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if i want to add a"third party" keyboard to Cyanogen's build?

if i want to add a"third party" keyboard to Cyanogen's build
how to accomplish that?
and if i want to make it the default keyboard
how to do that..?
thanks in advance
Roy

if this "third party" keyboard is an app like better keyboard or something similar, i would assume just install it or put into your update.zip package and flash it. it should appear under settings-locale and text and just check it on and uncheck any other keyboards like with the htc_ime. unless you are talking about something else then in theory this should work.

thanks for the comment
yes it is an App file.. so i just need to add it to system/app in the update?
and how i can make it the default keyboard so right after a fresh install it would appear and ready to use with specific config that i set?
thanks again

Barina said:
thanks for the comment
yes it is an App file.. so i just need to add it to system/app in the update?
and how i can make it the default keyboard so right after a fresh install it would appear and ready to use with specific config that i set?
thanks again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think you can. All roms use android kbt as default (don't quote me on this but I believe so)and it's more trouble then it's worth to make something else default before install. It would be easier to go into settings->locale and text the first time you use it and just make it default (i.e. uncheck all other VKs). Once you do that, your vk will pop up everytime you touch fill-able field. Hope that helps.

OK, I'm curious about the other keyboard. The hardware keyboard. I have a German G1, and have actually become quite fond of QWERTZ even though I mostly only speak English. I've gotten used to reaching down for y and up for z. Also, There are keys like the euro symbol that I actually use a lot living in Deutschland. Not to mention that all the little symbols are laid out completely differently than QWERTY, so looking at the keys just makes life that much tougher. Anyways, I want to change QWERTZ to be my default keyboard, other than having to type in a long string of commands each time or use gscript. I would like it to be so that it works in recovery, and doesn't get lost each time I change builds. Is this possible?

hmmm, I would say yes...I wouldn't be able to tell you how though. I downloaded Russian keyboard from the market and it has the ability to change mapping of hardware KBT and change languages on it. So obviously there is a way. I believe devs name is Game Warrior (could be one word). It's on the market... contact him-he may be able to point you in the right direction.
Also... did you try switching locales in Settings->Locale and Text menu? That could do the trick (not sure what would you choose though as I'm not familiar what country uses QWERTz set-up).
Good luck, I hope you figure it out... sorry I had it easy.. I just dl'd my vk from the market

I DID have it working when I first got my phone. Everything was just dandy with JF1.51 as well. I decided to install the latest DizzyJACHero, and had to update my recovery image, SPL and Radio. Somewhere in there, it borked things up. I tried going back to another SPL and recovery, but only ended up in bootloops when I did that. I redid everything, but I'm stuck with QWERTY unless I do some terminal stuff each time I change roms. And with all the nice new ones (I LOVE Rosie, but she's a resource/battery hog) it's becoming more frequent that I change roms. Eh, I guess I'm just stuck having to terminal my way out of it, like usual with computers.

SPL, Radio and/or Recovery image have nothing to do with the way your keyboard behaves... hmmmm
Here... talk to DudeOfLife in the developement forum (pm him or something). His rom at some point had every language and every layout included.. he should know about this. As an alternative... you can make a script of what you put in terminal and have G1 run it on start-up to change mapping for you. Rogro82 is the king of scripts fyi.
Good luck

all u need to do is istall the new keyboard as an update. thats if it come in an update.zip format. otherwise, just install the .apk file and you should be good to go. best of luck!

shelay said:
all u need to do is istall the new keyboard as an update. thats if it come in an update.zip format. otherwise, just install the .apk file and you should be good to go. best of luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He is not talking about virtual keyboard... he is talking about hardware.

borodin1 said:
I don't think you can. All roms use android kbt as default (don't quote me on this but I believe so)and it's more trouble then it's worth to make something else default before install. It would be easier to go into settings->locale and text the first time you use it and just make it default (i.e. uncheck all other VKs). Once you do that, your vk will pop up everytime you touch fill-able field. Hope that helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks a lot

