Is there a way to build Themer themes (or even Zooper widgets) on a PC or Mac and export them back out, transfer them to the device and import them into Themer?
I have been trying to build a theme but I keep getting frustrated with how cumbersome it is to use these tools on a touchscreen device. I would be able to create a theme a lot more quickly and efficiently if I could drag elements around with a mouse, type on a physical keyboard and make use of a larger screen with more real estate than my phone. I also think it would be much more precise.
A tool like this would be fairly easy to build. It'd just have to have a few basic options for the device like resolution and dpi and could also have presets so that a designer could select the device he or she is exporting to. This would also be helpful for people who are modifying themes to work with other devices or if users are running their phones with custom DPI settings (I do).
Would anyone else find this useful?
Please forgive me if this has been asked and answered already. I did a bunch of searching and couldn't come up with anything.
Thanks,
Cass
cbarnes913 said:
Is there a way to build Themer themes (or even Zooper widgets) on a PC or Mac and export them back out, transfer them to the device and import them into Themer?
I have been trying to build a theme but I keep getting frustrated with how cumbersome it is to use these tools on a touchscreen device. I would be able to create a theme a lot more quickly and efficiently if I could drag elements around with a mouse, type on a physical keyboard and make use of a larger screen with more real estate than my phone. I also think it would be much more precise.
A tool like this would be fairly easy to build. It'd just have to have a few basic options for the device like resolution and dpi and could also have presets so that a designer could select the device he or she is exporting to. This would also be helpful for people who are modifying themes to work with other devices or if users are running their phones with custom DPI settings (I do).
Would anyone else find this useful?
Please forgive me if this has been asked and answered already. I did a bunch of searching and couldn't come up with anything.
Thanks,
Cass
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. I second your idea. i did search for theme builder. nothing of that sort. on a different note , i did find an ancient theme builder for ancient symbian phones. i donot know whether to laugh or to cry. LOL
cbarnes913 said:
Is there a way to build Themer themes (or even Zooper widgets) on a PC or Mac and export them back out, transfer them to the device and import them into Themer?
I have been trying to build a theme but I keep getting frustrated with how cumbersome it is to use these tools on a touchscreen device. I would be able to create a theme a lot more quickly and efficiently if I could drag elements around with a mouse, type on a physical keyboard and make use of a larger screen with more real estate than my phone. I also think it would be much more precise.
A tool like this would be fairly easy to build. It'd just have to have a few basic options for the device like resolution and dpi and could also have presets so that a designer could select the device he or she is exporting to. This would also be helpful for people who are modifying themes to work with other devices or if users are running their phones with custom DPI settings (I do).
Would anyone else find this useful?
Please forgive me if this has been asked and answered already. I did a bunch of searching and couldn't come up with anything.
Thanks,
Cass
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, if you are asking if there is an App to build themes on a PC? If yes then the answer is sadly no.
However there is another option. You can use an Android VM such as GenyMotion. It no longer has Play Store access, so you will need to sideload Themer on it, but it does work well. http://www.genymotion.com/features/
the link doesn't work comes back as nothing found,fortunately this one does work https://cloud.genymotion.com/page/launchpad/download/
you wiull need to register and log in before download
ThemerSupport said:
However there is another option. You can use an Android VM such as GenyMotion. It no longer has Play Store access, so you will need to sideload Themer on it, but it does work well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I started to do this but as the performance is fairly bad in emulation, I threw in the towel. If there is enough support, is this something that you guys would be willing to build? It's probably even something that could be built in a web app, meaning you could build it once and be done
The benefit here is that having a tool like this would open the door for a lot more designers. The more great themes you have in Themer the bigger your install base.
Thanks so much for responding so quickly
Edit: I misunderstood. I have tried the emulator provided with the SDK, but I'll give GenyMotion a shot also. Thanks for the suggestion.
cbarnes913 said:
Yeah, I started to do this but as the performance is fairly bad in emulation, I threw in the towel. If there is enough support, is this something that you guys would be willing to build? It's probably even something that could be built in a web app, meaning you could build it once and be done
The benefit here is that having a tool like this would open the door for a lot more designers. The more great themes you have in Themer the bigger your install base.
