Team RejectZ Dev School and Pub

[jayharper08]

Stuck like Chuck............

---Jay--- Moderating from the Slim'd GS3™

 

[timmetal6669]

Stuck like Chuck............

---Jay--- Moderating from the Slim'd GS3™

Uh... Oh wow... Seriously was not my intention, but Thank you much!!! I just thought that some people deserved the same opportunity as me.... I will always maintain this thread.. Thank you Jay. Really you are the greatest Moderator. Im proud to be your dev

 

[Stryke_the_Orc]

Tim, just wanted to say thank you for sharing your knowledge and expertise with me. Because of you and what you taught me I've gained R. C. status:beer::thumbup:

Slithering from the nether regions of a twisted mind and tarnished soul

 

[timmetal6669]

Uh... Oh wow... Seriously was not my intention, but Thank you much!!! I just thought that some people deserved the same opportunity as me.... I will always maintain this thread.. Thank you Jay. Really you are the greatest Moderator. Im proud to be your dev

Tim, just wanted to say thank you for sharing your knowledge and expertise with me. Because of you and what you taught me I've aquifer R. C. status:beer::thumbup:

Slithering from the nether regions of a twisted mind and tarnished soul

Man i just taught you very little, you made all of your contributions yourself. You earned that. Congrats beer!!!

 

[Stryke_the_Orc]

Man i just taught you very little, you made all of your contributions yourself. You earned that. Congrats beer!!!

Thank you, you and the rest of the team helped me get my feet off the ground. I never would have gotten this far without you.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

 

[steelers_exe]

I just dual boot installed ubuntu on my laptop, looking to get started on learning the dev ropes. How much HDD space would one need to have available? and how important is internet speed?

 

[timmetal6669]

I just dual boot installed ubuntu on my laptop, looking to get started on learning the dev ropes. How much HDD space would one need to have available? and how important is internet speed?

I honestly only develop on windows. Unless you're planning on developing kernels, or TAR files, everything else can be easily done in windows. But to answer your question, you're gonna want to partition your hard drive with enough room to install ubuntu and the android sdk, dsixda kitchen, cygwin, and any other programs that you may want to include. I would download all the programs you want to run in linux and add up how much room all those programs will take and then add about 30 Gb as a buffer. Also make sure that your processor can handle all those programs as well. It's really best to have a machine that you can soley dedicate to Linux if you want to build kernels tho.

 

[steelers_exe]

I honestly only develop on windows. Unless you're planning on developing kernels, or TAR files, everything else can be easily done in windows. But to answer your question, you're gonna want to partition your hard drive with enough room to install ubuntu and the android sdk, dsixda kitchen, cygwin, and any other programs that you may want to include. I would download all the programs you want to run in linux and add up how much room all those programs will take and then add about 30 Gb as a buffer. Also make sure that your processor can handle all those programs as well. It's really best to have a machine that you can soley dedicate to Linux if you want to build kernels tho.

Dont think I want to jump right into the kernel world just yet, so I'll go the windows route. I currently use paint.net for simple themeing projects, like doing sms notification and toggle morphs, what if any would you say is the advantage in using photoshop in more advanced themeing?

 

[timmetal6669]

Dont think I want to jump right into the kernel world just yet, so I'll go the windows route. I currently use paint.net for simple themeing projects, like doing sms notification and toggle morphs, what if any would you say is the advantage in using photoshop in more advanced themeing?

