[Android Themes] h_zee13:
POSTED BY TheSwaggeR

Thought I'd share my instructions for those wanting to know or don't know how to change simple stuff like Celsius to Fahrenheit, or toggle true/false for status bar stuff, or anything else.

If you have Root Explorer that will be the choice of app to do this work. My other recommended app is Dual File Manager but I'm not sure if it supports the many features that Root Explorer helps us gain access to. I haven't used this app yet but really liked the feature that allows you to open up 2 different folders and drag and drop files and such between the both of them without having to go to one folder, back out, go to another, back out... so on and so forth.

Steps:

1. Open up Root Explorer (my app of choice to do changes)

2. Go to SD Card

3. Scroll down and find MIUI folder and click on that

Reminder: Some of you may not even have the lockscreen added to your collection yet. You may be like me and download stuff, drop them in your Dropbox on your PC, and then use your Dropbox app on your phone to download the content and it will be in the dropbox folder. Whichever way works. Just make sure you keep the original untouched version as a backup in case you mess up editing it.

4. Scroll down to theme folder

5. Look for the lockscreen you are wanting to edit

When you find the lockscreenname.mtz file you should rename it to preserve the originality if you mess up or want to go back to the original state of what it was in. So, all you need to do is long-press it, click Rename, change lockscreenname.mtz to lockscreenname.mtz.bak. This will render the file useless and keeps it from operating. It is useful for preserving for later use. If you should use it again just rename lockscreenname.mtz.bak to lockscreenname.mtz.

6. Long-press on lockscreenname file

7. Click on Copy

Next step I recommend is making a folder on the root of your SD Card. I use an empty folder to put files or whatever in that I'm currently doing work on so they don't get all cluttered, lost, separated with all the other stuff on the root of the SD Card

8. Make a folder on root of SD Card (example work-in-folder)

9. Click on that folder

10. Click on Paste to paste the copied version of your lockscreenname file

11. Long-press lockscreenname file and click on Rename

12. Rename lockscreenname.mtz.bak to lockscreenname.zip

13. Hit ok

14. Long-press lockscreenname.zip and scroll down to Extract All

15. Click yes to go to Extracted folder

16. Long-press the extracted folder and click on Move

17. Hit back button to go back to your work-in-folder

18. Click on Paste

You should now have a lockscreenname folder and a lockscreenname.zip in your folder. Do not delete lockscreenname.zip yet because you may need to start over again if you mess something up.

19. Click on lockscreenname folder

You will now see a series of folders, usually wallpaper, preview, lockscreen file, and description.xml

20. Long-press lockscreen file

21. Click on Rename

22. Rename lockscreen to lockscreen.zip and hit Ok

You should now have a lockscreen.zip there.

23. Long-press lockscreen.zip

24. Scroll down to Extract All

25. Go to Extracted folder

26. Long-press lockscreen folder

27. Click on Move

28. Hit back button to go to previous folder

29. Click on Paste

You should now have lockscreen.zip and a lockscreen folder. Please do not delete either one just yet.

30. Click on lockscreen folder

You should now see advance folder and theme_values.xml. I have noticed before that some lockscreens do not have a theme_values.xml so I will provide the code so you can insert a theme_values.xml

Code:

<MIUI_Theme_Values>
<bool name="config_show_status_bar_battery_for_keyguard">false</bool>
<bool name="config_show_status_bar_carrier_for_keyguard">false</bool>
<bool name="config_show_status_bar_date_for_keyguard">false</bool>
<bool name="config_show_status_bar_notification_for_keyguard">false</bool>
<bool name="config_show_status_bar_status_for_keyguard">false</bool>
<bool name="config_show_status_bar_time_for_keyguard">false</bool>
<bool name="config_lock_screen_battery_animation_horizontal">false</bool>
</MIUI_Theme_Values>

Each line will show what will be displaying on the status bar of your lockscreen. Some people like all of it showing, some prefer just signal and battery, others like nothing on it.

What each line means:

Code:

<bool name="config_show_status_bar_battery_for_keyguard">false</bool>

Shows battery

Code:

<bool name="config_show_status_bar_carrier_for_keyguard">false</bool>

Shows carrier such as VZW, Google, or a custom made carrier logo

Code:

<bool name="config_show_status_bar_date_for_keyguard">false</bool>

Shows today's date

Code:

<bool name="config_show_status_bar_notification_for_keyguard">false</bool>

Shows all the notifications, which are usually your app icons that you normally see on the left side of your status bar.

Code:

<bool name="config_show_status_bar_status_for_keyguard">false</bool>

Shows your signal strength 1x/2G/3G/4G etc, Wifi, Bluetooth, Music, etc.

