yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Windows Mobile Themes] Peterjac:
New Problems

Hi Vostradamus,

Think I have found something new.

In my list of widgets I have 3 weather skins that do not show a preview,

I have checked in deactivate widgets and they are not there.

So I reactivated them checked they had a preview and was able to select them, all worked as should, but when I deactivated them they are still showing in the list of skins but with no preview.

How do I remove them from the preview list, once I deactivate them.

The weather skins in question are:

1. Blackstorm small

2. Blackstorm medium

3. Manilla medium

Thanks for any help, and hope you are stating to feel on the good side of health.
[Windows Mobile Themes] moxycalt:
Well do I feel stupid...:o Didn't even think of doing that :p Think I was to tired last night....

Worked perfectly, Thanks !
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
I'm not sure what you mean with "preview list".... do you refer to the preview widgets function inside mobile shell manager or the change skin menu of mobile shell itself?

if you refer to the change skin menu, then the entries in there should disappear when you deactivate a widget... unless something is going wrong or if you had those widgets installed with the old (2.x) cabs when you installed the manager

Should that be the case, I'm afraid the only way to make them disappear would be deactivating them and then going manually in the registry and delete the appropriate keys:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Spb Software House\Shared\Spb Menu\WidgetPackages\Spb.WidgetsZioGian\WeatherBlackstormSmall

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Spb Software House\Shared\Spb Menu\WidgetPackages\Spb.WidgetsZioGian\WeatherBlackstormMedium

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Spb Software House\Shared\Spb Menu\WidgetPackages\Spb.WidgetsZioGian\WeatherManillaMedium

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Spb Software House\Shared\Spb Menu\WidgetPackages\Spb.WidgetsZioGian\SPBWeatherBlackstormSmall

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Spb Software House\Shared\Spb Menu\WidgetPackages\Spb.WidgetsZioGian\SPBWeatherBlackstormMedium

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Spb Software House\Shared\Spb Menu\WidgetPackages\Spb.WidgetsZioGian\SPBWeatherManillaMedium
[Windows Mobile Themes] helix111:
Vostradamus,

One word "Wow!!!". Thanks

SPB Shell leaves a lot to be desired, among them changing the font color. I just emailed them a few days ago after I d/l'ed the program. Reply was sorry.

Hey, how much memory footprint does your program use, and also drain on battery?

I haven't gotten arounfd to installing it on my Samsung Intrepid WM 6.5 yet.
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
lol you should consider yourself lucky: at least they replied to you! :D Never had the "pleasure" to see any of my questions to them answered lol :p

My manager itself does not have any ram footprint, it's just a serie of script that you run when you need them to "automate" some actions... once you're done and you close the app, it's gone from memory :)

What it can use, though, is some device memory, and the amount is just up to you 'cause programs and widgets libraries are to be installed on storage card or any other "additional" memory you could have on your device, while actual device memory will be used only by the widgets you will decide to activate (and of course it will also be freed when you deactivate them)

As for battery drain: the manager itself does not raise or lower your battery usage :) I've been asked if mobile shell could drain the battery more using a lot of widgets at the same time... but this I cannot answer, it should be asked to spb (and good luck with that lol) :D

Speaking of my personal experience on the matter, I can tell that on my device the number of used widgets does not seem to affect battery duration in any way.

Up to mobile shell version 3.5.0 I was noticing a small increase in battery drain when using a battery widget (any kind, be it mobile shell standard or anyone else's), but this "issue" vanished with version 3.5.1 and later... not really something that has to do with my app, but someone could find it interesting :)
[Windows Mobile Themes] neverland13:
Vostradamus,

thank you for your help with TouchLockPro. I know the problem with not locking - when you reboot if the screen turns off earlier then 2-3 min, its not locking anymore. If i keep the screen alive for 2-3 min, everything works perfect. And your icon is fine. Thanks again for your help to find this bug.
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
You're welcome :) Glad to finally see that the icons dll is not the culprit lol :p
[Windows Mobile Themes] moxycalt:
vostradamus widgets thread ?

