I want to add backlight to the NOW screen - Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General

Hey all,
I'm still getting my feet wet in the whole editing the Mobile Shell thing. I've actually blended a couple of other peoples skins to make something that works well for me.
However, the one thing I REALLY want to do is have the backlight icon show up on my NOW screen. It is, apparently, possible. I found a skin on the french site that has the backlight there:
http://www.actualitemobile.com/forum/index.php/topic,1654.msg22320.html#msg22320
Anyone ever do this? Any idea how to make it work? I've downloaded that skins and picked through the xmls a bit but I can't find anything that shows exactly how it's added it.

Related

hide bottom/softkey bar when sip active??

ive been trying to figure out how to do this for a loooong time. i use pcm keyboard with an iphone skin and its HUGE. it plus the bottom bar take up more than half the screen. plus its easier to type/know where the letters are if the keyboard is all the way on the bottom. i use a hardware key to toggle the sip so i don't need the bottom bar to disable the sip. anybody know if its physically possible to hide the bottom bar when the sip is active (or make the sip cover the bottom bar)???
Edit (11/21/2008):
if anyone is interested in this i might have some info you might find useful:
when i use the attached .tsk file, the behaviour of my tob and bottom bars becomes completely unpredictable. basically i end up with a combination one of the following combinations:
-normal topbar
-no topbar
-"transparent" topbar (so that i see the top few pixels of my spb mobile shell theme)
and..
-normal bottom bar
-no bottom bar
-bottom bar on which the keyboard overlays (when activated) << this is the original desired effect!
see the attached images for examples
i can't just keep this theme because behaviour is unpredictable and sometimes causes freezing. Also, choosing a different theme returns the bars to normal behaviour.
other info: i have t-mobile wing and use an open touch v6 rom, spb mobile shell w/ a greatbal diamond theme, and s2u2.
That's my problem too.
Support.
Never heard on anything that will do this. But it's a very good idea.
vijay555 made an tool called today toggle that did that on the today screen (I don't know if it hid the softkeys when the today screen did not have focus). It was originally written for WM2003. I have not seen much about it in a long time. Try checking his website http://www.vijay555.com
i did read alot about VJ's todaytoggle but i assumed and other people confirmed that it only works on the today screen. i guess ill play around with it when i get a chance and report back here
kewlmanbsa said:
i did read alot about VJ's todaytoggle but i assumed and other people confirmed that it only works on the today screen. i guess ill play around with it when i get a chance and report back here
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
VJToggle only hides on today screen. I wish someone can come up with a way of hiding these things other than today screen!
thanx for the replies
yea VJ's tool only works on the today screen. i wouldve thought that someone would have already made this possible but it seems very few ppl have even thought about it. im sure one of the developers here can make this happen!!
bummmmpppppp
(am i right in thinking that thats wat u say when u want ur thread to be "bumped up" so more ppl can see it??)