Thanks so much for responding so quickly
Edit: I misunderstood. I have tried the emulator provided with the SDK, but I'll give GenyMotion a shot also. Thanks for the suggestion.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We might have a look at an online version in the future, but that will only be once Themer is a lot more stable and we have more resources to work with. Thanks for the suggestion though!
it could be awesome for pc users
I installed Genymotion. Getting it configured with Themer took some doing, but once it was setup I had everything I needed. Thanks so much for this suggestion.
For those who want to do the same thing, there are some things you need to know. First, you need either a Google account or a Facebook account to log into Themer. That means that after you install GenyMotion, you need to do one of two things: either you need to 1) flash a Google apps package over the GenyMotion VM (a 4.3 apps package that works with Cyanogen mod works best), then log into Google, then update everything with the Play Store, and then install Themer; OR (and I didn't do this, so it might be more complex than this) sideload Facebook and sideload Themer, log into Facebook, then setup Themer.
The reason you need to do this is because in order to use Themer, you need to log in using either a Google account or a Facebook account, and Themer uses a list of accounts already on your phone (or in this case, the VM) to populate the dialog box that asks you to log in. That said, you want to have either a Facebook account or a Google account set up on the device (or VM) prior to launching Themer. Since I'd rather not ever use Facebook to do anything, that limits my option to Google.
It might be the case that if you exported themes from Themer and wanted to import it, that you might not have to go through any of these steps. However, if you want to be able to download existing themes from Themer and work with them as a starting point for building your theme, or even just pick them apart to figure out how they work in order to learn, you need to log in.
Someone correct me if I made this way more complicated than it needed to be.
As for developing a web client for theming, maybe this could be a community-led effort? I don't have the skill or time to do any of it, but if this is a popular request, perhaps we could organize a project and try to contribute to it. Is anyone interested?
Related
Hi.
I was wondering how hard it would be to create a simple application that would connect to a server or website checking for updates. I plan on loading font .apk's on the server or website, and would like a application to periodically check for updates or manually check for updates, be able to preview the font, and then download the .apk if wanted. How hard would it be to create such an application?
Thanks.
Jzero88
jzero88 said:
Hi.
I was wondering how hard it would be to create a simple application that would connect to a server or website checking for updates. I plan on loading font .apk's on the server or website, and would like a application to periodically check for updates or manually check for updates, be able to preview the font, and then download the .apk if wanted. How hard would it be to create such an application?
Thanks.
Jzero88
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, this depends on how you approach it, but I think the easiest way to do this would be to create a feed using XML. So if you were doing your font updater, you would load a file like this:
<FontDetails>
<Font name = "Font1" example = "http://www.myfontsite.com/FontExamples/Font1.png" location = ""http://www.myfontsite.com/Fonts/Font1.apk"\>
<Font name = "Font2" example = "http://www.myfontsite.com/FontExamples/Font2.png" location = "http://www.myfontsite.com/Fonts/Font2.apk"\>
</FontDetails>
The problem with this is that you will have to maintain this XML file, making sure its always up-to-date(Easily manageable with some simple scripts).
If you aren't willing to do this, you could go down the road that is wrongly mislabeled as "The Easy Way" and hard-code the locations of all your APK's and all of your example images, but I would only do this if you were planning on dumping all the APK's and images in the same place(For example, if all your APK's were here: http://www.myfontsite.com/Fonts/). You would request the directory information from the server and parse that into your list of font APK's and correspond them with their example images(probably by naming them the same; i.e. Font1.apk and Font1.png).
