[Windows Mobile Themes] Vostradamus:
New major version of Mobile Shell Manager and new thread for it:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=689087

Please post any further questions, comments, whatever on the new thread and consider this one closed ;)

Vostradamus Mobile Shell Manager 4.08

For Spb Mobile Shell 3.5.x

​

Featuring:

- New Finger Friendly Menu and Submenus

- Widgets Handling (Preview, Activation, Deactivation)

- Additional Lifestyle Panels (sliding background common to all such panels)

- Additional Professional Panels (fixed customizable background in every panel)

- Multi Language Support

- Contents Copy from one panel to another

- Panel Layout Backup

- Panels PageCount customization

- SpbWeather Panel Icon set Customization

- Mobile Shell Weather Panel Icon set Customization

- Bottom MenuBar customization

- Bottom MenuBar Backup (if you wish to save it before trying new ones)

- Quick links to standard Mobile Shell Panels

... and of course the countless widgets already in my libraries!

​

The version number will change

only

when there are updates to the Manager. All the other updates (as in new widgets libraries) will have only an update date without version number.

Also,

every time

a new Widgets Library will be released or an existing one will be updated, a new XML Definition File will be released too, so

be sure

to always have the latest one installed.

ChangeLog:

(19 May 2010)

Widgets Libraries:

New Widgets Library containing:

- New Themed Widgets Collection: Neon Silhouettes. The collection includes: Analog Clock, Digital Clock, Status, Battery, 7 Links

This release is a co-production by Jotha+Vostradamus :p

New Stuff Preview:

(14 May 2010)

Mobile Shell Manager 4.08:

- Optimized activation and deactivation scripts: no more waiting for list reload after activating/deactivating a widget!

- New functions set: create/edit/delete changing pic widget.

The changing pic is a special widget to which users can assign a “pictures set” and it will automatically change picture at set intervals: daily, weekly, monthly… user’s choice as well as at what time the change will take place (please note that Mobile Shell will be automatically restarted for the picture change to take effect, so it’s advisable to choose an update time when the phone is likely not in use).

Users can create as many changing pictures widgets as they want, assigning them to different pictures sets and sizes to enhance screen customization possibilities.

Once created, changing picture widgets will be available as skins for a “current date” object, much like the backing panels.

Pictures sets will be released like widgets libraries, plus users can easily create their own ones following the tutorial written by Jotha (attached to this post, just scroll to the bottom)

Changing Pics Pic Sets:

- Animals (courtesy of Jotha, includes Small and Medium Square, Small and Medium Portrait, Small and Medium Landscape layouts)

- Cars (courtesy of Jotha, includes Small and Medium Square, Small and Medium Landscape layouts)

- Nature (courtesy of Jotha, includes Small and Medium Square, Small and Medium Landscape layouts)

(The images in the abovementioned Pic Sets are taken from the web and should be public domain, should anyone know differently pls report it in the thread and the related pics will be removed)

(10 May 2010)

Widgets Libraries:

New widgets library containing:

New Digital Clocks set: Clean Simple (available in white, black, blue, cyan, green, red, yello) - (made on request)

New Analog Clocks set: Neon x Mskip WP7 Theme (available in white, blue, cyan, green, red, yellow) - (made on request)

New Status set: Neon x Mskip WP7 Theme (available in white, blue, cyan, green, red, yellow) - (made on request)

New Stuff Preview:

(06 May 2010)

Mobile Shell Manager 4.07:

- BugFix: Invisible Large Menubar was not working correctly on qvga devices, now it's fixed

Widgets Libraries:

New very small "bonus" Widgets Library containing a small version of the Alien Vs Predator battery widget... made on request, and quickly released as an apology for the stupid bug on the qvga menubar lol :p :D

(05 May 2010)

Mobile Shell Manager 4.06:

- Added menubar: Invisible Large Buttons – (made on request)

- Professional Home wallpaper can now be changed like the additional ProPanels (need to change its menubar at least once first, to enable the wallpaper customization)

- Added function to mass-import in one go ALL the widgets libraries stored inside a single folder - (made on request)

- Added function to customize the wallpaper on standard MS Panels (Time, Agenda, Weather, Contacts etc) Every panel can have its own background (portrait + landscape, like ProPanels).

