[HD2 Windows Mobile 6.5 Themes and Apps] Dunc001:
NOW WITH ANIMATED ICON SET AND FULLY USER TRANSLATABLE​

Massive THANKS to jmart518 for the cab files !!!​

CHANGELOG IN POST 3 - CHECK THERE FOR LATEST VERSION INFO

Well here it is, finally! What started out as three of us playing about with basic layouts and text colours has morphed into 6 weeks worth of work in my spare time creating from scratch a completely new WVGA theme for Weatherpanel. Every layout has been written from scratch, pretty much every icon, background, transition, etc has been created specifically for DDT (except the actual weather icons which is a modified set of Rumball's static Diamond VGA icons as they are without doubt the best weather icon set out there) and this is the result - we hope you like it!

This thread originally started out as a tutorial for getting Weatherpanel up and running on your HD2, giving it somewhere to live (in our case Second Today from Chi-Tai) and linking it using CHTE to be the default weather app. I've removed most of the rather longwinded background behind the project from this post as I'm sure most of you have read it by now, however for new visitors to our little HD2 WP community, welcome and we hope you find what you're searching for here! Weatherpanel really is the most comprehensive weather app out there - it may be old but it is still the best as far as information, accuracy and user customisation goes. Now with this new theme we reckon that visually and from an intuitive UI point of view it blows the other weather apps away (and it's free!)

Before we start I must give credit where due to Marsware, the original creators of Weatherpanel, Chi-Tai for Second Today and of course the remarkable Mssrs Cookiemonster & JCM for the unbelievably superb CHT & CHTE without all of whom none of this would have been possible. Thanks also to my two brothers in insomnia - Davej and Troed whose initial tweaks to the original Phatphinger and Diamond themes set us off down this road in the first place, and for keeping me going over the last few weeks - thanks guys!

Right, so here's why - Basically, fed up with the lack of information on the Sense weather tab I was looking for a way to click on the weather section of the Home tab and be taken to a much better weather app than the weather tab. Days and weeks of searching and experimentation finally led me to the following solution - Weatherpanel (an old WM Today plugin) given a home in Second Today which is in turn set as the preferred weather app in CHTE. It is all beautifully simple and works perfectly.

Let's get this out of the way before we start in BIG RED LETTERS:​

This does not replace the Sense weather tab !!!​

It is still there and can be accessed from your slider as usual. This setup simply directs a touch on the weather element of CHT to Second Today & Weatherpanel.​

About DAVEJ's Animated Icon Set​

My very good friend Dave has spent way too many hours editing Rumballs original VGA animated icon set and resizing the various sets to make them fit this theme. The icons set is huge at over 88Mb! Unfortunately WP uses a rather crude MNG image format (renamed .wpa) which means very large files compared to gifs. As a consequence the size of the main screen large animated icons has had to be kept smaller than we would ideally have liked because to make them the same size as the static icons would have meant each file was way over 10mb and caused WP to run at a snails pace or crash altogether. So Dave arrived at the best compromise he could to balance size over performance. The smaller sets are absolutely fine. We have culled frames in many of them to keep the overall size down and have made them all single play. And as you go up in the various sizes Dave has thinned out the sets progressively until the Huge ones on the main screen have just the most common weather types animated and the rest are static (otherwise you'd have had a 150Mb icon set!). They do slow WP down a bit but we think they are well worth it! We all run both icon sets and themes and switch between them as the mood takes us...

IF YOU WANT TO USE THE ANIMATED ICONS YOU MUST INSTALL THE RELEVANT AI (ANIMATED ICON) VERSION OF THE THEME AFTER THE MAIN INSTALL HAS COMPLETED - INSTRUCTIONS INCLUDED BELOW!

