Making "Stock" Custom ROMs Defunct (XposedFramework) - Tweaks for any ROM Version

Search This thread

pulser_g2

Admin Emeritus / Senior Recognized Developer
Nov 27, 2009
19,544
11,630
If I would like to start writing my own mods is there somewhere a guide how to debugg the mod I write?
Thanks!

That's a combined WIP. Debugging - the best way is to use

XposedBridge.log("Message here");

That will be written to /data/xposed/debug.log

You should make loads of them, before and after each line, and you can be sure your code is being seen and run.

That's the basic way, I think there's a better way posted by tungstwenty in the thread I linked in the OP (towards the end?)
 

Tungstwenty

Senior Member
Nov 1, 2011
1,830
4,512
That's a combined WIP. Debugging - the best way is to use

XposedBridge.log("Message here");

That will be written to /data/xposed/debug.log

You should make loads of them, before and after each line, and you can be sure your code is being seen and run.

That's the basic way, I think there's a better way posted by tungstwenty in the thread I linked in the OP (towards the end?)
You're right.
Only recently did I find a way to directly debug it; before that it was through log messages as you suggested :)
Check this post for a much better way to debug.
 

Tungstwenty

Senior Member
Nov 1, 2011
1,830
4,512
MOD - Additional languages for Android 4.2 keyboard

Here's my first mod contribution for the collection :)

It injects into the Android 4.2 keyboard an additional language resource of your choosing so you have dictionary and swipe support for it.
The available languages are the ones for which I found .dict files on the CM repo:
  • Bulgarian (bg)
  • Croatian (hr)
  • Czech (cs)
  • Danish (da)
  • Dutch (nl)
  • Finnish (fi)
  • Georgian (ka)
  • Greek (el)
  • Hebrew (iw)
  • Hungarian (hu)
  • Norwegian Bokmål (nb)
  • Portuguese (pt_PT)
  • Russian (ru)
  • Swedish (sv)

Tested for the Portuguese (pt_PT) language on ICS and 4.1 JB.
Please leave feedback if you try it out, especially for other languages.


I'm finishing some code cleanup and adding extensive comments, will push them to GitHub later today.
 

Attachments

  • Keyboard42DictInjector-1.0.0.apk
    6.2 MB · Views: 129
Last edited:

rovo89

Senior Recognized Developer
Jan 4, 2012
2,585
81,434
Quite a few hacks are already available in Tweakbox. The problem with it is the unknown scope. Some of the tweaks work only in Samsung stock ROMs, maybe limited to 4.0.3, as they activate or use features of TouchWiz. And for CRT, you even need a patched native library to make it work properly, which is hard to create and can only be exchanged as a whole, no partly patches possible that might work for different devices.

So I'm not sure what's better - many small mods or one bigger collection. If there is something to configure (apart from on/off), each mod would have to include its own configuration screen. On the other hand, bug report handling and releasing new versions is more flexible if you just need to look at one tweak and users don't need to install something they don't need. So yeah.. there are upsides and downsides for both.

There is also a big feature in Tweakbox which has no UI yet, but is working fine if you edit the configuration files directly: Changing DPI and things like that on a per-app basis. I mainly use this to force some Samsung apps to 240 DPI (for which they were hardcoded), while I use a lower DPI for the rest of my phone. I will look into creating a proper UI, but first the framework needs to be cleaned up a little.

And finally, I'm using a battery icon mod via Xposed. That would be a good demonstration of replacing resources and also some kind of template. I don't remember where exactly my icons came from (for credits/approval). I think it was JKay's mod for GB, but I can easily use any other battery mod for the demonstration if I don't find the author.
 

rovo89

Senior Recognized Developer
Jan 4, 2012
2,585
81,434
Alright, the developer tutorial is updated now to the latest APIs: https://github.com/rovo89/XposedBridge/wiki/Development-tutorial
It's really extensive, but if you're interested in learning what's behind Xposed, it will give you some nice insights. It also explains some of the basics of approaching a tweak target.

There is also a page on replacing resources (e.g. strings, booleans, but also images). It's not updated yet, things have become a bit easier meanwhile. Just to give you an idea what's also possible, additionally to pure coding hacks.
 

pulser_g2

Admin Emeritus / Senior Recognized Developer
Nov 27, 2009
19,544
11,630
Alright, the developer tutorial is updated now to the latest APIs: https://github.com/rovo89/XposedBridge/wiki/Development-tutorial
It's really extensive, but if you're interested in learning what's behind Xposed, it will give you some nice insights. It also explains some of the basics of approaching a tweak target.