(29 Apr 2010)

Widgets Libraries:

New Widgets Library containing:

- New Battery skins: Moon (large and small) - designed by Jotha

- New Status skin: Girls

- New Battery skin: Girls

- New Themed Widgets Collection: Alien vs. Predator (made on request)

- Widgets Set definition file for "Alien vs. Predator" (to activate/deactivate the whole set of widgets in one go)

New Stuff preview:

(26 Apr 2010)

Widgets Libraries:

New Widgets Library containing:

- New contact skin size: tiny real (made on request)

- New Themed Widgets Collection: FIFA 2010 (result of a cooperation with everprecious forum user Jotha) - For the happiness of Soccer Lovers :D

- Widgets Sets definition files for "FIFA 2010" and "FIFA 2010 without panels" (to activate/deactivate all FIFA widgets in one go)

New Stuff preview:

(21 Apr 2010)

Widgets Libraries:

New Widgets Library containing:

- New Link skin: "Odd Small Hub": it's just the normal icon link, but correctly alignable with the small hubs - (made on request)

- New Borderless Picture Frame size: "smallest", to fit 3 hubs in a row, can be used together with the old and already available "large invisible link" - (made on request)

- New Status Icons skin: Bubble Large - (made on request)

- New Digital Clock set: Reflection (large and small), available in White, Black, Blue, Cyan, Green, Red, Yellow - (made partially on request)

(19 Apr 2010)

Mobile Shell Manager 4.05:

- Added Widget-sets functions to:

1) Save widget set: saves the current activated widget list

2) Activate widget set: read a widget list file and activates all its widgets at once

3) Deactivate widget set: read a widget list file and deactivates all its widgets at once

- BugFix: sometimes some spb weather widgets showed up in the change list menu even after deactivation, this should be now fixed

- Modified activate and deactivate script so that “personal” registry subkeys can be used for user-made widgets

Widgets Libraries:

- Updated widgets library 20100415 to fix an issue with Bubble Status Icons

(15 Apr 2010)

Mobile Shell Manager 4.04:

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

- Small BugFix: added missing confirmation message in the MS Panels Shortcuts creation function

- Added function to change the weather icons in MS Weather Panels. PLEASE NOTICE: this will ALSO change the weather icons used by default mobile shell weather widgets. Icon sets currently available: Spil and Stickers

Widgets Libraries:

New Widgets Library containing:

- new Status Icons skin: XWing - designed by Hans Heigenhauser

- new Status Icons skin: Bubble - counter only - (made on request)

- new Weather skin: HTCMoxy - (made on request)

- new Weather skin: Big Transparent (white and black) for skinnable weather widgets - only for Mobile Shell Weather

- new huge invisible link (2 of them to cover the whole screen) - (made on request)

- new borderless picture frame size: tiny (for small hubs) - (made on request)

- new small hub sized invisible link

- new small hub links collection (all the previously available hub links available in small size too)

New Stuff preview:

(02 Apr 2010)

Mobile Shell Manager 4.03:

- Changed “MS Panels” folder icon and Standard Panels Shortcut Icons

- Changed ProPanel creation script so that Pro Panels will have different icons from Lifestyle Panels

- Menubar in Main Professional panel now changeable like in all other panels

- Added Panel Backup function: every panel can be backed up (home lifestyle, home pro, additional panels) and restored singularly. The function makes a backup of the CONTENT of the panel, background and menubar will NOT be saved (of course they can still be changed after restoring a backup).

- small BugFix: panel removal function now correctly removes panel link in tools\ms panels

Widgets Libraries:

New Widgets Library containing:

- New Status icons: Thin Invisible (invisible with no incoming items, visibile text and red signal box with one or more incoming items. No counter shown) - (made on request)

- New Hub Links: Media, Music, Pictures, Video (available in white/cyan and black/cyan)

(31 Mar 2010)

Widgets Libraries:

New Widgets Library containing:

- New Digital Clocks set: Dogs (White, Black, Blue, Cyan, Green, Red, Yellow) - (made on request)

- New Links skins: JH Metal circle and JH Metal Square - (designed by H. Heigenhauser)

- New Backing Panels: JH Metal (available in 4 sizes) - (designed by H. Heigenhauser)

- New Status icons: Thin 2 (made on request)

- New Contacts skin: invisible (available in 4 sizes) - now you can use a picture frame even with a group picture as contacts! Just place invisible contacts over it!

- New Contacts skin: special icon - to be used assigning a default action and placing it over a normal contact picture (see example)

New Special MSkip Widgets Library containing:

- a selection of MSkip widgets prior to his WP7 themes (the selection includes analog clocks, digital clocks, weather, backing panels, picture frames) - (made on request)

New Stuff preview:

--- Older history in included doc ---

What is Vostradamus Mobile Shell Manager?

Vostradamus Mobile Shell Manager is a serie of scripts to handle all my mods and widgets, keeping them comfortably on the storage card and “activating” them inside Mobile Shell only when you need them.

Please note that the widgets will use device memory

ONLY

when activated, otherwise they’ll be simply stored on the memory card.

This new way of managing my widgets is better than the previous one for several reasons:

-	No more countless entries in the “uninstall programs” window

-	Comfortable interface to activate/deactivate any widget, any time

-	Possibility to activate widgets on single basis: for example you can activate just the red digital clock Cats if you want it, you don’t have to install the whole color package including the colors you don’t need….