Transparent Keyboard

Hi guys,
I just got an idea about keyboard for PPC... that will be more finger friendly, PLUS, screen friendly.
Would it be possible to build something like FULL SCREEN keyboard overlay the screen, but still able to see the running software and able to see words is inputting? Just like a transparent keyboard layout on the screen, but doesn't really eat up the screen space. Not sure if I describe well enough. What do you guys think?
I am not a programmer, so I can only hand off my idea and pass the development to any volunteer programmer who has the knowledge and ability to make it.
- andre
Sounds like a great idea
Post your suggestion on the PocketCM.com forum and maybe the keyboard over there could be adapted.
As many of the screens on WM6 are designed for the built-in kb, the dialogue boxes can get cut off if you use an opaque kb.
Thanks. I've done so. I hope to see something like this one day. =)
That is actually a very good idea. I wonder how difficult it would be to do? I know nothing about SIP programming, heh.
Unless I am mistaken, it's impossible to do that as WM6 does not support transparency or graphical layers
Ufufu said:
Unless I am mistaken, it's impossible to do that as WM6 does not support transparency or graphical layers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How the S2U2 volume is working? It's transparent if you wish
romualdrichard said:
How the S2U2 volume is working? It's transparent if you wish
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think it is... All programs that appear transparent (and there are many, throttlelock, mortbuttons, s2u2 volume etc etc) just take a screenshot of the background and draw over that. Which means that they just appear to be transparent - if things change beneath, you cannot see them, what you see is the screen like it was when you launched the program.
I hope someone corrects me on that, but I am pretty sure it works like that
Ufufu said:
I don't think it is... All programs that appear transparent (and there are many, throttlelock, mortbuttons, s2u2 volume etc etc) just take a screenshot of the background and draw over that. Which means that they just appear to be transparent - if things change beneath, you cannot see them, what you see is the screen like it was when you launched the program.
I hope someone corrects me on that, but I am pretty sure it works like that
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So make it take a screenshot every second or so...?(Dynamo 3 does that, not for transparency but for thumbnails, but it does that)
I don't know if it's doable. It's easy to get the current screen (what WM is currently painting), but not that easy to get a screenshot of a background program, or the desktop. Programs that do that (eg, CapSure) switch to the program you want to take a screenshot of first, so even if you could switch to the program, take a screenie, and get back to where you were in 1 second, the screen would "flicker" all the time.
About Dynamo, I didn't check the latest versions of Dynamo3, but maybe it takes screenshots of the running (front) program? And I don't think it takes screens every second!
Even if I am wrong (very probable), and it's doable, I don't think it would be very practical! For locking programs, this would totally ruin baterry life. For a "transparent" keyboard, 1 per sec would not be enough, and it would probably ruin responsiveness.
Then again, I never tried to play with screenshots and fake transparency for a WM program, so who knows! Maybe! O_O
I've tried to do that for ThrottleLock. My first choice was using the WM_PRINT window message, but it's not supported for windows mobile ... other choice was to send the WM_PAINT message or a refresh and trying to get the DC associated with the window to use BitBlt to copy it to a target Bitmap... Not luck as the window will not be painted while it's not visible... As far as I know it's not possible... If anyone figures out another way to get it please let me know
todaylife can do that all. fully transparent pngs over a changing background.look at my screenshots of my skins, everything is working in background. dont know how dazzlingdazz made it but its true.
In TodayLife, it's the app itself that's painting the background... So it's easy to paint other stuff on top and still show the main screen underneath. Unfortunately not the same thing we want other applications & wm interface to show beneath the transparency.
Android supports multi-layer drawing for applications, let's hope wm7 has it too.
Some 'marshall wait cursors' are transparent. But I don't know anything how they're working.
I had this idea myself about a year ago, but thought that it is impossible to make a transparent sip, because it is not displayed over a program. It's under it. I don't know how to say in English, but I thought the sip reduce the fullscreen-size.
But maybe someone can write a program that is no real sip but transparent over other programs.
I mean like the phone pad, it is no real sip but used as an input method.
Sorry for my bad english, I hope you can guess what I mean.
ReinerK said:
Some 'marshall wait cursors' are transparent. But I don't know anything how they're working.
I had this idea myself about a year ago, but thought that it is impossible to make a transparent sip, because it is not displayed over a program. It's under it. I don't know how to say in English, but I thought the sip reduce the fullscreen-size.
But maybe someone can write a program that is no real sip but transparent over other programs.
I mean like the phone pad, it is no real sip but used as an input method.
Sorry for my bad english, I hope you can guess what I mean.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Marshall waitcursors work with screenshots too.
The SIP doesn't reduce the screen size, some programs however can detect it and re-draw itself, making it seem like the screen size is reduced - but not all, it doesn't work like that I think
There are already fullscreen keyboards over other programs, that's not the problem, the problem is the transparency
excellent idea.
transparency is supported.
Look at RetroPPC clock. the only thing that I had to do to make my clock transparent, was to use PNG-24 format.
so the clock just revolved on top of the background even when it had to shift for the scroll bars.
in any case, the effect can be achived. what about a flash based keyboard?

Alternative Dialer Skin Problem!

I am using the T-Mobile (USA) MDA (HTC Wizard), with the last official T-Mobile (2.26?) ROM, WM5.
I downloaded and installed a third-party dialpad skin, Zombie carbon QVGA (http://www.zombienexus.net/portal/GL_Display.asp?SEC=3&EntryID=464)
It looks cool, better than the T-Mobile skin for sure, or default Windows. Easier to read, with white text on black background.
Except for one problem:
The numbers are not on the buttons! They are far to the right, and a little down, of where they should be. They are actually closer to the next button to the right, than to the one they are supposed to sit on.
Can anyone tell me how to fix that? Something in the registry? Why are the numbers not lined up on the buttons?
How can I move the numbers far to the left, and a little up, so they are centered on the buttons?
P.S. I would have posted this to a forum at the Zombieskin site, but I don't see a forum there. And I have seen posts about these skins on this site, so I'm asking here. Hopefully someone here will know something about using these alternative dialpad skins.
Anyone know how to fix this?

