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ThrottleLauncher Skining tutorial

Hi!!!
Here you have a little tutorial on how to create Themes for throttlelauncher. I still have to work on it but almost all is here. With this, theorically you can create almost any interface (still there's some work to do to achieve this ).
Any help, sugestions or requests are appreciated.
To read this tutorial is recomended to know XML file format.
First of all the file structure of a setup for throttlelauncher must be this.
- throttlelauncher instalation
|- Setups
|- MyTheme
|- Skins
|- Skin1
|- skin.xml
|- ...pictures of the skin​ |- Skin2
|- skin.xml
|- ...pictures of the skin​ |- Skin3​ |- config.xml
|- ....imported xml files
|- icons
|- ....my icons... any dir estructure​can be placed inside
To configure the app there are several tags. All the xml must be inside the root tag.
configuration: this tag contains the configuration parameters for the app (especified by the tag param). The allowed params names are:
- appear: Boolean value. Defines if the animation from down to top when the app got focus is activated (only valid for the standalon app).
- skin: defines the path of the folder of the skin to use. Relative to the app folder. See some post's below how to create the skin files.
- speeddecreaserate: factor that multiplies the value of your finger speed when starting kinetic scrolling.
- speedinitmultiply: factor that sets how fast the speed will be decreased in kinetic scrolling. IMPORTANT: set a value greatter than 1.
- status: two possible values. 0: normal (will show title bar and button bar of the app). 1: Maximized (will show the app fullscreen).
- osdenabled: It true, the OSD top bar will be shown when element is selected.
- imagecontactnophoto: Relative path to the image to be used it there's no contact photo.
- minclicktime: Min lapse time in miliseconds between the mouse down and up events to perform a click over the pressed element.
- .... there are some more... I will add them latter.
Example:
Code:
<configuration>
<param name="screenshot" value="True" />
<param name="appear" value="True" />
<param name="skin" value="Setups\Touchflo3D\skins\general" />
<param name="speeddecreaserate" value="1.2" />
<param name="speedinitmultiply" value="1.4" />
<param name="status" value="1" />
</configuration>
page: wich represent a page inside the app. Must be placed inside the root tag and the first one in the file is going to be the first one been showed by default. Page can have 2 attributes:
- name: contains the name of the page. This is going to be used when whe create a link to this page.
- loadonstartup: Boolean value, the default is "true". I recomend to set it to "false" in any page that be do not use frecuently to reduce memory usage.
- autounload: Indicates if the page will be unloaded automatically (and all it's resources will be freed).
- autounloadtime: time a unused page will remain loaded until autounload event starts. This param will be only used it autounload is true.
- import: will import the target xml as content of the page.
Example:
Code:
<page name="Home" loadonstartup="True" autounload="false">
row: Must be placed inside a page tag. They are specified in order from top to bottom. The following attributes are allowed:
- name
- marginX / marginY : margin bettwen the elements contained in the row.
- rows: number of rows of elements. If you set it up to -1 the number of rows is infinite.
- minheight: minimum height of the row (use recomended with dinamically sized rows due to contents like all contactswith photo or runningapps or recent)
- mincolwidth:
- scrollingmode: one of [Paged, WheelOfFortune, Direct, Kinetic, Auto, None]
- alignment: one of [left,right,center]
Example:
Code:
<row name="Programs" marginX="5" marginY="1" rows="3" scrolling="Paged">
footer: Must be placed inside the root tag. It parametters are exactly the same as the row. The footer is common for all the pages. Only one footer can be especified.
icon: Must be used inside the row tag or the footer tag. Used to display an icon. The allowed attributes are:
- name: Will be shown in the OSD when the icon is selected.
- path: path of the icon file. Recomended to use png. Can be absolute or relative to the app path. If the path is not specified, then the file on exec (if it's exe or lnk) will be used to obtain the icon image. No zooming efect will be applied in this case.
- exec: file to execute when the icon is clicked (deprecated, use event click instead).
- params: params for the file execution (deprecated, use event click instead).
- width: override the icons width.
- height: override the icons height.
- rowspan: indicates that the icon fills that number of rows intead of 1.
- showtext: will display the name of the icon as footer text.
Example:
Code:
<icon name="New Contact" exec="\windows\poutlook.exe" params="contacts -new" path="icons\contact.png" />
separator: must be especified inside a row or a footer. Allowed attributes are:
- name: if especified will show a vertical oriented text. If not especified the separator will show a vertical line.
Example:
Code:
<separator name="Personal" />

