yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
Hmm.... go to forums and then alphabetical and look.... is it still not there?
[Android Themes] PMGRANDS:
As far as I can see, its Not!
[Android Themes] VegasEvo4G:
Tweaking an existing theme

Impaler-- Wow, what a great guide. Out of all of the stuff I have read, this one makes the most sense. I just finished following the thread about modifying widget locker and was successful at it!! :D Now, I'm all fired up and want to start tweaking the theme I'm running to give it my own touch. (not for distribution of course, just for me!!)

I'm a little confused with all the different threads I've read. It seems like some of the ones from 2009 and early 2010 are now outdated with new things that have come out. Maybe I'm wrong... regardless, here is what I'm thinking and PLEASE let me know if I'm going about this correctly.

To start out, I just want to modify a few things within my theme. SO... can I do that by taking the theme, dropping it in apk manager, use the script to open it all up, change the png's that I want to change, and then zip it back up, sign it, and reinstall it?? (Evo running MIUI...)

Will this work?? Am I on the right track?? Thank you so much for your assistance, input, and continued dedication to this forum.
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
No problem, glad you like the guide :) as for the tweaks, you'll need to edit the framework-res.apk by decompiling it in apktool/manager, and then recompiling after the changes have been made

Sent from a truly Epic phone and a transparent XDA app ;)
[Android Themes] VegasEvo4G:
Yeah, that... :D (not quite down with the lingo yet!!)

That is what I was trying to say. I'm assuming you are familiar with the widget locker mod thread. I basically am refering to doing the same thing with apk manager to mod certain "drawables" within the theme. And then yes, "recompile" it and install it on my phone again. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything.

So once I've decompiled it, I can just drag my items that I'm adding over to the projects folder within apk manager and overwrite the existing png's, correct?
[Android Themes] kevin2516:
hi impaler, you're probably still too busy to look at my contacts apk, but anyway, do you know which file i need to change to change the colour of the header in vending.apk? I changed most of the colours and images everything to blue, but still only the header is green like the original market. i tried to wipe cache as well, but it's still green.
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
Correct, and actually you'd recompile/decompile widget locker, not your framework :)

Sent from a truly Epic phone and a transparent XDA app ;)
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
Sorry about that msn, been very busy :o you need to change the header color in the xml called colors.xml in the values folder :D

Sent from a truly Epic phone and a transparent XDA app ;)
[Android Themes] enescecen:
Thanks for this!
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
Not a problem, let me know if you need anything else :)
[Android Themes] kevin2516:
Thank you! it works :D:D:D, cheers. you legend ;D
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
No problem, let me know if you need anything else :)

Sent from a truly Epic phone and a transparent XDA app ;)
[Android Themes] alonsou:
Folks,

I would love to go thru all 26 pages of good info but if someone can help me out figuring out what I'm doing wrong it will be much faster than reading all those pages.

I have a paid app from the market that I want to mod, I opened it out with APK went to res-folder changed the PNG's that I wanted, then went back to the scrip hit 3 to zip it and then 2 followed by 4 to sign the APK.

It will install ok but right after that I get nothing but FC's?

Anyone can help this noob_themer..lol!

Thanks
[Android Themes] steelewise:
thanks just what i was looking for
[Android Themes] thatguysteve:
I was trying that same thing with some of my apps. All I did was open the apk in a 7zip window, rename my png files and copy them in. I pushed the apk to my phone and copied it over with root explorer. It worked alright and my icons showed up in the app drawer.
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
What app is it? How are you changing the icons?

No problem :)

Yeah, for just png changes, this should work more than fine :D
[Android Themes] dying4004:
theimpaler747 : bro i need a help. i am trying to edit a theme which is in apk format. i have edited the images and packed the theme with apk manager and the edited theme worked fine. but the problem is that i want to rename the theme in theme manager. and for that i need to edit the androidmanifest.xml which in encoded. so could you please tell me how to edit encoded xml files?? cheers
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
What theme apk are you editing? An adw theme?

Sent from a truely Epic phone on the XDA Premium app ;)
[Android Themes] mr.megi:
Im made my buttons black so the dropdown , not i need the text to be white.

