaultValue="true"
android:key="test_checkbox_with_kill_app"
android:summaryOff="Disabled"
android:summaryOn="Enabled"
android:title="Kill app checkbox"
app:isSilent="false"
app:packageNameToKill="com.android.systemui"/>
</PreferenceCategory>
FilePreference
Code:
<PreferenceCategory
android:title="File preferences">
[COLOR="darkgreen"][B]<!--File preference is a very special kind of preference, which works like switch but has different output.
Normal switch preference, like any two state preference, write boolean true/false into preferences.
In our app it also writes 1/0 into database.
File preference doesn't write into database. If it is switched on, it creates a file in our app directory in data.
That name of that file is what you set as key.
This is widely used by [user=1042140]@tdunham[/user] for global boolean needs in systemui.
Please refer to his guide about setting global boolean to see appropriate smali application for this preference.
This is most useful for mods in smali files where you do not have context access to get content resolver.
Because File class is native java class and checking for it's existence does not require android context.
File preferences can have attribute to kill app or reboot device.-->[/B][/COLOR]
[COLOR="darkgreen"][B] <!--This is a simple file preference. Note that once it's switched on, a file with the name identical to key is created in
/data/data/com.wubydax.romcontro.v2l/files
When it's switched off the file is deleted.-->[/B][/COLOR]
<com.wubydax.romcontrol.v2.prefs.FilePreference
android:key="new_file"
android:summaryOff="Disabled"
android:summaryOn="Enabled"
android:title="New file preference"/>
[COLOR="darkgreen"][B] <!--This file preferences upon change will prompt to kill app-->[/B][/COLOR]
<com.wubydax.romcontrol.v2.prefs.FilePreference
android:key="another_file"
android:summaryOff="Disabled"
android:summaryOn="Enabled"
android:title="Kill app file preference"
app:isSilent="false"
app:packageNameToKill="com.android.systemui"/>
</PreferenceCategory>
2. Dialog preferences
ColorPickerPreferece
Custom attributes:
alphaSlider, hexValue - both booleans, TRUE by default
Code:
[COLOR="Teal"]<!--The following category demonstrates various ways of using ColorPickerPreference-->[/COLOR]
<PreferenceCategory
android:title="Color pickers test category">
[COLOR="DarkGreen"][B]<!--Normal color picker preference-->
<!--Please note, the [COLOR="Red"][U]hexValue and the alpha are there by default now[/U][/COLOR]. If you want to cancel them, you need to specify false-->[/B][/COLOR]
<com.wubydax.romcontrol.v2.prefs.ColorPickerPreference
android:defaultValue="#ffccdd"
android:key="test_color_preference"
android:title="Normal test color picker"/>
[COLOR="DarkGreen"][B]<!--Color picker preference without the alpha slider and without the hex value
You can set false to both or one of them-->[/B][/COLOR]
<com.wubydax.romcontrol.v2.prefs.ColorPickerPreference
alphaSlider="false"
hexValue="false"
android:defaultValue="#ffffff"
android:key="no_alpha_color_key"
android:title="Color picker with no alpha or hex"/>
[COLOR="darkgreen"][B]<!--Color picker preference with kill app option
Note, [U]you can also use rebootDevice attribute[/U], like with two stated preferences-->[/B][/COLOR]
<com.wubydax.romcontrol.v2.prefs.ColorPickerPreference
android:key="app_kill_color_key"
android:title="Color picker with app kill"
app:isSilent="false"
app:packageNameToKill="com.android.systemui"/>
</PreferenceCategory>
MyListPreference
Custom attributes:
app:dependentValue - will enable you to set dependencies upon choosing selected value. If a dependent value is selected by user, the dependent preference will become disabled.
Code:
[COLOR="DarkGreen"][I]<!--Example of simple list preference with radio button items
You absolutely HAVE to set dafaultValue and it has to be one of your entryValues string arrays
You can use any of the following with kill app attributes or rebootDevice attribute
Note, that you can now use dependency on list preference.
Custom attribute app:dependentValue will allow you to decide which list item, if selected,
will set dependent preferences disabled.-->[/I][/COLOR]
<com.wubydax.romcontrol.v2.prefs.MyListPreference
android:defaultValue="20"
android:entries="@array/test_list_entries"
android:entryValues="@array/test_list_values"
android:key="test_list_key"
app:dependentValue="1"
android:title="Choose items from the list preference"/>
ThumbnailListPreference
Custom attributes:
app:dependentValue - will enable you to set dependencies upon choosing selected value. If a dependent value is selected by user, the dependent preference will become disabled.
app:drawableArray - references array which provides resources for the thumbnail images for each list item
app:entryList - references array of strings to provide names for actual list items
app:entryValuesList - references array of strings for the entry values to be written to preferences and database for selected list item
Code:
[COLOR="darkgreen"][I] <!--Thumbnail list preference is a special kind of preference which allows you to show preview of the selected image
This can be useful f.e. for setting custom bg to toggles in systemui
Needless to say you need to put the same images you put in systemui in Rom Control in drawables
