Hey everyone, I've been searching for the folder that CM9 themes are saved in, like the ones you find in google play. I want to pull one from my phone onto my computer so I can use it as a template. I've searched all around the forums, but I couldn't find it.
The themes in CM9 are actually installed like regular APKs, because they are APKs.
They are located in your /data/app/ folder.
You can use 7zip/WinRAR to replace the .png/.9.png files to change certain things, but you will probably have to decompile it to change it much further than that and so you can read the XML files (requires decompiling) to understand what each .png image is doing and change certain parts of the theme that do not work off of .png files, but instead Hex color codes.
Here is a guide to making a template http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1773189
Hope this helps!
Related
Ok, I'm going around in circles trying to find out if I can theme a rom. I've done themes, icons, UI (just the images, not the xml's or codes) I would love to create my own theme for a rom, but how does it work?
I wanted to create a rom but its difficult when you're not a code person. but I am good with photoshop. Can somebody tell me how to start a theme. There are so many good ones for other phones and I would love to create a nice one for the Eris.
what i would do is grab one of the themes that are available and take it apart and see how it was done, but best of luck man,
I personally have not made any themes but i do like to tweak things where i can, and that would be a step i take to figure something out.
snyluc13 said:
what i would do is grab one of the themes that are available and take it apart and see how it was done, but best of luck man,
I personally have not made any themes but i do like to tweak things where i can, and that would be a step i take to figure something out.
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Click to collapse
thanks. I wanted to theme like the phone dialer, calculator, and maybe the drop down screen. Is that possible?
You can theme phone, kb, notification panel, etc...anything really
To theme the "system" stuff you need to modify framework-res.apk (can be found in /system/framework)
To theme anything else you just need to modify the .apk files, i.e. to theme the phone dialer you need to modify phone.apk and contacts.apk
To theme anything you will need to change the file extension to .zip (.apk changed to .zip) and then extract the file so that you can explore what is inside. Most image and xml files are stored in /res/drawable-mdpi
Once you have modified .png and xml files you will need to zip the file and then sign it so that it can be used on android. There are a number of tools for signing .apk files, just google it.
Hope this helps a little...
Im trying to start theming, as i have only been in the android club for about a month. The issue im having is with xml files. Everywhere i read, its like, open in notepad to edit. I open them in notepad and all i get is a bunch of gibberish symbols and letters. Is there any special way that i need to use to edit xml files?
Any help is appreciated, Thanks.
Sorry if this is a repeat, used the search but not in depth, so please dont flame.
I spent a long time searching for how to do this as well. Easiest way is to use APK manager.
Go download it from here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=695701
Basically you put the apk you want to edit into the edit folder and decompile it. Then go into the projects folder and the xml files created will be readable. Edit them using textpad, notepad, w/e you want. Once you are done load apk manager backup, select the same project and then compile the apk. Thats the gist of it, its a tiny bit more complex but you should get it after trying it. Also if you are looking to edit something like services.jar I found you can rename it to services.apk and it will decompile the smali for you so it can be edited. Just play around with APK manager and it should do everything you will need.
sweet, thanks for the help. hopefully ill have a nice theme on here in a couple weeks. thanks
yeah, if you want a full look into any apk you're going to have to decompile it unless you know what you're looking for in the hex of a compiled xml... also with a decompiled apk you can see alot of stuff such as how the .9 borders (or what ever you wanna call em) are done so make sure they stretch the same way
I looked everywhere tried every program from APK Edit, APK Tool, APK Manager, Eclipse and a few others, I cannot figure out how to edit the Strings.xml in APK files.
APK Edit and APK Tool / APK Manager just gives me issues when i try to edit the strings, when i finally get them changed over and push to the phone it doesn't install the .apk, tried this on two different devices with no change.
I'm making theme files but i require to edit the strings value so the names are different, and i'm using an OEM file as my base file.
When I edit the .apk with my themed graphics and go to install it, it always wants to overwrite the original, but i've found that others have been able to just rename the strings value to another name so it wouldn't replace it.
What i'm trying to do is not replace original skins in HTC sense 2.x. Since there installable they can be installed multiple times if there values are changed in strings.xml, allowing for massive customization options.
I need the developers community to show me how to do this, i've tried on my own and i've failed each time, and i also tried contacting the themers that have done this on there own but they refuse to help me.
I have a bunch of skins i'm working on but i can't render my skins and theme the apk files until i can do this
You guys are my last bit of help i can find.
I looked around and found a whole lot of nothing.
halp
Re
To create a theme your going to want to edit the visual ui of the phone. A good place to start is the systemui.apk and the main theme of the phone, in cm7's case, the cyanbread and system themes witch you can also find in system/app. Bassically with the systemui.apk and theme you are editing of your choice will be the finished product if your just starting, making a theme from scratch is a bit more complicated. As for boot animations that I believed is located in data/local and fonts should be in a folder for them selves I cannot think of the topr off of the top of my head but it is easy to identify I'm sure.
the way I edit and make themes is use the above apk's and just go crazy with transparencys and colors in gimp. Be in mind your going to need a Linux based os to edit the apks and place and take them from your zip rom your theming. I also think ther might be a apks editor for windows but idk what it is called.