I think the color should be in styles.xml . I tryed to chnage the color there but nothing on the phone

any idea ?
[Android Themes] kenvan19:
Hey impaler...I'm trying to decompile a SystemUI.apk to edit the xml using APK manager but everytime I try to decompile it I get an error...I'm doing this on my windows partition so there is no SDK installed but I didn't think I'd need it to just decompile this APK. I'm going to try to re-install it.

Here is the error:

java version "1.6.0_24"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_24-b07)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 19.1-b02, mixed mode, sharing)
'adb' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
Could Not Find C:\Users\***\Desktop\apk_manager_4.9\place-apk-here-for-modding\../place-apk-here-for-modding/signedSystemUI.apk
Could Not Find C:\Users\***\Desktop\apk_manager_4.9\place-apk-here-for-modding\../place-apk-here-for-modding/unsignedSystemUI.apk
I: Baksmaling...
I: Loading resource table...
I: Decoding resources...
I: Loading resource table from file: C:\Users\Kenneth\apktool\framework\1.apk
W: Could not decode attr value, using undecoded value instead: ns=android, name=theme, value=0x010300a3
W: Cant find 9patch chunk in file: "drawable-hdpi/statusbar_background.9.png". Renaming it to *.png.
Exception in thread "main" brut.androlib.err.UndefinedResObject: resource spec: 0x010300a3
at brut.androlib.res.data.ResPackage.getResSpec(Unknown Source)
at brut.androlib.res.data.ResTable.getResSpec(Unknown Source)
at brut.androlib.res.data.ResTable.getResSpec(Unknown Source)
at brut.androlib.res.data.value.ResReferenceValue.getReferent(Unknown Source)
at brut.androlib.res.data.value.ResReferenceValue.toResXmlFormat(Unknown Source)
at brut.androlib.res.data.value.ResAttr.convertToResXmlFormat(Unknown Source)
at brut.androlib.res.decoder.ResAttrDecoder.decode(Unknown Source)
at brut.androlib.res.decoder.AXmlResourceParser.getAttributeValue(Unknown Source)
at org.xmlpull.v1.wrapper.classic.XmlPullParserDelegate.getAttributeValue(Unknown Source)
at org.xmlpull.v1.wrapper.classic.StaticXmlSerializerWrapper.writeStartTag(Unknown Source)
at org.xmlpull.v1.wrapper.classic.StaticXmlSerializerWrapper.event(Unknown Source)
at brut.androlib.res.decoder.XmlPullStreamDecoder.decode(Unknown Source)
at brut.androlib.res.decoder.ResStreamDecoderContainer.decode(Unknown Source)
at brut.androlib.res.decoder.ResFileDecoder.decode(Unknown Source)
at brut.androlib.res.AndrolibResources.decode(Unknown Source)
at brut.androlib.Androlib.decodeResourcesFull(Unknown Source)
at brut.androlib.ApkDecoder.decode(Unknown Source)
at brut.apktool.Main.cmdDecode(Unknown Source)
at brut.apktool.Main.main(Unknown Source)
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
What is that a picture of?
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
Looks like some .9png patches are missing, and some other random errors.... how are you decompiling it? Apk manager or apk tool? It may need to be a dependent apk.
[Android Themes] kenvan19:
APK manager. Its from this theme and what I'm trying to do is change the status bar to white but in order to actually use a white status bar I'll have to change the color of the com.android.systemui.statusbar.Clock, com.android.systemui.statusbar.Tickercolor, and com.android.systemui.statusbar.Dateview to #73b6d6

I know I need to change the following things:

<com.android.systemui.statusbar.Clock android:textAppearance="@android:style/TextAppearance.StatusBar.Icon" android:gravity="left|center" androidaddingRight="6.0dip" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:singleLine="true" />

to

<com.android.systemui.statusbar.Clock android:textColor="#73b6d6" android:textAppearance="@android:style/TextAppearance.StatusBar.Icon" android:gravity="left|center" androidaddingRight="6.0dip" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:singleLine="true" />

etc...

