[MOD][TOOL] Tickle My Android - Theme Your Phone!

UPDATE: Tickle My Android is now in the main Android Themes forum!
http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1633333
Head on over there and pick up version 2.0...



I use apktool and ADB a lot to tweak my phone, my tablet and the phones of my colleagues at work (4 Androids to 1 iPhone at work...take that, Apple!).

After a while, it got a bit tedious typing the same set of commands over and over again so I wrote some batch files.

Then I got a bit carried away..

Presenting Tickle My Android, a command-line tool for Windows (XP/Vista/7). This is designed to make the process of theming your phone and modifying it to your exact requirements so much easier and faster.

What's needed:

• a rooted phone with ClockworkMod Recovery
• a Windows PC with Java and phone/tablet drivers installed
• a brain
• a coffee or some nice cookies

Download the tool from the link at the bottom of this post and run it. It's a self-extracting archive that will set itself up on your computer. It doesn't install anything or do anything unpleasant to your machine.

Once set up, there will be seven folders. Ignore the tool_files folder, that's full of things to run the tool with. The BOOTANIMATIONS and FONTS folder are to store boot animatons and fonts in, about which more later. The BACKUP folder will hold your backups.
When you start using this to modify your apps, you'll be using the "in", "out" and "working" folders.

• apps pulled from the phone go into "in"
• decompiled apps go into "working" and
• recomplied apps go into "out"

What does this decompile/recompile nonsense mean? Have a look at shivenjuneja's post here: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=849223 to find out more!

Run TickleMyAndroid.bat and you'll see this:


Connect your phone to the PC, make sure USB Debugging is set to on, and away you go!

You can use this tool to pull, decompile, recompile and push files to and from your phone but you can also:

• change the battery icons
• add Ice-Cream Sandwich-style transitions
• change the status bar to transparent, semi-transparent, black or white
• sign and zipalign your own applications
• compress recompiled system apps correctly so they actually work and don't cause a boot-loop
• backup your texts, picture messages and contacts
• transfer your texts, picture messages and contacts to another phone or a new rom
• change the boot animation
• change the font
• install an ad-blocker (this is up to you, ads pay for apps!)
• add sounds from other devices and
• anything else I can think of that I'll add later

This is designed to work on any Android device running any rom, and on pretty much any PC. I do most of my modifying at work where there are two Samsung phones, one ZTE and my beloved Sony Ericsson so it needs to be flexible and get past my IT department..

Try it out, have a play, and let me know what you think!

Download Tickle My Android -v1_2_2 here: http://db.tt/fdq0725r

Changelog

• 1_2_2: Bug-Fixes. Adding Battery Icons Should Now Work For All Roms

Changing Battery Icons

To use Tickle My Android to change the battery icons on your phone is very simple and very quick.

************BACKUP YOUR PHONE FIRST!!!!***************​

Start the tool and select Option 2 to open the Theming Menu.


Select Option 2 again to open the Pull Menu.


This will let you pull what I call 'The Big Four' apps from your phone. These are the apps that seem to be modified most often so you can pull those with just a button press. Want to pull a different file? That's what Options 5, 6 and 7 are for!

First, select Option 1 to pull "framework-res.apk" from your phone. Say yes to backing it up, decompiling it and installing it. Installing "framework-res.apk" to your PC doesn't actually install it as such, it just makes the resources in the app available to others. Which can be essential for modifying a lot of system applications. Don't worry, there is an Option to uninstall it back in the Theming Menu.
Back at the Pull Menu, use Option 4 to pull, backup and decompile "SystemUI.apk" as well. If you're running Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) or anything later, you'll have this on your phone. Any Android version earlier than that and you won't, so you can skip this step.

On your PC, in the TickeMyAndroid folder, there will be seven sub-folders. In the "in" folder will be the apps you've pulled from your phone and now, in the "working" folder", there will be the decompiled apps as well.

Go back to the Theming Menu and select Option 5 to go into the Battery Menu:


This gives you the option to install a selection of different battery icons that I've found around the internet. I've credited people where I could but if you came up with these and I haven't, then let me know.

The various options you can install are:

1. 
   Multi-Tone Circular
2. 
   New Sense
3. 
   Bolt
4. 
   ICS Circle by nbeebe
5. 
   Full Circle by Pendo
6. 
   Digital Numbers by Zaphod Beeblebrox
7. 
   Circles by Hoolm
8. 
   Stock Gingerbread With Percentage
9. 
   Blue Circle With White Text
10. 
    Purple Android by UOT
11. 
    Meter by UOT

Pick the icon you want to go with and a new window will open...then close again. Your battery icons will have now been changed, along with appropriate charging animations. It doesn't matter what resolution your phone is, this is designed to work with ldpi, mdpi, hdpi and even xhdpi.

Go back to the Theming Menu and select Option 8. Recompile "framework-res.apk" and "SystemUI.apk" (if you decompiled them earlier). This can take a little while so now's a good time to sip that coffee or munch those cookies.

Once this is done, you'll have two apps in the "out" folder on your PC. Do NOT push these to your phone unless you want to soft-brick it! They won't be signed correctly and the compression will be all wrong.