[THE] Make a Rhodium/HTCTouchPro2 MyMobiler Skin

Hi all
(Excuse me for my very bad english, I'm french )
I would like to have a skin for MyMobiler, which looks like Rhodium devices.
I have tried the Diamond skin, but it didn't match for the screen, because the resolution is different (640x480 for the Diamond and 800x480 for Rhodiums)
The Diamond skin is available here :
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=466565
I think you can easily adapt this Diamond skin for Rhodium resolution values (400x800px).
I don't know how to do this, so if someone would be able to make one, it will be a very good thing for all MyMobiler users who have a Rhodium !
Thanks !
Sam
salucsam said:
Hi all
(Excuse me for my very bad english, I'm french )
I would like to have a skin for MyMobiler, which looks like Rhodium devices.
I have tried the Diamond skin, but it didn't match for the screen, because the resolution is different (640x480 for the Diamond and 800x480 for Rhodiums)
I think you can easily adapt this Diamond skin for Rhodium resolution values (400x800px).
I don't know how to do this, so if someone would be able to make one, it will be a very good thing for all MyMobiler users who have a Rhodium !
Thanks !
Sam
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi salucsam,
give me a little bit time and it is reday for the TP2. I never know that it is possible for the TP2. But i have changed some things in MyMobiler. I have a very nice grafic for that (link).
Waouw Nice skin indeed ! I've download it immediately.
Well, I think you know MyMobiler software, so if you can do a skin for MyMobiler as beautiful as the skin you made for Manila, its gona be perfect ^^ Take all the time you need !
Sam.
salucsam said:
Waouw Nice skin indeed ! I've download it immediately.
Well, I think you know MyMobiler software, so if you can do a skin for MyMobiler as beautiful as the skin you made for Manila, its gona be perfect ^^ Take all the time you need !
Sam.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi salucsam,
it is ready for 80%. But i have one problem. About the grafic is
a BMP file the background i have is white and i cant make it
transparent. Ok i have one more idea but i must test it.
At least the 4 little control button. But this i a case of time .
I love the hacking and modding stuff.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Edit:
It is ready. A little bit quick and dirty. At this time only the background
and the zoom factor to 70%. You can change the factor in the xml file.
So be my guest and test it please....
Very good ! But.. Not perfect, as you will see on the screenshot I have take :
http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=842663screenshot01.jpg
Now, you just have to find a solution to have a background which is at 800x400px and not 640x480 like it is on this first skin you made (the white you see under. The screen is not complete)
And to find a solution for the white corners that you can see around the application. Look on my screenshot..
I really don't know xml code, so I can't help you for this -_-
Thanks, and good luck
Sam
Hi salucsam,
look at my screenshot. It is perfect.
And here the code from the XML file:
<form
position="0 0 480 800"
backgroundimage="tp2d.bmp"
clipcolor="FF00FF">
<control
id="200"
text="MobileView"
position="44 130 480 800"
zoom="70">
</control>
</form>
As you see it is 480x800 portrait mode.
I don't know whats happend on yor system.
Please check the xml file. You can open it
with the notepad or gvim.
Ok, its good for me now, for the HTC screen.
But for corners, I really don't know how to clear it...
Look at this new screenshot :
http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=575298screenshot2.png
As you see, the problem is those 4 black corners around the picture...I can only color them in black or white.
Do you know how to clear it ? I want them transparent, invisible.
Sam.
salucsam said:
Ok, its good for me now
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Sam, good to hear that it is working now.
As you see, the problem is those 4 black corners around the picture...I can only color them in black or white.
Do you know how to clear it ? I want them transparent, invisible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The grafic is a BMP file. So there is no transparence possible. I can't change it to a PNG format because MyMobiler doesn't knows the format yet. Possible you can ask the author on http://www.mymobiler.com/.
Hi salucsam,
you found out more about your issues?
Did you guys get the hard buttons to work?
Awesome, I love this app, nice job!! still need some improvements.
I think MyMobilier need to be updated, with more skins and more functionality, but its great like is, specially WIFI
mike2nl said:
Hi salucsam,
you found out more about your issues?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Guys,
How do you install this to work on the tp2?
Thanks for the tip.
mike2nl said:
Hi Sam, good to hear that it is working now.
The grafic is a BMP file. So there is no transparence possible. I can't change it to a PNG format because MyMobiler doesn't knows the format yet. Possible you can ask the author on http://www.mymobiler.com/.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think there is a way to get transparencies with a bmp file using an added Alpha layer to the original .bmp.
Ive been trying to get this skin to work but i can't even get it to show, any pointers?, as i can't work on the transparency if i cant test it!!
There is also a thread over on HD2 skinning my mobiler
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=618050
EDIT got it to show! working on tranparency with Gimp!
I've only just noticed this thread!
I made a TP2 skin myself for MyMobiler a few weeks ago and I can tell you that MyMobiler has a bug that means the corners show when you use any other zoom level than 100% - the 'magic BMP colour' doesn't work at different levels. But, at 100% zoom, the bottom of the phone is cut off
I've tried e-mailing the MyMobiler author about these bugs a couple of times but he's never bothered to reply
iridium21 said:
I've only just noticed this thread!
I made a TP2 skin myself for MyMobiler a few weeks ago and I can tell you that MyMobiler has a bug that means the corners show when you use any other zoom level than 100% - the 'magic BMP colour' doesn't work at different levels. But, at 100% zoom, the bottom of the phone is cut off
I've tried e-mailing the MyMobiler author about these bugs a couple of times but he's never bothered to reply
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi iridium, i was tried what i said above both in ginp and photoshop and although i can get the bmp to show transparent i can't get it to work on mymobiler, i have studied the HD2 thread on this and the touch pro and diamond threads, all the phone images seem to use this pinkish colour..what is this "magic colour" you speak of??! i have read what you have said about the bug and zoom etc, i am just interested to know as i spent a whole evening trying to work this one out!!!
osrix25 said:
Hi iridium, i was tried what i said above both in ginp and photoshop and although i can get the bmp to show transparent i can't get it to work on mymobiler, i have studied the HD2 thread on this and the touch pro and diamond threads, all the phone images seem to use this pinkish colour..what is this "magic colour" you speak of??! i have read what you have said about the bug and zoom etc, i am just interested to know as i spent a whole evening trying to work this one out!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I spent a while on this too
If you have a look at defaultskin.xml, you'll see
Code:
clipcolor="FF00FF"
which is a kind of pink colour - this is the BMP colour that is treated as transparent and that's why the phone skins have that colour background in the corners. The only problem is, is that MyMobiler only shows the FF00FF colour code as transparent when it's at 100% zoom Drop down to 75% or 50% and the corners show.
Hope this explains what I've found out, please let me know if you find any more info?
iridium21 said:
Yeah, I spent a while on this too
If you have a look at defaultskin.xml, you'll see
Code:
clipcolor="FF00FF"
which is a kind of pink colour - this is the BMP colour that is treated as transparent and that's why the phone skins have that colour background in the corners. The only problem is, is that MyMobiler only shows the FF00FF colour code as transparent when it's at 100% zoom Drop down to 75% or 50% and the corners show.
Hope this explains what I've found out, please let me know if you find any more info?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for bringing me up to speed! ive just been testing the other skins as well and i now understand the same problem is for all, so unless you have a very tall screen it will always be the case.
I don't know about Xml but is there not a work around that we can trick the program into thinking it is displaying at 100% when it is displaying at 70? i'm guessing that would be 2 easy!!
My TP2/Rhodium Skin
I played around with this to get a skin to work. I am still having trouble with the start menu hard key, but the other buttons seem to work.
To get this skin to work, follow these steps:
1) Unzip the attached file to "\Program Files\My Mobile\MyMobiler\Skin\" directory. (It will extract to its own folder)
2) Edit the "\Program Files\My Mobile\MyMobiler\mymobiler.ini" and change the line for
Code:
SkinFile=Skin\DefaultSkin.xml
to read
Code:
SkinFile=Skin\TP2\skin.xml
slimcane said:
I played around with this to get a skin to work. I am still having trouble with the start menu hard key, but the other buttons seem to work.
To get this skin to work, follow these steps:
1) Unzip the attached file to "\Program Files\My Mobile\MyMobiler\Skin\" directory. (It will extract to its own folder)
2) Edit the "\Program Files\My Mobile\MyMobiler\mymobiler.ini" and change the line for
Code:
SkinFile=Skin\DefaultSkin.xml
to read
Code:
SkinFile=Skin\TP2\skin.xml
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks man! I just tried it out, and it works almost perfect
First, I also had to change the line below that in the options:
"Showskin=0" to "Showskin=1"...Once I did that, the skin loaded fine.
There's just one small glitch, as it looks like the image has shifted "up" in the frame...it's cut off a bit at the top, and leaves a band showing down at the bottom (I'm including a screenshot to demonstrate). Hiding the toolbar improves it a bit obviously, but there's still a bit cutoff at the top.
Zoom works great though, no "squares" in any of the ratios I've tried
The "call" and "end" hardware buttons work just fine too...but the "home" and "back" buttons don't seem to respond.
I don't know if any of the issues are related to the fact I'm running a T-mobile TP2 instead of an unbranded or AT&T model like in this skin.
Anyway, thanks again for the effort, just wanted to give you some feedback from the field
sirphunkee said:
Thanks man! I just tried it out, and it works almost perfect
First, I also had to change the line below that in the options:
"Showskin=0" to "Showskin=1"...Once I did that, the skin loaded fine.
There's just one small glitch, as it looks like the image has shifted "up" in the frame...it's cut off a bit at the top, and leaves a band showing down at the bottom (I'm including a screenshot to demonstrate). Hiding the toolbar improves it a bit obviously, but there's still a bit cutoff at the top.
Zoom works great though, no "squares" in any of the ratios I've tried
The "call" and "end" hardware buttons work just fine too...but the "home" and "back" buttons don't seem to respond.
I don't know if any of the issues are related to the fact I'm running a T-mobile TP2 instead of an unbranded or AT&T model like in this skin.
Anyway, thanks again for the effort, just wanted to give you some feedback from the field
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Two questions really quick:
1) Which version of MyMobiler are you using? (mine is 1.25 Build 00122.0205.46)
2) Have you tried activating the skin through "View" -> "Show Skin"? Doing it this way turns off the toolbar completely leaving just the skin.
Thanks for the feedback!