I personally would suggest getting the Adobe Cs6 suite. That consists of Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Fireworks, and Adobe Illustrator cs6. All have thier advantages for major theming with Photoshop being the least advanced and Illustrator being the most advanced. Photoshop was designed specifically for photos. (Single layer non-cgi imagry) Of course you can add layers with Photoshop but again it was designed for photos. If you're advanced with Photoshop, it will work for easy projects. Fireworks was designed with cgi/webdesign in mind. Its perfect for editing existing computer graphics imagery. Some of the advantages for android theming are batch coloring, flattening layered images, editing decompiled .9pngs( as well as compiled . 9pngs if you know web layers), and minor pixel editing and design. Illustrator (very advanced) is used to create your own cgi images and icons. Anchored points of light and shadow that you can literally draw , color, shadow, and even animate images and icons from scratch building graphically your own icons in hd quality.
For simply theming stock android icons or existing icon packs with maybe some minor graphic changes to the icon or image, i personally use adobe firework. It makes all my icons clean and i can batch color hundreds at a time in literally seconds. That makes theming a breeze so that i spend a minimal amount of time on editing icons by hand. I pick out all icons i want to spend some time on by hand and put those to the side. And then choose a color scheme for my theme. I separate all standard stock icons by their colors;--- by like color and separate them into thier perspective colored folders. Then i color one image by hue in the perspective color folder (all greens one folder, blues-its own folder, etc) -save the history as a cmd, and batch color the rest of the icons in the folder in seconds. Just did 300 images in about 40 seconds Then i can take more time on pimping out the major icons within the ROM by hand, such as mms icon, launcher wallpapers, phone icon etc... Fireworks is the way to go for theming, and illustrator for original icons you want to design yourself

 

[steelers_exe]

I personally would suggest getting the Adobe Cs6 suite. That consists of Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Fireworks, and Adobe Illustrator cs6. All have thier advantages for major theming with Photoshop being the least advanced and Illustrator being the most advanced. Photoshop was designed specifically for photos. (Single layer non-cgi imagry) Of course you can add layers with Photoshop but again it was designed for photos. If you're advanced with Photoshop, it will work for easy projects. Fireworks was designed with cgi/webdesign in mind. Its perfect for editing existing computer graphics imagery. Some of the advantages for android theming are batch coloring, flattening layered images, editing decompiled .9pngs( as well as compiled . 9pngs if you know web layers), and minor pixel editing and design. Illustrator (very advanced) is used to create your own cgi images and icons. Anchored points of light and shadow that you can literally draw , color, shadow, and even animate images and icons from scratch building graphically your own icons in hd quality.
For simply theming stock android icons or existing icon packs with maybe some minor graphic changes to the icon or image, i personally use adobe firework. It makes all my icons clean and i can batch color hundreds at a time in literally seconds. That makes theming a breeze so that i spend a minimal amount of time on editing icons by hand. I pick out all icons i want to spend some time on by hand and put those to the side. And then choose a color scheme for my theme. I separate all standard stock icons by their colors;--- by like color and separate them into thier perspective colored folders. Then i color one image by hue in the perspective color folder (all greens one folder, blues-its own folder, etc) -save the history as a cmd, and batch color the rest of the icons in the folder in seconds. Just did 300 images in about 40 seconds Then i can take more time on pimping out the major icons within the ROM by hand, such as mms icon, launcher wallpapers, phone icon etc... Fireworks is the way to go for theming, and illustrator for original icons you want to design yourself

Thanks for such a detailed and helpful answer! Looks like I'll have to get em. I'm working on a theme right now and can already imagine how they'd help.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda premium

 

[Sloth]

Hi I'm new here

 

[timmetal6669]

Thanks for such a detailed and helpful answer! Looks like I'll have to get em. I'm working on a theme right now and can already imagine how they'd help.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda premium

Hey no problem, Any Way I Can Help. Welcome To The Team Rejectz Dev School and pub!

 

[timmetal6669]

Hi I'm new here

Lol, now bigpappy420+199, you've had me on gtalk for quite awhile. You could have hmu anytime and id be happy to help. But you know this.

<LayoutView />

   <HelpView|4androidDevelopmentHelpTips&%Tricks: paddingInGtalk="internalsd/system/app/gtalk/contactsList/[email protected] com", (Lol/haha/HitMeUpAnytime)/>;

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[Hamspiced]

i have a few legitimate questions...

1) What makes certain packages or apps incompatible with the same or similar versions of Android. I would be under the impression that as long as it is the same version it should be cross compatible. So i run into small blacks of misunderstanding when i see people needing ports of certain apps that one carrier offers on their phone that the same phone on another carrier does not offer. Is this because certain framework features are not there that the app references? wouldnt it be as simple as finding the correct apk and copying it?

