Related
I have been using Ifonz since i first got my Samsung sch-I760 a couple months ago, and was unhappy with the visuals so set about making my own custom wallpapers..I am offering to you all in the hopes that maybe some of you can use them or better yet make your own and post them here for others to use/modify.
the zip file contains [3] folders
the folders contain:
1] the actual .jpg background images in both portrait and lanscape mode to be used with Ifonz [main files]
2] I have included psd layered files for you artists so you can easily add your own pictures.Just replace the background image with your own.The top layer contains the borders [optional]
3] I have also included the icons that i have been using personally. not necessary but there if you want them.44x44 in size [optional]
here are some screenshots (note: these are just a few and do not show all images available)
.
for the Ifonz configuration/settings:
_________________________
Under 'Top and Bottom Bar' settings:
make top bar and bottom bar fully transparent by dragging the transparency slider (0%) all the way to left
_________________________
Under 'Icons' settings:
N* Icons in Bottom Bar: = [4]
_________________________
Adjust the bottom [4] icons to be as follows:
choose blank.png for all four icon images (both pushed and unpushed)
and adjust their links as follows:
1) [phone] - 2) [messages] - 3) [power on/off] - 4) [contacts]
thats it. hope you like them and hope to see what you all come up with.
very nice theme.. good job! to bad I cant try it I lost my usb/phone plug -_- need to get a new one..
thanks for your work
This is a new skin I developed for Homescreen++ which I thought I'd share.
Credits:
Chavonbravo - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=459826 for his Naked ROM - without which I'd never be able to get out of Manila and have all the memory to space.
Rumball - for weatherpanel animated theme - just love it. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=401781
Lepsyfou - for his original Diamond theme - which I took as a base and modified - all credits for this skin to him. http://www.actualitemobile.com/forum/index.php/topic,3538.0.html
All Icons - picked up from various locations - So am not claiming any rights - due credit to all of them. Some Images I have modified to accomodate my skin.
Skin Name: HSPlus
For Installation:
Zip File: HSPlusplus - contains following:
---->Directory HSPLusplus -
place in \Program Files\HomeScreen PlusPlus directory on device.
---->XMLFile: HSPLus
put in \Program Files\HomeScreen PlusPlus directory on device
(then select that theme from HSPlus.)
All Plugin Settings.zip - Shows screenshot of settings for all the Tabs and their plugins used to make the skin work
Retro Clock Skin.zip - has some retro clock skin place in retro clock folder and select in options..for Retroclock
Applications used as plugin:
SPB Diary - to display eMail in eMail tab
Weather panel - for Weather using Rumball's animated theme (search XDA-developers)
Calender++ : for calendar tab (Freeware) http://www.mohairsofa.com/Default.aspx/document/6
Tasks: TaskPlus for Tasks Tab (Freeware) http://software.forest59.com/taskplus.aspx
Metrix : Battery/Memory Plugin (Freeware) http://www.freewarepocketpc.net/ppc-download-metrix-free-edition-v2-1-1.html
Speeddial - for Contact tab - (Freeware) http://pdaphonehome.com/forums/ppc-...-treo-700w-today-plugin-speed-photo-dial.html
iContact - for Contact Tab (Freeware)
Other free misc utilities - found here in XDA Developers. like Power, Volume, Call history etc.
All tools/utilities used in the skin are available here do a search...if you cannot find let me know..
Feel free to change the XML for your own settings.
Do leave feedback
Rgs/Dev
Will keep in case i need
Will keep in case i need
thank you. will testing it...
Here you find the whole inventory for the Titanium-Plugin JMLToday - actualized permanently
Ric69 (as great skinner) and me will catalogize the Skins, collect the Graphics, make something as cab, provide the AddOns from you to all (and write our own for you), explain in How-To's how you can easy make your own skin, mplement Graphics, easy develop cool extensions by using the developer interface (MortScripting) and much more.
Thanx to JMHL for all!!!
Link to Download JMLToday: *Link to xda-Devs-Thread with Download current version*
This post is the Inventory for the following Posts:
#1 (Here) Introduction and Inventory
#2 AddOns Downloads (we need easy MortScripts - please help: ---> *here*)
#3 Skins & Images (with Download-Links) from xda-Users (catalogized by me)
u.c. #4 Skins & Images (with Download-Links) from Users of the whole world (and Ric himself) - Ric is on holiday, please wait
u.c. #5 Special How-To's for professional skins from Ric - and much more - Ric is on holiday, please wait
#6 How-To's Making Skins & adapt your Resolution - for Beginners - Description
#7 HowTo's - Easy cabbing JMLToday-Skins for all
#8 FAQs - Frequently Asked Questions
Please wait for some things - it's a lot of work to fill everything
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"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
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"lightbox_download": "Download",
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#2 All about AddOn's for JMLToday (JMLLibrary, JMLSpecial)
The best thing to start is an example - and that you can find here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=541434
Remark: An Update of JMLLibrary will not overwrite the existing images in "common" - so if you changed them to your preferences/resolution - they will remain.
- Download JMLLibrary always at first!!! (Date: 3.August.2009) : *click to download JMLLibrary v0.3* for JMLToday 5.3b/5.4/... and upper
JMLLibrary-Overview (+Changelog):
Version 0.3:
........Major Change!!!
Now JMLLibrary for Functions of
-- JMLSpecial
-- JMLToday-Notifications (e.g. JMLTodaySMS) in JMLToday >= 5.4
-- JMLPanex
- Makes Possible: Working CommManager-Buttons with JMLPanex (Wifi, Bluetooth, GPRS, AudioToBluetoothHeadset,...)
- Weather-Forcast with JMLPanex -> Detaile View on Button Press for each day
- Third SMS-Page (automatic available throughNotifications of JMLToday >= 5.4)
- much more - see full List
- Resized VGA-Backgrounds - therefore JMLibrary0.3 is not much bigger than 0.2 but with 10 times more Features
- Recommended: JMLPanex >= 0.99 (Thread of JMLPanex: *click*)
since Version 0.3:
"JMLLib_enableBTAudio.mscr","JMLLib_disableBTAudio.mscr":
Disables/Enables switching Audio-Signal to paired Hedset, doesn't work on all devices (JMLPanex-Button recommended)
"JMLLib_forecastGlimpse.mscr","JMLLib_forecastGlimpseDay1.mscr","JMLLib_forecastGlimpseDay2.mscr","JMLLib_forecastGlimpseDay3.mscr","JMLLib_forecastGlimpseDay4.mscr"
Gives possibiliy to show detailed Weather view byButton-Press on Forecast-Icons on Page2 (JMLPanex-Button recommended)
"JMLLib_isBatteryCritical20.mscr"
Set Registry String "isBatteryCritical20" in JMLToday - e.g. that a skin can switch of Long-Format-Downloads of weather or could set additional Icon for Warning (thx TrashMan)
"JMLLib_isNight.mscr"
see 0.2
"JMLLib_restartRadio.mscr"
Switches Radio off, waits some Seconds, switch it on - sometimes on some ROMs necessary to get PIN-Input (JMLPanex-Button recommended)
"JMLLib_SMS_Exit.mscr","JMLLib_SMS_Next_Page3.mscr","JMLLib_SMS_Previous_Page3.mscr","JMLLib_SMS_Refresh_Page3.mscr","JMLLib_SMS_Reply.mscr"
Provides SMS-Functionality on third Page of JMLToday - see Thread: *click to HowTo*
But Ric has made new much nicer Icons for Library - in opposite to HowTo-Screenshots, which are in JMLLibrary:
(JMLPanex-Call recommended)
In JMLToday 5.3: Start once "JMLLib_SMS_Refresh_Page3.mscr" to get Page3
In JMLToday 5.4: Associate "JMLLib_SMS_Refresh_Page3.mscr" with SMS-Notification
"JMLLib_toggleBluetooth.mscr"
Switches BT on/off (JMLPanex-Button recommended)
"JMLLib_toggleGPRS.mscr"
Switches DataConnection on/off (JMLPanex-Button recommended)
"JMLLib_toggleWIFI.mscr"
Switches WiFi on/off (JMLPanex-Button recommended)
"JMLLib_toggleWIFI2.mscr"
Switches WiFi on/off, if 1st method doesn't work on your device (JMLPanex-Button recommended)
"JMLLib_weatherbackgroundchanger.mscr"
see 0.1
"RefreshToday.exe"
you know it Refreshes Titanium
since Version 0.2:
improved "weatherbackgroundchanger 2.0" (now only updates if weather changes, better support for different .tsk, that it works out-of-the-box)
*info*
"isNight": Between 8pm and 6am the Value in JMLToday is set to 1 - otherwise to 0 - so each skinner can make day&night-clocks
*info*
since Version 0.1:
- Directory Structure
- WeatherBackgroundChanger : Changes Background according to the current weather
....Call from your JMLSpecial-Script: JMLLib_weatherbackgroundchanger.mscr
....Made by: MichelDiamond
....Screenshots: *click*
....Download this Skins in Attachment also in: *click*
.
Credits (in the name of JMHL and me) :
- vj555 for VJVolublis - Great CommandLineTool!
- APBilbo for his little free standalone Tools from ThrottleLauncher
- zuan35 from French HTC-Forum for SMS-Functions
- TrashMan for developing Scripts from *Wishlist*
- Ric for nicer SMS-Icons *g*
- OndraStar for PLG-Resizer
To check JMLLibrary - I added a Panex-File with some Links to Library - only copy it to your JMLPanex-Installation-Directory
and I also give you a working skin (allres! Made with plg-Resizer) where the CommManager-Icons are in Right Place and will work together with attached Panex-File
But JMLLibrary will work with each Skins and of course your personal Panex-File (that's the sense of a Library )
But pay attention: Buttons must be on Slider to work in JLMPanex
Screenshot from Examle-Skin in *click*
.