And you need to create 3 kinds of arrays in arrays.xml file. 2 string arrays for entryList and entryValuesList and one simple array
for drawable references. You can see the arrays for the following preferences inside arrays.xml
You have to set default and the default has to be one of entryValuesList strings-->
<!--Example of simple Thumbnail preference with no additional attributes-->[/I][/COLOR]
<com.wubydax.romcontrol.v2.prefs.ThumbnailListPreference
android:defaultValue="1"
android:key="test_thumbnail_key"
android:title="Simple thumbnail preference"
app:drawableArray="@array/thumbnail_drawables"
app:entryList="@array/thumbnail_items"
app:entryValuesList="@array/thumbnail_values"
app:dependentValue="2"/>
[COLOR="darkgreen"][I]<!--Example of Thumbnail preference which calls to kill app upon selected item-->[/I][/COLOR]
<com.wubydax.romcontrol.v2.prefs.ThumbnailListPreference
android:defaultValue="2"
android:key="test_thumbnail_kill_app"
android:title="Kill app thumbnail preference"
android:dependency="test_thumbnail_key"
app:drawableArray="@array/thumbnail_drawables"
app:entryList="@array/thumbnail_items"
app:entryValuesList="@array/thumbnail_values"
app:isSilent="false"
app:packageNameToKill="com.android.systemui"/>
IntentDialogPreference
Custom attributes:
app:intentSeparator - to allow you to set the char which will separate the package name from activity name in the intent component name
app:showSearch - boolean attribute which determines whether search field will be available in the dialog window. By default it's TRUE. If you want no search, set to FALSE
Code:
[COLOR="DarkGreen"][I]<!--The following preference is a special preference that's called IntentDialogPreference
This preference allows you to choose an app from the list. it also conveniently includes search field
This preference writes into database what's called component name for specific system needs.
When we want to call an app in android, we need to provide some information as to which app we want to launch
and which activity inside that app we want to lunch.
Launching app by combination of those is called explicit intent. Explicit intent needs 2 things to run an app:
1. Package name
2. Activity or service name
This preference is most useful for launching an specific app based on info you can fetch from database
For example on double click on home key
Intent dialog preference puts the info for explicit intent in a string. First package name, then separator, then activity name
You can use any separator you want. The default separator is "##"
But as you can see in following example we set the separator to be forward slash "/"
The separator depends on how you build the mod in smali for your needs.
Any kill app or reboot device attributes are applicable here as well-->
[/I][/COLOR]
[COLOR="darkgreen"][I]<!--This specific IntentDialogPreference has defaultValue set to Settings app.
You DO NOT need to set default. Only if you want to. But it is in most cases not necessary and even not that good.
This is just an example. When you run this, you will see that the preference has an icon of the chosen app on the right
and a name of the app set as summary. When you choose a new app, those things change-->[/I][/COLOR]
<com.wubydax.romcontrol.v2.prefs.IntentDialogPreference
android:defaultValue="com.android.settings/com.android.settings.Settings"
android:key="test_intent_with default"
android:title="Select Test App with default"
app:intentSeparator="/"/>
[COLOR="darkgreen"][I]<!--This IntentDialogPreference comes with no default and no separator. So default separator will be applied "##"
and it also has no search showing-->[/I][/COLOR]
<com.wubydax.romcontrol.v2.prefs.IntentDialogPreference
android:key="test_intent_without default"
android:title="Select app, no default, no search, ## separator"
app:showSearch="false"/>
[COLOR="darkgreen"][I]<!--This preference will prompt to reboot device upon selection
This is useful if f.e. you use it to set default app to open when home button is double clicked
Reboot is advised but not necessary immediately. So user will be shown a dialog to let them know they need to reboot
And they can reboot immediately or later-->[/I][/COLOR]
<com.wubydax.romcontrol.v2.prefs.IntentDialogPreference
android:key="test_intent_without_default"
android:title="Select app and reboot device"
app:intentSeparator="/"
app:rebootDevice="true"
app:showSearch="true"/>
MyEditTextPreference
Code:
[COLOR="DarkGreen"][I][B] <!--Edit text preference is a dialog preference that allows you to enter custom text-->[/B][/I][/COLOR]
<com.wubydax.romcontrol.v2.prefs.MyEditTextPreference
android:defaultValue="test"
android:key="test_edit_text_key"
android:title="Input custom text"/>
​
3. Special Preferences
OpenAppPreference
Custom attributes:
app:componentName - string type attribute to provide package name and desired activity name to open installed app. Please pay attention to instructions in code.
Code:
[COLOR="darkgreen"][B][I]<!--The following category shows usage of special preference we use to open an app based on component info
All you need to provide for this preference is package name and activity name separated by forward slash "/" like shown below