There is also a page on replacing resources (e.g. strings, booleans, but also images). It's not updated yet, things have become a bit easier meanwhile. Just to give you an idea what's also possible, additionally to pure coding hacks.

Awesome, nice work!
 

coolfire

Senior Member
Aug 20, 2004
2,039
434
Singapore
Huawei Mate 30 Pro
Tried the Xposed installer, didn't request t grant root and the allowlongsms.apk installed, but without any option to select anything else.

I rebooted my phone and tried typing an sms, but it still auto-converted to an mms after 80 characters... :(

On a SHV-E250S btw. :eek:
 

rovo89

Senior Recognized Developer
Jan 4, 2012
2,585
81,434
Did you actually hit the "Install" button inside the installer? It should display a message that the installation was successful.
 

Tungstwenty

Senior Member
Nov 1, 2011
1,830
4,512
After installing the XposedInstaller app, the "Install" button must be pressed and the device rebooted.

On the next execution you should see the correct values under "active", as on the attached picture.
Only then will the modules selected on the "Modules" tab be executed.
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot_2012-11-28-10-13-47.jpg
    Screenshot_2012-11-28-10-13-47.jpg
    39.3 KB · Views: 2,170
  • Like
Reactions: coolfire

coolfire

Senior Member
Aug 20, 2004
2,039
434
Singapore
Huawei Mate 30 Pro
Did you actually hit the "Install" button inside the installer? It should display a message that the installation was successful.







After installing the XposedInstaller app, the "Install" button must be pressed and the device rebooted.

On the next execution you should see the correct values under "active", as on the attached picture.
Only then will the modules selected on the "Modules" tab be executed.

Appreciate your help & wonderful work mates!

I'm such a bonehead - after installing the XposedInstaller app, I noobishly chose to exit & started looking for the app to open. Should have just opened it right on the same screen... Everything's perfect now. Just sent myself a long sms... And it works! LOL

Sent from my SGN using Tapatalk 2
 
S

sawdoctor

Guest
Just want to say a big thanks to pulser_g2 for this. Installed and working perfectly. Its made these mods simple to install for us less technically gifted mere mortals.

Sent from my GT-N7105 using xda app-developers app
 

pulser_g2

Admin Emeritus / Senior Recognized Developer
Nov 27, 2009
19,544
11,630
Just want to say a big thanks to pulser_g2 for this. Installed and working perfectly. Its made these mods simple to install for us less technically gifted mere mortals.

Sent from my GT-N7105 using xda app-developers app

You're welcome but you should really thank rovo89 and Tungstwenty for this :) I just decided to try to resurrect it on the Note 2 given they'd got it working on jellybean. And then managed to somehow get together a couple of tweaks based on the framework with a fair bit of assistance from them...
 

pulser_g2

Admin Emeritus / Senior Recognized Developer
Nov 27, 2009
19,544
11,630
Thanks a lot
It worked perfact on leaked LJ2, I have enabled call recording and working like a charm. You have made call recording easy for all ROM.

Brilliant, thanks for letting us know :)

Seems this works quite nicely for letting us upgrade between roms without losing our favoured tweaks!
 
  • Like
Reactions: dr.ketan
S

sawdoctor

Guest
You're welcome but you should really thank rovo89 and Tungstwenty for this :) I just decided to try to resurrect it on the Note 2 given they'd got it working on jellybean. And then managed to somehow get together a couple of tweaks based on the framework with a fair bit of assistance from them...

Thank you I will pass my thanks on to them. Is there any way this could be used for the internal external memory swap mod and the any app multi window? It would certainly make it a lot easier for us noobs

Sent from my GT-N7105 using xda app-developers app
 

pulser_g2

Admin Emeritus / Senior Recognized Developer
Nov 27, 2009
19,544
11,630
Thank you I will pass my thanks on to them. Is there any way this could be used for the internal external memory swap mod and the any app multi window? It would certainly make it a lot easier for us noobs

Sent from my GT-N7105 using xda app-developers app

Do you have details of these two patches? I can take a look, the multi window should be possible for any app. Not so sure about swapping over memory, I'd need to look at it, but that sounds more just a change in mount points to me tbh...
 
S

sawdoctor

Guest
Do you have details of these two patches? I can take a look, the multi window should be possible for any app. Not so sure about swapping over memory, I'd need to look at it, but that sounds more just a change in mount points to me tbh...
http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1953705 and http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1931500 are the 2 threads I'd been looking at. If they could be made into apk's I and a lot of other users would be delighted. There would be no worry about bricking the phone and hopefuly the mods would stay after any update.
 

