[FAQ] WIDGETLOCKER | Documentation and Help thread! | We have answers!

- Settings and custom sliders
- How-to create a theme [UPDATE SOON]
- Future updates and wishes

The thread is full of answers and questions. If you do a quick search you might find the answer you were looking for. If you can't
find it, don't hesitate to ask. There are other users here willing to help you. Feel free to comment in this thread or send me a PM
if you feel the thread needs an update on any of the steps.


After initial setup you can personalize your settings some more. The first thing you're going to wanna edit is the Layout

- The grid size: If you're familiar with LauncherPro or ADW you should know that grid sizes determines how the screen will look.
WidgetLocker allows for up to 10x10 grid. Try it out and see what you like best. The grid size also changes the way themes look.
You can think of it like changing your density, unless you use the anchor. It will automatically resize the theme to the appropriate
size. It doesn't work in landscape mode, though.

- The wallpaper: The issue is that the system can only have one wallpaper and it's shared globally. So WidgetLocker's custom
wallpapers are just images that WidgetLocker displays as a background. The best fix for this might be for WidgetLocker to let you select
a file, using gallery or astro or whatever, and then have WidgetLocker do the cropping itself. This way it gets the actual image and can still
crop it or scale it down (sanely) to avoid using so much memory, but can be done without banding. If you want to do it manually in the mean
time and are rooted you can replace WidgetLocker's /data/data/com.teslacoilsw.widgetlocker/files/wallpaper.png with your own. Just make
sure the resolution matches your phones. Then disable/reenable WidgetLocker to get it to reload.

- Installing a custom slider: Since WidgetLocker 2.0 custom themes are supported and come in the .wltheme.zip format. This means you can
open it and your phone will prompt you to Install and Add the theme. The themes are saved on your SD card (/data/com.widgetlocker.teslacoilsw/themes).
You can also copy the theme.wltheme.zip to the folder on your SD card. Naturally the theme will be unavailable once your SD card is mounted to a
computer or something similar. It will return to normal once you unmount it again. You add the themes you've installed by longpressing the screen and
choose Custom Slider. There you can do even further settings, like slide from right to left. If not you simply press "Add".

- Advanced settings: You can use Root Helper to avoid seeing the standard Android lockscreen if you have root. This is not something the developer of
WidgetLocker can do anything about. Check the information found in the application regarding root and standard lockscreen. An alternative is downloading
NoLock from the Market. If you've got root and a custom ROM loaded you can probably disable the lockscreen under Power Settings.


1) Create a new document.

The height of the slider is 150 - but we're going to add two extra pixels. WidgetLocker uses _3.png which allows for up and downsizing of the sliders. That means the
themes can be used with basically any device, ranging from HTC Wildfire to the Motorola Xoom. It's still not a hundred percent - but it's a hell of a lot better than the
old way of theming. More on _3.png in the next step



2) The black pixel (_3.png)

As you can see in the image below I've added a 1x1 pixel on the very top of my image. You can either zoom in a couple of times or create a smallest box you possibly
can in full view. The pixel has to be 1x1 if not it'll be shown in the theme. Which doesn't look good. In the picture below I'm zoomed in at 200 % (I think).



Continue making your design.



3) The slider

The actual size of the slider you can change around just as much as the background. I usually go with the same height, that way aligning the slider and background seems
easier. This is pretty self explanatory, see the below image.



Continue making your design.



This is what you want your themes folder to look like. The slider_right is fully transparent. There's no need to actually make it transparent. If your background doesn't contain
any text you can include a second arrow (like above) but the other way so other users can choose themselves if the want to slide left or right. (Protip)



Then finally .zip the themes-folder!





[ COMMENT YOUR WISHES AND AND I'LL ADD THEM HERE! ]

Email between zHk3R and Kevin@TeslaCoil.

Themes:

The image heights don't allow sliders to appear on the very bottom of screen. This goes especially for the iphone themes. The slider
and background height don't look the same height no matter what I try in Photoshop. There are other users that are reporting this; Is it a user issue
or something that should be addressed?

It's my fault for poor examples and documentation, but can be handled by themers. I should've made the default iPhone background 152px tall so themers
would know to keep that, but didn't. Themes assume HDPI, so one standard slider row is 150px tall. Three Patch images have the 1 pixel border on all sides,
so a 152px tall background will perfectly fill out one standard row. WidgetLocker will scale/stretch the image if the row size is different. I've attached an ugly
iPhone theme to demonstrate.
Same idea for the sense slider, it defaults to two rows, so 300px background, no need for the 2 extra pixels since it's not a three patch.

Is there a possibility to disable the Sense clock?

I'll add this soon. Not 2.0.1, but probably 2.0.2.

Wishes:

More ways to unlock the screen! It'd be great if we could make a slider like the one attached. That'd be freaking awesome to be honest with you.
That's something people have even have been sending me PMs about!

I think the attached could be done, remove the Anchor then resize an iPhone slider to be vertical. But the theme would like kind of funny horizontally since WL
rotates the other direction.

I'm definitely planning on some more unlock methods. HoneyComb for sure, possibly something like MIUI, and maybe the Samsung puzzle unlock as well as the Samsung
sweep glass (Which is kind of similar to that WP7 one, except for the transparent part.

Android 2.1 and 2.3, but not 2.2, could handle transparent WidgetLocker pretty easily, 2.2 has some bug where lock screen interactions are difficult for a transparent activity.
I can work around it, but it's a pain since most of my users are on 2.2. But it's on my radar.

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Click to collapse

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squidbutt said:

thanks for the credit
ill make more as the ideas come
too bad my pirated version of widget locker wont work anymore

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

No problem.
Haha. Warez = Fround upon on this forum. So it's a good idea x)

LuffyPSP said:

Damn i wish i could just use all the iphone sliders without having to mod it everytime.

But now can use sense slider too though. Hope the vanilla locker will be there too.

but still uurgh i wanted to use the megaman one, but then again others looks cool too~~

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

I know you mean, bro. I'm gonna make a theme for each skin so I can change.

Raadius said:

Tesla needs to make the next update of Widget Locker mod friendly, IE: with the iPhone changing the lockscreen is easy as cake, very user friendly.

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Word!

peniston said:

You don't have to be rooted to mod the WidgetLocker lockscreens.

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

I'm not sure, but I'm thinking you need R/W in /data.
Does one have R/W in /data without ROOT (uncertain).

peniston said:

I don't know what you just said, but I'm not rooted and I modded my WidgetLocker.

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Then I guess you don't need ROOT to pull, edit and push .apks to /data.

ClassicalGas said:

As lock as the apk is signed you won't need to push it, just uninstall original and install new as normal.

Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

My guess is most people won't sign their .apk after applying the images.
Unless they use the APK Manager-step in the 'tutorial' of course.

ilangoadigal said:

Don't you need root to get to the APK in the first place? I can't access data/app without Root Explorer

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

I'm a little unsure, but seeing as non-ROOTED users are pulling their .apks and pushing them back I'm guessing root isn't necessary to pull the app from /data.

If it were located in /system I'm sure you would need root in order to pull it.
Root Explorer allows you to explore the 'locked down' parts of your phone. You cannot access /data with normal file browsers.

But regardless; Without root you can pull the .apk using your computer.
If it's gonna work when you push it back is the bigger question.