We will split the component info into components and check if the app is installed
if it's installed, we will show the app icon as preference icon and app name as title
If the app is not installed the preference is automatically removed from the list.
You can set your own summary to explain about the app.
If you wish to show a custom icon for that app shortcut or have custom title,
if you wish to use custom icon or custom title, like you would do normally with preference,
You are free to use android:title and android:icon attributes.
Our class will then use the items you chose instead of the application title and icon.
This WILL NOT affect the intent for opening application. It's a cosmetic measure for your convenience.-->[/I][/B][/COLOR]
<PreferenceCategory
android:title="Shortcut to apps preferences">
[COLOR="darkgreen"][B][I] <!--Example of simple app shortcuts. If those apps are not installed, the preferences will not show-->
[/I][/B][/COLOR] <com.wubydax.romcontrol.v2.prefs.OpenAppPreference
android:summary="Application to browse your files, including root files"
app:componentName="com.speedsoftware.rootexplorer/com.speedsoftware.rootexplorer.RootExplorer"/>
<com.wubydax.romcontrol.v2.prefs.OpenAppPreference
android:summary="Control samsung's toolbox, turn it on or off, choose available apps and rearrange them"
app:componentName="com.wubydax.toolboxsettings/com.wubydax.toolboxsettings.ToolboxSettings"/>
[COLOR="darkgreen"][B][I] <!--Example of OpenAppPreference with custom title and icon-->
[/I][/B][/COLOR] <com.wubydax.romcontrol.v2.prefs.OpenAppPreference
android:summary="Choose what app or shortcut to open when TW launcher is being swiped to the magazine page"
android:title="Shortcut to GearTWSwipe"
android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher"
app:componentName="com.wubydax.geartwswipe/com.wubydax.geartwswipe.ResetDialogActivity"/>
[COLOR="darkgreen"][B][I] <!--Open app preference with only cuctom title and the icon which is loaded from the app-->
[/I][/B][/COLOR] <com.wubydax.romcontrol.v2.prefs.OpenAppPreference
app:componentName="eu.chainfire.supersu/eu.chainfire.supersu.MainActivity-Material"
android:title="Chainfire's SuperSu App"
android:summary="Manage root permissions for apps and services"/>
</PreferenceCategory>
UriSelectionPreference
Code:
<PreferenceCategory
android:title="Select image preferences">
[COLOR="darkgreen"][B][I]<!--Select image preferences allow the user to select any image from the gallery.
The uri for that image will be written into the database
Android can fetch images based on their uri (universal resource identifier).
A type of uri that you all know is called URL, which is a web address.
Uri for database is the "address" of an item inside the database.
In android we have Media database, which hosts info about media items. In our case we are interested in images.
Upon clicking this preference a Gallery will launch, upon selecting image, it's uri will be written into database.
In your mods you can fetch the string, convert it to Uri and set that image as background to anything you want.
We use this method for setting custom image in our mod for background to notification panel-->[/I][/B][/COLOR]
<!--Those are examples of simple uri selection preference. The icon for them will be the selected image preview
You need to set title and key. That's it.-->
<com.wubydax.romcontrol.v2.prefs.UriSelectionPreference
android:key="test_image_selection_key_2"
android:title="Select Image 2"/>
</PreferenceCategory>
RunScriptPreference
Custom attributes:
app:scriptFileName - string type attribute to provide script name to run, including the .sh extension.
app:showConfirmDialog - a boolean type preference, dtetermining whether a warning dialog will be shown before executing the script. we have had this request for previous version, since users sometimes hit script preference by mistake and it executes immidiately. By default this boolean is TRUE. So for any script a warning dialog will show. Youc an set it to FALSE to execute without warning.
app:rebootOptions - enum type attribute:
Sometimes you will perform actions in script which will require a device reboot to take effect
For this purpose we created this attribute, which can take 3 values:
1. None - this is default. You do not need to specify "none". if you don't specify rebootOptions it will always be "none"
This means reboot is not required upon running script
2. Optional - this means that the execution of this script is ok without immediate reboot,
but for the action to take effect, reboot is required. if you set rebootOption to "optional",
upon successful script execution a user will be presented with a dialog.
A dialog has 2 buttons: reboot now or reboot later.
Use this option ONLY if reboot is required for action to take effect and reboot is not VITAL. Meaning no app will FC without reboot.
3. Imminent- sometimes you will want to run scripts which replace key system components, such as entire apk
or even jar files. When a script like that is executed, you want immediate reboot. Because other wise the app in question
can throw FC. Most of you from what we have seen, use reboot option for scripts like these at the end of the script.