MohJee

Senior Member
Nov 3, 2012
645
252
Well, just tried this. It works like a charm, and so simple that an 8 year old can get it to work. Just press install and reboot and walla!! Tremendous work. Thanks to all who made this possible.
 

Top Liked Posts

  • There are no posts matching your filters.
  • 286
    Making "Stock" Custom ROMs Defunct (XposedFramework) - Tweaks for any ROM Version

    Introduction


    Recently it has dismayed me how, across the Android Community, people seem to feel that it's necessary to run a "Custom ROM" in order to get improvements and changes to your ROM. Of course, some of you know it's possible to modify the APK files directly to change things, but these changes need to be done every time your base ROM is updated. Once Samsung starts leaking out updates to 4.2 like a sieve, you guys will be all over them, needing to update your patches and tweaks every time.

    Anyway, seeing this displeases me, as it encourages people to see "Custom ROMs" as a commodity, and something you consume. In essence, users were getting their "fix" of tweaks from their "chef", but not learning how to do it themselves, nor realising their beloved chef isn't doing anything magical. In fact, their chef is likely decompiling the applications, and using baksmali/apktool to take apart the app, hard-code in their changes, then rebuild it. This method has worked well for 3 years, but it's been in need of an update for some time.

    The Enlightenment

    Then I saw this thread by rovo89. That man deserves a beer for every Android user there is, for his work on the Xposed Framework! His and Tungstwenty's work on this has made it possible to modify the core Android system, without doing any actual modifying of applications.

    OK... Why are you telling me this?

    This invention seems to have pretty much gone unnoticed by the world. The reasons this is vastly superior to any other way of making modifications to apps and the system are:

    • Your modifications are not tied into a single version of the APK or app or framework. If the ROM is updated, the patch should still work perfectly on the new version of the app (this doesn't necessarily apply across major updates like 4.1 to 4.2, but should be fine across 4.1.0 to 4.1.2 style changes).
    • You are not actually modifying any files on the phone! If something goes wrong, you can just disable the support for the framework, and the tweaks will do nothing. As such, it's easier to get a working phone if something dies - in fact there is a ZIP placed on your SD for this very purpose. Just flash it in CWM and it will disable the framework.
    • As no actual files are being modified, it doesn't matter if your ROM is odexed, deodexed, or a bit of both (ie. certain apps deodexed, but frameworks odexed). With this, there is no reason to run a deodexed ROM, since you can change pretty much everything you want to without touching the raw files. So leave them as odex files and you'll not have any problems. Bear in mind we deodex to allow easier customisation, odexed is actually slightly faster, and removes the majority of the dexopt process on first boot.
    • No application signatures are modified, as the apps are not touched, so if you were to use this to modify an app like Maps or Gmail, you won't get issues when trying to update to a new version of the app via the market.

    The only way this can succeed is for you to try it. I usually run a "custom ROM" on my phone. For the first time ever, I've been using a stock ROM for a significant period of time. On the Note2 in particular, Samsung is really getting good at this. But they're not perfect. And as such, I started to look at using this to perfect their work.

    When you run a custom ROM, look at what you're getting, and ask yourself why it doesn't use this method. I've only made one little modification so far, but it's one that annoys me hugely! The blooming SMS -> MMS conversion when you try to write any form of prose in a text message. I cannot stand the limitation of SMS to 160 characters, so the ability to chain together messages is a godsend to me. Unfortunately though, Google and Samsung seem to like to restrict you to 3 SMS messages worth of text before converting to an MMS message. Which is wonderful, except when you have totally unlimited SMS, but pay for MMS. As such, I was finding my ability to communicate in my usual verbose way somewhat hindered by the messaging app.

    Alas that is no longer an issue. If you want to get started, here's how.

    OK... How do I use this?

    1. Download and install the APK file from this post - http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1574401. I have tested it on the N7100, it works fine. Run it, install the framework, grant it root (yes, this requires root!), and reboot. I have mirrored the APK below just in case of issues.
    2. Download and install the APK modification you want from http://www.villainrom.co.uk/forum/microdownloads/
    3. When you get a notification about enabling the modification (after the APK is installed), tap that notification, and enable the plugin by ticking the box.
    4. Reboot your phone
    5. Go test your modification

    If you have any issues with this, please paste the contents of /data/xposed/debug.log on a pastebin site or in
    Code:
     tags.
    
    [SIZE="5"][B]How can I make my own modifications like this?[/B][/SIZE]
    
    Will post this a bit later, along with the source of this plugin. 
    