-

Optimized usage of device memory

(see previous point)

PLEASE NOTE:

If you have any of my widgets version 2.xx, please do the following before installing the Widget Manager:

- Uninstall all my 2.xx widgets

- Uninstall my Tools package too if you have it

- Delete the registry key “HKLM\Software\Spb Software House\Shared\Spb Menu\WidgetPackages\Spb.WidgetsZioGian”

How to install:

For the first install, you will need to download:

- Vostradamus Mobile Shell Manager

- Vostradamus Base Widgets Library (qvga or vga according to your device)

- (suggested but not required) Preview Images Library

- (suggested but not required) Additional Widgets Libraries, as many as you want

- Vostradamus XML Definition file

Now, how to proceed:

- Install Vostradamus Mobile Shell Manager NOT ON DEVICE MEMORY. Just choose to install it on memory card or any additional memory your device has (that's because the Widgets Manager itself is not large, but the Widgets Libraries will be)

- Extract all the widgets library you downloaded anywhere on your device (but keep them all in the same folder)

- Extract the XML definition file

in Widgets Manager folder

- Run Vostradamus Mobile Shell Manager

- Choose the "XML update" option from inside "Libraries" menu

- Wait for it to be done

- Choose the "Import Library Folder" option from inside "Libraries" menu

- Select the folder where you stored all the downloaded widgets libraries previously extracted

- Wait for it to be done (it may take a while, according to the number of libraries and their contents)

- Done! Now you can activate all the widgets you want (using the appropriate option) :)

(Of course I tested the software before releasing it, yet it's still possible that I could have missed some (minor?) bugs here and there, please bear with me and, in case you notice something odd, report it in this thread)

Any future widgets release will only include:

- Widgets Library Package with only the new additions

- Updated XML Definition File

so there will be no need to redownload everything all the times. :)

-----------------

If you like my work and think it's useful, please consider donating even a small amount, it will help keeping me (and my cat) motivated. I spend a lot of time on this stuff, and every sign of appreciation, no matter how big or small, is more than welcome :D

-----------------

*MediaFire*

-- link removed, please use the one from the new thread --

If you have issues with the above link, try the following mirror:

*4Shared*

-- link removed, please use the one from the new thread --

-----------------

Widgets Creation Tutorial

Hans Heigenhauser (Jotha on Xda) kindly prepared a detailed tutorial which will guide you through the steps needed to create a new Widget Skin to be used with Mobile Shell Manager.

The guide is about a Status Widget skin, but the steps are basically the same for the other widgets too ;)

You can find the guide attached to this post (scroll to the bottom)

-----------------

Small guide for "Flash Junkies" :)

- Before flashing, make a backup copy of the "widgets" folder (it's inside Mobile SHell Manager main folder)

- After flashing (and reinstalling mobile shell of course) do the following

-- Reinstall Mobile Shell Manager

-- Reupdate the XML Definition file

-- Restore the backed up Widgets folder inside Mobile Shell Manager

Done, all the widgets libraries you had before flashing are back there in their place

-----------------

Special Thanks to the donors:

- V. Carletti

- A. Stephen

- M. T. Hernandez

- SG Technical Consulting

- Mike (powercat1)

- Alienking70

- C. Morrison

- E. Fayolle

- La Baula Supportings

- C. Tran (twice!)

- J. Koutsouris

- Margez (real name removed on request)

- C.R. Moya

- S. Leding

- K. Oakeshott

- U. Passerini

- H. Dreesen

- M. Hankel

- H. E. Husmann

- W. Jackson

- H. Heigenhauser

- R. Haltmeier

- P. Chavez (twice!)

- A. Tomilov

-----------------

Credits:

Credits for the image viewer (EzViewer) used for the widgets previews go to Nishimura Masataka (http://masataka.sakura.ne.jp/)

Credits for the Ferrari and TAG HEUER Carrera clocks go to WhiskeyBro

Many thanks to jgjackson for his detailed post about additional panels which I used as a source of inspiration and starting guideline for the add/remove panel feature

Credits for the SPIL Weather icons go to Stephen Peterkin

Credits for the Diamond Weather icons go to BeyondInfinity

Many thanks to Hans Heigenhauser (jotha on XDA) for his widgets included in this package and his cooperation in creating cool stuff

Credits for the Stickers Weather icons go to KorToIk (http://kortoik.deviantart.com/)

Credits for the Stardock Weather icons go to http://www.stardock.com See its homepage for usage permission.

Many thanks to Gunther Willems (http://users.skynet.be/gunther.willems) for giving me the idea of using rar to automatically import my xml into qa_layouts.dat and letting me use his script for reference

Credits for the "line" format of the birthdays widget goes to matthewhypolite, I just modified it to be a skin

of the already existing widget instead of a widget on its own, and added the different colors.

Credits for the idea of the "compact" calendar/tasks layout goes once again to matthewhypolite, I just recreated the same layout implementing it as a skin of the already existing widget and added the different colors.

Credits for the Invisible Links go to jgjackson, I added them to my package to fulfill a user's request to have them in a single widget cab.

Installation instructions included in a doc file inside the zip.