Re
To create a theme your going to want to edit the visual ui of the phone. A good place to start is the systemui.apk and the main theme of the phone, in cm7's case, the cyanbread and system themes witch you can also find in system/app. Bassically with the systemui.apk and theme you are editing of your choice will be the finished product if your just starting, making a theme from scratch is a bit more complicated. As for boot animations that I believed is located in data/local and fonts should be in a folder for them selves I cannot think of the the closer off of the top of my head but it is easy to identify I'm sure.
the way I edit and make themes is use the above apk's and just go crazy with transparencys and colors in gimp. Be in mind your going to need a Linux based is to edit the apks and place and take them from your zip Tom your theming. I also think there might be a apks editor for windows but idk what it is called.
ya you are going to need to have the android sdk setup for the ADB and then you will use something like apk manager for pulling, extracting, decompiling, image edits, or xml edits which you can find here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=695701
you will need the SDK setup first
which can be found here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=834748
and here
http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html
then you need to know simple ADB commands like:
"adb pull /system/app/Mms.apk" and push command which is "adb push Mms.apk /system/app/"
more commands here:
http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/tools/adb.html
and
http://androidforums.com/evo-4g-all-things-root/187820-how-adb-commands.html
it is also a GOOD idea to learn to use Eclipse for the compiling of the .9.png files which cannot be just simply edited and saved like a normal .png file can.
NOTE: the best way to edit the .9.png files are going to be with the Draw9Patch tool that is included in the SDK and draw the black lines (guides) this is located in the tools folder and then you use Eclipse to compile .. get rid of the black lines pretty much.
info about the .9.png can be found here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=487001
info for eclipse, like how to set it up and download it is here:
http://developer.android.com/sdk/eclipse-adt.html#installing
does say to use the classic version of Eclipse.
once you have all of that figured out then you are pretty good. But there are other stuff to learn to like the programs themselves and stuff .. you will have to look on Google a lot .. I know that there isnt anything much there about any of this stuff .. I kid you not .. it took me a good 2 days to figure out how to use the apk manager and eclipse and how to alter the .9.png files. That was from getting bits and pieces off the web and a lot of trial and error .. the support around here sucks so dont expect much.
there is also a video that shows you how to setup the sdk along with the eclipse that is here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIL1UouA4dE
just use the previous links above to get the stuff like the sdk is at version 10 now and then the Eclipse Classic.
If this is too much for you to do and figure out then you are out of luck.
Yeah, I've used ADB and Eclipse before. I'm quite ****e at Eclipse, but I guess I could mozy around a bit and see if I could get the hang of it enough to do themes. I'm really eager to do that stuff.
Anyway, is there anything I'll have to look out for in regards to turning my phone into a lovely paperweight?
wauterboi said:
Yeah, I've used ADB and Eclipse before. I'm quite ****e at Eclipse, but I guess I could mozy around a bit and see if I could get the hang of it enough to do themes. I'm really eager to do that stuff.
Anyway, is there anything I'll have to look out for in regards to turning my phone into a lovely paperweight?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
eh nothing that I have come across or know about.
so if you know ADB and a little with eclipse . what exactly are you trying to figure out?
Right now I'm trying to figure out how to open the APK. I used WinRAR to open the file and now when I try to open it in Eclipse, it just opens WinRAR. >_>
wauterboi said:
Right now I'm trying to figure out how to open the APK. I used WinRAR to open the file and now when I try to open it in Eclipse, it just opens WinRAR. >_>
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the easiest and the best method is to use that apk manager that I linked in there and use that to extract the apk after you pull it from the phone using ADB
I usually use the adb pull /data/app and adb pull system/app to get all the apk files out at the same time.
after they are out you will put the ones you want to alter (up to 10 at a time) into the place apk here for modding folder and then open apk manager terminal ..
1) type 22 to select the apk that you want to mod.
2) then you will type 1 to extract it.
3) then you can go to the projects folder to see the extracted apk contents.
- usually the images that you want to alter will be in the res/drawable or the
res/drawable-hdpi or res/rawable-hdpi longfinger
- also some of the apps that do not use the .9.png files you will have to find
the image in two folders ... one for portrait mode and landscape mode.
alter the images you want and put them in the original folder.
4) then you will optimize the images which is option number 2.
5) then you will sign the apk which is number 3.
- if it is a system app select the correct option
6) then you will see an unsignedsomething.apk in the place apk here for modding.
7) to sign the apk you will hit number 4.
8) and then number 5 to zipalign the apk.
when you go back to your place apk here for maodding folder you will see that the unsignedsomething.apk is now signedsomething.apk
then you will push that to your phone using the adb/push something.apk /sdcard
then simply install the apk from the phone ... may have to uninstall the original app first.
winrar will not open the apk .. 7zip will . but i rarely use this as I cannot see the thumbnails for the images and cannot optimize the apk with it or anything else for that matter.
Here is a link to the wiki for the T-Mobile Theme Engine.
http://code.google.com/p/tmobile-themes/w/list
Is there an easy way to replace icon images such as contacts. I downloaded some icons from a different theme and would like to use those instead of the ones I currently have. They are PNG files and I can't seem to find the original files in the framework directory.
Try ninjamorph in the market.
your looking in the frameworkres.apk located in the contacts.apk correct?