#3 SKIN & Graphics from XDA-DevUsers
Please update to JMLToday 5.3 (upper) to use all the benefits of this post!
Short description:
Here you can find new graphics and skins for JMLToday
If you use Titanium7-Project- all skins (.plg-Files in your JMLToday-Directory) their filenames starting with "JMLToday_WM7_... .plg" supports this double panel size.
Graphics:
There are (in 5.2) 5 different Graphic-Directories in your JMLToday-Directory to find:
Clock: Graphics for the digital clock
ClockA: Graphics for the analog clock
Meteo: Weather-Icons
Batt: Icons for the Battery
System: everything else - e.g. Bluetooth,Wifi,SMS,Phone,.... much more Icons
I think only with this knowledge, it's easy for people who likes to skin, changing everything. Perhaps a transparent clock, a really lovely analog clock, new Icons for the weather... only use the new directory.
To know in which directory the cab will install - I will write it in Red Color next to the download-Links.
E.g. if you see there "meteo.highres" - you can choose with with CHome-Editor -> Manual Edit Item Values -> JMLtoday the Value for meteo to "meteo.highres" - then your Skin will further use the HighRes-Icons instead of the original icons.
For Skinners: In .cab-Framework ( look at Post #7 ) the Framework for Skins = JMLToday_Skin_template.zip - in the .inf-File you will find the Values for Registry again - so your Skin an switch to the Icons-Directory, which your Skin should use.
Each Image-Set should use different names - never take the same names, if you have make new Icons please. So each user and skinner has the complete assurance, that he get the right images.
Skins:
That's sometimes also a change of the graphics - but not necessary. Every skin is to find direct in your JMLToday-Directory - wth the suffix .plg
If you open it with notepad, you can see, that it's a simple Textfile (XML) where you can find the resolutions and the size and positions of the graphics. You can play with it - then you will see - totally delete,add,move or resize a icon.
And... also Adding YOUR Resolution (in this Thread you will find the How-To's for all!)
[Clock] - New Digital Clock Graphics:
original-Digital-Clock: *Info here* *Direct Download original clock* clock.original
Not very much changes... but it looks nice - thanx to Mr. Nick for the Icons
transparent Glass-Icons-Clock... (clockglassicon.cab)
clock.glassicon
and the Transparent Clock from Ghenarys - with white or black light effects (Screenshot is white light)
Transparent Clock BG from Ric - WHITE (clockbg_white.cab)
clock.bg_white
Transparent Clock BG from Ric - BLACK (clockbg_black.cab)
clock.bg_black
[ClockA] - New Analog Clock Graphics:
original-Analog-Clock: *Info here* *Direct Download original analog clock* clockA.original
Nice analog Clock-Icons - originally designed by snobrdinrtiste, thanx to AGxM for suppliment - and now JUMBA to make the hour-fingers correct - great job!:
Nice Analog Clocks -> to Posting with Download
Download Analog_Clock_1 clockA.Analog_Clock_1
Download Analog_Clock_2 clockA.Analog_Clock_2
Download Analog_Clock_3 clockA.Analog_Clock_3
Download Analog_Clock_4 clockA.Analog_Clock_4
[Batt] - New Battery Icons:
Install:
Only replace "Batt" in JMLToday
Hint: Batt7.png is 90%, then it goes down
-----
original-Battery: *Info here* *Direct Download original battery*
if you wants to have a "PowerFlower", which makes FlowerPower if your device is loading...graphic from my glass-Theme, which I'll have to .cab before poviding
iGlass-PowerFlower... (battiglass.cab)
batt.iglass
[Meteo] - New Weather-Icons:
Install:
Only replace "Meteo" in JMLToday
Hint:
Some Skins shows too big or too small Icons - that's because the Theme was skinned with other Icons.
Go into the .plg (Textfile) and change Values "height" and "width" higher/lower from "Icon" (MainIcon on Page1), (Page2 "IconA", "Icon1", "Icon2", "Icon3", "Icon4" if you like this skin to use with other icons. Would be kind if you'd share this modified Skin to the other users.
-----
original-Weather-Icons (lowres): *Info here* *Direct Download original weathericons*
Original-Weather-Icons (Default Icons - meteooriginal.cab)
meteo.original
HighRes-Icons (meteohighres.cab)
meteo.highres
Katra's Weather-Icons (smaller size) (Jumba - Katra's Weather Icons Smaller v2.cab)
meteo.Katras_Weather
Two Versions (click on image above is to download resized weather icons):
*Katras_Weather-Bigger-HighRes (2,5 MB)*
*Katras_Weather-Resized-HighRes (1,3 MB)*
(Thanx to Jumba for all, and adwinp for resizing)
-----
[System] - New System Graphics:
original-Sys: *Info here* *Direct Download original sys* sys.original
Complete Skins:
Hero: *klick*
From Ric and much more French users: *klick*
crap panel: *klick*
Standard for all resolutions:*klick*
from iriaterick - WM7: *klick*
Jumba (qvga): *klick*
MichelDiamond-Skins which changes Titanium background corresponding current weather (all res): *klick*
Jumba - great Analog Clock skin with Weatherbackgroundchanger: *klick*
Black HD Theme by Vinsos aka muzesicos: *pic* *post with downloads as cab*
Duo_Analog_Clock_ALLRES_bymicha: *klick*
Jumba's Analog Duo Skin: *klick*
If you want to send me a PM with a screen of your theme and a link to DL, i will add in this post
Complete Skins:
Hero: *klick*From Ric and much more French users: *klick*
***
crap panel: *klick*
***
Standard for all resolutions:*klick*
from iriaterick - WM7: *klick*
Jumba (qvga): *klick*
MichelDiamond-Skins which changes Titanium background corresponding current weather (all res): *klick*
***
Jumba - great Analog Clock skin with Weatherbackgroundchanger: *klick*
***
Black HD Theme by Vinsos aka muzesicos: *pic* *post with downloads as cab*
***
Duo_Analog_Clock_ALLRES_bymicha: *klick*
***
Jumba's Analog Duo Skin: *klick*
***
Jumba_Glass_Icons >>click<< >>click<<
***
Sleppyxda and titanium clone >>click<<
***
Cyb's JMLToday >>>click<<<
How-To Changing / Creating Skins for JMLToday
(Skinning and adapting resolutions for JMLToday-Skins for beginners)
I will start with this to explain - it's really easy - you will see.
Please use CHome-Editor from Showaco to have a look about the current settings in Registry of JMLToday -> *Info&Download CHome Editor* Thanx to showaco for this great tool!
A Plugin always has Registry-Keys in HKLM/Software/Microssoft/CHome/<PluginName> - so: HKLM/Software/Microsoft/CHome/JMLToday
But the CHome-Editor gives you the faster possibility to have a look at them - and also to change.
Direct in HKLM/Software/Microssoft/CHome/JMLToday you can find the common string, which are used for settings e.g. your chosen town-Code
In Page1 you will find everything, which is displayed on the Page, when you scroll to JMLToday in Titanium. e.g. the current Time, Weather, Appointment, Wifi/Bluetooth,...
In Page2 you will find the other stuff, wich is displayed - if you scroll right or left on the Panel to the second page (with the weather forecast) .
In CondensedPage you will find the stuff, which is displayed, when JMLToday is NOT active, but you see it on your screen (SMS and Phone-Counter, Date, mostly Battery)
JMLToday uses "Skins" (Files with suffix .plg) to show this Values on the screen. Text is displayed as text. Graphics are in Registry the path to the Graphic, which should be displayed.
Example for "Date" - Registry in CHome-Editor on the left - corresponding JMLToday-Display on the right:
JMHL has made a description of the Items in the JMLToday-Thread at Post #3 -> *Items overview and description*
You can also download this as Excel-File from the Attachment: *Download Item-Description as zipped Excel-File*
The most things are self-explaining - "Date" is the current date, "Alarm" the AlarmTime,...
Each Item in Name with PNG, e.g. "AlarmPNG" describes a Graphic and is therefore in Registry a path to the Graphic.
Some special things to understand in short view:
"ville" = Town (it's French )
"rdv" = next Appointment in calendar
"H1", "H2", "M1", M2" = HH:MM.. the digital Clock - Graphics
With this knowledge we can take a look to the .plg-File = the Skins.
All .plg's (the skin-Filess) have following structure - and so you will always see, for which resolution(s) and portrait/landscape they are made:
Code:
[SIZE="2"]<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<plugin>
<name>JMLToday</name>
<position>0</position>
<layouts>
<layout screenWidth="480" screenHeight="640">
<Layer ID="JMLTodayExpanded" nil="False" Width="480" Height="164" Clip="False">
<Layer ID="Page" Clip="False">
[COLOR="Red"]... Here: Description of Items in Page1 and Page2 for VGA [B]portrait [/B](480x640)[/COLOR]
</Layer>
</Layer>
<Layer ID="JMLTodayCondensed" Visible="False" Width="480" Height="68">
<Layer ID="Page">
[COLOR="Red"]... Here: Description of Items when Panel is not active (minimized) for VGA [B]portrait [/B](480x640)[/COLOR]
</Layer>
</Layer>
</layout>
<layout screenWidth="640" screenHeight="480">
<Layer ID="JMLTodayExpanded" nil="False" Width="480" Height="164" Clip="False">
<Layer ID="Page" Clip="False">
[COLOR="Red"]... Here: Description of Items in Page1 and Page2 for VGA [B]landscape [/B](640x480)[/COLOR]
</Layer>
</Layer>
<Layer ID="JMLTodayCondensed" Visible="False" Width="480" Height="68">
<Layer ID="Page">
[COLOR="Red"]... Here: Description of Items when Panel is not active (minimized) for VGA [B]landscape[/B](480x640)[/COLOR]
</Layer>
</Layer>
</layout>
<layout screenWidth="240" screenHeight="320">
<Layer ID="JMLTodayExpanded" nil="False" Width="320" Height="68" Clip="False">
<Layer ID="Page" Clip="False">
[COLOR="Red"]... Here: Description of Items in Page1 and Page2 for QVGA [B]portrait [/B](240x320)[/COLOR]
</Layer>
</Layer>
<Layer ID="JMLTodayCondensed" Visible="False" Width="480" Height="68">
<Layer ID="Page">
[COLOR="Red"]... Here: Description of Items when Panel is not active (minimized) for QVGA [B]portrait [/B](240x320)[/COLOR]
</Layer>
</Layer>
</layout>
[COLOR="Red"]...and so on for the other resolutions and portrait and landscape[/COLOR]
</layouts>
</plugin>[/SIZE]
The Items know to which Page (1 or 2) they belong - because of the definition in the Registry. There we have the difference between Page1 and 2 - it's not made in the .plg
But don't make chaos, if you create your own style... begin with everything from Page1, then make a comment, e.g.