New HTC lock screen??

I just saw a video of the new HTC HD Mini and it's new lock screen. I was wondering if anyone had any information on this? Is it going to be ported onto any other devices?
http://www.neowin.net/news/htc-hd-mini-compared-with-htc-hd2-in-pictures-and-video
I've been playing around with the files responsible for the lock screen to mimic this functionality.
With there being no documentation it's quite difficult. I just restarted the whole thing, my last attempt had a few issues.
The main problem is, I can't figure out how to have a vertical slider. Horizontal is fine, but not vertical.
RJackson said:
I've been playing around with the files responsible for the lock screen to mimic this functionality.
With there being no documentation it's quite difficult. I just restarted the whole thing, my last attempt had a few issues.
The main problem is, I can't figure out how to have a vertical slider. Horizontal is fine, but not vertical.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Definitely keep me updated on your progress, I like the new look a lot more than the standard WM6.5 lockscreen. It would be great to have use of this on our phones.
Irishpride said:
I just saw a video of the new HTC HD Mini and it's new lock screen. I was wondering if anyone had any information on this? Is it going to be ported onto any other devices?
http://www.neowin.net/news/htc-hd-mini-compared-with-htc-hd2-in-pictures-and-video
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
me to buddy damn qute.
My current progress isn't any good.
Decompiled lockscreen.dll, it seems the 'slider' is hard-coded to be horizontal; meaning I can't achieve the same result through editing the CPR file.
The only thing I can think of is writing a whole new lock screen; something of which I have little idea on where to start.
No doubt I'll continue looking, seeing if there's any other secrets hidden in system DLLs that I could use; as well as seeing what I'd have to do to write a new lock screen.
RJackson said:
My current progress isn't any good.
Decompiled lockscreen.dll, it seems the 'slider' is hard-coded to be horizontal; meaning I can't achieve the same result through editing the CPR file.
The only thing I can think of is writing a whole new lock screen; something of which I have little idea on where to start.
No doubt I'll continue looking, seeing if there's any other secrets hidden in system DLLs that I could use; as well as seeing what I'd have to do to write a new lock screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I kind of figured it wouldn't be easy, which is too bad cause it looks so much better. Thanks for looking into this and if you do figure anything out or start work on one, let me know and I will happy to help test it.
Yea I was looking at that build which lacks the start menu and ok button. I really like that. My 2 hardware buttons never get used because they are on the screen... might as well rid them of the screen and get used to the hardware buttons.
Also the lockscreen looks like a stock lockscreen just modified.
HTC moves the lockscreen files into \Windows\Lockscreen. If I had a rom dump I could probably get something working.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=637996

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