2) How do you know what apk is what? - I ask this because whenever i go to pull an apk i have to wait for someone in the thread to say pull something.something.apk and usually it is unrelated to the app name. for instance, ever since amazon has done app of the day, i have downloaded that app every day for about 3 years now. and every now and then i have to delete amazons download which is like venesia or something like that. Every apk that is in there has NOTHING to do with any of the apps i have downloaded..

3) How do i slipstream apps - This term is used for when i image or try to group together updates on say windows 7 installations. it refers to getting windows updates and shoving them in the iso when i install windows it has all of the current updates and doesnt have to update once everything is installed (i know that sentance was a bit redundant). But essentially... i flash roms quite frequently. What are the steps i would need to do if i had all the apks of the apps or programs i use most frequently. And rather then use titanium to restore each individual apk, could i not just open up the rom zip, then copy/paste the apks into the rom so when i flash it, it is immediately installed? I know back when i had my htc hero, everyone was having issues "signing" roms. Once i unzip the rom or edit the zip, wouldnt i have to re-sign the rom for it to flash properly?

Thats all for now. I have a bunch of other questions but these will satisfy what i want. Essentially i am sure you can understand with my three questions my intentions. Rather then ask my main question, id rather know the steps involved for each of them. I am just the type of person that needs to know why before i know how.

 

[timmetal6669]

i have a few legitimate questions...

1) What makes certain packages or apps incompatible with the same or similar versions of Android. I would be under the impression that as long as it is the same version it should be cross compatible. So i run into small blacks of misunderstanding when i see people needing ports of certain apps that one carrier offers on their phone that the same phone on another carrier does not offer. Is this because certain framework features are not there that the app references? wouldnt it be as simple as finding the correct apk and copying it?

2) How do you know what apk is what? - I ask this because whenever i go to pull an apk i have to wait for someone in the thread to say pull something.something.apk and usually it is unrelated to the app name. for instance, ever since amazon has done app of the day, i have downloaded that app every day for about 3 years now. and every now and then i have to delete amazons download which is like venesia or something like that. Every apk that is in there has NOTHING to do with any of the apps i have downloaded..

3) How do i slipstream apps - This term is used for when i image or try to group together updates on say windows 7 installations. it refers to getting windows updates and shoving them in the iso when i install windows it has all of the current updates and doesnt have to update once everything is installed (i know that sentance was a bit redundant). But essentially... i flash roms quite frequently. What are the steps i would need to do if i had all the apks of the apps or programs i use most frequently. And rather then use titanium to restore each individual apk, could i not just open up the rom zip, then copy/paste the apks into the rom so when i flash it, it is immediately installed? I know back when i had my htc hero, everyone was having issues "signing" roms. Once i unzip the rom or edit the zip, wouldnt i have to re-sign the rom for it to flash properly?

Thats all for now. I have a bunch of other questions but these will satisfy what i want. Essentially i am sure you can understand with my three questions my intentions. Rather then ask my main question, id rather know the steps involved for each of them. I am just the type of person that needs to know why before i know how.

Ok I'm gonna do my best here, i hope I've understood all your questions correctly;....

1) What makes certain packages or apps incompatible with the same or similar versions of Android. I would be under the impression that as long as it is the same version it should be cross compatible. So i run into small blacks of misunderstanding when i see people needing ports of certain apps that one carrier offers on their phone that the same phone on another carrier does not offer. Is this because certain framework features are not there that the app references? wouldnt it be as simple as finding the correct apk and copying it?