You NO LONGER HAVE TO. We will handle the reboot for you ONLY if the script is executed successfully and "imminent" option was chosen.
It is nice to WARN the user that their phone will reboot after running the script.
That is why if you choose app:rebootOptions="imminent" a dialog will be shown to the user once they click on preference.
This dialog will warn them that upon script execution their device will reboot
If you use this option, once the script is done we will execute the reboot. Make sure you have your app in priv-app before testing this. It will need reboot permissions. Please read the gradle explanation 2 posts above, regarding those permissions.
DO NOT use "reboot" or "kill zygote" commands at the end your scripts. Do yourselves and your users a favour and stop using those all together.​​
Code:
[COLOR="darkgreen"][I][B]<!--Running scripts in rom modding is no silly business.
We need shell scripts for purposes that can vary from writing a line into a file on sd,
through replacing sound files and host files,
to as far as replacing entire apk and jar files.
Because shell scripts can vary in their complexity, we created a special preference that runs shell scripts.
The major component in this preference is the scriptName attribute. The script name should be given in full,
as string, including extension (.sh).
The code for the preference knows where your scripts are found. It will locate the script if it's found there
and execute it.
if script execution fails, a number is being shown. That means the exit code of a script is not 0.
That means something is wrong in the script.
If the script is executed properly, a toast will be shown saying "Executed successfully"-->[/B][/I][/COLOR]
<PreferenceCategory
android:title="Run script preferences">
[COLOR="darkgreen"][B][I]<!--This is the basic script preference. It will jujst run a script.-->[/I][/B][/COLOR]
<com.wubydax.romcontrol.v2.prefs.RunScriptPreference
android:title="Execute script with prompt"
app:scriptFileName="simple_test.sh"
android:summary="This action will throw warning dialog before executing script"/>
[COLOR="darkgreen"][I][B]<!--Because of the radical nature of running shall scripts with su,
We included a dialog which is shown when a user clicks on script preference
By default confirm dialog will be shown before executing eny script. If you wish to run a script without the warning dialog,
You need to specify the custom attribute that a dialog should not be shown.
We strongly encourage you to keep the dialog. It's better for your users to be sure they clicked on the right option-->[/B][/I][/COLOR]
<com.wubydax.romcontrol.v2.prefs.RunScriptPreference
android:title="Execute without prompt"
app:scriptFileName="simple_test.sh"
app:showConfirmDialog="false"
android:summary="This action will execute script without warning"/>
[COLOR="darkgreen"][I][B]<!--Script preference with optional reboot-->[/B][/I][/COLOR]
<com.wubydax.romcontrol.v2.prefs.RunScriptPreference
android:title="Script with optional reboot"
app:rebootOptions="optional"
app:scriptFileName="simple_test.sh"
android:summary="This action will write into a file on sd card and show dialog that reminds the user to reboot their phone at this time or later for the action to take effect"/>
[COLOR="darkgreen"][I]<!--Script preference with imminent reboot-->[/I][/COLOR]
<com.wubydax.romcontrol.v2.prefs.RunScriptPreference
android:title="Script with imminent reboot"
android:summary="This action will run script which has reboot command at the end and warn user that reboot of device will follow the script execution immediately"
app:rebootOptions="imminent"
app:scriptFileName="simple_test.sh"/>
[COLOR="DarkGreen"][B][I] <!--We were asked by some developers to make a kill app option available for script preference
Therefore, you can also use the kill package attributes now, silent or with dialog,
for your script preferences.
The following RunScriptPreference will prompt killing contacts app f.e
P.s. you can set icons to your run script preferences like any other preference-->[/I][/B][/COLOR]
<com.wubydax.romcontrol.v2.prefs.RunScriptPreference
android:title="Execute and kill app + icon"
android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher"
android:summary="Upon finishing, this script preference will prompt a user to kill app, since we set the isSilent attribute to false"
app:packageNameToKill="com.android.contacts"
app:isSilent="false"
app:scriptFileName="simple_test.sh"/>
</PreferenceCategory>
ImageHeaderPreference
Custom attributes:
app:imageSource - reference type of attribute to set the image to show as header preference. The default size for image is width match_parent and height 200dp.
This is just one of those little things we made for fun, but it ended up being @tdunham 's favourite toy
Code:
[COLOR="DarkGreen"][I]<!--This is one of those little bonus thingies what we made for our beta-testers
and you all get to inherit it. It's a little preference class called ImageHeaderPreference
It allows you to choose and image as header for your preference screen.
Just to bring a little color and life into all those switches and checkboxes...-->[/I][/COLOR]
<com.wubydax.romcontrol.v2.prefs.ImageHeaderPreference
app:imageSource="@drawable/android"/>