continues
text: Must be especified inside a row or a footer. Used to show text. Inherits all the atributes of the icon (so background icon can be displayed) plus:
- text: contains the text to be shown. The ~ symbol can be used for "new line", and two especial sentences:
* date: #$date,format#. Will be replaced by the date in the format especified. Will be updated automatically every second.
* reg: #$reg,key#. Will de replaced by the value of the desired key. Will be updated every second. When regkey is especified you can also use this format to parse date registry values: #$reg,key,date,dateformat
Example, start date for next apointment: #$reg,HKEY_CURRENT_USER\System\State\Appointments\Next\Start Time,date,MMM/dd/yyyy hh:mm#
- fonttype: font type specified by "fontname,size,bold" or "size,bold".
- fontcolor: RGB value.
- leftmargin: margin left of the text.
- topmargin: margin top of the text.
- spacing: interline spacing.
- textwidth: defines the width of the area filled by the text
- textheight: defines the height of area filled by the text
- textimages: defines a path where you can place images for each caracter on the text. Example: textimages="setups\Touchflo3d\icons\tf3d\numbers\#$char#.png" where #$char# will be replaced on the path for the character.
Example:
Code:
<text text="#$date,HH:mm:ss#~#$date,dd/MM/yy#~#$date,ddd#" fonttype="12,true" fontcolor="255,255,255" leftmargin="10" topmargin="10" spacing="-10" rowspan="3" width="100"/>
clock: must be inside a row or a footer. Inherits all the attributes of the icon. Can contain the following tags:
- hours
- minutes
- seconds
Each of those tags can contain a color attribute with the color in RGB for the line. If some of those tags is not especified, the respective line will not be shown.
Example:
Code:
<clock name="clock" path="clock.png" rowspan="3">
<hours color="0,0,100"/>
<minutes color="100,100,200"/>
<seconds color="160,160,255"/>
</clock>
allcontactswithphoto: must be inside a row or a footer. Will display all contact with photo matching the criteria in the attributes and assigned to the category "ThrottlePhotoDial".
- name: name of the tag element.
- categoryfilter: comma separated list of contact categories to be included on the filter.
- showcategories: If true will automatically show a separator for each category containing contacts.
- max: max number of contacts to display.
- width/height: define the diaplay size of the contact photos.
- All contacts with photo tag may contain two special icons with this two exec values: ":addcontact",":removecontact". This icons will open a contact selecting dialog allowing to choose a contact to asign or remove the "ThrottlePhotoDialer" category.
Example:
Code:
<allcontactswithphoto height="80" width="60" max="100" showcategories="True" name="Group unnamed">
<icon name="New Contact" exec=":addcontact" rowspan="1" height="80" width="80" path="setups\Default\icons\contact_add.png" />
<icon name="Remove Contact" exec=":removecontact" rowspan="1" height="80" width="80" path="setups\Default\icons\contact_del.png" />
</allcontactswithphoto>
lastapps: must be included inside a row or a footer. Will display the last 12 apps executed (same shown in the start menu). Can include the following attributes:
- name.
- zoom: will zoom the icons if different than 1.
Example:
Code:
<lastapps zoom="1" name="Group unnamed" />
runningapps: will display the running apps icons. The following attributes can be included:
- name.
- zoom: will zoom the icons if different than 1.
Inside you can especify the app's to exclude from the list by using the exclude tag as shown in the example.
Example:
Code:
<runningapps zoom="1" name="Group unnamed">
<exclude name="\Windows\shell32.exe" />
<exclude name="\Windows\cprog.exe" />
<exclude name="\Windows\repllog.exe" />
<exclude name="\Windows\gwes.exe" />
<exclude name="\Windows\filesys.exe" />
<exclude name="\Program Files\ThrottleLauncher\ThrottleLauncher.exe" />
</runningapps>
continued....
folder: this will add an icon for each file cotained in the specified folder matching the pattern if any.
- zoom: zoom to be aplied to the icons.
- path: path of the folder to load. If the folder path is on the registry, you may specify the registry path (sample: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Explorer\CrossPlatformNavigationURL).
- pattern: pattern to be used to filter the files.
- recursive: indicates wether to look into subfolders (any subfolder loaded will generate automatically a spearator named as the folder).
- name
plugin: this is used to include a today plugin inside the main app (not the today plugin).
- name: name of the plugin to be used. Importan the name MUST be the name of entry in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Today\Items\. ONLY PLUGINS BASE ON DLL's WILL WORK.
examples:
Code:
<plugin name="ADBWeatherPlus"/>
<plugin name="rlToday"/>
<plugin name="HTC Home"/>
<plugin name="BatteryStatus"/>
-throttleplugin: with this tag you can include 3rd party plugins for throttle launcher. For example you can include flash using the following:
<throttleplugin name="Reloj" path="#$THROTTLE#\Plugins\Flash\FlashPlugin.dll" height="90" class="FlashPlugin.FlashThrottlePlugin">
<param name="movie" value="#$THROTTLE#/Setups/Touchflo3dFlash/TWolf/Clock/horas_28_LITE.swf"/>
<param name="width" value="240"/>
<param name="backgroundpath" value="#$THROTTLE#\Setups\Touchflo3dFlash\TWolf\Clock/fondoReloj.jpg"/>
</throttleplugin>

