How to- Build your own ADW Theme

This tutorial assumes you have eclipse and the android SDK already installed and operational. Its been so long since I had to set them up, I'm not sure where to begin. If you find a good tutorial on that or would like to document and share your experience let me know. I personally still use the froyo SDK (only because I am too lazy to update) and eclipse helios..

I've decided to start this project because when I first started doing Ads themes I found the template to be difficult to use. I eventually was sent some source code and i actually started to see the changes I needed to make.
this is based off of my latest ADW themes. There is a wallpaper chooser, this wallpaper chooser is one of a kind, the stock template comes with a link embedded in a banner. One click brings you to the website of your choosing. I also have an add-on that disables the link and just leaves the banner. It comes equipped with a dock pack and an icon chooser pack. The icon chooser has an image as the bg and not a solid color unlike the original tempplte . I left the original readme in there make sure you read it, thats what its there for..
with this template you will be able to load this into eclipse and build your own Ads theme. I am going to teach you the ins and outs of what to change to make it your very own app ready to upload to the forums or even the market..

unzip the file and place a copy of the template in your SDK folder.. You can name it to whatever you want, just keep the subfolders the same.. Now open eclipse and start new project-android-android project
choose a name
choose from existing source
browse and find the template folder in your SDK.
choose finish

now you should see a project on your left side named "project1" at least that's what we are calling it here.. Everywhere we see a "template" we want to change that to "project1" or whatever you want your app called. Expand the project, see where it says src? Expand that right click where it says com.junkdruggler.template and change that to com.mysupercoolawesomehandle.project1 by choosing refacter. Do the same thing to the gen (generated java files) on rare occasions if you get errors you can delete the gen folder completely add a new folder and name it gen.. It will rewrite the java files and fix your errors.
Now lets open up the AndroidManifest.xml at the top you have the package name, edit that. The version code and name have to be updated each time you update to tell the phone to replace the application or the installer has to uninstall and reinstall manually. Scrolling down you see the wallpaper name, change that to your apps name. Finally scrolling down you find the dock provider also needs an edit.. Now your manifest is finished.
res/values/themeconfig.xml is next opening it reveals lots of simple edits available to your overall appearance. First lets change the theme title.. Next go through and see what is available to change by color codes and make small changes till you find what you like..
The wallpaper chooser has been edited and now includes a browser link. To change the url open src/mysupercoolawesomehandle/project1 and its in the wallpaper.java.. To remove the link but not the banner entirely I've added an edited wallpaper.java without the link. You also need to change the wallpaper chooser and androidmanifest. Inside the wallpaper chooser if you play with the "header" informations location (top of the page or bottom of the page) it moves the banner in the wallpaper chooser..
the icons, wallpapers and docks are already ready you just have to add more or edit them opening the corresponding xml lets you add more to the pack.. So if you add new icons for any reason the .PNG file name has to be in the xml or it won't show.
go into the drawables and start changing my images into your images.. Make sure you know how to edit .9.PNG files. The normalapplicationbackground.PNG is a background put behind every icon, whether you theme it or not.. Make it transparent if you don't want to use one.
building the app
after making changes to your source either from inside eclipse or through the actual files in the template folder that you put in the SDK, make sure you always clean the project. Do this inside eclipse by clicking project at the top and choosing clean. While I'm here I like to make sure build automagically is unchecked. My computer is slow and I can't wait all day for it to build everytime I do anything. After we have a nice clean project that isn't throwing any errors (warnings are ok)(and I'm too lazy to fix them) its time to build.. Lets right click on our project name on the left side and choose one of two options.. If adb and everything is setup you can now plug in your phone and choose run as android application. It will push an unsigned apk file to your phone for testing. Uninstall before trying to install a signed version. Or you can export a signed version that has been signed with your keystore for market uploading. Choose export make a new keystore. Put this somewhere safe, back it up, send it to a friend you trust. Without this you cannot update your apps. They need to be signed with the same one or it won't update and you have to make a new one and all your customers get aggrevated. Fill out the name, company name and all that to your liking.. And export the apk to a folder of your choice.. Send it to your phone and check to make sure everything works..
I hope this helps some would be and could be themers to start making some stuff.. Happy theming..

Junkdruggler

I want to thank everyone that has help me put this together.. First Jonnybueno for helping me with my first adw theme and showing me the ropes.. Jsinlegacy for the initial header image code in the wallpaper chooser and of course klinster, for helping me get the weblink working and answering my questions no matter how easy a Google search could be..
I will try to keep up the second post with links, FAQs and random tidbits collected and shared..

Download link and FAQs found at acsyndicate.net
http://www.forums.acsyndicate.net/showthread.php/2469-How-to-Build-your-own-ADW-theme