    [SIZE="5"][B]References[/B][/SIZE]
    [url]http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1574401[/url]
    [url=http://xdaforums.com/member.php?u=4322181]Tungstwenty[/url]
    [url=http://xdaforums.com/member.php?u=4419114]Robo89[/url]
    
    [SIZE="5"][B]Sources[/B][/SIZE]
    You can find the sources for Xposed Framework at [url]https://github.com/rovo89[/url]
    You can find the sources for all Xposed modifications I have made so far on Github:
    
    [url=https://github.com/pulser/xposedSMStoMMS]Disable SMS -> MMS Conversion[/url]
    [url=https://github.com/pulser/xposedDisableBatteryFullAlert]Disable 100% Battery Notification[/url]
    [url=https://github.com/pulser/xposedEnableCallRecording]Enable Call Recording[/url]
    [url=https://github.com/pulser/xposedScrollingLauncherWallpaper]Enable scrolling wallpaper in stock launcher[/url]
    [url=https://github.com/pulser/xposedEmailTextColour]Make text in email app message list clearer to read (lighter) on the black background[/url]
    78
    Modifications

    OK so a few people suggested an addon repository... I have got one sorted :)
    Downloads

    http://www.villainrom.co.uk/forum/microdownloads/

    I've added some of mine so far, but I won't add other people's - they can add them themselves, and maintain them :)

    This system is vastly superior to a stickied forum thread, as you can update your own modification (as a developer), and as a user, receive notifications if a modification is updated.

    Developers

    Use a general title that describes what your modification does. Put in a version string too. I tend to use the format 1.0, 1.1, 1.2 etc, but this is up to you. You can add Alpha or Beta or other designations if you wish.

    For author, pop in your name or username. And enter a brief description of what the modification does (which will appear in the index)
    Click Categories/Agreements, and select which category the modification falls under. If you think there's a category which should be added, let me know.

    Under Full Description, you can enter a detailed description of your modification. Finally, under File Options, use File to Upload to select your APK file. You can optionally add an Image to Upload. The Use File URL should be set to no, and the File URL box left blank.

    Users
    • There is no need to register an account to download files from the repository. If you wish to receive notifications of updates, you can register an account - just hit the red "Log in or Sign up" button - you can use a Twitter or Google account if you want, or just make a plain account. It makes no difference.
    • Head across to http://www.villainrom.co.uk/forum/microdownloads/ and have a look at the modifications you want.
    • Click watch file (at the bottom right) if you want notifications about updates to a modification
    • Click Report to report a modification for being malicious or problematic.
    • Click "add comment" to discuss or comment on the modification, or leave a "review" or feedback
    • Click on the stars under (0 votes) to leave a star rating on the modification, which will help generate most popular lists on the main page.

    Click to see licence details of mine:


    Feel free to use these as you wish, for non-commercial purposes. You may share these for personal use. Note that distribution in any kind of "package" or "custom ROM" is not personal use. Sending a friend a copy is personal use, feel free to do that and share the love.

    Feel free to make changes to the source code of the modifications if you think you can improve them, provided you make your changes available in a similar manner. If you fix a bug or error, please send a pull request.

    If you wish to use these commercially, please contact me. This includes in any "distribution package", be it a ROM, app, store, marketplace or other package. That's not in the spirit of this project, so get in touch with me and we'll discuss it.

    Tl;dr:

    End users, have fun, use these, enjoy them, share them, tweak them, just be sure to share your source changes and/or send a pull request if you improve something!

    "Custom ROM" Developers, and anyone wanting to try to use these for commercial purposes: Don't. These are to encourage people to learn about these changes, so contact me if you want to do something else with them. Commercial use, including distribution in "Custom ROMs" is not permitted.
    68
    Install the Xposed Framework from this thread: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1574401
    36
    How to make your own such modification

    This information is NOT complete. This example only uses 1 of about 10 different types of modification. I have spoken to rovo89 and he has said it would probably be possible to document this further. This example covers ONE usage case - I am going to override an entire method.

    1. Create a new empty Android project in Eclipse.
    2. Within the "application" section of your AndroidManifest.xml, add the following metadata:

    Code:
            <meta-data android:name="xposedmodule" android:value="true"/>
            <meta-data android:name="xposedminversion" android:value="2.0rc1.*" />

    3. Within the assets folder of the project, add a plain text file, "xposed_init". Within this, I have put

    Code:
    uk.co.villainrom.pulser.allowlongsms.AllowLongSMS

    uk.co.villainrom.pulser.allowlongsms is the PACKAGE name of my Java package. AllowLongSMS is my class name. The purpose of this is to tell the Xposed Framework what to run.

