[Windows Mobile Software Development] meltwater:
Themes, Icons & Colours

Themes, Icons & Colours

Cabbed Theme's should work with previous versions of the tab, but best support is with Release 3.Beta.1.

Installing Cabbed Theme's

Install the theme cab to the same location as you installed the RSSTab (check this using your file explorer if you are not sure).

After installing a theme cab, you must "Reset Sense", this is achieved by using SenseUtil and pressing the "Reset Sense" button.

If you see two icons on the sense slider, you will need set the option to remove the icon within the Tab Display settings (with Advanced enabled). [Not available yet - so remove 5AB7F814_manila from your \Windows\ directory (and restart sense).]

Note: Once you have installed a theme, you must then reinstall the Default theme if you remove it (you don't need to reset sense until you've installed the default theme). You must do this, unless your tab came "cooked" into your ROM, but I would still advise installing the default if you've since updated the tab.

If you update the tab then you will need to re-install your theme, as the files involved will be replaced.

Official Themes

Default Theme

meltwater_RSSTabDefaultTheme.cab

"Green" Example Theme

meltwater_RSSTabGreenTheme.cab

"Facebook" Example Theme

meltwater_RSSTabFacebookTheme.cab - Replaces the RSSTab Icons with Facebook Tab icons and text colour to facebook blue.

Info for theme developers

Theme Cab Files

The theme works by directly replacing the files which define the text colours and graphics, so it is important to remember that when a theme is uninstalled it will also remove these essential files (unless they are present in the ROM).

When generating a theme cab file, please ensure the Company Name is set to "RSSTab" and the Application Name is "Theme". This will stop more than one theme being installed at the same time, so that uninstalling one does not remove the files installed by the other.

Recommended Screenshots

Please provide sceenshots with your cabs if possible, I recommend one of the "Channel List", one of the "Feed List" ideally with podcast icons, and one of the "Item View" if you've changed the CSS file.

Developers Pack

meltwater_RSSTabThemeDevPack.zip

The developer pack contains the source for both the Default and the "Green Example" theme. If you do create a theme, even if it is a "default" for your ROM, then please ensure the name of the cab file is clear that it is a default for that ROM in particular.

Lauc Theme File (Text Colours)

Example "Green Theme Text Theme File"

Although lauc code can be quite difficult to follow, the code used for the theme file is simply assigning the colours to the required variables, so it isn't too difficult to understand.

The Colour is set by:

Color(40, 100, 60, 255) == Color(RED, GREEN, BLUE, ALPHA)

Note: The ALPHA channel is not always used for text, so it is left at 255 (the max value).

To pick your colour values, you can use sites like:

http://www.colorschemer.com/online.html

-- File name: 4F9BE867_manila \windows\htc\People\Scripts\People\rssTheme.luac

trace("[RSSFeed] 4F9BE867_manila \windows\htc\People\Scripts\People\rssTheme.luac Example")
local col_vdarkGreen = Color(40, 100, 60, 255)
local col_darkGreen1 = Color(100, 255, 140, 255)
local col_lightGreen1 = Color(200, 255, 200, 255)
local col_lightGreenDull1 = Color(150, 255, 150, 255)
local col_darkGreen2 = Color(100, 255, 100, 255)
local col_lightGreen2 = Color(200, 255, 120, 255)
local col_lightGreenDull2 = Color(180, 255, 71, 255)

Theme_RSS_TitleName_Unselected = col_darkGreen1
Theme_RSS_TitleName_Selected = col_vdarkGreen
Theme_RSS_TitleDetailUnread_Unselected = col_lightGreen1
Theme_RSS_TitleDetailUnread_Selected = col_vdarkGreen
Theme_RSS_TitleDetailRead_Unselected = col_lightGreen1
Theme_RSS_TitleDetailRead_Selected = col_vdarkGreen
...

The file then needs to be compiled using the CommandLine Manila Kitchen or similar.

If you have difficulty using the Manila Kitchen etc, then simply post your lauc file on the thread and I (or anyone else who spots it) can compile it for you.

This section will be updated soon for 3.Beta themes

Follow the link below to get to the Sense RSS Tab Theme Page wiki.

XDAWIKI: Sense RSS Tab Theme Page

Users are able to change the graphics, text colours and item view page theme (see above link for full details).

For now, you can visit some initial themes:

Sharkie's Black and Gold, Blue and White, Man on Chair