Q & A With Bgill55

shocka2430

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Just shoot me a pm with the tips lol.

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bgill55

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.conversations and the conversation list

I have tried with MMS but in theory this should work out for you!


Code:
change parent="@android:Theme"> to parent="@android:Theme.Wallpaper"
 

YankInDaSouth

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Man, I think it's awesome you started a thread like this to help people out!!

Wish I had some time to get into it - always wanted to try to theme ...
 

jatx2wne

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I think that may be one of the things I've tried I'm not sure I kind of threw in the towel a couple weeks ago on this one...i will try that tonight though and post back....thank you for starting this thread I'm excited to follow all the information that comes from it
 

nmiltner

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I am going to attempt my first theme. I've been reading many guides/threads, and experimenting a little. It doesn't seem that difficult, but it does seem like a lot of work to edit the png images, and put the whole package together.

Just out of curiousity.

How long does it usually take you to create a custom theme from scratch?

Well depends how much detail you want to go into. Its not as simple as editing a image. Android uses a. 9 image system which allows 1 image to be drawn and stretched allowing more room on the system. If you don't set the guide lines for the image and patch it with the draw 9 patch tool (found in the sdk) your image will be come all stretched weird.

But from scratch if I'm not making any XML edits I could knock out a theme in about a week. That's all system apps and framework. Not including 3rd party apps

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I've been working on one from scratch for about a month. Although I probably spend only about an hour a day, as that is all I can spare with two little ones and work.
 

nmiltner

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One thing I've also learned is that theming on a linux box sucks b/c it is darn near impossible to use the xeudoxus tools. Does anyone have a hint to get that part of it working?
 
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bgill55

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Do it old school. Eclipse and draw 9 patch tool

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nmiltner

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Dumb question,as it seems that updatzip is how most themes are applied, but hoow do I convert my theme from an mm theme to an uodate.zip? This might not be a simple answer, buut any help would be appreciated. As I understand it, I can't apply changes to phone.apk without an update.zip.

Thanks in advance.
 

YankInDaSouth

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I have a quick question: Is it posible to change the notification bar black, but leave all other aspects of the pull down unchanged? In other words, black bar with the stock pull down? I hate the the white bar but like the clean look of the stock pull down. Every theme I have seen changes the pull down as well as the bar, so I am wondering how difficult this would be.
 
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bgill55

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I have a quick question: Is it posible to change the notification bar black, but leave all other aspects of the pull down unchanged? In other words, black bar with the stock pull down? I hate the the white bar but like the clean look of the stock pull down. Every theme I have seen changes the pull down as well as the bar, so I am wondering how difficult this would be.

Yeah you can they are to seperate images the one you want to switch out is called:

status_bar_header_background.9.png or statusbar_background.9.png one of those two I forget with out looking at the images thats off the top of my head!
 

skurtz1313

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I have a quick question: Is it posible to change the notification bar black, but leave all other aspects of the pull down unchanged? In other words, black bar with the stock pull down? I hate the the white bar but like the clean look of the stock pull down. Every theme I have seen changes the pull down as well as the bar, so I am wondering how difficult this would be.

Yeah you can they are to seperate images the one you want to switch out is called:

status_bar_header_background.9.png or statusbar_background.9.png one of those two I forget with out looking at the images thats off the top of my head!

Number two my friend.
 

YankInDaSouth

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I have a quick question: Is it posible to change the notification bar black, but leave all other aspects of the pull down unchanged? In other words, black bar with the stock pull down? I hate the the white bar but like the clean look of the stock pull down. Every theme I have seen changes the pull down as well as the bar, so I am wondering how difficult this would be.

Yeah you can they are to seperate images the one you want to switch out is called:

status_bar_header_background.9.png or statusbar_background.9.png one of those two I forget with out looking at the images thats off the top of my head!

Sweet!! Thanks so much!
 

YankInDaSouth

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OK - I have been playing around and much to my surprise, I have accomplished more than I thought I would! I have thrown together a "Frankentheme" with icons from various themes and threw in my own customization of the notification bar.
My question is: where are the icons/images for the power control widget and for the settings menu? I have looked in all the drawable folders in the framework res apk and unless I am missing them, I have not come across them.
Thanks for the help ... again :)

**EDIT: Never mind! I found them!! :biggrin:
 
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bgill55

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Setting.apk for those that are still looking for it

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