Here is the walkthrough:​

IMPORTANT FOR NEW USERS AND EXISTING USERS UPDATING TO THE NEW THEME:

For some reason the maximum useable screen area for WP differs between 6.5 and 6.5.x ROMS. Basically in 6.5 ROMs WP can be set to a maximum visible height of 720 pixels, whereas 6.5.x can go to 760 pixels (proper full screen below your taskbar). Also, we have discovered that Weatherpanel takes it's time format from your main phone settings (12hr/24hr) and as the layouts I originally wrote were for 24hr there were errors on screen if you are using 12hr time format. I have therefor created two complete versions of the theme so make sure you download the correct one for your WM version, each with three layout options in both 12 and 24hr format, otherwise the theme will not look right and you may be left with a scrollbar and overlapping elements on screen. Also, you must pay particular attention to the setup instructions for Second Today on first run - Disable Command Bar - as otherwise you will not get full screen and instead will have an unsightly scrollbar down the right hand side of your screen.

FULL INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS FOR NEW USERS​

(ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR ANIMATED ICON SET IN THIS COLOUR)​

There are two cab files linked to below which will do 90% of the installation for you. Make sure you download the correct cab for your WM version (6.5 or 6.5.x). Both cabs can be used for installs with or without CHT, and include the necessary reg settings for both CHT 1.8.5 and CHT 2.0

1. Download the relevant cab file for your WM version:

COMPLETE CAB INSTALL FOR WM 6.5

COMPLETE CAB INSTALL FOR WM 6.5.x

If you want the option of using Dave's animated icon set you will also need to download and unzip the relevant additional AI (Animated Icons) theme folder :

ANIMATED ICONS ADD-ON FOR WM 6.5

ANIMATED ICONS ADD-ON FOR WM 6.5.x

2. Download and unzip one or both of the icon sets:

STATIC ICON SET

DAVEJ'S ANIMATED ICON SET

IMPORTANT - When unzipping files you may find that you end up with a folder within a folder (DDT Mod Diamond WVGA Static Icons>DDT Mod Diamond WVGA Static Icons, same with icons folder) - Make sure you take the 'inner' folder out and use it to copy as if you forget to do this the icons will not appear in Weatherpanel

3. Install the cab to your storage card (you can put it in main memory if you like but the icon files will need to go there too and they are big folders (around 17Mb for the Static Icons and 88Mb!!! for the Animated Icons) - it runs perfectly well from the SD card). The cab will then install Second Today automatically to your device, and Weatherpanel and the theme to your storage card.

4. When the cab finishes intalling Weatherpanel runs through an extract process and will probably leave you with a WP window asking you to select language (default is English). Select your language then press your hardware back key. Then you can click OK as normal after a cab install.

5. Now you need to copy the complete unzipped icon set folder(s) to Storage Card>Program Files>Marware>Weatherpanel>Icons. If you are installing the animated icon set you also now need to install the unzipped AI theme folder to Storage Card>Program Files>Marsware>Weatherpanel>Themes

6. SOFT RESET

7. Now you need to open Weatherpanel for the first time. If you are using CHT then simply touch on the weather element of your home tab. If you are not using CHT then you need to go to Start Menu>Second Today and click on Second Today. First time you open it you will either get a blank screen with a message at the top saying invalid layout or you will see the Second Today settings window. If you see the few lines of text at the top of an otherwise blank screen then simply touch on this message and it will open the Weatherpanel settings screen. If you see the Second Today settings window it means that the ST settings haven't 'stuck' during the install so you need to do the following before proceeding:

7.1. On the plugins tab check the box beside Weatherpanel and make sure

NO

other boxes are checked

7.2. Still on the plugin tab check 'Use Custom Background' and then browse to whatever wallpaper you want for your main WP screen - don't use anything too light as some of the text won't show up!

7.3. On the display tab delete any text in the Window-Title box

7.4. Check the box beside 'Disable Command Bar' -

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!!!

Once you have made these changes click on the right softkey to accept the settings and you will be taken to the blank screen with the few lines of text at the top (touch on the text at the top of the screen), or directly to the WP settings window.

8. You then need to set up Weatherpanel by doing the following:

NB There is no confirm or back softkey in the WP settings screen so once you have entered all you need to on a certain screen you need to press your hardware back key to return to the previous screen or to exit settings altogether.

