[THEME] The Ultimate Android Themeing Guide - Updated 4/26

jairomeo · Apr 21, 2010

No longer will be posted here due to XDA finding it acceptable to harass someone for saying "Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior" but allowing their mods and xda tv hosts to be racist and post slurs (@ashasaur and @azrienoch). I wish for XDA to delete all of my threads and posts.

dictionary · Apr 21, 2010

Amazing. HUUUUUGE read-through coming later! Thanks

athereal · Apr 21, 2010

Brilliant. Been hoping for something like this so I could try my hand at Theming

deanesn · Apr 21, 2010

jairomeo's you are my heroo.

great write up. easy to following. lovin it. finally half of android makes sense to me. lol

MODs please sticky this. please please. I've been looking for all of this info for weeks now.

Thanks

jairomeo · Apr 21, 2010

Thanks, manup and sirmez and a few others are going to be looking at it to add to it, I've just been to busy with my designs at work that I just can't focus enough to finish this.

Once I get time I am going to dig into things and continue to find more things we can change.

If you have something to share, let me know so we can add it also.

deanesn · Apr 22, 2010

Maybe you can add link to AXMLprinterGUI based on AXMLprinter2 but with gui created by bigbear at modaco. Here is the link. http://android.modaco.com/content/t-mobile-pulse-pulse-modaco-com/304547/android-xml-decompiler/#entry1217176
That's what i use and it works great.

jairomeo · Apr 22, 2010

deanesn said:
Maybe you can add link to AXMLprinterGUI based on AXMLprinter2 but with gui created by bigbear at modaco. Here is the link. http://android.modaco.com/content/t-mobile-pulse-pulse-modaco-com/304547/android-xml-decompiler/#entry1217176
That's what i use and it works great.

Cool, I didn't even know about that, I'll have to tak ea look at it and add it too, thanks for the tip.

thebowers · Apr 22, 2010

I see in the write up about how to change the statusbar.xml for music to white. What about changing to another color?

jairomeo · Apr 22, 2010

thebowers said:
I see in the write up about how to change the statusbar.xml for music to white. What about changing to another color?

As far as I know, and I haven't seen it stated anywhere else, the ranges are for black or white, and the increment is size.

That doesn't mean it isn't possible to edit it somewhere else, like smali or something. Which is one of my hopes, is give enough information for people to be dangerous and find some new things.

bga7x · Apr 22, 2010

Well Done Jai I have been living and dying by this write up!!!!

this is bgill55 btw

noShame · Apr 22, 2010

Great work man, will help a lot of ppl to create nice themes!

jairomeo · Apr 22, 2010

bga7x said:
Well Done Jai I have been living and dying by this write up!!!!

this is bgill55 btw

Yeah you were one of the lucky one's to see it early lol. I'm glad it has been helping you though.

mrty4short · Apr 22, 2010

When porting to a new version of cm what are the usual changes that have to be made to properly port it over?

jairomeo · Apr 22, 2010

mrty4short said:
When porting to a new version of cm what are the usual changes that have to be made to properly port it over?

The services.jar changes in most updates, so safe practice would be to redo that. Same goes for the framework-res.apk.

In apk's the thing you have to redo if you edited when an apk has been updated, is any xml in /layout.

For example, in framework-res.apk there are 4 ( 5 if you want to change the battery % color)
Locations:
/drawable/progress_horizonal.xml (this hasn't changed, it's safe to keep reusing the same on over and over)
Update all of these:
/layout/status_bar.xml
/layout/status_bar_expanded.xml
/layout/status_bar_icon.xml (this isn't in the guide yet, this is the battery %)
/layout/status_bar_latest_content.xml

Same would go for the xml's in the layout of:
DownloadProvider
Music
Phone

If you are trying to get around redoing all the apps, you need to ensure that the apps haven't been updated since the last copy. There is a utility that will do a compare, something that I need to bookmark so I can add it to be able to use as a reference.

Examples are like going from the 5.0.5's to the 5.0.6, when the ability to move apps back and forth between internal and sd-ext, this option was not in Settings, it's in MediaProvider, so if you had themed it before, you need to replace it with the new copy and put the images back in again.