Code:
<!-- JMLToday : meteo Page2 -->
and go on with Page2
----
There are two kind of items in the layer - Images and Text.
The Appearance depends are the left/top (Position) and width/height (size) entries represented in pixels. Left and Top values are counted from the left top edge of the layer - not the complete screen!
Example for the Battery Image,which has a Text-Value and a Image:
The code in the .plg-File:
Code:
<Image ID="BattPNG" Left="266" Top="10" Width="40" Height="40" BlurFactor="3"
ScaleStyle="Fit" Opacity="1.0"
/>
<Text ID="BattVAL" Left="261" Top="50" Width="56" Height="32" FontFamily="Tahoma"
FontSize="6" FontStyle="Regular" Wrap="False" HorizontalAlignment="Center"
VerticalAlignment="Top">
<TextStage TextOffsetType="TextOffsetDropBottomRight"
Color="#00000000" TextOffset="1" BlurFactor="3" Alpha="1.0"/>
<TextStage TextOffsetType="TextOffsetNone" Color="#FFFFFFFF"/>
</Text>
Please compare the picture with the code-especially the position and the size then you will see,how it's counted from the left top corner of your active panel.
I have VGA-Resolution - so Ialso know that in portrait my screen width is 480.
The Battery's Icon (also Top left corner of the Image) is over the half of the Picture (Left=266) and it's only a little bit below the Top of the Panel (Top=10)
Look at the clock next to the Battery.. it's over the top of the Panel... and so: yes - you can show everything outside the panel - and so are also negative values allow. Is used in some skins of JMLToday to show the clock or the Weather far above the active Panel.
Back to our Battery - the width/height-values describe the size of the Battery.
The other values are optional, but very nice for skinners - opacity, blurfactor are self-explaining. An Item will get more and more transparent, if youset the opacity from 1.0 -> 0.0 (try 0.5 and you will see the difference).
ScaleStyle is something special. Without this Value the Image must correspond to the heig and width-settings. This can be a problem, if youhave no fix Icon-Sizes for each possible Image.
Therefore there are two possible Values to make Titanium the Work:
ScaleStyle="Fit" --> Icon is resized proportional until one of the width or height limit is reached
ScaleStyle="Strech" --> Icon is resized - but NOT proportional - so that has the exat size of width AND height.
The Text (BattVal) is direct shown below the image - and in the .plg the Text is somewhere below the Image. In case of Battery not ierresting, but very interesting, if some items would overlap themself. The last defined Item is the foreground item.
Some nice Values for Text:
FontSize is self-explaining
Also HorizontalAlignment="Center" or "Right" or "Left", VerticalAlignment="Top"
But keep in mind - if you set a Text as left=xxx and the alignment is "right" - then the Text doesn't start at xxx - only if it would suit exact in the defined height/width.
Wrap="True" (or "False") - with this youcan define multiline Text (True). But only withing your defined borders of width and height as Maximum. If your image or text gets clipped off, try adding Clip=”False”
------
I think the Rest is learning by doing, but ith this informations, you can have a look at each .plg-File (skin) in JMLToday and adapt it, how YOU want it.
Also Adaptig from VGA to QVGA is now easy - only add the Layer like the Code I showed, copy all inside - and take from each top/left/height/width-value the half (480x 640 / 2 = 240x320) - but with some few special cases - especially the Text Alignment, so perhaps you should have a look at the result and move some Items some pixels to the right or left. Or reduce the FontSize a little bit.
But now - there's a program to do this!!! From Ondra Star:
Derived from the *CPR converter*
he made the *PLG converter*
Take a skin in whatever resolution - and use this easy program to get it inyour resolution - please also share it than to all.
Please: Please mark each Titanium7-Skin th "WM7" in filename and perhaps add the Resolutions, too.
Happy skinning - and please share your results to the other users - so we all have a growing amount of Skins for all Resolutions.
.
HowTo: Easy Skinning by .cab of Images, Skins with or without JMLSpecial/JMLLibrary
You never made a .cab ? Especially a .cab which installs on each ROM - independant of the language?
But you have made new Weather-Icons or complete new Icons and/or a new Skin (.plg) with or without a JMLSpecial?
No problem - you must not know something about .cab's - you get a Framework, which does almost the whole thing for you
So we can assure, that we get no chaos - "which skin belongs to which graphics?" or "Why are the same Icons in different directories?"
All you have to choose is a name for your Icons (e.g. "Michas_WeatherIcons") or your new Skin (e.g. "JMLToday_Weatherback_VGA_portrait" )
For one new Icons-Directory like an Analog Clock:
- Get the Frame from the Attachment (e.g. "Frame_clockA.original.zip) and extract the zip somewhere on your PC
- Rename the ".inf"-File, which will be in the directory, where you have extracted the zip, to "clocka<YourChosenName>"
- Then open this .inf with notepad
- Everywhere, where you see the word "original" - replace it with your own chosen name - and save it (No need to change the other things )
- Rename the Subdirectory (e.g. "clockA.original" to "clockA.MichasAnalogClock" )
- Copy your new Icons to this subdirectory (overwrite all)
READY TO CAB!
only put by Drag&Drop your .inf-File over CabwizSP.exe - some seconds later your .cab will appear...(if you made the points above orrect) and you can share it
For complete new Icons-Directories like an clock,clockA,meteo,...:
The same as with one, but use "Frame_AllImages.original.zip" - I think the .inf is self-explaining
For a new Skin (.plg with or without JMLSpecial)
Use "JMLToday_Skin_template.zip"
Rename the .inf to the name of the skin you have chosen
In .inf you see only 2 files as template - the .plg and the jmlspecial....mscr
Replace this files with your new Skin-Files in Filenames - also in [SourceDiscFiles] and also in [CopyFiles1]
Then you see some Registry-Strings - only choose the Name of the Directory, which should be used by the skin
Save the .inf
READY TO CAB!
only put by Drag&Drop your .inf-File over CabwizSP.exe - some seconds later your .cab will appear...(if you made the points above orrect) and you can share it
If you would have the great idea to make a .cab for both - Icons and the Skins ... please let it be It would end in Chaos, because everybody would use his own directories and the MainStorage of the Users is not big enough!!!
If you want to provide a complete new Skin with complete new Images ... make both .cab's - so you can use the Image-Cabs for all following Skins again - and nobody will be overloaded
Oh - I've forgotten: Will work with 5.3 and upper
Attached the Frameworks to easy-almost-full-automatic-cab-your-Images-and-Skins (Extract on your PC - not your Windows-Mobile-Device)
.
.
FAQ - Frequently asked questions:
"JMLToday" run only for WM6.5 (and higher?)
Yes - because Titanium is Windows Standard since 6.5 - so with 6.1 no possibility. But in the ROM section of your Handy, you'll find perhaps a nice 6.5 ROM for U
Which resolutions supports JMLToday?
I supports each resolution. No limitation.
Why are so much VGA and WVGA-Skins to find in opposite to the others resolutions?
JMLToday is the Version 5.2 ... but before 5.0 it was complete in French, then with a German-French-Cooperation we got first possibilities for multilanguage.
But the whole development was on Diamond /sometimes Diamond 2 - and so: VGA.
Then we started on 20.07.09 the first trial here in english and also to get QVGA/WVGA/...-Skins (Look here - and it was overwhelming, how often this Plugin was downloaded and tested in this short time.
We thin it won't take long to have Skins ins your Resolution, too - it's easy to skin and so in xda-deveopers can Skins easy transformed, created - and shared to all other users with the same resolutions. Perhaps you can createa Skin, too? It's really easy
Can I have each skin, which I see here, in my Resolution, too?
Yes - and now - there's a program to do this!!! From Ondra Star:
Derived from the *CPR converter*
he made the *PLG converter*
Take a skin in whatever resolution - and use this easy program to get it inyour resolution - please also share it than to all.
The manual (also easy but takes longer) way:
Take the skin ( .plg-File) from a download or your JMLTodayDirectory, which you want to change - copy it to your Desktop to better work with it.
Open it with Notepad
Look for the Line:
<layout screenWidth="480" screenHeight="640">
and copy all of it within </layout>
and copy this text direct under this Layout - and change it to your Resolution
<layout screenWidth="240" screenHeight="320">
Then take from every "left","top","width","height"-values the half of it (Because QVGA is the half of VGA )
Switch the Fontsizes a little bit lower (1-2px are enough)
Save it back to the JMLToday-Directory.
Choose it and enjoy (I hope so)
If have found a nice skin for JMLToday in another foreign Board - the Screenshots shows other languages - could I have this in my own language?
Download it and install it - Skins are absolutly independent from the Language!
Is there a way to make JMLToday as Default Titanium Plugin instead of CClock?