If you decide to use the first option, you could do a bunch of cool things with the organization, like break things into categories and apply taggings and it would only require one request to the server per update. If you go with the second method, organization is guaranteed to be a mess if you try anything large scale, and adds a layer of complexity if you try to break things into folders and categories. This would require a ping per folder you have to check, which can have a high complexity factor if you have a lot of folders.
I just want to point out that even though this is directly related to development, this is a type of question that belongs in the General section(Questions ALWAYS belong in General). I'm sure a Mod will come around, scold you, then move the thread.
Anyway, I do hope this helps,
Good luck,
Tyler
Edit: Having a bit of problems getting the XML looking correct. Sorry if it looks ugly :S
Even easier would be to manage the updater as an RSS feed. Then it becomes quite trivial, as there are several examples of RSS readers online already.
Great! Thanks for the reply!
Yeah, the XML approach I think would be the better option as well, just because we could use this thread to hold everything I currently do no have any hosting at this time. Would you be up to making such a application? It seems you have the know abouts to so.... I would be the one to maintain everything and update it. I would monitor this thread and when new ones pop up, I wouldn't mind adding it to in the XML.
Also, how would the RSS feed work?
Thanks
jzero88 said:
Great! Thanks for the reply!
Yeah, the XML approach I think would be the better option as well, just because we could use this thread to hold everything I currently do no have any hosting at this time. Would you be up to making such a application? It seems you have the know abouts to so.... I would be the one to maintain everything and update it. I would monitor this thread and when new ones pop up, I wouldn't mind adding it to in the XML.
Also, how would the RSS feed work?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wish I could...I've got about 50 projects already on the back-burner and no time to finish them Tell ya what though...I've finished a mini project a couple weeks ago with some buddies at school for my friends website. Its an Open-Source RSS reader that was made to read in the latest articles of his site. With some slight tweaking, I'm sure you(or some other dev) could mod it to work in your favor...Here's the github address:
http://github.com/pencilo/Absolute-Android-RSS.git
I don't think this is the latest code, but all the working elements you need are in here.
Has anyone found or manage to install the "USA TODAY for Tablet" on their NC? I'm trying to track down the APK but can't find it.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.usatoday.android.tablet.news
Does anyone think updating the build.prop to match the Xoom would allow it to be downloaded from the Market on to a NC?
I use the phone version frequently and would love the tablet version on my NC. I was surprised to not see much mentioned about it on XDA. If anyone has managed to install it can you verify that it works on Honeycomb v4? I'm afraid it's going to use a different sdk version (11, not 10 that the Preview image is).
It wouldn't install because we are using the wrong sdk version but if we could get it to install, I imagine it would work. I don't think it's using anything the preview sdk didn't have. Try asking someone in the xoom forums to post the apk. They'll be the only ones who have it.
Don't forget that Honeycomb has a new UI method which this might use. Pulse now will use this, but you won't see it on anything less than Honeycomb.
Activity Fragments
Honeycomb allows developers to break the Activities of their applications into subcomponents called Fragments, and then combine them in a variety of ways to create a richer, more interactive experience. For the landscape view, Pulse allows you to open the story right there in a new fragment. This allows readers to simultaneously browse and read news stories.
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Click to collapse
I've cross posted in Xoom forum. Maybe someone will post it for me.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=978369
khaytsus said:
Don't forget that Honeycomb has a new UI method which this might use. Pulse now will use this, but you won't see it on anything less than Honeycomb.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah Fragments look interesting. I don't expect the apps to work on anything below Honeycomb.
RE
Does anybody have the .apk for this? It doesnt show up in the market.
Link for USA Today APK
Here you go... (Attached)
Free version. No piracy involved.
Its one of my favorite news Apps, too. Wonder why they yanked it? When I discovered it was gone, I started keeping back-ups of my Free stuff online for this very reason.
-Kodak
mynookcolor.blogspot.com
The apk worked for me until a little while ago. Now, I get an error that I must download an updated version from the market. Searched in the market and couldnt find it
I'm developing a touch screen based system for controlling electronic music. As part of the development, we'll be building our own touch screen, but that's not going to be ready for some time. In the mean time, I need to start writing the software (which will be done in java), and I'm going to need a touch screen to use for testing.