Just thought of that, maybe it would be nice to see what people come up with using your GREAT manager. It could give ideas on or personnel setups....

What do you think....

P.S. All resolutions of corse ;)
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
I always love seeing what use people make of (not only) my stuff :)
[Windows Mobile Themes] moxycalt:
Let's go then...I'll do it and post the link :D
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
I'll post a bit later: I'm considering changing my current layout, but I'm still not sure about it (I'm too fond of the cats I have on at the moment lol) :D

Can't wait to see others though :p

By the way... your layout looks definitely cool! :D
[Windows Mobile Themes] moxycalt:
All thanks to you !
[Windows Mobile Themes] formula84:
I too would love to see this as an option, I particularly use the Espresso version and love the clock and menu bars but dont use much else and loads down the ram quite a bit... Hopefully when he is feeling better he may be able to help us out, thanks.
[Windows Mobile Themes] claus1953:
There must be a way, as for example i did use naong's mobile sense theme, which could be stored on the storage card.
[Windows Mobile Themes] jotha:
Storing widgets on the storage card is a dangerous thing. Every bit of software that is started with the system-start, should reside in the fastest and most reliable piece of memory, which, by nature, is internal Memory. Removing the card (because of a defect) or even a slow read on the storage card, can make the phone unbootable (in a very rare case I must admit, but it happened). Thats why neither SPB nor Vostradamus support that and thats why Vostradamus made the manager. So you can only load the widgets in Phone-Mem, that you really need. Single widgets don't use too much Mem.

Regarding the Sense-Widgets: Vostradamus and I already looked into the possibility of transforming them into the MsM. Actually I did already some of them for test purposes. It would be possible for a lot of them, even if they use a totally different approach than Vostradamus. So it would be a lot of work. But we would only start, if there is an definite OK from the guy that made them. And you must understand that it's the job of the people that want them transformed to get that allowance.
[Windows Mobile Themes] moxycalt:
By the way, the guy who made the first sence widgets is from mobilecustom.fr.....I think, well I'm pretty sure, naong just took them (maybe not all but most of them) and made them work on MS 3.5.x....I'm pretty sure of what I'm saying because I'm a member there and I used that theme when it came out.....theire was NO other them like it then.

Maybe he or doc3000 added a few widgets but the base was from Chpoubs of mobile custom.....

Just saying ;)

P.S go see here...http://www.mobilecustom.fr/forum/index.php/topic,2899.0.html and theire was a 2.0 version before....
[Windows Mobile Themes] Revhead:
I'm a little confused.

Not all of the widgets seem to be included in my menu selection.

When updating do you have to import just the latest XML file or re-run the previous version consecutively?

I guess what I am asking is whether the latest XML definition file is cummulative?

Also when updating to a later version of the Mobile Shell Manager is it necessary to go thru the entire process again and reimport the widget libraries, or for that matter the XML files?
[Windows Mobile Themes] jotha:
The XML-File is an "all-in-one"-File. This means, whenever you get a new widgets library, you have to import the latest xml-file. It includes all information for all widget libraries that were ever released. If you get a new MsM, you do not have to import the widget libraries or activate widgets again. Only if you reinstall Mobile Shell or any other "Non-Vostradamus"-Widgets it is almost surely necessary to deactivate all Vostradamus widgets and activate them again, because the "foreign" widgets have most surely overwritten the qa_layouts.dat file without saving vostradamus entries.

So the due process is:

1. When you get new libraries: Import the new wzg, import the new xml, activate the new widgets you want and voilá, you can choose them under "change skin" in Mobile shell.

2. If there is a new version of the MsM: Look whether there is a new XML also and import it, because sometimes a new function in the MsM needs some entries in the XML-File. But you do not have to import widgets-packages or activate widgets in this case.

Was that understandable enough? Sometimes I write bit "in circles" LoL.
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
as usual, thanks for replying for me while I was sleeping lol :p
[Windows Mobile Themes] Revhead:
Yes. Very clear. Thanks.

When I updated to 4.03 and imported the latest library and XML files it all seems to have come good again.