ROM to ROM these things are different also (for services, framework-res; most apps are the same minus the ones carrying options like Settings, MediaProvider and SpareParts). So you want to redo them for that.

Edit: This may be a good question to add to an appendix of the doc as a reference only thing, I'll give that some thought.

bga7x · Apr 23, 2010

jairomeo said:
If you are trying to get around redoing all the apps, you need to ensure that the apps haven't been updated since the last copy. There is a utility that will do a compare, something that I need to bookmark so I can add it to be able to use as a reference.

Examples are like going from the 5.0.5's to the 5.0.6, when the ability to move apps back and forth between internal and sd-ext, this option was not in Settings, it's in MediaProvider, so if you had themed it before, you need to replace it with the new copy and put the images back in again.

ROM to ROM these things are different also (for services, framework-res; most apps are the same minus the ones carrying options like Settings, MediaProvider and SpareParts). So you want to redo them for that.

Edit: This may be a good question to add to an appendix of the doc as a reference only thing, I'll give that some thought.

I use beyond compare great program!!!

jairomeo · Apr 23, 2010

bga7x said:
I use beyond compare great program!!!

Never used to do that lol, dunno why I never thought to, thanks.

jairomeo · Apr 23, 2010

Mods, is there a chance of making this a Sticky?

My thoughts are:

Once the guide is done, Iĺl leave the link up, but will attach it to the thread also.
For questions that give information to add, Iĺl add it to the document.
To help keep good questions organized, I will make a second document, a Q&A, and Ill pull them so it can be used as a reference

amac25 · Apr 23, 2010

Looks great and thanx i hate having to dig thru 7 million bookmarks for different theming posts. Thought i'd throw this out there you might know this already and it may be too detailed but google changed the color code line in the blue_button.xml in Calculator.apk/res/drawable to 08 00 00 1D instead of ending with a C. I haven't seen any other xmls with that change but it's something to keep an eye out for in the future if a search for 08 00 00 1C doesn't get any results and dunno if this will help but here http://markcarson.com/markcarson/ColorCalc.html is a color calculator that i use to get my xml hex colors. It has some presets and you can adjust the lightness and sat to your liking, so all you have to do is reverse it and add the aa after you find the color your looking for.

jairomeo · Apr 23, 2010

amac25 said:
Looks great and thanx i hate having to dig thru 7 million bookmarks for different theming posts. Thought i'd throw this out there you might know this already and it may be too detailed but google changed the color code line in the blue_button.xml in Calculator.apk/res/drawable to 08 00 00 1D instead of ending with a C. I haven't seen any other xmls with that change but it's something to keep an eye out for in the future if a search for 08 00 00 1C doesn't get any results and dunno if this will help but here http://markcarson.com/markcarson/ColorCalc.html is a color calculator that i use to get my xml hex colors. It has some presets and you can adjust the lightness and sat to your liking, so all you have to do is reverse it and add the aa after you find the color your looking for.

Nope, nothing is too detailed

I figure anything that dives into a lot of detail, like when I add in the meanings in the xml that Stericson wrote, I'm going to add it as an appendix to the document.

Thats good to know and I'll make sure to put that in. I have seen 08 00 00 1D in a few places, but I never messed with it to see what it changed, I guess with that tip, it's time to start playing more.

I would like to slowly come up with a list of xml's we know to edit and where they are.

I've thought about adding links in for hex sites, and since you are the 2nd person to mention it, I will add it in.

Thanks amac for the inputs

amac25 · Apr 23, 2010

jairomeo said:
Nope, nothing is too detailed I figure anything that dives into a lot of detail, like when I add in the meanings in the xml that Stericson wrote, I'm going to add it as an appendix to the document.

Thats good to know and I'll make sure to put that in. I have seen 08 00 00 1D in a few places, but I never messed with it to see what it changed, I guess with that tip, it's time to start playing more.

I would like to slowly come up with a list of xml's we know to edit and where they are.

I've thought about adding links in for hex sites, and since you are the 2nd person to mention it, I will add it in.

Thanks amac for the inputs

No problem wish i had more to add then a color code and a link but you did a great job putting it together already, can't wait to see the finished product!

[THEME] The Ultimate Android Themeing Guide - Updated 4/26

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