Well, I actually feel kinda smart for once. I just opened up a build which had the QWERTZ files in it. I deleted everything else except that folder (and the ones inline above it) and those files. Renamed them to the v3 files. I also added in all the ringers/notifications/alarms that I wanted from other builds in the right locations as well. I now can unzip any build I want to check out, copy the system folder I created over, and it fixes all my keyboard issues, plus ensures I'm never left with just one ringtone/alarm again. Just rezip and resign, then I can flash it right over. Just verified it all worked before posting. If anyone else wants that, I recommend trying it. My next question will be, can I JUST use these files, make a new update.zip that I will flash over any existing rom. If so, I'll just make one and post it up. Well, I guess I may as well try that now. I'm not doing much else tonight.

So, quick answer, NO. It didn't work like I hoped.
Long answer, If I understood more about the update script, I may have been able to get it to work. I noticed it was formatting the System folder when it went to install, pretty much screwing EVERYthing up. Maybe if someone knows how to make the script only replace the files instead of completely wiping the system folder, I may have something others can use. As it stands, it's really useful for me, and pretty much noone else.

ghrayfahx said:
So, quick answer, NO. It didn't work like I hoped.
Long answer, If I understood more about the update script, I may have been able to get it to work. I noticed it was formatting the System folder when it went to install, pretty much screwing EVERYthing up. Maybe if someone knows how to make the script only replace the files instead of completely wiping the system folder, I may have something others can use. As it stands, it's really useful for me, and pretty much noone else.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Can't you put your commands (that you type in the terminal) into your userinit.sh and it will run on every start up? Not a pro about this but I think it's one way of doing it.
2. There's a guy in the development forum who will build a custom rom for you. He made a post, you should see it on first or second page. Drop him a line. He may just show the way how to do it or he may just build you a rom. Don't worry, we'll figure it out one way or another

Cool, sounds good. I was looking at the script, and it's pretty straight forward. I COULD possibly figure it out if I wanted, but I wouldn't want to put other people's phones at the risk of me being an idiot. Heh. I'll check with the other guy. Thanks

Weather Widget from 2.0 BackPorted

I searched the forum to see if someone had done this and couldn't find it. I back ported the weather widget from 2.0 in case anyone is interested (works fine on donuts). This is the beginning of my development work. Hope this helps!
Please just take the .zip file and rename it to .apk
copy to your sdcard and install with any file explorer or
connect your device to your pc with development enabled
type "adb install MotAccuWeatherWidget.apk"
Red
G1 with latest Cyan
Thank you to this site and all the developers for their inspiration and hard work.

This has been around for a while...
Good work, though. Kudos and thanks for the effort.

Oh, sorry. I guess I'll probably get flamed by like 30 ppl now. lol. I guess I will try my hand at the Dock applications, unless that has been done too?
Red

redd12345 said:
Oh, sorry. I guess I'll probably get flamed by like 30 ppl now. lol. I guess I will try my hand at the Dock applications, unless that has been done too?
Red
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If anyone flames you, they're stupid. You did good work, even if it was in vain. Car Dock has been ported to Donut, though I don't think the little nightstand Dock from Droid is running on anything prior to 2.0... Not sure, though, as it doesn't interest me all that much.

thanks for the encouragement. is there a list of things that show what needs to be back ported or which ones have already been? I want to contribute.
Red.

redd12345 said:
thanks for the encouragement. is there a list of things that show what needs to be back ported or which ones have already been? I want to contribute.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not to my knowledge. It might not be a bad idea for one of the leading devs to start a thread here on things we want from new phones to run on our phones, and check them off as they are accomplished. 75% of the list would be from the Nexus One, at the moment. You really want to help? See what you can do to get Launcher2 from the Nexus working on Dream... Just changing the build.prop doesn't work, so we'll have to fix errors one by one. Hope you're better at coding than I.

There is also more info in the Dream app section, where these apps are usually released...good work, keep it up!