Yes-You need CHome-Editor
1. Switch JMLToday to the Top-most position and save.
2. Then copy the string “{F0A1B246-6E64-40cd-8E15-347D29FF6F18}” (without the quotes!) to HKLM/Software/Microsoft/CHome to "HomePluginGuid" (please save the value which is inside before - it's the GUID of CClock) . You could do this step also with CHome-Editor
3. Restart Titanium
Be careful - this game doesn't work with all Titanium Plugins... but it works with JMLToday (I made it, too )
Where can I find to the first english Version 5.1?
*klick to JMLToday5.1preview*
There are many questions answered menanwhile - and you will already find some skins
Why do I find not so much skins in the default .cab-File of JMLToday?
Right - JMLToday has only some basic skins in the cab - everybody likes other skins - and so a .cab would be overloaded. Therefore only some Skins works. You're in the right thread for that - here we can develop and improve Skins & AddOns altogehter
Some of the Skins are very small.
Use another skin - some of them have the Clock above the Panel. So you'd have more space in the Panel itself.
Still to small? - why not double the Panel size? Easiest way: Use Titanium7-Project: *click to download*
JMLToday supports every screensize & screenwidth - but Titanium7 comes very close to the future look of Windows Mobile 7 - all skins (.plg-Files in your JMLToday-Directory) their filenames starting with "JMLToday_WM7_... .plg" supports it.
My screen doesn't shown up, retrieves an error message or disappears after changing
At first: JMLToday is installaed as the Top-most-PlugIn - please scroll up.
Also: You have installed it into Main Storage? Never install a Titanium Plugin to Internal Stroage.
If you don't see a possibility to swap the skin, because the panel is black or disappeared: You've chosen a skin, that doesn't supports your resolution.
Workaround: Go into the JMLToday-Directory with FileManager or TotalCommander and start "jmltodayskins.mscr" - and choose a skin with your resolution (JMLToday.plg is the only one in the cab which supports all resolutions. )
Next possible reason: Your Titanium-Files are write-protected: In your Windows-Directory - look for all Files with Titanium_<your resolution>.cpr e.g. with TotalCommander - and check the properties, if the "read only"-flag is set. Then uncheck it and try installing again.
If that also not the reason: Please use CHome-Editor from showaco ( *Link* ) and move the panel of JMLToday a little bit over and under CCLock and save this order)
Don't like the "Military Time" with 24 hours
Why do you have it? Do you have chosen the wrong country or does we made an mistake with the configurations of your country?
Since JMLToday 5.2 - 12am/pm is supported. There should be no problem - otherwise please feedback to us in the JMLToday-Thread.
Please have a look the JMLLang.ini in your JMLToday-Directory (if you don't have it, I would estimate, that you installed the cab without switching off Titanium... but nevertheless: Follow the Installation instructions from 1-5 in Post #1 again)
JMLLang.ini -> open with Text Editor -> search your language [de],[en],[us],[it],......and set "hour=12"
Then switch to JMLToday-Panel in Titanium and change your language again by the Context menu. Then it should work.
I don't find some files, which you told
Did you have the previous version of JMLToday before? Then please stick close to the installation instructions - especially:
- Switching off Titanium to uninstall/install cab
- Removing JMLToday-Directory completely before installaing .cab again
I get different Error-Messages sometimes
Please check which Version of Mortscript you have installed. Some PlugIns use older Mortscripts which overwrites newer Versions.
You must have the current stable version 4.2 of Mortscript (not lower or 4.3b)
I have no flatrate - which is the size of download the weather information?
Only ~1,5 kB in default JMLToday - I will have a look, that each AddOn, which uses the Internet, shows the amount of additional Data Size
Why using MSN-Weather instead of AccuWeather?
MSN-Weather supports each language by default - so no translation-Scripts are needed.
MSN-Weather has much more smaller Villages - not only the (next? ) big city.
~1,5 kB only - so it's fast and light - no senseless overhead
The weather forecasts are really good.
No problems with special characters in the Name of the Village, which have some Countries. In Code-Entry for your town also in displaying your town's name.
What are "AddOns"?
JMLToday has now (5.2) a development interface. You can almost play with all, you can do with Mortscript. But - in a definited state with use of the additional informations and synchronisation, which is provided by JMLToday.
Only some exampels, which could be made:
- Third page with additional informations on the panel
- Second Town for weather
- Titanium-Wallpaper changes according to the weather
- Get or Send informations to other programs
- Extend Context Menu
- ...
- WHATEVER you want and can be made
The developer interface will be explained in Post #7 - download the Library and AddOns - Page #2 in this Thread.
Why will there be an AddOn-Library? Why not only in a skin using the development only
It's possible to set the AddOn direct into one skin - the Library will be above of it. Each skin can use the AddOn-Library, what it needs. And his own special AddOn, too - at the same time.
A Library also provides a transparent concept, what's & how to use - everybody knows it and so there's no collission in file- or directorynames.
I don't want to overwrite my original graphics or change often e.g. the weather icons according to the used skin
Therefore the AddOns were invented Each skinner can use his own directories for his graphics. (and use the central library, too, if he wants)
Next week everything introduced and we will have 1000 Skins in each resolution and AddOns?
No But I believe in the Users here, that they want a individual panel - suitable to their passions and wantings.
The Plugin is completely variable - you want 3rd Page - possible, you want 2nd weather - why not? - you want have a nice look with iPhone-like-Icons? Or Android Hero? Or Windows Mobile 7? JMLToday with the AddOns can do it - now you canhave "working icons" with showing time, notifications inside this icon - or the Icon would be triggered because of anything, what happens on your phone (not only "new SMS" or "Missing Call" and so on...)
But everything needs its time - and its helping hands.
Do you know, why the Headline is "Make YOUR (jmlto)Day"?
It's easy to change each graphic
It's easy to change the places of each text and icon
It's easy to add new features
And each other has other preferences, what he wants
Micha
Insane Tutorial..!!! Thanks!!
WOW thats cool, is it for WM 6.5 only??
QVGA
i Guys,
here is a first amateur try for a qvga res. Just change the extention to .plg copy it in jmltoday and just change the skin. It works on my ks20.
The upload didn't work The file is too big. I'll try again later.
I've created an analog/digital skin for (W)QVGA. It's for portrait only but give me a day or so and I'll put a landscape layout together...
Copy the file "JMLToday_AD_QVGA.plg" to your \Program Files\JMLToday folder then go to install new theme and you will see it there.
I've also adjusted the digital clock background to move the panels closer together. Copy the file "bg.png" to your \Program Files\JMLToday\clock folder, overwriting the original. You might want to make a backup of this first in case you want to use another theme that uses the old background.
Enjoy. And if you see any obvious bugs please let me know. Cheers.
EDIT: Please see the final version of this skin at this post.
Looks cool I start to regret, that I don't have a QVGA-device, too. Thanx for sharing!
@All:
I've added a FAQ-Section in Post #8 - some common questions are already inside... the others will be asked certainly
------>*Go to FAQs*
And some few graphics - especially nice-looking the "High-Res"-Weather Icons, which are very often used of the JMLToday-User:
-----> *Go to Graphic-Section*
.
.
.
thank you Jumba more qvga pleaseee haha
Jumba said:
I've created an analog/digital skin for (W)QVGA. It's for portrait only but give me a day or so and I'll put a landscape layout together...
Copy the file "JMLToday_AD_QVGA.plg" to your \Program Files\JMLToday folder then go to install new theme and you will see it there.
I've also adjusted the digital clock background to move the panels closer together. Copy the file "bg.png" to your \Program Files\JMLToday\clock folder, overwriting the original. You might want to make a backup of this first in case you want to use another theme that uses the old background.
Enjoy. And if you see any obvious bugs please let me know. Cheers.
Edit: Noticed some text wasn't aligned properly. New version uploaded.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it dint work for me i even replaced the bg like you said and the skin... for qvga it does not work maybe its for wqvga only
Silly me, I forgot QVGA... Try this one, it should work.
If you're using the high-res weather icon pack then grab the _HR version.
EDIT: Final version of the skin is available here.
yep its for wqvga
[/IMG
magicalan5 said:
yep its for wqvga
[/IMG
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay, let me see what I can do...
Jumba said:
Okay, let me see what I can do...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks
hope you make more skins in a near future i love this one tho :] takes more space from the top
New major version of Mobile Shell Manager and new thread for it:
http://forum.xda-developers.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
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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
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
(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
- 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
-----------------
*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.
great work
gotz said:
great work
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks!!
Since when I first installed Mobile Shell 3 I wondered why the guys at Spb didn't give us the chance to change the font color... there are a lot of great backgrounds out there, but we need different font colors in order to use the light colored ones, otherwise all the texts would be unreadable.
I was hoping for them to release a patch for this with MS3.5, but they didn't so I thought "Oh well, I'll stop being lazy and I'll do it myself"
Glad to see that I'm being useful for someone else too
Released Ver 1.51, see first post for updates
Enjoy!
Looks fine .....
Does it works for VGA ?
abumhmmd1 said:
Looks fine .....
Does it works for VGA ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some of the mods could, surely not all of them, and they're not tested/ready for vga yet.
I plan to prepare a vga/wvga package too sooner or later, but I can't exactly say when yet (hopefully it won't take me too long though)
(W)VGA Finally!
Released version 1.52, this time for (W)VGA too!!!
Check first post for changes.
(W)VGA version has to be tested, I converted my mods for (w)vga devices, but not having one at hand I can't test it.
Anyone willing to try it pls report in this thread if it's working correctly.
Enjoy!
great job Man !!!
thanks
darkyannick said:
great job Man !!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks!
Vga version tested and working
Reg Entries
I have imported registry entries before and use either Dot Fred or Total Commander, but how does one apply the .reg entries in the zip file? Thanks for the help!
hidden_dragon said:
I have imported registry entries before and use either Dot Fred or Total Commander, but how does one apply the .reg entries in the zip file? Thanks for the help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course you have to extract them from the zip before applying them
You can use whatever import method you're most used to... personally, I like to use CeRegEditor, it's a nice free software that allows you to work on your device registry remotely from your pc while it's connected through activesync (or mobile device center on Vista).