Themes, About Us activity and changelog dialog
1. Themes:
1. There 2 built in themes: light and dark. In the navigation drawer, much like in previous version, you have a section under More options which is called "Set Theme".
2. Upon clicking it a dialog will pop up to allow theme selection.
3. The default theme is the light one. If you wish your default theme to be the dark one, please navigate to res/values/styles and find the following line (at the very bottom):
Code:
<integer name="default_theme">0</integer>
(yes, we put integer in styles (because we CAN), we're weird like that... LOL. It's for your convenience.​
4. To make the default theme the dark one, change 0 to 1.​
2. About Us activity - how to populate it:
1. Navigate to values/about_us_resources.xml
2. When you open it you have 3 sets of 3 arrays each. This idea is very similar to how you populated the navigation drawer items. Let's have a look:
Code:
<resources>
[COLOR="Teal"][B]<!--Contact info arrays-->[/B][/COLOR]
[COLOR="DarkGreen"][B][I] <!--In this array you will put the icons for contact information,
for example xda icon for your xda thread, site icon for your site, facebook icon and so on-->[/I][/B][/COLOR]
<array name="about_contact_us_drawables">
<item>@drawable/icon_2</item>
<item>@drawable/icon_1</item>
<item>@drawable/icon_3</item>
</array>
[COLOR="darkgreen"][B][I]<!--In this array you will put the titles for your contact info items. Keep the order consistent between all 3 arrays-->[/I][/B][/COLOR]
<string-array name="about_contact_us_text">
<item>Facebook</item>
<item>Our Site</item>
<item>XDA</item>
</string-array>
[COLOR="darkgreen"][B][I]<!--In this array you will put the titles for the URL strings that will open once a user clicked on the item-->[/I][/B][/COLOR]
<string-array name="about_contact_us_links" translatable="false">
<item>https://www.facebook.com/</item>
<item>https://www.google.com/</item>
<item>http://forum.xda-developers.com/</item>
</string-array>
[COLOR="teal"][B]<!--Team info arrays-->[/B][/COLOR]
<array name="about_team_drawables">
<item>@drawable/icon_5</item>
<item>@drawable/icon_6</item>
<item>@drawable/icon_1</item>
</array>
<string-array name="about_team_names">
<item>Master Yoda - wise and talented lead developer</item>
<item>Luke Skywalker - one handed theme master</item>
<item>Darth Vader - dark theme master</item>
</string-array>
<string-array name="about_team_links" translatable="false">
<item>https://www.facebook.com/</item>
<item>https://www.google.com/</item>
<item>http://forum.xda-developers.com/</item>
</string-array>
[COLOR="teal"][B] <!--Credits and thanks info arrays-->[/B][/COLOR]
<array name="about_credits_drawables">
<item>@drawable/icon_1</item>
<item>@drawable/icon_3</item>
<item>@drawable/icon_4</item>
<item>@drawable/icon_2</item>
<item>@drawable/icon_6</item>
<item>@drawable/icon_5</item>
</array>
<string-array name="about_credits_names">
<item>Star Trek - for being ultimately better than Star Wars</item>
<item>Jean-Luc Picard - for making us crave hot earl-grey tea even in the middle of the summer</item>
<item>Data - for running on the best rom. Google, we still are waiting for THAT android version</item>
<item>Janeway - for being a normal person and drinking black coffee</item>
<item>Q - for reminding us that you can live forever and still look great</item>
<item>Worf - for teaching us to love Klingons. It was NOT easy</item>
</string-array>
<string-array name="about_credits_links" translatable="false">
<item>https://www.facebook.com/</item>
<item>https://www.google.com/</item>
<item>http://forum.xda-developers.com/</item>
<item>https://www.facebook.com/</item>
<item>https://www.google.com/</item>
<item>http://forum.xda-developers.com/</item>
</string-array>
</resources>
3. As you can see from the code above it's very simple. Find images you want to use, You don't need to make them round. They will be made round on runtime.
4. Replace the demo information in our arrays with your own, including images reference, titles and links. Make sure the lenghts of 3 arrays in each category are equal.
5. You can make as many or as little items as you want. As long as the length of drawable array equals to length of titles array and equals to length of links array in single category.
6. All the magic is done in java for you. Just populate arrays and RUNNNN​
3. Changelog Dialog - how to populate it:
1. Navigate to /res/values/changelog_resources.xml
2. Inside you will find 1 string and 1 string array. Let's have a look:
Code:
<resources>
[COLOR="Teal"][B]<!--Do not forget to include this in any locale specific folders for translation-->[/B][/COLOR]
[COLOR="Green"][B][I]<!--In the following array put your changelog items
Take as many lines as you need.
Add as many items as you want or delete some if those are too many
This order is how they will appear in the dialog
Make any order you want from top to bottom-->[/I][/B][/COLOR]
<string-array name="changelog_items">
<item>Some changelog thing lkjh l lkjh slkjh lkjh s,mnb lkjhs lkjh poiuy slkjh</item>
<item>Another changelog thing ;lkj d;lkj ;lkjs ;lkj ;lkj s;lkj ;lkj s;lkj ;lkj ;lks ;lkj ;lkj</item>
<item>Some more changelog things</item>
<item>Some even more changelog thing</item>
<item>And another changelog thing ;lsj; lkjs ;lkj ; lkj;lsjk ;sklj s;lkj s;lk js;lkj s;lkj</item>
<item>How many changelog things</item>
<item>What a long changelog!!!</item>
<item>Is it twenty already?</item>
<item>Are we there yet?</item>
<item>Live long and prosper</item>
<item>So say we all</item>
<item>Patience you must have</item>
<item>Great scot!!!</item>
<item>No disassemble…</item>
<item>Almost there</item>
<item>Done with changelog</item>
</string-array>
[COLOR="green"][B][I] <!--This will be the dialog title.
Put your own rom version and name.
Have fun-->[/I][/B][/COLOR]
<string name="rom_version_for_changelog">build v1.0 6thgearrom</string>
</resources>
3. Fill and up with your own items. Enjoy!​