So, I am NOT trying to write an application for the Galaxy Tab. I am writing a application that runs on the my desktop, and I'd like it to be able to get touch information from the Galaxy, in any way practical. I've looked into using an iPad for this, but it looks to be too much of a pain to be worth it. All I need is a way of my java application receiving the list of co-ordinates of touches from the tab, in real time. I don't need any higher level gesture interpretation (as I'll have to do that on my end for the final system anyway), just all the touch co-ordinates. Does anyone have a suggestion on the best way to go about this? Is there something in existence already to accomplish this easily, or is there any kind of java library I can use to make calls to a connected tab from my application? I've been googling around, but haven't found any particularly useful information on the subject, as the tab is chiefly meant to be a stand-alone item, not a pc peripheral. Any tips on where I might start looking would be a huge help. Thanks!
-cullam
cullambl said:
I'm developing a touch screen based system for controlling electronic music. As part of the development, we'll be building our own touch screen, but that's not going to be ready for some time. In the mean time, I need to start writing the software (which will be done in java), and I'm going to need a touch screen to use for testing.
So, I am NOT trying to write an application for the Galaxy Tab. I am writing a application that runs on the my desktop, and I'd like it to be able to get touch information from the Galaxy, in any way practical. I've looked into using an iPad for this, but it looks to be too much of a pain to be worth it. All I need is a way of my java application receiving the list of co-ordinates of touches from the tab, in real time. I don't need any higher level gesture interpretation (as I'll have to do that on my end for the final system anyway), just all the touch co-ordinates. Does anyone have a suggestion on the best way to go about this? Is there something in existence already to accomplish this easily, or is there any kind of java library I can use to make calls to a connected tab from my application? I've been googling around, but haven't found any particularly useful information on the subject, as the tab is chiefly meant to be a stand-alone item, not a pc peripheral. Any tips on where I might start looking would be a huge help. Thanks!
-cullam
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, well I'm going to try and be brief and not turn this into an Android programming essay so here goes.
You have a couple of different routes you can take.
1. If you use eclipse for development and you hook up your tablet, you can watch the log and see that it prints useful information constantly, basically debug output that tells you whats going on in the background. If you just want to look at it, you can probably see it there.
2. This would be my choice, but I'm a programmer so I love a new adventure. I would recommend you just write a quick app for your tablet that pumps out the location of a touch whenever you touch the screen. If you are familiar with sockets and such, you can just write a simple server Java app that collects packets of data from your tablet, and just have the tablet send out a multicast packet containing the coordinates you touch every time you touch the screen.
There are probably some other ways, but if you are already going to be doing the bulk of the project in Java, you aren't looking at a difficult learning curve to write a basic little android app.
Thanks! I'll definitely try the eclipse trick. And yeah, writing an app on the tab is probably going to be necessary, but MUCH easier than having to learn a new language, and get an official license to do one on the iPad. The thing I'm really unsure about is the available communication methods for getting data back and forth between them. I was hoping there might be some sort of java api to get calls going through the usb connection. So I'll guess I'll see what the Eclipse hook up shows me.
cullambl said:
Thanks! I'll definitely try the eclipse trick. And yeah, writing an app on the tab is probably going to be necessary, but MUCH easier than having to learn a new language, and get an official license to do one on the iPad. The thing I'm really unsure about is the available communication methods for getting data back and forth between them. I was hoping there might be some sort of java api to get calls going through the usb connection. So I'll guess I'll see what the Eclipse hook up shows me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
apple stuff is crap anyways, leave them to their pretentious commercials and closed minded development.
as far as the android sdk, I think it will take you a lot less time to just use network communications. google socket client/server java tutorials and you should be set to go in about 2 hours. I have implemented it, its all straight forward, and imho probably an easier app to write that something that pumps out of the usb port
Awesome, thanks
Greetings,
At my office, we rotate after-hours email monitoring but some of the older guys are apprehensive about getting cell phones, so keeping up on-the-go can be difficult. I am wondering about buying a ZTE Open off of ebay and getting a pay/mb data plan and we can pass that around as a dedicated email reader.