What file do you think would be dependent?
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
Not too familiar with 2.3, perhaps framework-res?
[Android Themes] kenvan19:
Blah why must this be so difficult lol
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
Lol, also if it's already been themed you can have decompiling troubles often.
[Android Themes] kenvan19:
Do you think its worth trying?
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
Yes, but like I said it often won't work. Start from scratch I'd say :D
[Android Themes] kenvan19:
I'm getting there, I'm getting there :P Its easier for me to start by working with already created files then build towards making my own. Would you mind trying to decompile the apk for me? I attached it.
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
Ok, give me a sec theming a bit right now :)
[Android Themes] kenvan19:
No problem at all man, take your time...I'm in the middle of like twenty things myself lol
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
Yeah I'm getting the same errors, let me have an unthemed one please I want to try something.
[Android Themes] kenvan19:
You want just an unthemed SystemUI.apk from the Nexus S?
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
Correct, and still same errors. Looks to be dependent.
[Android Themes] kenvan19:
How does one deal with that?
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
With apk manager, decompile as a dependent apk and it'll be self explanatory from there :) Like I said, looks like it could be framework-res.
[Android Themes] kenvan19:
Okay I'll give it a shot. Thanks Impaler! Nope it gave me an error saying its not that.
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
No problem man, let me know if it still doesn't work and we'll look more
[Android Themes] kenvan19:
Blah gave me an error saying that the framework isn't the dependee...
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
Hmm.... I don;t work with 2.3 enough to know for sure :o
[Android Themes] kenvan19:
Oh well, thanks for trying impaler. I am going to try asking the theme dev and if that doesn't work I'll throw in the towel.
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
Ok, sorry about that :(
[Android Themes] kenvan19:
No need to be sorry man, its not your fault :) You tried to help but you just don't have experience with Gingerbread. Not a failing at all.

Heya! Sonny had me use APKTool instead and it worked! Got it decompiled! Woohoo!
[Android Themes] kenvan19:
Never mind. Found out I had to recompile the apk. :) got it working great now woo I feel cool!

Sent from my MattedBlues CM7 Nexus S from the XDA Premium app.
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
Lol yeah that'll help :p Glad you got it :)
[Android Themes] kenvan19:
Mhm You can see what I modified here: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=975849

I'm going to work on doing some more in depth modifications of it next. My first conquest is going to be adding a custom status bar and modifying the battery. Once I get more comfortable with that I think I'm going to start working on my own theme o.o
[Android Themes] damienallen:
I'm having the same problem, mind sharing the solution? Decompilation, recompilation and signing appear to complete without error.

EDIT: The problem was that I tried signing the file myself instead of leaving the original signature.
[Android Themes] honki:
hello.

i have som problems to change icons in the SystemUI.apk from Typhoons Gingerbread 2.5 build.

what i did with apk manager 4.9:

- decompiled the SystemUI.apk

- copy the new icons into the projects/systemUI.apk/res/drawable-hdpi and replaced the old icons.

-compiled

-deleted the icons wich i had changed in the "keep" folder

BUT the new icons are not in the new created "unsignSystemUI.apk" :-(

whats wrong??

Update:

i tried to decompile the file to look if the new icons are inside and this message appears:
[Android Themes] joememe:
this is what i was looking for, cheers
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
No problem, happy I could help out :) Let me know if you need anything else!
[Android Themes] cotyar:
I was also looking for a kind of tutorial / guide. I am glad you have created this topic. Thanks for your efforts!
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
No problem, let me know if I can help more in any way! :D
[Android Themes] digezter:
Woow .. Thank's It's Work ..
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
Yes it is work ;) But it pays off :D
[Android Themes] marcnvidic:
Thanks, helpful
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
No problem, there's a button for that now you know ;) Let me know if you need anything else.
[Android Themes] dying4004:
theimpaler747 : bro i need your help. i am trying to edit a sense theme for hd2 which is in apk format and after installing it can be choses from skin chooser in sense. so i used apk manager to decompress it and then edited some images and recompressed it with apk manager and it worked fine. what i cant do is to rename the the installed theme. foe example: original name of theme is android blue and i edited the images and want to retain android blue and my newly created theme. but now when i install newly created theme, it overwrites the old theme. what i have found that the androidmanifest.xml needs to be edited to change the theme name but androidmanifest.xml is encoded. so this xml file cant be edited with text editor. could you please show me the way to edit this particular androidmanifest.xml file? cheers
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
You can edit it with eclipse most likely... Why would you even want to change it for something like this though? :confused:

Sent from a truly Epic phone on the XDA Premium app... Transparent edition ;)
[Android Themes] Nsandhu23:
It would be super sweet if you made a tutorial on how to step by step theme something, like an icon or even something more involved. I'm really brand new to themes and I'm at square one right now. I'm gonna read through this stuff for the next 1-2 weeks and decided if I want to take the plunge. Wish me luck!
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
Well, that is pretty much what I did ;)
[Android Themes] Nsandhu23:
Oh my bad I haven't fully read through everything. Ill read it soon and actually do theming over summer. Too busy with school and what not. But thanks for the tutorial.
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
No problem, I'm here to help if you ever need it.
[Android Themes] Nsandhu23:
Ok cool thanks man! We miss you on the hero themes, at least you upgraded to EPICNESS!
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
Yeah, went for the best phone out there for sprint :D
[Android Themes] e100vs:
very useful info, thanks a lot
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
No problem, glad it's helped :D
[Android Themes] purgalm:
This is hell of a good guide!

Cheers Mate!
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
Glad you like it man :) let me know if you need anything else!

Sent from a truly Epic phone on the XDA Premium app ;)
[Android Themes] matzestinks:
Hey,

I'm using the Desire HD with LeeDroid Gingerbread.

Now I want to exchange the drawable-hdpi folder from the old ROM.

Is it ok to just replace the folders and push the framework-res.apk?

Thanks
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
Should be fine, yes, assuming your folder is all made correctly ;)
[Android Themes] matzestinks:
No differences between Froyo and Gingerbread?
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
Yes there are many differences ;) SystemUI.apk has some theme elements to it, and items in the drawables have been changed/added.
[Android Themes] papaslacker:
cool start to theme's
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
Thank you! Glad you enjoy it :)
[Android Themes] jsmccabe78:
first off, thank you for this guide. i have been reading it for some time. now i want to throw my computer out the window (kinda)!

question....

i am making a theme. simple theme; only replacing pngs in the res folder. not editing xmls, etc. (i have successfully done this with a CWM install, but want to make an ADW installer apk file for better options.) i am new to android, so bear with me and apologies if i misuse terms.

i am using eclipse (as noted in your first post) and followed the directions extensively. i exported the apk (unsigned for now) and it is created. but when i go to install, my phone (hd2 runnning nandroid 2.3.3) just says apk not installed.

when i open the apk and compare to other themes (e.g. Androidian) i see a major difference: his has a META-INF and mine does not. also mine has a classes.dex file and his does not.

is the meta-inf just the signed part of the apk (i think so)?

if it is, then mine should not have it. but any ideas on how to triage why my apk won't install?

sorry for the long post...driving me crazy here though...
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
To install an apk, it must be signed. And yes, your hunch was correct, the META-INF has to do with signing :) What computer are you on? Windows, Mac, or Linux?
[Android Themes] jsmccabe78:
thanks for answering. on windows.
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
No problem :) Ok, so on windows, do you have apk manager? If so, place your app in a folder that says "place-here-for-signing." Now, you have to ensure you have java in your classpath before you sign it. Do you?
[Android Themes] jsmccabe78:
app is in the folder.

java in my classpath? not sure what this means :o
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
Basically you have to do a bunch of weird stuff to get java working correctly :p I have a mac, so I didn't have to, but on windows, you do. Here is a decent little video that may be able to help :D
[Android Themes] jsmccabe78:
will watch the video.

when i run the bat file now i get "Adb not found, you will not be able to manipulate the files on your phone press any key to continue..."

when i do, i get a menu. to find a project, i get asked for a number. does this happen with you?

again, thanks
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
Yes, that is normal :) And no problem, let me know how it goes or if you need anything else!
[Android Themes] jsmccabe78:
again, thanks. one last bit before i watch and go away for a bit...

what number is it asking for?

i seem to go around in circles (asking for a number, then selecting 12, then 22, then 12...) man i feel dumb! ha!

edit....wrong sign apk prompt. off to test.

again, thanks. will report back!
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
To set a project? That's 22 I believe.
[Android Themes] user7618:
Yeah, its 22.