I think that really depends on a few things if they are the same phone across different carriers. ;
1. The app.. If its an app that's provided by a particular carrier such as Verizon or Sprint, (i.e. certain types of bloatware) OR a specific device (i.e. Note II S pen ); then I would imagine that the individual carrier would try to protect their app from being used on another carrier's device. It may be a monetary reason, or just being prideful. The 2 most common places to prevent an app from being used on a device are the csc/.xml's and the build.prop. The build prop identifies the device to the app, and the csc/ xml's as well as a few other files in bin, &xbin have files that allow permissions for which device can run the app. Although we know where to find these files, sometimes editing the file can render the device useless to the carriers service or make the device inoperable. Understand, I'm only addressing apks here and not how to port ROMS. Sometimes we can make edits to these files of course as we are all familiar with csc edits/build prop edits etc. system/ framework.apk rarely effects whether the app you're trying to install is compatible with the device, although occasionally the app itself is built for a particular platform, i.e. GB, ICS, or JB. Again the app will check for the platform and device/carrier ID via the methods mentioned above (usually) and if the app was developed and compiled with say Android 2.3 GB (armV6) in mind and your device is running Android 4.1.2 (armV7) , then even though the device is fully capable of handling the performance of the APK in question, the APK itself was made prior to the version of android you're running thus the apk will not recognize your version of android and give you the standard non compatible message even if it is or could be. I saw this personally when switching from GB to ICS. I lost some of my favorite games because they were no longer supported on ICS. Thankfully, I still had a back up and my phone was rooted so i could occasionally flash back and play all my favorite games.

2. The device itself. Often times Samsung or the device carrier may use slightly different hardware at the request of the carrier such as the radio for example, due to the type of towers and hardware the carrier uses to provide service to their customers. Although the phones across the different carriers may be similar and have generally the same specs, this does NOT mean it's the same phone. This can also carry over to other hardware on the device such as the processor, screen, etc. This can also effect whether or not an app can work on a particular device. A common example would be the s3 and international s3, and the galaxy s2 (most carriers) and sprints E4GT. (Sprint's gs2 variant )

2) How do you know what apk is what? - I ask this because whenever i go to pull an apk i have to wait for someone in the thread to say pull something.something.apk and usually it is unrelated to the app name. for instance, ever since amazon has done app of the day, i have downloaded that app every day for about 3 years now. and every now and then i have to delete amazons download which is like venesia or something like that. Every apk that is in there has NOTHING to do with any of the apps i have downloaded..

Coroprate Developers name their apks according to provisions set by their employers, the function of the app, and sometimes for their own reasons. As far as how we know which apps do what? Sometimes we don't. Sometimes it's a matter of pulling the apk, decompiling it and looking at the codes and images to see the precise function of the apk. As for Amazon, its common knowledge that they like to incorporate adware and unnecessary apps for the sole function of selling something to the consumer. I'm not familiar with any apps from Amazon as I try to stay away from apps that contain any bloatware, adware, or malware that pushes for me to spend my money. Never the less to answer your question, it's still very possible that Amazon may include sub-apks that are used to help the Main.apk run. We see similar apps on stock ROM builds (bloatware) and in compressed files such as smali, lib and jar files.

How do i slipstream apps - This term is used for when i image or try to group together updates on say windows 7 installations. it refers to getting windows updates and shoving them in the iso when i install windows it has all of the current updates and doesnt have to update once everything is installed (i know that sentance was a bit redundant). But essentially... i flash roms quite frequently. What are the steps i would need to do if i had all the apks of the apps or programs i use most frequently. And rather then use titanium to restore each individual apk, could i not just open up the rom zip, then copy/paste the apks into the rom so when i flash it, it is immediately installed? I know back when i had my htc hero, everyone was having issues "signing" roms. Once i unzip the rom or edit the zip, wouldnt i have to re-sign the rom for it to flash properly?