Backup and Restore functionality
Backup and restore is done on a background thread using a service. Once the service gets intent with certain action it performs the required activity and shuts down.
The service can be called with wither backup action or restore action. In each case it will act differently.
1. How does that work - BACKUP:
When a request for backup is passed to the service, it does several things:
1. Checks if on your sdcard there exists a folder called RomControl and checks if the folder contains subfolder backups. If they don't exist, they are being created.
2. In our data f folder in data/data/com.wubydax... we have a shared_prefs folder. Inside it we have preference xml files for all of your preferences.
3. We iterate through those files and read them line by line, and once they are read, we take the keys and read the actual database value for that key
4. Then we write those values with their corresponding keys into a new backup file
5. Each backup file has a new name. You can see how it's formed here:
Code:
String currentDate = new SimpleDateFormat(getString(R.string.backup_file_prefix_date_format), Locale.ENGLISH).format(Calendar.getInstance().getTime());
String fileName = currentDate + "_" + Build.DISPLAY;
String backupFileName = fileName + getString(R.string.backup_file_suffix);
File newBackupFile = new File(Constants.BACKUP_FOLDER_PATH + File.separator + backupFileName);
As you can see we use 3 components for name:
a. Current date and time up to munites
b. The display id from the build.prop
c. suffix RCBackup​
That is so the users can differentiate between different backups from different roms or versions​
6. It also backs up the file preferences (see the preference explanation post for that)
7. The service finishes and throws a toast that it's done and the file can be found in the backup directory​
2. How does that work - RESTORE:
1. During restoring action, the main activity closes. It also says so in the warning dialog which appears right before restore is activated.
2. We made it so to make sure no onPreferenceChangeListener is triggered for any of your preferences. We also want a clean restart of the activity once the restore is done, so all the items can be loaded from the database, which has been updated by the restore process.
3. During restore we read the selected backup file, break it into pieces and write the values to database. When the activity is reloaded, preferences read from databases and update their own values.
4. For file preferences, during restore process we delete the files saved previously and only create the ones contained in backup file.​​