Hi, there's a version that does not work with 1.6 (only 2.X). Which version is?
BR.

I'm not sure. I pulled this weather widget from Eugene373's AOSP Rom port and hex edited the AndroidManifest.xml to make the MinSDK 3 instead of 5. I can't tell you much more than that. I hope this helps you.
Red.

Give this widget a shot and see if it's the one you are looking for. At least one person might make use of it. haha
Red

yukkio said:
Hi, there's a version that does not work with 1.6 (only 2.X). Which version is?
BR.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, does anyone know if this will work on 1.6? Cyanogen MOD ROM?

It will work on any 1.6 rom. I am running Cyanogen's 11.1 (most recent.) This widget typically works on most people's "custom roms" as long as the 1.6 base is the same, it's just that there is a MinSDK value that prohibits users on a lower SDK from using the application. I dropped that value to 3, so I think that it should also work on hero roms (1.5 cupcake base) if someone likes the graphics on this widget better than the weather app that is included. Hope this helps.
Red.
Ps. I am going to be trying my hand at creating themes instead. My only experience with programming was C++, Pascal, and Visual Basic and that was close to 8 years ago! lol. I'm a little outdated as far as Java goes.
I'm really looking forward to using Stericson's Metamorph. It is such a great effort for theme development.

i sure could use it im new to xda im non root for now, but i would like to make a few nice add ons to my mt3g till i get the guts to root. is thr some good stuff here for a non root like me

Awesome job. I appreciate the work.
Odd question though, what do you do in the process of back porting? I'd love to learn..

Nice Widget, thanks. I was using weathereye before. I like this one better.

Thanks. In the case of this widget, it was ok to backport it because it doesn't call on any other functions that are proprietary to a specific rom (ie. Happenings widget from Blur calls tons of other functions in the home.Blur). There are a few places online when you look up backporting (I'll try to remember to post the links for people.)
You want to start by unziping the aplication you want to backport. Just rename it to a .zip file.
When you look in the file, you will see AndroidManifest.xml. This file has been compiled out as a binary file so you can't read it like a normal .xml file. You want to then download AxmlPrinter2.jar and run that to change the AndroidManifest.xml to AndroidManifest.txt by typing "Java -jar AmxlPrinter2.jar AndroidManifest.xml > AndroidManifest.txt"
The hard part is to find the byte offset in the AndroidManifest where it says the MinSDK value is. The MinSDK value needs to drop from 6 or 7 down to "2" so that you can use the widget on Cupcake or higher. There is a program online and I will post the link when I get home that you use with Eclipse to find the byte offset and then you have to use a Hex editor to change the value in the original .xml file.
Once you use the hex editor and save your changes, you zip up all the files and use the apkbuilder.exe that is in the sdk tools directory by typing "apkbuilder application_name.apk -z application_name.zip"
that will make an apk from a zip file and then you right-click and resign the apk file. From there, you just copy it to your sd card and you know the rest.
It is a pretty dirty and painful approach to porting an app. That is why I am more interested in working on themes. You can just unzip the apk's you want to use and edit the /res directory and then rebuild the app and sign it. Photoshop works great for it.
I'm planning on making a theme/rom that uses hero (1.5) for a base, but slimming it down and using widgets that are smaller like the one that I ported and changing a lot of the graphics for the clocks and such.
I hope this helps for anyone interested in developing.
Red.
Wisefire said:
Awesome job. I appreciate the work.
Odd question though, what do you do in the process of back porting? I'd love to learn..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

How to go about modding the on screen keyboard?

Ok so I have been searching the forums and I cannot find an exact answer for what I want to change so if this is a problem that had already been solved, please direct me to the thread.
I just recently dl'd the chm binary release and like it. But the on screen keyboard is hard on my eyes.
So my question is how would I go about replacing it with something like, o say the buuf on screen keyboard instead?
HTC_IME is not what I want just to clarify.
And once again, I apologize if this has already been threaded...