8.1 Add your cities (NOTE - WP does not utilise My Location so you have to manually enter locations you want weather info for) which is just a case of clicking 'Add New', then entering your city name in the 'Search For' box.

8.2 Once you’ve added each new city you then need to add weather images for each city (if you want weather maps to show up). If all your cities are in the same part of the world (i.e. Europe) then you just need to add the same image(s) for each city. I’m in the UK so all my cities use the same Europe maps. For more info on finding and adding weather images look HERE and try http://www.weathercharts.org/ - thanks again Troed :D

8.3 Once you’ve added all your cities and images click on the Display tab. The theme, icon set and layout are all already preselected by the cab install. You do however have a choice of six possible DDT layouts to select from in the Layout dropdown list (V2+, V2Mid, V2Lite in either 12 or 24hr format - see below). Select the layout you would like to try first, and make sure you select the correct version for the time format you use on your phone. If you are wanting to use the animated icons and have followed the instructions correctly to this point you need to change the Theme to the AI theme you will have in the Theme dropdown. Then simply choose your preferred layout as before, and in the Icon dropdown select the Animated icon set.

Once you’ve done this then click your hardware back key and you should then see the main WP display for the first city in your list. The left/right arrows beside the location name let you scroll through your cities. To exit the WP screen back to wherever you were simply click your hardware back or home key.

Job done :D:D:D

If once you've followed the installation instructions you are having any issues with not seeing the full screen, or having a scrollbar down the right hand side of the screen (and you have definitely installed the correct version of the theme for your WM version) please do the following:

With Weatherpanel open press your hardware Start Menu button. The open the Second Today folder and click on SToday Settings. In the Display tab make sure that 'Disable Command Bar' is checked. Exit by pressing the right softkey and Weatherpanel should now look correct.

About User Translation

THIS WILL ONLY WORK WITH DDT V2 -

NOT PREVIOUS VERSIONS

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This final edition of the theme is now fully user translatable through the use of the lang.txt file attached at the bottom of this post. All you need to do is download the file, open it in any text editor (Notepad is perfect for the job) and translate the text on the right hand side of each entry. The attached sample is for German users so if you want DDT in German then simply use this file! Once you've completed your translation save the file as lang.txt and copy it to the main Weatherpanel folder on your storage card (Storage Card>Program Files>Marsware>Weatherpanel).

There are a few things to bear in mind when you are translating:

1. Please stick as closely as possible to the number of characters in the english version of each text entry as this is the text the theme was designed around and if you increase the number of characters it will mess up the look of the theme or the text may not display at all.

2. You will be limited to the language specific characters available in the fonts used in DDT (Helvetica and Helvetice Neue Thin) so probably no Chinese or Russian translations?

3. Once you have translated I apologise if some of the grammar or syntax doesn't track perfectly but again the theme is written in English and although I have done my best to break the text up in such a way that when translated it makes sense there may be one or two elements that aren't perfect!

If you do translate the lang.txt into something other than German (or if you produce a better German one than mine!) please post it in the thread with the filename lang_*language*.txt (i.e. lang_french.txt) and I will compile a library of translation files in the second post.

Dave and I also reckon there should be a prize for the most amusing English adaptation of the text - do and English to English translation but substitute where relevant for amusing alternatives (ie Snow=Jeez, it's cold out here etc...)

CREDITS FOR USER SUBMITTED TRANSLATIONS:

GERMAN - lang_DE_V1.5.txt - Thanks to ceh01

PORTUGUESE - lang_POR.txt - Thanks to filipepro

DUTCH - lang_DUTCH.txt - Thanks to luckyuser

POLISH - lang_PL.txt - Thanks to Jack_Surfer

FRENCH - lang.FR.txt - Thanks to t00ms

DANISH - Lang_DK_v1.2.txt - Thanks to polpot

SWEDISH - Lang.SE.txt - Thanks to halloj

Remember to rename these files to lang.txt before copying to the WP folder.