-----

Sent from my CDMA Hero. I got some hot Gingerbread-on-Hero action here!
[Android Themes] jsmccabe78:
22 set a project, but i looped answers. finally did 16 to sign the apk (in the appropriate folder.) signed and installed! awesome.

the good - under settings>adw settings >themes preferences i see my theme. when i install it, the background image changes appropriately.

the bad - no icons change (at work, or would double check names - but i believe i did it right, copying the notion from other themes). will double check. also is not picked up by "theme chooser".

questions (of course):

1- how to get theme integrated into theme chooser? i have found this:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=964391

must i do all that? it looks heavily redundant to the eclipse work i have done.

2- if icons named appropriately, obvious tips for why they would no change? (again, only changing hdpi folder icons.)

again, thanks for your help.
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
First, glad you got it :D Second, never even heard of that theme chooser :o Third, it could be for a number of reasons. Are the in the correct folder? Are you 100% sure they are properly named?
[Android Themes] jsmccabe78:
i should have waited to post until i had double/triple checked; but had down time so thought i would write in. (eager to hear someone say - oh, here is the magical solution that is a click away to stop all your frusturations...ha!)

the theme chooser is what is on my phone (believe it is tmobile theme chooser now on CM7.) first things first, need the icons to change! ha! thanks again.
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
No problem, we can work on this more if it's still not woking correctly
[Android Themes] jsmccabe78:
alright. ibeen trying different things...

stripped everything and the goal is to make a theme with one icon (change out the SMS/MMS main IC icon.) if i can do one, i can do them all!

icon name: com_android_mms_ic_launcher_smsmms.png

in the dres/rawable-hdpi

still not working. have ideas? post the apk? post the xml? :)

thanks!
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
What phone are you making this for? Is it mdpi or hdpi?

Sent from a truly Epic phone on the XDA Premium app ;)
[Android Themes] jsmccabe78:
it should be hdpi (i think)

phone is HD2 (a windows mobile phone) now using android via nand.

this is my rom: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=933951

i have made a theme that i flash via clockwork mod...and all the images are in the hdmi folder.
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
Are you doing this so the launcher recognizes that you have icons to use?

To put icons in the ADW Icon pack to be used in ADW.Launcher, just edit the res/values/icon_pack.xml file and add lines like the following one:
<item>png_finelane_no_extension</item>
One line per icon to be shown in the icon pack. Use only images, not xml drawables.
EXAMPLES:
res/drawable/icon1.png --> <item>icon1</item>
res/drawable-hdpi/my_cool_icon.png --> <item>my_cool_icon</item>
FULL FILE:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
<string-array name="icon_pack" translatable="false">
<item>icon1</item>
<item>my_cool_icon</item>
</string-array>
</resources>
[Android Themes] jsmccabe78:
yep. this is my icons xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
<string-array name="icon_pack" translatable="false">
<item>com_android_mms_ic_launcher_smsmms</item>
<item>com_android_calculator2_calculator_icon</item>
<item>frameworks_res_stat_notify_voicemail</item>
</string-array>
</resources>

but alas, no changes. (the above items are with .png in the res/drawable-hdmi folder). hmm...any other part of the xml that maybe i have turned off/ not enabled?
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
Gosh.... sounds like you're doing it all correct :confused: Double double check; is everything (like the path to the image and the name of the image) EXACTLY right? Even a space could throw it off. That's really all I can think of, you seem to be doing it correctly :o

EDIT: I think I see it. You're not telling the XML where to get the image. Notice these lines that should be in your XML, but aren't:

res/drawable/icon1.png --> <item>icon1</item>
res/drawable-hdpi/my_cool_icon.png --> <item>my_cool_icon</item>
[Android Themes] jsmccabe78:
does this need to be in the xml?

i thought that was for illustration point!
[Android Themes] theimpaler747:
Oops, actually I think you're correct, it wouldn't make sense for that to be in the XML :(