There is no way that none of you know this...

philosophics said:
There is no way that none of you know this...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We could help you, but it is a 3rd party keyboard. What keyboard is it?

I'm not really sure. After installing the HTC_IME, I now have 2. Htc keyboard and android keyboard. If I knew how to take a screenie, I would but I don't.
As far as I know, its the on screen keyboard I've had since I rooted...
The keyboard that comes with chm binary is what I want to change...

well, I know how to modify the look of the builtin keyboard, but I haven't messed with 3rd party stuff.
The stock keyboard can be changed by theming. They're just png files, although the .9.pngs make it a little bit more complicated.

Well I kinda figured as much but what I'm really trying to ask is where do I find them?

They're in framework-res.apk on the phone. If you extract this file they'll be under res/drawable/
The filenames are btn_keyboard*.png
By using metamorph or creating an update.zip style theme you can change these and apply a theme to the phone. Theming is a real pain, but I think it's worth learning how to do.

Ya, I have already pieced together a blackbar to my liking so I'm well aware of the hassles it is to do. I'll be learning the .9's as soon as I get my pc parts back from rma and then I'll try to put out a skin.
Thanks bud, I'll look into this tomorrow after I've slept...

If you want to do this easily, download the buff keyboard skin for better keyboard, and take the .9.pngs from there.

Wow! Now that should have been said at the very beginning. Good thing I was too busy today to get to that. Cloverdale, you just saved me a few hours of frustration. still though, I thank the both of you for the help. I will update the thread when I have success so everyone knows its solved!
Ps- anyone else try to read the forums on your phone? Its a little tricky...
Sorry for the off topic comment but I felt the need...

ok so I couldn't really find a way to download the better keyboard/buuf theme on the pc so I went and tried swapping the btn-keyboard---'s and noting happened after add.
So now I'm on the hunt for the better keyboard dl
I don't know where to look for the file when dl'ing to phone so if all else fails, I guess I could dl to phone and then search for it by folder by painstaking folder...
Update - I cannot for the life of me find the file on the web or on the phone. I dl'd from marketplace but I must not be very smart cause I don't know where marketplace stores stuff...
Downloading the better keyboard theme was supposed to save me grief but in fact, it did the exact opposite...
Update - Well I thought by removing the btn_keyboard_key.xml would solve my problem considering the BUUF skin does not contain one. Same nasty black and blue keyboard. All the buuf keyboard .--- are there so I'm confused once again.
I do not want to install another pay-for app and I don't want the entire buuf theme as of now so I will wait till later today after sleep and try again.
Unless someone knows exactly what's wrong. I'm doing everything I can to keep this 3 month old drywall from having holes in it...
I thought the black bar mod was hard to do... hahaha! That was a cake walk compared to this...
Update - Removing the xml's to the keyboard was a bad idea. It forced closed the android keyboard cause it wanted to change the language to latin or something like that. Touch Input keyboard (HTC_IME) will still work though and I made backups so all of this is just a learning experience for me.
...This is so not like modding and skinning a moto. Way more complicated. So much can go wrong.
Which reminds me, how do I view the .xml's with win7? Never done it before...

So does anyone have any other ideas? Maybe there's something I've been missing this whole time?
I have replaced the btn_keyboard--- files in the framework-res.apk like I was told to do and there is no effects... at all. Positive or negative...

philosophics said:
So does anyone have any other ideas? Maybe there's something I've been missing this whole time?
I have replaced the btn_keyboard--- files in the framework-res.apk like I was told to do and there is no effects... at all. Positive or negative...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well the only other place I can think of is the LatinIME.apk, but I'm not sure about that one

You know, that almost makes sense cause when I removed the .xml for the keyboard to make it match with buuf, the phone kept screaming at me about ..... latin something. So I will check this out and let you know.
But now I have a new problem. I think I need to remove a few applications cause my phone keeps force closing everything after reboot due to an update.zip file. So once I conquor this then I'll start working on the original problem...