So go back to the Theming Menu and select Option 9. Prepare both files. This will open another window..and then close it again.

With both files prepared, you need to push them to your phone. Do NOT push them while the phone is running. Seriously.
Pushing system apps to the phone while it's still running can cause all sorts of problems. You could lose signal, develop random force closes, all kinds of things.

Reboot your phone and go into the recovery menu. Once there, mount the /system partition. This gives your PC access to the partition without the phone actually running its operating system.

Now go back to Tickle My Android, go to the Theming Menu, select Option 12 and push "framework-res.apk" and "SystemUI.apk" back to your phone.

Go to your phone, unmount the /system partition and reboot. It will take longer than normal but that's nothing to worry about. Once it has, you will have a shiny new battery icon!

Don't like it? Well, either go back to the battery menu, try another, compile, prepare and push or you can push your original apps back to the phone by selecting Option 13. Backups are timecoded so just pick the one that applies to you.

When you're done, either use Options 14 and 15 on the Theming Menu to clear all the folders or go back to the Main Menu and select Option 6. Resetting will wipe your backups, mind you!

And that's it. More battery icons will follow in time. If you spot anything you'd like me to include, let me know!

Other Fun Stuff

How To Change Boot Animations & Fonts

In the Tickle My Android folder, there will be seven folders. The "BOOTANIMATIONS" folder and the "FONTS" folder are for your boot animations and your fonts...as you might have guessed.

If you've found a boot animation or a font you'd like to try, put it into the appropriate folder and start up Tickle My Android.

Select Option 3 to go into the Modifying Menu and then pick either Option 4 or Option 5.


First use Option 1 to pull your phone's current animation or font and back it up.

Then use Option 2 and choose which animation or font you want to install. I've added some for you already.

If you're choosing a font, another window will open showing you what the font actually looks like.

Make sure you reboot your phone and go into the recovery menu before confirming your selection. Once there, mount your /system partition.

Pushing files to the internal memory while the phone's running can cause all kinds of nasty bugs. Fonts and boot animations should be fine but it's good practice to get into. Plus, the font won't install until you reboot anyway..

Once you're ready, push the font or animation to your phone, unmount the partition and reboot.

Don't like the results? Either try another font or animation, or use Option 3 to restore your original.

And that's it! Simple, no?

How To Transfer Personal Data To A New Phone Or Rom

To transfer your SMS's, MMS's and your contacts, go to the Modifying Menu and select Option 1 - Backup, Restore Or Transfer Personal Data

Here you can backup the data, restore a backup (backups are timecoded) or install the data onto a new device or rom.

Use Option 1 to backup your details first. The tool does its thing and...you'll get an error. Two, hopefully.

Why? Well, Android used to store this information in /data/data/ in the internal memory but, more recently, it's stored in /dbdata/databases/. Currently I don't know how to make a batch file automatically find out which option your phone uses (sorry! ) so it tries both and makes a note of which works.

Option 2 will restore your backup and will put it in the same place it came from.

Option 3 will push to either /data/data/ or /dbdata/databases/, depending on which one already has the right files.
Which basically means Option 3 will put your messages and your contacts onto any phone or rom. Very handy if you're changing device or trying out a new setup.
Please note, this will replace any existing messages or contacts, it doesn't merge the two together.

I plan to expand this section to include any sort of user detail (appointments, user dictionary, etc) just as soon as I can find out where that information is stored..

kkkhattak said:

Hey where can i find apktool.......

Accidentally typed with my x10 mini pro u20i using my fingers

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

It's already included with the tool.

Well, this is a good start.. Part of the code didn't quite work correctly. A new, corrected version has been uploaded and the download link has been changed in the original post.

jaggyjags said:

Great!

Also think on HTC phones , not all the mods are compatible with both Samsung and htc. Thinking in the status bar mods you are thinking in adding for future releases, for example. (I had to mod them again for then to compiled orrectly).

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Really? Well, that's annoying. I may have to add a Sense and TouchWiz section in version 2 in that case. How did you mod the mods to get them to work?

Do you have USB Debugging enabled on your phone? If yes, is it recognised by SEUS or PC Companion?

This error is caused by ADB not finding any Android device attached to the computer..

XGr7078 said:

I tried it but it didn't work it didn't build the framework-res.apk
It said cant find sources.
Though the files in the 'in' and 'working' folders are present.
So I aborted and it was fine it didn't soft brick my phone.

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

:-( Can you post a screenshot?

This won't soft-brick your phone unless you push a framework-res that hasn't been prepared properly so there's no worries there at least.

Sent from my U20i using xda premium

CruzEmpire said:

can you add ICS battery and signal bar..
i think it will be a BRAVO

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Oh, I should think so. Can you provide a link and I'll take a look?

Sent from my U20i using xda premium

Moratko said:

usb debugging - on
seus defines my mobile and advises to upgrade my rom.
minicm7 nAa.

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

That's odd.

Try using the command prompt, going to the directory you put the tool into and typing in the following:

tool_files\adb shell ls

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

As long as your phone is attached to the PC and running, this will bring up a list of the files and directories in the system partition on your phone. If it says it can't find the device, then something's not right. It may be worth checking your version of java.

Sent from my U20i using xda premium