reserved 8

reserved 9

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reserved 12

This blows away the original version folks.
Cant wait for it to go live. And couldn't resist being the first poster as well.

tdunham said:
This blows away the original version folks.
Cant wait for it to go live. And couldn't resist being the first poster as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are simply the best ???
Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

Wow. This is amazing. Thank you for your time and sharing it. It's just another treasure after v1.0.
Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

Waiting

Wooooow , loooong time waiting for this , now time for reading & starting ready for it xD , as usual thanks for ur awesome work , ???

thereassaad said:
Wooooow , loooong time waiting for this , now time for reading & starting ready for it xD , as usual thanks for ur awesome work , ???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Happy to see you here! Don't read yet. Only posts 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 are finalized.
Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

Wow, I am loving how this version is going to handle killing apps. And about custom preferences I am a bit confused but I guess I should wait till it's out and see how it would work. Setting default_theme it's just mind blowing! Guys before the source is out I think it would be a good idea to try reading and understanding what is outlined in OP I didn't use to sign my rc but it's explained clearly how to do it in studio. :good:

WOW!
As I have said before, you and Wuby are the most precious thing to us, the ROM devs
What an incredible update!
Sure, I have a lot of work to do on rom control v2, but I have you on my side -that's a good thing hehe.
Amazing work! I am sure my users enjoy it as well.
Keep it up, but make some time for me too
Sent from my SM-G900F boosted by PhoeniX ROM