Custom Theme Components

Long time lurker, first time poster... I have been learning a lot really fast about customizing different aspects of the eris, but what I have been really searching hard for is a way to customize certain components to add to an already great rom. Right now I am running Eris_Official_0.8.1T2 btw. Anyways what I am really looking for is something like this forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=654852 Mostly the Launcher is what I really want to change but to be able to tweak everything else would be great too. If someone knows how to do this or can point me in the right direction to maybe even learn how myself I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks

unzip the rom files
system/framework/com.htc.resources
once in there go to
res/drawable-port-mdpi
the file named common_app_rosie_navbar.png
is the launcher, and thats the main thing u need to edit.
and also go to
system/apps/rosie.apk
one inside the apk go to
res/drawable-normal-mdpi
and
drawable-normal-port-mdpi
edit those to your liking

Wow I feel dumb now lol... Ive been poking around in com.htc.resources for a couple days now and completely overlooked that... Thanks alot... Only question I have now is how do I remove the word phone that overlayed on the launcher? I would post a screenshot of my home screen but since im a new user its not allowing me.
Thanks for the help

well I uploaded a photo to my album so if you feel like checking it out just go to my profile... Im starting to like the phone (icon and word) over the orb but if anyone knows how to remove the word for future reference please let me know... I am also trying to find out how to change the status bar's clock color, which searching around has brought me to editing the services.jar or services.odex file but Im still uncertain on how to do this. Any input would be great.

Im going to sound like an idiot, but i can't open the apk to edit, im missing something.. help?

Right click and open with winrar or 7zip. Once you have edited the images you will have to resign either the .apk or the rom. Depending on if you are editing the whole rom or not. Hope I was able to help

[Q]Theming Guide

First off, I would like to say, I know nothing about themeing Android, which is why I'm posting this.
My basic knowledge is: framework.apk in /sys is where the theming is kept. I know how to pull it from my phone, but do not know how to edit/open a .apk once its on my computer. Thats it. Thats all I know when it comes to theming. I don't know how to use the SDK or command prompts(I use root explorer) or what the individual files are in the apk are.
What I do know is graphic design, which makes me want to get into this.
What I'm trying to do is take part of a theme I like and port it to a different ROM, with my own added touches. I contacted the original developer, but since he doesn't have the phone I have(Droid A855), he has no experience on how to port it himself. In fact I was able to port his theme over from a CM ROM to Bugless v0.5 using a program I found online. However I'm unable to port the theme to Bugless v0.6. I assume this because v0.6 has bits of Gingerbread in it, and things aren't lining up.
More specifically, I'm looking to do the following:
-Take a theme that works on Bugless V0.5 and get it to work on Bugless V0.6
-I'd be happy with just porting the status bar and all the icons that come with the status bar(Wifi, battery, downloading, downloading complete, sms etc...) and the notification menu with the ability for me to change a few of the icons.
-And theming the keyboard
I understand that this may be or may not be a lot of work for someone to tell me how to do this, due my 0 knowledge of anything like this.
Thanks in advance.

Dude just a search for theme Porter, there's a couple of them and there's a sticky at the top of the forum how to theme.
My sig has links that could be useful to you also.
Hope this helps.

dully79 said:
Dude just a search for theme Porter, there's a couple of them and there's a sticky at the top of the forum how to theme.
My sig has links that could be useful to you also.
Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you read my post, you would see that a theme porter doesn't work.
Besides I'm looking more into how to do it for future reference too, the sticky at the top is lacking.

As I say there's a few theme porters, 1 may work better than another unless you've already tried them all.
Basically youll have to use apktool/manager to decompile the apk, swap out your desired images, and recompile. You may also have to edit the xml's inside the decompiled apk to change colours. The sticky can point you in the right direction to the xml's to edit.
Just be aware of. 9png images as they can create head f#$k.
Everything you need to know is already posted its just a case of finding it.
To put the new apk on your phone you can use adb or create an update zip, there's threads for these hanging about too.
Sorry I can't link but I'm sending this from my phone, hope this sheds a little light on the subject.