I notice none of the agenda widgets are a compatible width with mskip's WP7 theme, or did I miss one?
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
if you mean size-wise then you're right, they're not the right size for mskip wp7 hub boxes.

All the current agenda widgets uses sort of "standard" sizes... that is full screen width or half screen width, they've been designed long before mskip wp7 theme :p

Mskip wp7 theme uses quite "proprietary" sizes, if I may say so, to give a better result as a whole theme, but unfortunately this makes many other widgets (even mskip older ones) not precisely "fit" to be used on those boxes.
[Windows Mobile Themes] mezz_89:
Hi.. I've read the installation,but the size is too big.. So,is there any simple cab for only the "No text menubar"? Thank you..
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
Unfortunately, currently there are no single cab files for just menubars :(

Is the size really too big? :confused: if you only need the menubars you would just need to install the manager without any libraries, it should be around 7 Mb, and it has to be installed on storage card, not on device memory.... are you sure you don't have 7 free Mb on storage card?
[Windows Mobile Themes] mskip:
You are installing to STORAGE CARD and NOT device memory right?

The no text menubar is a very simple mod and something I came up with nearly a year ago on Mobile Shell 3.0.1 so if you still cant get vostradamus's shell manager installed I can send you a modified qa_layouts file.

You are running an unmodified version of MS3.5.3?

Mark.
[Windows Mobile Themes] mezz_89:
Thank you for the responds.. I would prefer to install it on device memory because my storage card has broken lately.. But,will there be any problem if installed in device memory? So far as I installed it,it works great..! :) Thank you very much..
[Windows Mobile Themes] dansia47:
First af all, very, very great job!

I downloaded last version 4.03, but I didn't find any installation instruction doc file. Could you help, pls?​
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
the manager can work from device memory too, but activated widgets will use twice the memory, 'cause both the libraries AND of course the activated widgets will be there....
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
You can find installation instructions in the first post of this thread :)

I stripped them from the zip file 'cause noone seemed to read them lol :p

(forgot to strip that sentence from the main post... will do it soon) ;)
[Windows Mobile Themes] dansia47:
Can't agree. A superlative product like yours without an instruction file is a heavy mistake.
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
lol thanks :D

Will consider adding it again to the zip, just got a bit frustrated after having a huge number of people asking me in the thread or in pm what was clearly written in the instructions doc :p
[Windows Mobile Themes] dansia47:
Thanks for considering my suggestion. While understanding your frustation, I think that a instruction file is essential.
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
Actually, I think you're right :p Let's say I wanted to check if it would have been missed by anyone... lol :p
[Windows Mobile Themes] tacchan23:
Of course it's more funny to send u a PM with many questions!!!! (like I always do:p:o)
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
lol liar! You do not pm me.... you MAIL me :D :p
[Windows Mobile Themes] schremer:
Dear Vostradamus!

Greatly enjoying your work:) Just a question - is here any possibility to create the DClock widget like on the screenshot?

Best Regards,
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
Will see to it :)

Dunno if I'll make it in time for the next release, but I'll add it (if not in the next, then in the following one) ;)
[Windows Mobile Themes] moxycalt:
First hope you're feeling ok ;). Now, when can we expect the next release...:p

P.S. No stress just asking, I'm very anxious to see what great things you come up with !
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
Yep, the flu is finally gone :) Already started putting together the pending requests, if nothing goes wrong I should be releasing something maybe this coming thursday ;)
[Windows Mobile Themes] moxycalt:
GREAT ! keep it up brother ! :D
[Windows Mobile Themes] jacko5:
If he does that we shall never see him posting new updates :):):):):):):):)
[Windows Mobile Themes] culturaldysfunction:
Activate All Widgets?

How can I simply activate all widgets? The preview isn't working, so I figured it would be easier to activate them all :D Can I simply copy into a directory, or is it not that easy?
[Windows Mobile Themes] jotha:
You must activate them one after another, because during activation the correspondant files are copied to their destination and some registry entries are made.

Believe me, you wouldn't want to activate them all, because every activated skin uses system memory, while every unactivated only uses memory on your memory card. If you would activate all of them, your phone could be pretty much out of internal memory. That is one of the reasons why this manager was created in the first place. The Weather widgets alone use double digit MB of Ram.

