[Zooper Widget General] Aneel:
A Comprehensive guide to make a Zooper Skin APK using Eclipse/Android Studio/ADT-Bundle​

Requirements:

First of all i assume that you have a basic knowledge in creating and distributing your android app. If not please search them on google where you can find tons of tutorials for creating android apps and setting up your sdk and other important files.

1. Zooper Widget pro v2.38 or above

2. Android Market developer account(if interested in publishing on the PLAY STORE)

3. The Android SDK

4. Eclipse (you can also use Android Stuido)

5. Java JDK

STEP 1:

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First create your zooper widget on your device and click on "Store External Resources inside the template" and also the"Create an APK ready zip file". it will be stored as yourskinname.zwapk.zip in your sdcard>zooper widget. Simply Copy the "yourskinname.zwapk.zip" file to your PC and extract it where you can find a assets folder inside the zip.

STEP 2:

Download the Sample Project file located in my Github and extract it using 7zip or Winrar in your Workspace..

Open the Eclipse IDE and do the following steps carefully

1.Click on "File">New>project

2. Now click on "Android Project from existing Code"

3. Click on "Browse" and select the template which you have downloaded from Github and make sure that the assets folder from your skin is already pushed into the template's assets folder. then click on "Next" and "Finish" respectively.

4. Once the above step was done perfectly you can see the ZooperTemplate opened in your "Package Explorer Tab"

NOTE: The assets folder and the AndroidManifest.xml play a vital role in making your zooper widget APK.

5. Now open the AndroidManifest.xml and edit the "Package name" and "Package version". However you increase the android package target sdk version to 18 also if you want to support Android 4.4(Target SDK wasn't changed in the image below)

you can change the package name as you want i.e from com.myname.zwskin.mypack to for ex: com.aneel.zwskin.firstskin. along with this make sure that your ic_launcher icon is changed.

the icons can be changed accordingly under res>drawable-hdpi.. etc

NOTE: These are the icon sizes according to the dpi

6. Now navigate to res>values and open the strings.xml

and edit the string from "Sample Template Pack " to your Skin's name

7. Once the Strings.xml are edited open the zooper.xml

here you can give a description to your Skin which makes the users to know much more about your zooper skin. You can also add your name in the place of author's name.

8. That's it all the important steps are finished and the package changes are ready to be exported as a APK File...

In the Package explorer tab simply do a "Right Click" with your mouse and click on "Export"

9.then a small window pops up with a list of exporting options.. click on Android> "Export Android Application" and click "Next"

10. Next browse the ZooperTemplate Project from your Workspace and click "Next"

11. in the new window pop up you have to sign your APK file using keystore. so click on "create new keystore" create and store the new password at a safe place in your PC because you will have to be using the same password for updating the apk.

if you are updating the zooper apk simply click on "use existing keystore" and enter the password and continue...

12. In this step the eclipse prompts for creating an alias,validity,password and other personal information details for the current skin pack. Once all that is done select a directory in your PC so that the APK is exported to the destination and by that this finishes the creation of your zooper apk using the eclipse or Android Studio.

TIP:

If you are trying to publish a paid skin in the Google Play then this would be handy for you...

Open the AndroidManifest.xml and edit it like this...

<!--
COMMERCIAL SKINS ONLY:
- Uncomment provider entry
- Set android:authorities="PACKAGENAME.zwprovider"
If package is "my.pkg.name.zwskin.sample" set it to "my.pkg.name.zwskin.sample.zwprovider"
-->
<provider
android:name="org.zooper.zwskin.TemplateProvider"
android:authorities="WRITE PACCKAGENAME.templates HERE"/>
<!-- END Zooper Widget definition -->

if you are making an existing skin as a paid one make sure that the content inside the "src" directory is copied to your source otherwise the source provider wouldn't work

for more detailed explanation visit this page http://www.zooper.org/wp/android/zw/apk

Credits

[MENTION=4635642]Crytech[/MENTION] for alwasys helping me with resources,ideas and supporting me always.

[MENTION=4962179]Lifehacker7[/MENTION] for some important tips(like keystore) in making zooper widget using eclipse [MENTION=2470020]kwerdenker[/MENTION] for some nice suggestions

Mycolorscreen for the amazing zooper widget and themer apps

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