UPGRADE INSTRUCTIONS FOR CURRENT USERS​

1. Download the correct DDT theme zip for your WM version:

DDT ULTIMATE V2 THEME ONLY FOR WM 6.5

DDT ULTIMATE V2 THEME ONLY FOR WM 6.5.x

If you want to use Dave's animated icons also download the relevant AI theme zip for your version:

ANIMATED ICONS ADD-ON FOR WM 6.5

ANIMATED ICONS ADD-ON FOR WM 6.5.x

Download the fonts:

DDT WP FONTS

Download the icons:

STATIC ICON SET

DAVEJ'S ANIMATED ICON SET

2. Extract all the zips.

3. Place the fonts in your Windows>Fonts directory on your device

5. Place the theme and icon folders in the relevant WP folders on your storage card as usual.

6. BEFORE YOU RUN FOR THE FIRST TIME - Go to your Start Menu and open the Second Today folder. Click on SToday Settings and in the display tab check the box beside 'Disable Command Bar'

7. Run WP and select theme [COLOR=Dark Orchid](AI version if you want to use the animated icons)[/COLOR], icon set and layout (DDT_Ultimate_V2+ DDT_Ultimate_V2Mid or DDT_Ultimate_V2Lite, either 12 or 24hr)

8. Enjoy

IMPORTANT: For anyone using Android builds see Android section in FAQ's​

FAQ's in Post 2​

Main screen layout options and navigation overview​

V2+ V2Mid V2Lite

There are three options for the main screen in the theme - V2+ (shown on the left above with two hide/reveal panels to play with), V2Mid (shown in the centre with the 5-day forecast permanently displayed and a hide/reveal info panel) and V2Lite (shown on the right above withboth the info and forecast panels permanently displayed). In the V2+ and V2Mid layouts the info panel is opened with the info button on the left hand side of the screen, and in the V2+ layout the five day forecast panel is opened by clicking on the five suns at the very bottom of the screen. Once the forecast panel is open you can then click on each day to be taken to a full forecast summary for that day.

​

Most elements on the main screen are clickable as shown above, and in each subsequent screen you will find a shortcut navigation panel on the top right of the screen allowing you direct access to anywhere else in WP you might wish to go. In addition, wherever the moon appears in the theme you can click on it to be taken to the Lunar Schedule page. It would take me forever to explain the function of every element in the theme, but as they are all very intuitive and each screen is fully self-explanatory I'll just let you play around and discover it all for yourself! You can't break it by playing around too much so have fun! As a rough guide however the various screens are as follows:

Main screen - contains all relevant current weather data (with info panel open), 5 day overview (with forecast panel open, sunrise/sunset times, local time for location selected, current moon phase, current temp, etc

1 - Current conditions screen - gives a bit more detail along with a 24 hour combined temp/rain chart

2 - 10-day summary page - each day is clickable to access the main forecast page for that day

3 - Lunar Schedule - with current and next moon phase info

4 - Charts page - four hourly/daily charts showing forecast max/min temp, precipitation, windspeeed and humidiy

5 - Full forecast page - Day and evening forecasts for the selected day, plus moon info

6 - Radars page - where web weather images, traffic cam images, etc you specify in your radars.txt appear and can animate. The player buttons are hidden when you first open an image page - to open the controls simply touch and hold on the image for a second or so and the buttons will appear.

If you are in Europe then you can download the attached radar.txt file and overwrite the one in the Weatherpanel folder on your storage card as it contains several more Europe radar image URLs.

Hope this walkthrough helps anyone else out there as thick as me to get there a lot quicker than I did! Now I have four questions for the clever people out there to do with things that would make it better but which I have no chance of finding a solution to on my own:

Any questions/suggestions please feel free to ask.

Enjoy :cool:

One word of warning - WP can be pretty data intensive so beware! I have two cities and four weather images and the update size is around 1MB, so if I have it set on hourly updates I can easily hit 10MB+ each day. I only hook up on wifi at home and work so not a problem, but if you are using mobile data you may want to keep an eye on it.

POSTS IN THREAD FOR NEW THEME START HERE​

If you like my work please buy me a coffee to keep me going :cool:​

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