WisbarAdv2 + WAD Personal OEM Builder (by request)

[tiermann]

Since I can't post an OEM of the apps because of the license agreement I've made a builder so you can make it easily from your own cabs for personal flashing.

1. Unzip this zip file to a new folder if you havn't allready.


2. You'll need to have your own cab files for WisBarAdv2 and WAD.
you can get them at...
http://www.lakeridgesoftware.com/dow...dv2.armv4i.cab
http://www.lakeridgesoftware.com/dow...top.armv4i.cab
and save them in the same folder as you unzipped to.

3. Run MakeOEM.bat

4. When that finishes it will open up Merlin.skin and WADefault.skin for
editing in notepad.

Merlin.skin
-- Add "WA" before each bmp name.
ex: Phone.bmp becomes WAPhone.bmp
-- Save and close it.

WADefault.skin
-- Go to the "Edit" menu and click "Replace...".
-- Find What: sounds\
-- Replace With: (Leave it blank)
-- Hit "Replace All"
-- Save and close it.

5. You're done! Now you can make registry changes to the rgu file if
you want and when you're finished, move the Optional_WisBarAdv2_WAD folder
to your kitchens OEM folder. It will show up under "Shareware" in buildOS.

This works now. I flashed it with only a couple shortcuts missing, which I fixed in the updated zip. Just follow the instructions.

Edit: I updated the MakeOEM.bat so it now prompts if you want to include the two default themes. It will automatically skip them so you don't have to edit the bat file anymore. (Note: If you skip both default themes you will need to include your own custom theme.)

[hefman]

You and I are on the same page. I was just thinking about trying to dive into making an OEM for WA2 or WA3, with the skin built into ROM. Glad I looked here first. I'll give it a try in my next build (along with your PocketBreeze fixes), but I'll probably try it on the latest WA3 beta. Any idea if it should work for WA3? Thanks!

[tiermann]

The builder almost certainly won't work for WA3
The themes and shortcuts are different, etc. When the final version comes out though it could probably be adapted.


I'm gonna give this builder one more shot tonight and then if it doesn't work I'll give up on it til tomorrow. I'm gettin flashed out, hehe.


Edit: Working now! Yay!

There's no default icons or theme for Desktop, but that was the idea. There's only the default theme for WisBar itself.

Enjoy.


Edit:
Just a tip too if you want to save size. Get rid of the WADefault theme completely and just use the Merlin theme. You'll notice I broke the BAT file down into sections so you can just take out all the file moving for WADefault. Then change the skin file to merlin.skin in the rgu and config.ini. Big space saver if you're going to use another theme anyway.

[rbinkley]

What if we don't want Merlin as our default skin? how do we tell it what skin to use?

[tiermann]

You should be able to do that the same way as I described changing to Merlin (WM5) skin. I recommend leaving Merlin in the bat file as a backup though.

If you're going to add your own theme to the OEM I would do it like this...

1. Take the lines for copying the WADefault theme out of the MakeOEM.bat file.
You'll want to remove the notepad line for WADefault skin too.

2. Run MakeOEM.bat.

3. Edit the skin you want to use and make sure that it works from one folder.
Ex: If it has a sounds folder, move those sounds with the rest of the images and edit the skin file to point to their new location.

4. Copy your custom skin directly into Optional_WisbarAdv2_WAD.

5. Edit the Optional_WisBarAdv2_WAD rgu file and config.ini in notepad to change \Windows\WADefault.skin to your skin file.


After your rom is flashed you can still add new themes by choosing custom theme from Wisbaradv2 options and importing one.

Edit: Theme folders that are placed in \My Documents will automatically show up on the list because I added that to the rgu as a theme directory allready.

Edit: I've updated the attachment in the opening post so it now prompts you to ask if you want to install each one. You can skip step one up there if you have the latest version.

[rbinkley]

Cool... I'll see what I can break.

[mikee4fun]

When I build os I just get could not find file blah blah \temp\dump\portrait_qvga\imageinfo.bin

What would be the answer to resolve this?

[tiermann]

Are you trying to add a custom theme?

It sounds like you have a sub-folder inside your Optional_WA2 folder. Any WA2 themes you add will have to be edited to run from one folder, and then all of those files need to be moved directly into the Optional_WA2 folder.

For WAD themes, it's more of a pain...
You'll have to move all of those files out of the sub-folders and then copy them back to the same structure (\Themes\Desktop\portrait* etc etc) using the initflashfiles.txt. That's why I left the default WAD themes out of this completely and import my own themes later (from storage card or ext_rom) using the WAD theme manager.

Things would be so much easier if they just used renamed zip files for themes like some skinable apps do. Winamp has .wal files, which are just zips with the extension changed. Mortplayer does the same thing too. Actually, I'm gonna go post that on their suggestions thread right now :P.

[tiermann]

So I posted a suggestion for zipped theme support over on Lakeridges forum and got a response...

Originally Posted by Chris McKay at Lakeridge

The compressed theme support is something that I plan to do before too long.

So all that should get a lot easier in future releases, once he implements that.