Skins
Skins are based on xml file as config.xml does. Skin xml file may only contain param tag placed inside the root tag. All the params are optional, so if you don't need one, don't especify it!!
All files refenced by the skin.xml need to be placed on the same skin folder.
Params tag format is the following:
Code:
<param name="name" value="value"/>
The allowed names and it's values meanings are:
- trasparency: will allow trasparency for the skin. This means that if the skin is applied to a row the row background will be filled with the main setup skin texture.
- pagebackcolor: backcolor to be used as page background (only used for main setup skin).
- rowbackcolor: backcolor to be used on the rows (this will be used as the trasparent color if trasparency is specified).
- texture: relative path to the texture image to be used as page background.
- rowtexture: relative path to the texture image to be used as rowbackground.
- buttonback: relative path to the back image to be used on all clickable elements.
- selectionimage: relative path to the hover image to be used when an element is selected.
- buttonbackmargin: margin to be used between the buttonback image and the main element image.
- fontstyle: font style for the text displayed for example in the separators or the contact names. Two formats can be used: "size, bold" or "size, bold, fonttype".
- linecolor: color to be used for lines. Must be specified in an RGB value.
- textcolor: color for text. RGB
- osdtextcolor: color for OSD text. RGB
- osdbackcolor: color to be used as the OSD back color. RGB.
- osdfontstyle: font style for the text displayed in the OSD. Two formats can be used: "size, bold" or "size, bold, fonttype".

reserved.......

reserved.....

Thanks, APBilbo, for sharing this. Really appreciate your help towards the community.

Thanks a lot!!! I really love this app. Its the best one I have found so far. I would be surprised if Verizon and T-mobile dont start using this in the phones they sell...

I wish I had the time to create using ThrottleLauncher, I guess I'll leave it up to the pro's. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

How to change ImageView content in layout?