Code:

<bool name="config_show_status_bar_time_for_keyguard">false</bool>

This will obviously show the current time

Code:

<bool name="config_lock_screen_battery_animation_horizontal">false</bool>

This one may confuse people, but, this basically reverts the regular battery icon into a top bar battery life. You will notice a full line or a shorter line, depending on battery life, at the very top of your screen.

Last part for the introduction on the meaning of each line is the true/false part. You can keep all lines there and change true/false to display or not display a specific line. Or, you can just take pieces of the line (example carrier and status) and delete the rest of the line. Either way works.

There are 3 ways to create the theme_value.xml

1. Notepad++ http://notepad-plus-plus.org/

2. Copy+Paste a previous theme_values.xml from a different lockscreen (make sure that the lines match the codes shown above

3. Make a theme_values.xml using Root Explorer

Notepad++

Download and install this program. I use it all the time for XML editing and such. It's a beautiful tool and extremely helpful.

You can copy and paste the codes I provided above into Notepad++ and click on File and Save as theme_values.xml

Transfer it by Dropbox or phone hooked up to the PC.

Put it in the lockscreen folder under advance folder. Do not put theme_values.xml IN the advance folder.

Copy+Paste

If you have seen a theme_values.xml in a previous lockscreen, just copy that and paste it into the lockscreen folder under the advance folder.

Use Root Explorer to Make theme_values.xml

While you are in the lockscreen folder (with the advance folder showing) click on Menu soft-key and then click on More.

You will see a list of other options. Click on New File. A dialogue box will open up and name the file theme_values.xml.

You will now see what looks like a notepad with the name theme_values.xml. Long-press theme_values.xml and scroll down to Open in Text Editor and click that. You will then need to type in the exact code structure provided above or copy and paste the entire code and edit what you need or don't need as you go. Click Menu-soft key and click on Save and Exit.

You now have a theme_values.xml file to control your status bar for your lock screen!

Back to the Steps:

31. Click on theme_values.xml to edit what will or will not show on your status bar

32. Hit Menu-soft key and click Save and Exit

33. Click on advance folder

Advance folder has a series of files. You will mostly see png's that make up the entire appearance and detail of your lockscreen. If you are editing png's or redoing stuff, this is where you will find it.

Also in this folder you will find the manifest.xml file. This is the file that makes up the entire structure of the working mechanism of your lockscreen. Without this file, the lockscreen is rendered useless.

34. Scroll down to find the manifest.xml

35. Long-press manifest.xml

36. Scroll down to Open in Text Editor and click that

37. Make changes in the lines that you want to change

38. Hit Menu-soft key and click on Save and Exit

You will probably see a manifest.xml.bak after making changes to this file. Do not delete this file because if something should go wrong, this will be the original working file. If you should decide to go back to the original settings, delete the new manifest.xml and then change the manifest.xml.bak to manifest.xml. If you make changes to that again, it will go back to manifest.xml.bak.

Now we're done with editing manifest.xml, possible changes to png's, making or editing theme_values.xml.

39. Go back to the folder showing lockscreen folder, lockscreen.zip. wallpaper, preview, and description.xml

40. Delete lockscreen.zip

41. Long-press lockscreen folder

42. Scroll down to Zip this folder

You will then be taken to the Zipped folder's folder.

43. Long-press lockscreen.zip

44. Click on Move

45. Go back to previous folder

46. Click on Paste

47. Long-press lockscreen.zip

48. Click on Rename

Careful what you do here... we will be just deleting the extension to make it a deliberate file.

A dialogue box will come up to Rename this file. You need to delete .zip so it will go from lockscreen.zip to lockscreen.

49. Hit ok

50. Hit back to go to work-in-folder

51. Delete lockscreenname.zip

You will then just see lockscreenname folder

52. Long-press lockscreenname folder

53. Scroll down and click on Zip this Folder

Again, this will take you to the Zipped folder's folder.

54. Long-press lockscreenname.zip

55. Click on Move

56. Go back to previous folder

57. Click on Paste

58. Long-press lockscreenname.zip

59. Click on Rename

60. Rename lockscreenname.zip to lockscreenname.mtz

Make sure you rename this file to mtz or it will not work in the Theme editor.

Voila! You're done. Just go to the Theme app, click on Edit Theme, hit Menu-soft key, click on Import, scroll down to the folder that has the newly edited lockscreenname.mtz and click that file.

Enjoy your newly edited lockscreen! Keep in mind, you can do many more things with Root Explorer. Even for an entire theme. Although, there is limits, it is still useful when you need to make changes and cannot or don't feel like going to your PC to do all that work and transferring everything back and forth.

I dedicate this to people who look for shorter and quicker ways to do things or help people understand how to change easy stuff. Hopefully this will help new people or people who are baffled at how others change things so quickly.