[Epic 4G Themes] squshy 7:
Ugh..I still haven't gotten around to trying to fix it, let alone upload a new anim. I just bought shogun 2 so its been taking up my computer time.

Let me take a minute to explain exactly what it is I'm doing:

One of the major issues that I noticed right away with these status bar images is the fact that they're not modular in regards to the end users; rather, they are another method of themeing that are applied to an apk. What this means, and what this is relevant to, is that they're not easily ported between themes.

A for instance: user is running marcusant v7 rom, which is themed nearly entirely red and black. But this user likes the spinning eye animation I uploaded, which uses the stock systemui.apk (green and black). Obviously the status bar won't match the rest of the theme.

So at this point, there's only two reasonable choices: the author of the animation has to theme systemui.apk with marcusants theme (remember, we can't just modify v7s systemui.apk since its already themed, and thus won't compile), or marcusant has to incorporate the animation himself and release it as an addon.

Ultimately, this restricts the end users choices. Because its unreasonable to expect either the animation author or the themer/dev to incorporate every possible choice. In addition, the common xda end user is unable and unwilling to decompile, theme, and compile the apk themselves (let's face it: it's tedious work if you don't know what you're doing). But in the name of choice and customization, the end user should be able to have any animation/theme combo he/she desires.

So this is an attempt to standardize a new, animation friendly systemui.apk. The objective is to have ALL themers and devs use this new apk in place of the stock one. Obviously, it needs to compile correctly (which it currently does) so that they can theme it. It also needs to incorporate an effective and easy way for the end user to add any released animation they want.

The method I came up with is this:

1. The themer/dev packs their themed systemui.apk in a flashable .zip and releases it along side their theme/ROM.

2. Animation author doesn't need to do anything other than make sure their animation frame names comply with the standard.

3. End user downloads animation of their choice, and the systemui.apk flashable from their theme/ROM of choice. Opening up both archives side by side, all it will take is a drag and drop of 4 components.

I know compliance is a tough thing to sell and get everyone on board with, especially when it involves an extra step or two, but themers/devs should look at the compliance objectively: the vast majority of effort involved is done by the end user. The only thing a themer/dev would need to do is post a simple systemui.apk flashable. By me releasing a master copy, any other effort on the themer/dev side should be eliminated.

So here's where we stand: master copy decompiles/compiles and flashes correctly, so its ready to theme. However one user attempted the animation method (drag and drop) and it broke.

I think what broke it is the fact that there's no pulldown_animxxx.png's in the original zip; thus, adding a new element rather than simply replacing one causes the apk to fail (I *think* its because the pngs need referenced in public.xml, which happens automatically when an apk is compiled; the purpose of this project however is to enable the end user to effectively avoid decompiling/compiling)

The only solution that comes to mind is adding "placeholder" pngs of a small size (~1kb) to the master apk, but not reference them in pulldown.xml so that it still retains the stock sytemui.apk appearance and functionality. I don't think this will prevent the .apk from decompiling/compiling correctly (meaning it should be themeing ready), however this seems to be a very brutish solution, and not an elegant one as I would like it to be.

Anyone with any thoughts, suggestions, or questions about this, feel free to post here or PM me.

I'll throw this in the 2nd post of the OP and update