The more interesting question is why the preview does not work. Have you installed the Manager, imported all wzg-files and the xml? Especially the older widgets need the one wzg-file with the previews, because in the older ones the preview was not yet included. Please download the preview-wzg and import it, then try again with the preview.
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
What's wrong exaclty with the preview? :confused:

Unfortunately, activating widgets takes a lil bit more than copying them in a folder... registry entries must also be added :p

Plus, activating all of them at would use up a considerable amount of device memory...

EDIT: lol, need to be quicker, Hans beat me on time again in replying :D
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
Released version 4.04 + a new widgets library :)

Sorry for the long update time, that flu really slowed me down :p

ChangeLog, detailed info and download links in the first post ;)

Enjoy! :D
[Windows Mobile Themes] culturaldysfunction:
I'm upgrading to the new version now. Will look for the XML preview file and give that a shot :D

TY for the quick response.

PS: It rocks!
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
it's not a xml file, it's a special library (wzg extension like the other libraries) containing preview images for the widgets released up to 08 March 2010 ;)

It has to be imported like a normal widget library, it won't add new widgets but will provide preview images for the older ones ;)

Filename: "Vostradamus Preview Images Library 20100308"

Widgets libraries released after 08 March 2010 have preview images inside already :)

Thanks! :D
[Windows Mobile Themes] umbup:
hi, i wonna ask you a question about a new function.

You wrote : "Added function to inject any XML in qa_layouts.dat (can be useful as a tool for mods other than mine)"

The question is:

there is same kind of help document to use this new function? :-)

Thank a lot sir!!!
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
not really :p

The function itself serves the only purpose of adding a custom xml file to qa_layouts.dat, it could be handy if someone is trying to design his/her own widgets and would like an automatism to avoid the boring procedure of renaming qa_layouts.dat to .zip, adding the xml inside it using spb password, rename it back to .dat and placing it in its folder. :)

Building the xml itself and all the other possible stuff needed for the mods is still up to the user, I still don't have a guide for that (mainly 'cause it would have to be huge) :p

If a user who already knows how to create his own widgets would like to add them to the manager for easier handling/activating/deactivating, the inject any xml function would be really useful (and of course I could provide instructions on how to set up his widgets files to work with the manager, it's not hard once the dat files are ready and the registry entries are known) :)
[Windows Mobile Themes] moxycalt:
THANKS !

Great as allways thank you ! ;)
[Windows Mobile Themes] x5.cat:
great work as always...

just one thing, I found "Small-Hub" still is a bit big to fit into my 800x480 display in order to have 3 in a row hubs, they overlap a few.

don´t know if already someone realized but, one trick for those who want to build their own hub picture:

-activate a hub widget, place a frame with the desired picture, overlap with the hub image (app, games...), and then, this is the trick, deactivate above hub widget and, original one (sorry Vostradamus) will disappear but transparent hub will be there anyway.

keep up the good work !!!

cheers.
[Windows Mobile Themes] jotha:
Sorry, I can't follow you. What do you achieve with this?
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
the small hub is meant to fit just 2 in a row leaving some space on a side :) I've been asked to design it like that ;)

To fit 3 in a row (with no available space on the side) I should design them 160 pixels wide (on a vga of course)... wouldn't it be too small?

About your "trick": I didn't quite follow what you mean :p
[Windows Mobile Themes] apax:
kool, i'm going to try this since i just downloaded mobile shell 3.5.3
[Windows Mobile Themes] Peterjac:
3 screens from my phone

Hi Vostradamus,

Great program, many thanks for the tiny picture frame.

Is there away to place icons in the center of the picture frame, mine seem to pull to one side or the other and not center.

Again many thanks for all your efforts.

Peter
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
have fun ;)

you could also show us what you come up with when you're done setting up your layout :)
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
That's because of the size of the tiny picture frame in relation to mobile shell aligning grid...