If you want to give it a try, here's the link: http://ceregeditor.mdsoft.pl/ but any other method can be ok too
Just curious: you said you've used Total Commander... how do you import .reg files with it? I love total commander, but I really couldn't find how to do it, if not editing the registry manually, but that's kind of uncomfortable for large edits
Vostradamus said:
Of course you have to extract them from the zip before applying them
You can use whatever import method you're most used to... personally, I like to use CeRegEditor, it's a nice free software that allows you to work on your device registry remotely from your pc while it's connected through activesync (or mobile device center on Vista).
If you want to give it a try, here's the link: http://ceregeditor.mdsoft.pl/ but any other method can be ok too
Just curious: you said you've used Total Commander... how do you import .reg files with it? I love total commander, but I really couldn't find how to do it, if not editing the registry manually, but that's kind of uncomfortable for large edits
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for this...the software helped. But to import using Total Commander, you simply copy the file(s) into the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT in the registry. I think I figured out why this didn't work using TC or Dot Fred -- the reg files were written for a PC which is why they weren't recognized (at least that was the message I got when I used the software you recommended above).
hidden_dragon said:
Thanks for this...the software helped. But to import using Total Commander, you simply copy the file(s) into the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT in the registry. I think I figured out why this didn't work using TC or Dot Fred -- the reg files were written for a PC which is why they weren't recognized (at least that was the message I got when I used the software you recommended above).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Uhm, that may be the case, dunno for sure 'cause I always use CeRegEditor and ignoring that message (I got it too) everything works fine every time
Colored fonts!
Thank you...this is great having colored icons to match the appropriate light or dark-colored wallpaper!!!
hidden_dragon said:
Thank you...this is great having colored icons to match the appropriate light or dark-colored wallpaper!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you're welcome!
This is really a good idea!
but i am a bit confused
i have used winzip 12.i add both files qa_layouts.dat and WidgetsZioGian.xml add to zip file, later i renamed to qa_layouts.dat and added to device.
i run the registry.i soft reseted, no difference is shown. There is no information on how to change color of text and other
Please kindly help me out
Released version 2.0
See first post for download and details
Enjoy!!
hsmcd said:
This is really a good idea!
but i am a bit confused
i have used winzip 12.i add both files qa_layouts.dat and WidgetsZioGian.xml add to zip file, later i renamed to qa_layouts.dat and added to device.
i run the registry.i soft reseted, no difference is shown. There is no information on how to change color of text and other
Please kindly help me out
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just released version 2.00, the installation procedure is a bit different (should be faster and easier). Take a look at it and try to follow the included instructions
If you still have problems/doubts feel free to ask
hsmcd said:
This is really a good idea!
but i am a bit confused
i have used winzip 12.i add both files qa_layouts.dat and WidgetsZioGian.xml add to zip file, later i renamed to qa_layouts.dat and added to device.
i run the registry.i soft reseted, no difference is shown. There is no information on how to change color of text and other
Please kindly help me out
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To change skin colors, simply edit your current layout, then go into the Time widget (for example), then choose change skin...you should have a much larger selection.
Vostradamus Mobile Shell Manager 5.07
For Spb Mobile Shell 3.5.x
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Featuring:
- Widgets Handling (Preview, Activation, Deactivation)
- Additional Lifestyle Panels (sliding background common to all such panels)
- Additional Professional Panels (fixed customizable background in every panel)
- Mobile Shell Panels Background customization
- 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
- Countless widgets (and growing!)
Click for Preview Images
Layout Examples Images (larger than picasa)
ChangeLog:
(08 Jul 2011)
Widgets Libraries:
New tiny little Widgets Library containing:
- new Battery widgets skin: Glass Wide - (made on request)
(09 May 2011)
Special Library: "Naong Special" (for vga and wvga only).
It includes the widgets from Naong's Mobile Sense theme and also his Mobile Sense Menubar (made into a 1 button advanced menubar)
All credits for the graphics go to Naong, of course.
Credits also included in the library itself.
The library does not contain preview images for the widgets, so don't worry if they do not show up in the "Preview Widget" menu of MsM: they will be there in the "Activate Widget" menu.
(21 Feb 2011)
Advanced Menubar Libraries:
New Advanced Menubar Library containing new "Curve Pink" adv menubar - (made on request)
(16 Feb 2011)
Widgets Libraries:
New tiny little Widgets Library containing:
- new Status widgets skin: Labels Pink - (made on request)
(14 Feb 2011)
Widgets Libraries:
New tiny little Widgets Library containing:
- new color for the Big Box Rounded Link skin: Pink, both normal and empty link - (made on request)
- new color for the Hearts Link skin: Pink - (made on request)
(31 Jan 2011)
Widgets Libraries:
New tiny little Widgets Library containing:
- new Weather skin: Location (only shows the set Location for MS weather widget, available in black and white text) - (made on request)
(29 Sep 2010)
Widgets Libraries:
New Widgets Library containing:
- new Link skin: DateLike (same graphics as the standard current date widget) - (made on request)
- New Colors for "Neon" Status Widget: Gold and Orange (made on request)
- New Colors for "Modern Combo" digital clock: Gold and Orange (made on request)
- New Colors for "Small Box Original" link skin: Gold and Orange (made on request)
- New Status Widget: Invisible 2 (same graphics as standard status widget, but visible only with incoming items. No counter) - (made on request)
- New additional versions for the "Glass" digital clocks, keeping the leading 0 on 1digit hours (made on request)
(05 Aug 2010) ---> Last update before my holidays
Widgets Libraries:
New Widgets Library containing:
- new Digital Clock set: HTCFont Large (White, Black, Blue, Cyan, Green, Red, Yellow) - (made on request)
- new Links set: Blocky (White, Black, Blue, Cyan, Green, Red, Yellow) - (made on request)
Menubar Libraries:
New Advanced Menubar Library containing:
- "Curved Black" advanced menubar - (made on request)
(30 Jul 2010)
MsM 5.07:
- Extended Advanced Menubar usage to 240x240 and 320x320 devices. All currently available advanced menubars converted to work on these devices too
IMPORTANT: installing version 5.07 alone is not enough to make menubars work on square screen devices, you also need to download and import either the latest menubar library or the updated full library
- Optimized menubar change script
- BugFix: sometimes while activating a menubar the available menubars could show up in the wrong order. Fixed
- BugFix: sometimes when activating the last widget of a category it could remain in the list even after activation. Fixed.
Menubar Libraries:
New Advanced Menubar Libraries containing all the current advanced menubars updated to work on square screen devices
Widgets Libraries:
New Widgets Library containing:
- New Status Widgets Set: Pro (same graphics as the Professional one, number box with different colors: Blue, Cyan, Green, Yellow) - (made on request)
- New Status Widgets: Empty (completely invisible status widgets, available in 2 sizes) - (made on request)
- New Status Widget: Plain (made on request)
- New Battery Widget: Plain Vertical (made on request)
- New Digital Clock Skin: Date Numbers (only shows the month/day numbers, no time) - (made on request)
- New Current Date Skin: Day Name (only shows the day name, no number or month) - (made partially on request)
(26 Jul 2010)
Widgets Libraries:
New Widgets Library containing:
- New Link Skin: Glass Circle, also empty (made on request)
- New Link Skin: Glass Hexagon, also empty (made on request)
- New Backing Panel: Glass Large (made on request)
Menubar Libraries:
New Advanced Menubar Library containing:
- "Curve" advanced menubar (made partially on request)
(19 Jul 2010)
MsM 5.06:
- Support for Advanced Menubars with MS icons
- BugFix: activating/deactivating the last widget of a category was making the last-but-one disappear from the list for no reason. Fixed.
- Added function for automatic scheduled change of Lifestyle Home wallpaper. It can be scheduled daily, weekly or monthly and it chooses a new random jpg wallpaper from a user-chosen folder.