An ISO image is another compression method that provides a "structured container" that preserves multiple file types and formats. It also can be used for faster data transfer to multiple different devices from dvd/cd players to computers, game consoles and android devices. If you've ever opened a TAR file for android or a DVD on your computer you probably have found an ISO. ISO's can be edited with many free programs online. For Windows, ISO recorder and plugin for your version of windows is one such program that makes editing and creating new ISO files easy. Happy "slipstreaming".
As far as a good method for backing up and restoring apps with android.. (Ok don't flame me here i know there are some devout Titanium Backup users, and Im not knocking the developer but yes Ive had issues using it too...) A free app in the playstore that ive been able to pretty much exploit to do my bidding is AppBackup & Restore. It creates a folder on your external sd (which clockwork doesn't format so its safe) called.. Yup, AppBackUp. The App itself pulls the latest copy of all your apps installed and can scan for currently installed apps on your device as well as give you a list of archived apps on your sd card with a very user friendly interface that even gives you the option to replace out dated apps with a more current version installed on the device. The exploit is just as easy. Simply take your apps you've kept on your pc or sd card and put them in the AppBackUp folder on your internal or external sd. Then after flashing the latest and greatest ROM, simply use the "my files" app that comes with all ROMS to navigate to the AppBackUp folder and install the AppBackUp.apk.. Don't forget to enable 3rd party apps in settings. Once installed again go to your app drawer and open up AppBackup. It easily re-installs all of the archived apps you select fresh. I prefer this method because it doesn't restore old conflicting data that can be hazardous to the system and cause force closes or worse issues. Ive been using this method since the gingerbread days.
Now, as for adding apps to ROM zips, some apps need to be installed after the ROM first boots unless you're excellent at writing the updater scripts and setting permissions. There are too many apps to mention that may or may not have this issue and scripting is a whole lesson in itself. Signing apps or ROM.tar files is only necessary if you are decompiling, editing and recompiling the apk or ROM.tar, but there is a work around for ROM.zips and apk's. After recompiling an apk, simply open the archive of a copy of the original unedited apk and the archive of your modified apk and drag the META-INF folder from the original archive to the modded archive and replace the META-INF folder in the archive of your modded apk or ROM.tar. There. You just signed your apk with its original signature. But to answer the question,... Can you put your apps in the ROM zip.. Well Yes. Absolutely. Developers do it all the time. Realize though that some apps (like the BANE of my existence G-apps lol) install an auto-update script that call to be updated regardless of if the app needs to be updated or its the latest version of the app. G-apps for example do this and install themselves to 2 locations. system/app and data/app. For this reason i always turn off automatic updates in the playstore settings. Generally speaking all system apps (or apps you want to MAKE permanent system apps) are located in system/app on your android device or respectively in your ROM zip and all non system apps (i.e. your latest Angry Birds in Space) areinstalled to data/app. Take note that not all apps that you "drop" into the data/app or system/app archive of a ROM zip will install correctly on first boot. Some apps (like Swype beta for example) need to write lib files(and have a log of it) to the device to run properly. These apps are a whole lot easier to just install normally after flashing the ROM.

Hey.. I don't wanna hear nothing k? He asked!!!! Lol

 

[Shadow_God]

now that was a long post.....very nice thread

Good idea, Tim...:thumbup::thumbup::beer::beer:

Thunder Buddies 4 Life!!!!!!!

 

[rwilco12]

Tim,

Just saw the shout out in the OP.

I <3 U 2!

 

[rwilco12]

now that was a long post.....very nice thread

Good idea, Tim...:thumbup::thumbup::beer::beer:

Thunder Buddies 4 Life!!!!!!!

Holy crap you are right! Tim just took on Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged for one of the longest books ever!

 

[timmetal6669]

Holy crap you are right! Tim just took on Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged for one of the longest books ever!

Whoa buddy!!! Always out doing me huh.. When did you becomea moderator? Damn! Son! Back in the day when i said that one day we would RUN XDA i was playing... But you're running with it! Well, Im glad i im on yer good side lol

 

[timmetal6669]

now that was a long post.....very nice thread

Good idea, Tim...:thumbup::thumbup::beer::beer:

Thunder Buddies 4 Life!!!!!!!

Hey bro, i scratched the bar with a sharp object under your sig and all it did was scratch my screen! I didn't win nothing! And i want my n money back. Oh btw, i notice that you're missin any rejectz parafanalia around your sig... Do i need to make you a new sick banner? Ole buddy old pal?