    4. Within AllowLongSMS.java (ie. the class name, with .java on the end), I put the following code:

    PHP:
    package uk.co.villainrom.pulser.allowlongsms; //this sets the package for our project, this is the first part of the value in xposed_init file in assets.
    
    import de.robv.android.xposed.IXposedHookLoadPackage;
    import de.robv.android.xposed.XC_MethodHook;
    import de.robv.android.xposed.XC_MethodReplacement;
    import de.robv.android.xposed.XposedBridge;
    import de.robv.android.xposed.XposedHelpers;
    import de.robv.android.xposed.callbacks.XC_LoadPackage.LoadPackageParam;
    
    //above includes all the required parts of the xposed framework that we need here
    
    public class AllowLongSMS implements IXposedHookLoadPackage {        //here we declare the class AllowLongSMS. We say it implements IXposedHookLoadPackage, as we want to make use of the hook-in on package load. Other options are available here for working with native libs etc, and resources, but I'm not using these right now.
    	public static final String MY_PACKAGE_NAME = AllowLongSMS.class.getPackage()
    			.getName();     //this doesn't do anything, I just left it here for if I needed to write logs and wanted to have the package name easily accessible.
    	public static final String TAG = "PulserMmsTweak";   //same here, this doesn't do anything.
    
    	@Override //we are going to override the method handleLoadPackage, if it exists further up the hierarchy
    	public void handleLoadPackage(LoadPackageParam lpparam) throws Throwable { 
    		//this method is called every time a package is loaded. We have a parameter that we're going to call lpparam, that is passed in, that relates to what package was loaded
    		if (lpparam.packageName.equals("com.android.mms")) { //if the package that has just been loaded is called "com.android.mms" then
    			ClassLoader classLoader = lpparam.classLoader; //create a classloader object that we can now use
    			XC_MethodReplacement methodreplacer = new XC_MethodReplacement() {  //create a method replacer object, as we are going to REPLACE an entire method within the mms app.
    				protected Object replaceHookedMethod( //we make an object here, that passes in the parameters of what to actually change
    						XC_MethodHook.MethodHookParam paramAnonymousMethodHookParam)
    						throws Throwable {
    					return Integer.valueOf(255);  
    					/* THIS IS THE IMPORTANT LINE
    					 * This line returns the value 255. Why this happens won't make sense yet, but THIS is where you put your "new method" code.
    					 * 
    					*/
    					
    				}
    			};
    			XposedHelpers.findAndHookMethod("com.android.mms.MmsConfig",  //here we say that we want to find and hook into the method "getSMSToMmsTextThreshold" which is part of the class com.android.mms.MmsConfig. We then say that we're passing this to methodreplacer, which we defined earlier
    					classLoader, "getSmsToMmsTextThreshold", methodreplacer);
    		}
                    //if the package wasn't com.android.mms, do nothing.
    
    	}
    
    }
    28
    Mod: Per-app settings

    Here's a new mod for you to try.
    I tested it on my stock S2 4.0.3 and it's working, but you may very well expect problems. Just let me know which.
    I do know that on 4.1.x a few problems occur and this might even be unusable, but I'm still investigating. Feel free to try it out, though, as you can always disable it if any problems arise.

    Per-app Settings

    What it does
    Allows you to configure a number of settings which are app-agnostic, i.e. apply to all of them:
    • Screen size & DPI - fools the resource loader so you can have a layout meant for bigger screens and can control the size of fonts and graphics
    • Language - You can have particular apps in a language other than your system wide language (e.g. system lang in English, but Maps+Navigation in your local language for good voice reading)
    • Revoke permissions - Pick which app permissions you want to deny (and then hope that it will work without them, instead of FC'ing :))
    • Keep apps resident in memory - changes some settings to reduce the chances that memory used by the app is freed (on hold for now)
    By now you should know what to do to get this up and running :p

    Enjoy ;)


    EDIT:
    Replaced with version 0.0.3:
    - removed the need to reboot for the settings to have effect (the target app still needs to be restarted, but not the phone)
    - UI revision to be a bit more intuitive
    - Added setting for tablet mode, required by some apps/resources

    0.0.4 is up:
    - Added a button to list existing folders under /res, so you have some hints about what kind of screen settings you may try.

    To understand the kind of screen settings you need to set in order to have "large screen" layouts, you'll need to peek inside the APK with a zip app (e.g. 7-zip) and browse the "res" folder.
    Look for things like "layout-sw600dp" - this will mean there are resources that are loaded only when the smallest (reported) width is 600 or above, and that's something you can experiment in the settings.
    There is also a general size qualifier which can take the values "-small", "-normal", "-large" and "-xlarge". Checking the "Tablet" box activates xlarge.
    You can read more about how resources for different screen sizes are handled here.