Best (and easiest to find on the net) sizes for wallpapers are:
----- Desktop Wallpaper size if you have a widescreen device (WVGA – WQVGA)
----- Widescreen Desktop Wallpaper size if you have a non-widescreen device (VGA – QVGA)
Menubar Libraries:
New Advanced Menubar Library containing:
- "Spb Style" advanced menubar (same graphics of the standard spb one, but with 1 to 4 customizable links with spb icons)
- "Icon Buttons" advanced menubar (1 to 4 customizable glass buttons with spb icons)
(14 Jul 2010)
Widgets Library:
New Widgets Library containing:
- Black & White Hub Links skin set (Agenda, Apps, Games, Grandkids, Home, Internet, Media, Music, People, People2, Pictures, Settings, Video, Weather, Work) - (made on request)
- New Empty Link skin set: Neon Empty Big (White, Blue, Cyan, Green, Red, Yellow, Magenta) - designed by Jotha, sized to accomodate a "small" sized contact widget
- New Special Combined Widget: Neon Silhouette Combo (battery, analog clock, weather) - designed by Jotha
Menubar Library:
New Menubar Library containing:
- new manubar: No Text 3 Buttons (links to launcher, agenda, contacts) - (made on request)
(07 Jul 2010)
MsM 5.05:
- Enabled spb task manager during MsM installation
- Panel Wallpaper functions now remember the last selected folder
- Raised max selectable pagecount to 9
- Extended “Change Pagecount” function to Lifestyle Home and Professional Home screens
Widgets Library:
New Widgets Library containing:
- New Battery Skin: Status Pro 5% (looks like the "status pro" one, works better on devices with a 10% steps battery driver) - (made on request)
- New Status Skins: Glass Blue, Cyan, Green, Yellow (made on request)
- New Analog Clock Skin: Doc3000 gtx (thanks to Doc3000 for this clock) - (made on request)
- New Weather Skin: Neon Silhouette 2 - designed by Jotha
- New Contact Skin: Extra Small - fits nicely on empty glass and neon links - designed by Jotha
- New Battery Skin: Glass 2 (made on request)
(30 Jun 2010)
Widgets Library:
New Widgets Library containing:
- New Battery: White/Gray Dots (made on request)
- New Battery: Status Pro (made on request)
- New Link skin: Special Audio (to be used for the profile widget) - (made on request)
- New Panels: Time (2 sizes) - (made on request)
- New Digital Clock set: Reflection Medium (white, black, blue, cyan, green, red, yellow) - (made on request)
- New Digital Clock set: Date Only (white, black, blue, cyan, green, red, yellow) - (made on request)
- New Digital Clock skin: Glass Date Line
- New Current Date skin: Glass Square
- New Panel2: Glass Big Square (2 sizes)
- New: Full Libraries now contain everything (widgets, menubars, advanced menubars, ms weather icon sets, spb weather icon sets). Only things left out are the pic-sets (this is to avoid too large files to download)
(23 Jun 2010)
Widgets Library:
New Widgets Library containing:
- New Digital Clock: TimePanel (lookalike of the one in the Time panel) - (made on request)
- New Digital Clocks set: Neon 7 Segments Medium (white, blue, cyan, green, red, yellow) - (made on request)
- New Digital Clocks set: Neon 7 Segments Small (white, blue, cyan, green, red, yellow) - (made on request)
- New Hub Link skin: Grandkids - (made on request)
- New Status Widget skin: Dark Transparency with Red on incoming items - (made on request)
- New Battery: Neon Silhouette 2 (designed by Jotha)
- New Themed Widgets Set: Glass. The set includes:
--- Analog clock
--- Digital clock (2 sizes)
--- Battery
--- Status
--- Link
--- Empty Link
--- 2 Backing panels
(18 Jun 2010)
MsM 5.04:
- Added Task Manager to the panels list for the SPB Panel Wallpaper function
- Inject Any XML function now remembers the last used folder
- Added Lifestyle Home, Professional Home and all user-defined panels to the possible options for Advanced Menubars
- When selecting one of the above panels as a function for the menubar, MsM will ask if it needs to work in “Link” or “Carousel” mode. Difference is:
----- Link mode: opens like tapping on a shortcut. The panel can be closed with windows mobile “x” button. Do not use Search, Facebook and Twitter widgets on a panel you plan to reach this way ‘cause they would act weird
----- Carousel mode: opens like reaching the panel via carousel. The panel can’t be “closed”, if you wish to leave it you need to tap on another link or to use the carousel. Search, Facebook and Twitter widgets works normally on a panel reached this way.
Menubars Library:
New Menubar Library containing:
- "Invisible 2" menubar
- "Invisible Large 2" menubar
These are the same as the invisible and invisible large ones, but the invisible button links to the launcher instead of the carousel.
New Advanced Menubar Library containing:
- "ButtonsNumber" menubar. Thin, clean look for a menubar with up to 8 buttons!
(11 Jun 2010)
MsM 5.03:
- Update for MS 3.5.5 compatibility
Widgets Library:
New Widgets Library containing:
- New Hub Link Skin: People2 - (made on request)
- New Weather Skin: Neon Silhouette - (designed by Jotha)
- New Link Skin Set: Neon Silhouette 2 (new colors/silhouettes) - (designed by Jotha)
- Fix for QVGA "line" birthday widget where the contact text in case of no picture available was misplaced
Menubars Library
New Advanced Menubar Library containing:
- "NeonButtons" menubar
(08 Jun 2010)
Additional Languages:
Uploaded Dutch language file for version 5.02. Translations provided by Jaco van Dieren
(07 Jun 2010)
MsM 5.02:
- Added Advanced Menubars handling. Advanced Menubars are menubars with a variable number of customizable buttons (1 to 4 plus side buttons).
- Fixed a small issue which could sometimes prevent the correct creation of a subfolder during installation.
Menubars Library:
New (first) Advanced Menubar Library containing:
- "Simple" menubar
- "Star Wars" menubar
(03 Jun 2010)
Menubars Library:
New Menubar Library containing:
- new "Shelf" menubar
- new "Neon" menubar
(01 Jun 2010)
MsM 5.01b
Looks like I forgot a file while building version 5.01, here's the fixed version sorry for the inconvenience
(31 May 2010)
MsM 5.01:
- Added Full Backup/Restore function to backup the whole current mobile shell configuration: activated widgets, additional panels, menubars, custom backgrounds, custom widgets added through the manager and so on. Due to the wholeness of the backedup data, Backups created with this function will be restorable only on the same Mobile Shell version.
- Import Library function now remembers the last used folder
- Create Shortcuts – MS Panels function now also creates a shortcut to Mobile Shell Task Manager. This is required for the “thin 2” menubar to work
- Small fix on credits visualization
Menubars Library:
New Menubar library containing:
- "Thin 2" menubar - Same looks as the "Thin" one, different links. Requires running "Create Shortcuts - MS Panels" function in MsM first to enable the task manager. - (made on request)
- "Side Buttons Original" - Side buttons (carousel and menu) with the looks of the original ones, nothing in between them. Whole screen height available for widgets. - (made on request)
(26 May 2010)
- MsM 5.00 released
-----------------
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
-----------------
Download links:
*MediaFire*
Vostradamus Mobile Shell Manager
if you have issues with the above link, try the following mirror:
*4Shared*
Vostradamus Mobile Shell Manager
Other stuff attached to this post:
- Widgets Creation Tutorial (by Jotha)
- Working with Changing Pics (by Jotha)
- Default PRO backgrounds (should you ever need them again after changing them)
FAQs: yeah, they live!
If you have a doubt or a question, please try reading the FAQs in the second post before posting: a lot of common questions and doubts have been answered in there already, so it will be easier for you all to look for your answers and you won't have to wait for someone's reply
Special Thanks to the donors:
- Mike (powercat1) - (Twice!)
- R. Rojas
- A. Szadura
- O. A. Gomez Reyes
- C. Ciobanu
- L. Brunori
- A. Ottaviani
- M. Carlson
- M. Zimmerman
- B. Permuy
- Nickmo20
- K. Hockin
- C. Boerma
- dansia47
- poppscc
- D. Livanos
- W.T. Millea Jr
- Sulster (twice!)
- G. Blevins
- C. Tran (three times!)
- F. O. Önder
- V. Carletti
- A. Stephen
- M. T. Hernandez
- SG Technical Consulting
- Alienking70
- C. Morrison
- E. Fayolle
- La Baula Supportings
- 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:
I placed the credits inside MsM itself, please bear with me if I don't write them in here too... trying to keep this post shorter than The Lord of the Rings
FAQ for Vostradamus MSM 5.0
Vostradamus asked me to compile some answers to frequently asked questions about his Mobile Shell Manager. Reading them carefully will help you avoiding unnecessary problems and help us avoiding unnecessary answers on unnecessary support questions. This is a compilation of questions posted to all versions of MSM (also from the original Thread). The answers however are always adapted to the latest version of MSM.
If you find it useful, please hit the "Thanks"-Button on the bottom of the FAQ. Thank you.
Installation:
- Will it work with my device?
MSM at the moment works only on Mobile Shell for Windows Mobile. It is not planned to port it on another platform.
It works
Perfectly with:
QVGA (320x240 Pixels)
WQVGA (400x240 Pixels)
VGA (640x480 Pixels)
WVGA (800x480 Pixels)
With Restrictions with:
Square 240x240 Pixels (Standard-Menubars do not work, Advanced menubars and all the rest work)
Square 320x320 Pixels (Standard-Menubars and maybe Weather Icon Set Change do not work, Advanced menubars and all the rest work)
Unknown with:
HVGA (480x320 Pixels) (We have no means of testing that. Could work like the square 320x320 Devices, but we can not guarantee that)
- What do I need for the first install
You have to download the Manager Installation File at first. It’s called “Vostradamus Mobile Shell Manager x.xx.zip”, where x.xx is the version number. If you unzip it, you have the cab-file for installation.
Then you need at least one of the following things:
If you want to use Vostradamus widgets you need a widget library. If you are using MSM 5.0 for the first time, you should download the complete package, named “MSM Full widgets library (xxx).wzg”, where xxx stand for your screen resolution. It is large, but it has the advantage of having ALWAYS all released widgets in it. If you are not sure which resolution you need, look some questions further. You can also go into the “Incremental libraries”-folder of your resolution and download only the base-library and/or an update-file of your choice. Which widgets are in which update-library can be seen on the widgets preview page. It is reachable via the first post of this thread.
If you want to use the MSM to change the Menubar of Mobile Shell, you have to download a Menubar library. They are in the “MenuBars libraries”-folder. Here there is also a base-library and eventual updates. In this case there is no difference between the resolutions. One size fits all . Again you can see on the preview page (reachable via the first post of this thread) which Menubars are in which library.
If you want to use “ChangingPics”, you have to download one or more “Pic-Sets-Libraries”, again from the folder of your resolution. Because of the size, every Pic-Set is a different file. See the preview-page (reachable via the first post of this thread) for contents. If you don’t know what “ChangingPics” are, see the Chapter “Usage”.
- There are widgets for VGA and QVGA. Which do I need?
That depends on the resolution of your Phone:
1. Non-Square-Screens:
QVGA / WQVGA is for every phone with a screen width (in portrait mode) of 240 Pixels. Also Phones with a screen width of 320 (HVGA 480x320) could work with that resolution with some restrictions. (see first Topic in this chapter).
VGA/WVGA is for phones with a screen width (in portrait mode) of 480 Pixels.
2. Square Screens:
Phones with a square screen with a size of 240 or 320 Pixels should use the QVGA-Versions.