What exactly would you like to center? If they are shortcut widgets, I can add a "small hub" skin designed to be centered on the tiny picture frame in the next release ;)
[Windows Mobile Themes] powercat1:
Creating Widgets

Hi,

Is there any chance that you have a "dummies" or "beginners" guide for creating widgets? In particular, I am interested in creating new widgets for notifications (email, sms, missed calls and voicemails).

I am relatively technical and fairly good with photoshop, but was hoping there was some sort of guide to get me up and running quickly.

Also, how would I go about making a collection that your manager (fantastic too, btw) could control?
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
uhm.... I don't have a ready made guide, but if it's just for the status widget I could try writing down something to send you on pm :)

Of course I can also provide info on how to add it to the manager :)
[Windows Mobile Themes] jotha:
You got a PM :-)
[Windows Mobile Themes] Peterjac:
That would be great

Many thanks for that, yes it is shortcuts, so that would be great.

Many thanks.

Peter
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
Got it, added to my to-do list ;)
[Windows Mobile Themes] x5.cat:
Hi and sorry for my previous poor explanations (my english kills...)

In my case (800x480 -3,5" display) I already had 2 in a row hubs possibility with the old ones, they fit exactly each side of the screen (nice); with these new ones (small) we still have 2 in a row but with more space.

If the effect wanted (inmo) is to full fit the display with hubs (like a grid) then we only have the possibility to do it with 2 in a row.

Actually MS 3.5 small links (not medium nor large) are designed to fit 4 in a row and there´s still some spot between them... so I do not understand why 160x160 will be too small for a 3,5" screen (in fact I think this is the "medium" MS link: you may place 3 contacts in a row).

In the other hand the trick said serves in the case you don´t like APPS, GAMES, VIDEOS... hub´s letters and you want to do your own hub´s letters or replace only with a picture, so inmho (in my humble opinion) it will be interesting to have different sizes transparent hubs in the next realese to avoid this poor trick... only an idea.

cheers.
[Windows Mobile Themes] moxycalt:
BRAAAAVO !
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
Yep, if you want to fill the whole screen (horizontally I mean) I can add 160x160 borderless picture frames and invisible links in the next version :)

The purpose of the current small hubs (180x180) was not to fill the screen, someone asked for that size just to fit 4 vertically (on wvga), 2 horizontally AND to have some available space on a side :)

ms link sizes are a completely different thing, unrelated to these hubs :)

Small MS links can fit 6 in row, while medium, text and box ones can fit 4 :)

No problem in adding a 160x160 version, I'll add it to my to do list, and all the above was clear already :) what I (and Hans too I guess) didn't get was just how your "trick" works and what it does :p

(about the 160x160, I'll add the borderless picture frame and the invisible link at first, the pre-written links will come maybe later) :)
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
hey, that looks good! :)

lol did you notice that weather skin has half your nickname in its name? :p
[Windows Mobile Themes] x5.cat:
thanks and just a note: my idea is mainly for invisible Hubs not for invisible links (which will be welcome too.), as I understand Links goes directly to a widget meanwhile a Hub goes directly to a panel, this is the most interesting feature of your manager, simply magnific !!!

cheers.

cheers.
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
yep, a hub point to a panel, that's true, but that's just a "conceptual" difference :)

From Mobile Shell point of view, there are only "links"... no matter if they point to an application or a panel

To have a 160x160 "hub" you will need both the picture frame and the invisible link: with the picture frame you will be able to use your favourite (squared) image for the hub, but clicking on it will just cause MS slideshow to open, not the hub.... here you will need the invisible link of the same size: you will add a link widget to your screen, make it point to your hub, change its skin to the invisible one of the right size and place it over the picture frame: that way when you will click on you custom image it will not open the slideshow anymore, but the hub pointed by the invisible link :)
[Windows Mobile Themes] x5.cat:
just simply perfect explanation, I think this option will be an extra worth to your manager.

cheers.
[Windows Mobile Themes] moxycalt:
LOLLLL What the frack !! didn't notice !!!

You should post on my new thread, just to help !

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=660984
[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
I will :) I'm in the process of changing (again) my layout... was waiting to reach something which I can be satisfied of before posting it :p