Up to that point, there is nothing to worry about, but what I am thinking of playing around with is cutting the OS down to only the email app and settings. I'd like to have it boot directly to email with settings available from the pull-down menu, if possible. I mainly want to keep it simple enough for cellular-phobic people and also take away the ability to browse the web and run up my cellphone bill.
I'm not super fluent in the in's and out's of FXOS beyond the app level, but I'm interested poking around, I'm just looking to gauge the difficulty. There are cheaper android devices that I could try with as well, but I'd much rather hack around in HTML/JS than Java. That being said, I have the option of just customizing the Andriod UI to remove everything except the mail app, so if tearing down the Firefox UI would be a lot of work, I'll just do that.
I have a Flame that I can run tests on before spending any money, but I appreciate your opinions before a throw away a bunch of time that could be used on something useful.
John
That's super doable and not very difficult I think! Only with one (obvious?) condition: you must have full root access to your device. ZTE gives a rooting tool, so if you stick with the Open C (or the flame) you should be good to go. Don't choose a Kliff for example, as they are not rootable yet.
First of all, stripping all of gaia (the top layer of firefox OS, containing all the UI) has already been done by JanOS (for IoT device), so you can get inspiration from them. They reduced it to only one js file and a folder, where you can put your own js that gets executed at startup. Your use case is a bit more complex though: you still want to access settings, and be able to go back to email when needed. Basically, you need the email app to replace the homescreen right?
Creating alternate homescreen is a possibility that firefox os gives you, see https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Apps/Build/Manifest#role
You can try adding the role "homescreen" to the email app, flash your device, change the homescreen in the settings and see what happens!
NB: when you change the manifest of an internal apps, you might need to rehash it by downloading https://github.com/julienw/config-files/blob/master/addpref and execute
Code:
./addpref rehash-manifest
while your device is connected (and usb debugging is on).
You might need to add handler in the email for the home button to work correctly, in a similar fashion as in verticalhome (which is the name of the folder containing the homescreen app, not "homescreen").
Good luck! Don't hesitate to ping me if you need any help.
---------- Post added at 11:00 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:46 AM ----------
Dude I just tried this and it's working like a charm. The thing that took me the most time was the configuration of the email account
I got Remix working, used the wonderful hacked version. I am on a Dell something-plex and it is working great! I got my screen orientation to move to portrait, and I am excited to setup widgets on a third party launcher. I am going to make it a family calendar-screen in our kitchen. Thinking about making an instructable out of the project. I found a lot of answers to questions and road blocks I encountered from the forums. There is one thing I cannot solve.
I cannot install any google task client that works! When I say works, they will all install, and most of them will let you make tasks locally, but none of them will sync with google. I CAN use a browser, (chrome, dolphin, etc) and get to the canvas or android mobile interface of tasks, but none of the apps can sync. I am stumped. The same apps I have tried work fine on my phone or tablet, but will not seem to work on remix. Is it x86 related? is it something funky with remix specifically?
I do linux admin for my job, so i dug around looking at dmesg and whatnot, but i have not taken the time to learn android at the same level as a server OS per se. I was not able to find anything thus far. Was thinking about logcat and taking the android approach to troubleshooting this rather than an OS administrator approach.
Has anybody seen this behavior? Has anybody found a way around it? My reasoning for using the app is mostly silly. I would like to use a widget rather than have a floating browser window open. Call it silly, but its so we can see our family pictures behind it easier. (I also got wallpaper changer to cycle through a bunch of family photos i copied on to it)
If anybody over at Remix wants to have me send logs and stuff, I can do that if they would like.