- Where do I store that?
Regarding the size if the libraries, which can reach more than 50MB, you should put them somewhere on the storage card. You will only need them during installation, so just remember where they are. After the installation you can delete them from the card. It would be wise to keep them somewhere on the PC though, to avoid having to download them again when you change phones for instance.
- How do I make the first install?
At first you have to install the Mobile Shell Manager itself. This is done by starting the cab-file with your preferred File Manager.
Please ONLY INSTALL THE MANAGER ON THE STORAGE CARD. The Widget and Pic-Set libraries will be installed into the manager-folder and can be huge! Your phone would run out of memory probably already during installation if you install it into phone memory. There is no need to install it into phone-memory, because only activated widgets will be copied into the Mobile-Shell folder in Phone Memory by the Manager itself.
After Installation, start the Manager via the Program Icon.
Before doing anything, please read the section about navigating in MSM further down in these FAQ.
The next thing to do is to import all the downloaded Libraries. Choose the first Menu-Item “Libraries” and pick “OK”. Now either choose “Import Library” or “Import Library Folder”. If you have more libraries to import and they are all stored in one folder, the second option does them all at once.
If you have only one library (an update for instance), use the first option. Depending of the size of the library this may take a while. (On a fast HTC HD2, the base widget library takes about 8 minutes).
Now you are set to activate the widgets/menu-bars/pic-sets you want to use.
- What is activation of widgets for and how do I activate widgets?
Activation of widgets makes them finally available in Mobile shell. It copies the graphics to the Mobile Shell folder on your phone, makes the necessary registry entries and injects the necessary definition-files into the appropriate files of Mobile Shell.
Activating widgets: Choose the Menu-Item “Widgets”. There choose “Activate”. In the following list choose what type of widget you want to use in Mobile Shell and press “OK”. If there are more widget groups for the same widget type (like Links1, 2, 3…) look on the preview page (reachable via the first post of this thread). Here the folder of each widget is described. Now choose the widget you want to activate. It takes some seconds and the activation is finished.
- Can I just activate all of the widgets in one step?
No, and that’s by design, because you wouldn’t want to (at least not with the devices available now). As you have seen downloading the widgets, even the compressed base widget-collection is more than 75 MB. Uncompressed in MS it would be even more, but this time not on the storage card, but in valuable Device-Memory, which would most certainly render your device unusable. Furthermore the skin list in MS would become ridiculous long, filled with skins you will not use. So look for the ones you probably use and only activate them. If you have found your optimal set, use the option “Save Widget-Set” to save that state. After a reinstall you can use “Restore Widget Set” to activate all of them at once.
- How do I update to a newer Manager Version?
If you have any widgets version 2.xx, please do the following before installing the Widget Manager:
- Uninstall all 2.xx widgets
- Uninstall Tools package too if you have it
- Delete the registry key “HKLM\Software\Spb Software House\Shared\Spb Menu\WidgetPackages\Spb.WidgetsZioGian”
If you have already installed any version of Mobile Shell Manager, download the new cab and install it. All of your settings will be preserved.
- I need to free memory. How do I get rid of widgets?
If you want to deactivate a widget, be sure that you do not use it anymore on any page or panel of Mobile Shell. Then, in MSM, choose “Widgets” and “Deactivate Widget”. From the list, choose the widget you want to deactivate and click “OK”.
Usage:
- How do I navigate in the Manager?
The Mobile Shell Manager is based on MortScript, a script language for Windows Mobile. Though being rather powerful, it has some restrictions. The most sincere for our purpose, is that we cannot intercept and react on the close “X” of Windows Mobile.
Therefore you MUST NEVER leave the Manager via the Close-X of Windows, but ALWAYS via the “Exit” Menu-Item in the Manager.
So always navigate back to the Start-Screen of the Manager, choose “Exit” and click “OK”. Then the Shell will be automatically restarted (if necessary) and all is well.
If you have accidentally closed the shell via the “X” look at the trouble-shooting section.
- How do I get those widgets on the screen?
As those “widgets” are in reality tweaked skins for widgets that already exist in Mobile Shell, you choose them via the “change Skin”-Option in Mobile Shell. So if you want a Vostradamus weather widget, just insert a weather widget via the normal Mobile Shell procedure. Then choose “Change Skin” and choose the Vostradamus widget you want. Of course it is only in the list when activated before (see “Installation”-Chapter further up the FAQ). A specialty are “Panels” and “Changing Pics”. As those do not exist in Mobile Shell, but are “tweaked” Date-Widgets, you find them as skins under the Date-Widget.
- What are “Changing Pics” for, and how do I use them?
“Changing Pics” is a “script enhanced widget” that changes a picture on the screen periodically. It uses a so called Pic-Set that can be provided by the user. Every info you need concerning Pic-Sets, you find in my Tutorial that is provided for download on the first post of this thread.
- What are Widget Sets and how do I use them?
Widget sets are groups of widgets that can be activated/deactivated en bloc. We have already provided some “widget sets” in the libraries, choosen after a common “Theme”, like “Neon”, “Transparency”, “Girls” and so on. Additionally the user can define all of the widgets he has currently activated as a “widget set” and thus reinstall that set very quickly. That comes handy, when you want to experiment a bit, but be able to get back to your standard widgets later.
Please be advised that this function does not save the widgets position, not even if they are really used on the screen somewhere. It’s just a list of the activated widgets. The commands for handling the widget sets are in the “Widget”-Menu.
- What are Panels and how do I use them?
Panels are additional “Pages” for Mobile Shell, adding space to put widgets there. MS and therefore also MSM have 2 types of Pages: Lifestyle and Professional.
The main difference between them is the handling of background pictures: All lifestyle panels share the same background picture. If you have 5 lifestyle pages aside, this picture is scrolled horizontally with the pages. Each professional panel has its own BG-Picture. Another difference is that from a Pro-Panel you can scroll down to the normal Lifestyle-Screen of MS (though not back “up”). From an additional Lifestyle-Panel you have to use the carousel or a link to go back.
To reach a user-defined Panel you can use the links that the manager provides under the “Extras”-Folder in Mobile shell. Here you find a group called MS-Panels in which they can be found.
Everything concerning Panels can be managed under the corresponding Menu-Item.
- MSkip has that second Fav-Contacts Page, why not MSM?
The aforementioned panels are a more than adequate replacement for that.
Just add a panel with 1,3,5 pages and call it "contacts" or whatever. Place a link to it on your screen and you are done.
You can even place an invisible link to it over the existing link to the "normal" favorites, replacing it completely.
If you use professional panels, you can even swipe back to Start with a "Down"-swipe.
- How can I change the background of the Standard Pro Panel?
The MS Standard Pro Panel initially does not show up in the list of Pro Panels if you want to change the background for those. After you used the function "Change Menu Bar" at least once, the Standard Pro Panel is available to change its background. So even if you want to keep your menubar as it is, but want to change the Standard Pro Panels BG do the following: Use the Function "Change Menu Bar" (even if you select the standard menu bar) and proceed to the Function "Change Pro Background".
- What problems can arise when using a "Full Backup"
The Full-Backup-Function does backup everything that is created AND managed by Mobile Shell. The most prominent things that are NOT backuped are assigned ringtones and contact pictures. They are part of pocket-outlook and thus not accessible for us. Also not backuped is the MSM-directory on the storage card (in fact the full backup is also placed in that directory). But that should not be a problem, because the card is not affected by a phone reinstall and it can easily be backuped by simple file-copy to your PC.
Possible Problems with and after restoring a full Backup:
- If between backup and restore you changed contacts that are used in Mobile Shell (in a widget or the favorites) they will dissapear. This is especially the case if you have made a new activesync connection because of flashing the phone or changing your PC. Then all contacts are gone from Mobile Shell.
- The same is true for links when you reinstalled the programs to a different place than before.
- If you have updated your Mobile Shell to a new version, a backup that was created before cannot be restored. (MSM can be changed of course).
- What are those "Invisible" widgets for?
Invisible widgets (available as links and contacts atm) are a means to create a link to a program or contact using another picture or icon than the provided one.
Imagine you want to use another sms-program than the one from Mobile Shell. Then you place an invisible link to your program over the status widget for SMS. A touch on the status then starts your program without showing its icon.
Another example: Create a panel with a background-picture of a family meeting. Then place invisible contacts of the different family members over the faces of the respective persons on the pic. Thus you can create a "different" contacts favorites page.
You can also place links you do not want to show everyone (maybe the link that unlocks a hidden and locked partition of your memory card, or a link to a textfile that stores some codes and passwords) invisibly on the screen or disguised as a link to something totally different.
Troubleshooting:
- I have updated Mobile Shell to a new version or reinstalled Mobile Shell. Now Vostradamus widgets do not work anymore. What can I do?
Mobile Shell does ovcerwrite its XML-Files during installation, thus destroying the modifications MSM has made to them. So every change MSM has made to the Mobile Shell must be made again. Use the “Restore XML-Function” in the Libraries-Item of the Manager. Then all of your widgets will work as previously.
Unfortunately a reinstall/update also deletes all information about additional panels you created, and for them there is no restore method . So you must recreate them.
- I have accidentaly installed another Add-On to Mobile Shell (Mskip, Sense, …) after MSM. Now it does not work anymore. What can I do?
Almost every other Add-On to Mobile Shell simply replaces essential MS-Files with their own, thus destroying the modifications MSM has made to them. So every change MSM has made to the Mobile Shell must be made again. The first step back to normality is using the “Restore XML-Function” in the Libraries-Item of the Manager. Then at least the widgets should work again. Then you have to restore the menu-bar if you had a modified one. The next step would be to delete all “Changing Pics”-Widgets if you use some of them and to recreate them. Then they should work again. The worst would be that additional panels would most probably be beyond repair. So you’d have to recreate them. I have experienced that after recreation with the same name a single panel was exactly like I left it before deletion. But that is not guaranteed , it could have been coincidence.