Hi,
in my simple app i have an activity with some textviews and a single imageview.
I'm trying to understand how to dynamically change the content of the imageview in my linear layout. I have a linearlayout and i only need to change the image in it (based on the logic of the underlying application) and similarly the text of the textviews. The pictures are .png files that i have put in res/drawable.
It seems to me that the only way is to use an adapter (simpleadapter) but i struggle to find an example of source code as all the ones i found so far refer to more complex adapters (e.g. simplecursoradapter). Anyway i'm very new to these concepts (adapters, helpers, etc.).
Do i really need to define and use AdapterView (or a more specific subclass?) or if if i keep the image files in res/drawable there is a more straightforward way to dynamically change the ImageView?
Thanks in advance,
x70

ImageView iv = (ImageView)findViewById(R.id.myimageview);
iv.setImageResource(resId);
where resId = R.drawable.mypng
With the textviews is similar, just call setText.

Thanks a lot janfsd. That was really easy...
I did actually try before in that way but i thought i needed also to explicitly set the view (eg via setContentView) and it didnt work; i didn't realise that there is no need for that.
still its not clear to me when do i need to use setContentView, but i made good progress!
Cheers,
x70

setContentView is normally used to set the layout(View) of the activity. I have only used it once per activity. Unless you want to change all the Layout of the activity then don't use it more than once, only on the onCreate method after the super call.
So you should only need to use setSomething method which each view should have it.

Table view for android

Hi
I have to implement the table view in my android application. The table view has to display the rows and each row has five labels. When i click on the row it has to display the next screen.
(i want to develop the table view similar iphone UITableView )
Can any body give the sample example link or any other useful document about this table view for android.
Thanks
mindus

Table views are pretty easy to do in an XML layout. You would have something like:
Code:
<TableLayout>
<TableRow>
<TextView>
<TextView>
<TextView>
<TextView>
<TextView>
</TableRow>
<TableRow>
<TextView>
<TextView>
<TextView>
<TextView>
<TextView>
</TableRow>
</TableLayout>
Of course I'm leaving out a lot of the filler, but that would give you 2 rows with 5 columns each. For more information you can go here http://developer.android.com/resources/tutorials/views/hello-tablelayout.html

Hi
Thanks for your reply. I am not looking for xml structure. Basically i want to create a list, and each list row have five text view (horizontally and vertically both) and values of the text view has coming from web service.
Is it possible in list view or i have to use table view only.
Basically What is the difference between list view and table layouts?
Thanks
mindus

ListView is for creating a single up and down list of rows, with each TextView being another row. TableLayout allows you to have columns. You can still get the TableLayout to allow you to scroll up and down by encasing it in a ScrollView.

selectable listview item

I created listView item which contain list using following command and watched it working:
lv1=(ListView)findViewById(R.id.listView_entries);
setListAdapter(new ArrayAdapter<String>(this, android.R.layout.simple_list_item_multiple_choice, PENS));
However, I wonder if it is possible to have it attribute so that
clicking on single item will move to another activity, however clicking on the checkbox will highlight the listitem without moving to another activity?
Currently, I implemented onclick function on listView so that clicking on any item will go to another activity. However, does clicking on the checkbox on each item.
Thanks,

I'm not sure I follow you completely on this, but it should do what you want if you supply an OnClickHandler for the checkbox. You may need to expand the padding on the checkbox control to ensure that you hit it and not the list entry around it.

hey i think i found a solution to this, i found it in the pro android training manual. i will post once i am able to integrate into my code. thx.

Java to XML

Hi guys.
New to Android Development and was wondering if there was some way of taking the users input to create an activity? For example say the user is going through the process of setting up a profile of themself. One of the questions is "how many pets do you have?". The user inputs "4" and then clicks the 'Next' button (which opens the next activity).
How would I take the users input of "4" to create four editText objects in the next activity so that the user can now input the name's of his/her's pets?
I'm an ok-ish programmer (have never touched XML before) so you don't need to go into detail I just don't know how I would access this variable to create the four editText objects. From what I've found you can't add strings to the resources at runtime.

Don't bother replying, I've solved my problem. Just need to create a dynamic layout in JAVA