What I would do in this case is restore the xml, save the widgets-set, uninstall the manager and the shell and begin from scratch. But this time install the other Add-On (if you really, really need it) before the MSM. Please be advised that the same thing will happen if you uninstall that other add-on, as it most probably will replace the files of the shell with the original ones, thus also destroying the Vostradamus-Add-Ons.
- I have closed the manager via Close-X. Now nothing works anymore. What can I do?
For reasons mentioned before, leaving the manager via the Close-X of windows leaves the scripts in an unstable condition. You can either open the task manager and switch back to the Manager-Task (if still there), or you perform a soft-reset of the phone. Then all should be well again.
- I can't use any buttons in the picture preview
As the picture preview is an external program it has limited functionality in MSM. You can only view one widget (turn and zoom it) and close it again. This is because there is always only one preview pic in each widget folder, therefore the "forward" and "back" buttons do not find additional pics in that folder.
- I activated widgets, they show up in the change skin list, but when I use them, nothing happens
This can have 2 reasons:
1. You have downloaded and used the widgets library for the wrong screen resolution (QVGA/VGA). Please refer to the first section of this FAQ for the needed resolution and redownload this. Then deactivate all activated widgets, uninstall MSM, delete the Vostradamus directory on your storage card under "Programs". reinstall MSM, import the right library and activate the widgets.
2. There has been a problem with the import of the XML file. This seems to happen sometimes with certain phone-types/ROMs. You can easily repair this. Just use "Restore XML" under "Libraries" in the MSM.
About Additional Widgets:
- Can I create my own widgets and use them inside MSM?
You can create your own widgets if you have some graphics skills and basic knowledge of XML/ini-files. As an example we have provided a tutorial for creating status widgets and using them with the MSM. You can download it on the first post of this thread. If you master that one, the transfer to other widget types should not be so hard.
- Why are there no real “New” Widgets that add additional functionality in this Add-On?
Unfortunately Spb-Softwarehouse, the maker of Mobile Shell, has not provided a Software Development Kit or any definition of the interface to Mobile Shell widgets. Thus it is impossible for external developers to create really “new” stuff.
- Can I have status widgets that are invisible when there is a "0"
Unfortunately not. The status widget consists of a graphical part and a numerical part. The graphical part differentiates between "nothing there" and "something there", therefore that one can be made invisible when there is no entry. But the numerical part is either shown always or never. So you can't hide a "0" and show everthing else.
The only way to come near that wish would be a status widget without any numbers. You could only see whether there are entries then, not how many. You also can't choose the color of the numerical part, it's always white. Only God and SPB know why.
Other:
- Can I use MSM with other Add-Ons to Mobile Shell
Yes you should not run into troubles. But you have to consider the following. Contrary to MSM, most other Add-Ons work “destructive”, i.e. replace MS-Files with their own, thus also killing the modifications the Mobile Shell Manager makes. So, if you MUST use another package also, install that one FIRST, and THEN the MSM. Also, do not uninstall the other Add-On after installing the MSM.
There is no 100% guarantee, as we cannot guarantee that other Add-Ons play to the rules and do not change additional things and so cause trouble with MSM. So make a backup before you use MSM to change panels, backgrounds and menu-bars if you have another package installed also.
- How do I donate and why should I do that?
If you like Vostradamus’ work and think it's useful, please consider donating even a small amount, it will help keeping him (and his cat) motivated. He spends a lot of time on this stuff, and every sign of appreciation, no matter how big or small, is more than welcome .
If you worked some time with Mobile Shell alone, you will admit that his Add-Ons make the whole thing worthwhile. So give yourself a kick and send a buck for a can of cat-food and a beer.
- My question is not answered here, what can I do next
If you cannot find an answer to your problem here, and there is also none in the rest of the thread, feel free to ask here on the thread.
But PLEASE do not ask questions that are already answered 25 times on the thread or have nothing to do with the Mobile Shell Manager. You'll help us keeping the thread in a a reasonable length. Nobody wants to read through 150 pages where everything is explained 20 times.
Thank you.
Again: If you find this FAQ useful, please hit the "Thanks"-Button on the bottom of this post. Thank you.
Changelog:
08.10.2010
Added Section "About Additional Widgets"
Added Chapter "Invisible Status widgets" in "Additional widgets"
30.07.2010
Added Chapter "Will it work on my device" in "Installation"
Updated Chapter "Which Widget -Resolution do I need?" in "Installation"
Removed "Task-Manager does not work" because it no longer applies
25.07.2010
Added Chapter "My widgets don't show up" in Troubleshooting
17.06.2010
Added Chapter "Task-Manager Button in advanced menubars" in Troubleshooting
10.06.2010
Added Chapter "Additional Contacts Pages" in Usage
Added Chapter "After Updating/Reinstalling Mobile Shell" in Troubleshooting
01.06.2010:
Added Chapter "Invisible widgets" in "Usage"
Added Chapter "Picture Preview" in "Troubleshooting"
31.05.2010:
Added Chapter "Full Backup" in "Usage"
28.05.2010:
Edit "MSM and other Add-Ons" in "Other"
25.05.2010:
Posted original version
Possible Layout Examples
A few examples of different layouts that can be created with the only use of MsM
-- and reserved again --
Dear Vostradamus!
Thanks a lot for your work Greatly enjoying your widgets! Well done
schremer said:
Dear Vostradamus!
Thanks a lot for your work Greatly enjoying your widgets! Well done
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Thanks, and you're welcome!
Vostradamus Spb Mobile Shell Manager 5
Really a great idea to start a new thread.
dansia47 said:
Really a great idea to start a new thread.
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lol yep, the other one was starting to get a lil too big
Thanks for this new version! And also for these clear FAQ!
EDIT: i'm testing right now shell manager and i want to tell you: great great job!
One more question: Installing several widgets can increase usage of memory? (i mean ram memory...)
You're welcome on my behalf (FAQ)
ChrisGarner said:
Installing several widgets can increase usage of memory? (i mean ram memory...)
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The more widgets you ACTIVATE, the more Device Memory is used. When you actually put them on the screen, then RAM is used.
jotha said:
You're welcome on my behalf (FAQ)
The more widgets you ACTIVATE, the more Device Memory is used. When you actually put them on the screen, then RAM is used.
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Ok thanks for the info! And for the FAQ, again!
This will be my first attempt spruce up Mobile Shell. Thank you for your work Vostradamus (scritches to your cat) and for your instructions Jotha. Assuming all goes according to plan, I will happily donate. Thanks!!
sulster said:
This will be my first attempt spruce up Mobile Shell. Thank you for your work Vostradamus (scritches to your cat) and for your instructions Jotha. Assuming all goes according to plan, I will happily donate. Thanks!!
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Good luck and have fun
Should you need any further info, don't hesitate to ask
("meowww" from my cat) lol
Vostradamus said:
Good luck and have fun
Should you need any further info, don't hesitate to ask
("meowww" from my cat) lol
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I do have a quick, newbie, question (sorry, very sorry) but should I "minimize" SPB Mobile Shell before I install your app? You know, unactivate widgets on that, etc? Seems like if it is running under MSM *and* it has widgets/photos/etc going, might take more memory...
sulster said:
I do have a quick, newbie, question (sorry, very sorry) but should I "minimize" SPB Mobile Shell before I install your app? You know, unactivate widgets on that, etc? Seems like if it is running under MSM *and* it has widgets/photos/etc going, might take more memory...
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nope, it should not be needed you can install it right away even with mobile shell up and running
Vostradamus said:
nope, it should not be needed you can install it right away even with mobile shell up and running
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Okay, when I go to Import the Widget library, it tells me corrupted or not recognized. I downloaded from both sites and installed the Base Widget file. Am I totally missing something? I started to read the thread on the previous release, but that was SO long!
I have the .wzg files installed into a /Vostradamus folder on my Storage Card. It recognizes the files, but won't import them.
Thanks!!
sulster said:
Okay, when I go to Import the Widget library, it tells me corrupted or not recognized. I downloaded from both sites and installed the Base Widget file. Am I totally missing something? I started to read the thread on the previous release, but that was SO long!
I have the .wzg files installed into a /Vostradamus folder on my Storage Card. It recognizes the files, but won't import them.
Thanks!!
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Click to collapse
uhm... maybe something went wrong during download... try redownloading the wzg file.
Fantastic!
Vostradamus,
I have been away for a few days and only now checked your original thread and found this one. What can I say? As usual, this is all fantastic. A new thread was a terrific idea and some of the new functionality is incredible.
I love the combined/multi-functional widgets. It's a terrific idea and the ones you've done live up to your already very high standards.
Jotha - Thank you so much for all of your work in documenting all of this. I have a working document that I was hoping to get to Vostradamus to post. Your incredible work has made my document obsolete before I even sent it. The added touch of being able to see the widgets in Picasa is also an incredible time saver.
You two are very talented and two of the nicest people I have ever met in a forum. Thank you so much for all you do for the rest of us who don't have the same skill set as you do. I, for one, sincerely appreciate both of you!
Cheers,
Mike (powercat1)
powercat1 said:
I, for one, sincerely appreciate both of you!
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Glad to be of help and sorry that I nuked your doc . You are very welcome.
powercat1 said:
Vostradamus,
I have been away for a few days and only now checked your original thread and found this one. What can I say? As usual, this is all fantastic.
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Thanks And welcome back
powercat1 said:
I love the combined/multi-functional widgets. It's a terrific idea and the ones you've done live up to your already very high standards.
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Need to thank Jotha too about them: multifunctional analog and multifunctional digital solid and transparent are a "co-production" jotha+vostradamus lol
powercat1 said:
You two are very talented and two of the nicest people I have ever met in a forum.
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Thanks heaps