ZL theme: tab background question

[twrock]

I'm so very close to "finishing" a ZL theme called xPhone (inspired by the Apple iPhone). For it, I created an all black background image (480x480), and it works "ok" that way. But I'd prefer just to choose to use black as the background color from within ZLauncher and be done with it. But for some reason that doesn't work. I can get everything to end up black with one exception: the background for the tabs. For the life of me, I can't figure out a way to make that anything but white. Does anyone have a suggestion for how I can get that to be black without an all black background image? (And if the answer is terribly obvious, please don't mock me too badly.) :o Incidentally, I'm using PFCD as my theme editor, so if the background is an image file(s), please tell me the reference number(s) because I can't seem to find them. Thanks.

Oh, and one more thing, after I finally get it finished, does anyone have a suggestion for a good place to "host" it? I want to be able to drop it somewhere and just forget about it, but I don't know where a good place would be. I mostly had a lot of fun making it, but this last little bit (this problem and a few others) has gotten me frustrated enough to just want to rid of it. :(

Here's a screen shot if anyone is interested.
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e367/twrock/xPhonebyPalmTX.jpg

[bh77a]

You must use the black background. The option to color the background does not and will not show up under the tabs.

[FerdFerd]

Oh, and one more thing, after I finally get it finished, does anyone have a suggestion for a good place to "host" it? I want to be able to drop it somewhere and just forget about it, but I don't know where a good place would be. I mostly had a lot of fun making it, but this last little bit (this problem and a few others) has gotten me frustrated enough to just want to rid of it. :(Why not deposit it in the Skins/Launchers/ZLauncher section of the Freeware forum right here at 1src? I know Palmgear also hosts freeware, but I'm not sure what hoops you need to jump through for that. Then there is Freeware Palm.

[twrock]

Thanks for the feedback bh. Now I can quit trying and just finish it with the black background image.

And thanks FerdFerd for the idea of leaving it here. I haven't been around enough to notice that I could do that. I'll definitely look into that and try to put it here.

[LupeValenz]

Treu true, you can upload it at 1Src skins section (http://www.1src.com/freeware/index.php?cid=85) for Zlauncher :). Nice lookin skin so far. There are lil sections you can skin for the tab but I don't remember off the top of my head what they are but you don't have to skin them if you don't want to as you can get pure black tabs with in the prefrences of Zlauncher. First you have to turn of the graphic tab then for the outline, go into menu-tab-tab properties, color, then change the tab title and active tabtitle to black and that will give you your pureblack tabs :)Sounds long but very easy really :)

[LupeValenz]

Nevermind, I see what you mean now....I don't see a way to get rid of that white strip >.< Just a simple black background is the way it seems :(

[twrock]

Thanks again for the feedback. I really think that ZLaucher should allow the area behind the tabs to be skinned. I'd think it would be a simple addition for them to make, just three graphic files (left, middle, right) like the plug-in panel or the tools panel. I kept looking for it because it seemed it should already have been there somewhere.

I found another "bug" in ZL in this process, at least I consider it a bug. "Artifacts" are left behind by the "Down" buttons if the "Up" buttons use the transparent color. It showed up in the buttons to scroll through the tabs (which show up when the tabs together exceed the screen width) and in the category list button. It would probably show up anywhere there is transparency in the "Up" state that is "covering" some part of the "Down" state because it is no longer covering it. (And the problem exists in the reverse state as well where there is transparency in the Down button that covers some visible part of the Up button.) So it seems that ZL does not "erase" the Down button after it is released. This would seem to be the proper way to have written the code, but maybe I havent' thought it completely through to discover why this isn't possible.

And probably related to this same problem, I was originally using the transparent color around the corners of the “Title Button Detail View” graphics (filename reference numbers 5580, 5581, 5590, 5591 when using PFCD to decompile the theme). If I only had one of my tabs set to show the Detail view, and I clicked on another tab with a different view and then back to the tab with the Detail view, the area around the corner of those buttons would show artifacts from the second tab’s view, not the background image.

I solved both of these issues by replacing the transparent color with black. But that means that if someone wanted to use some other background color or image, things won't look very good. It's not a huge issues in my case, because choosing not to use a black background (or at least a very dark background) will result in other "not so nice" looking problems (ex. the smooth corners around all app icons will deteriorate into jaggedness).

Anyway, the deed is done, and the theme has been uploaded:
http://www.1src.com/freeware/fileinfo.php?id=1672

[BuRnN]

nice skin it remind me a skin Call cobalt :D

[twrock]

BuRnN, are you the one who created Cobalt (or do you know who did)?

Yes, if you look at the "readme" file, I mentioned that the theme started with a slightly modified version of a Cobalt theme (something I had done quite a while ago already just for my own use; the memory is slipping here). Then I modified it even more significantly for this theme. But I couldn't find the information on the original author anymore. I would like to give credit in the readme file to whomever did the original, but I couldn't find it again. If you can tell me, I'd be happy to put that information in.

Another thing (for anyone), I not completely sure who the author of "Horizons" is. Is it "Eungang"? I modified the Horizons scroolbar and scroll buttons for this theme, and I'd like to get all of the "credits" correct.

[BuRnN]

yes in fact i did the cobalt skin but i use the graphics from a skin a dmitry skinui to create it i dont mind you do not include my name in the readme im always happy to see others people works
my skin are free and so are the right to mod or to use the skins :D

and horrizon is from Eungang(he use another nickname here) you must check the freeware section all the awnser was there :D

[twrock]

Thanks for that info. I'll modify the readme file to include that.

And thanks for the Cobalt theme. I used it for a very long time. It is a great looking theme.

[no_basho]

Great skin! I've just put it on my Treo 680 and it looks very nice.

One question: I have my "Signal" graphic on the bottom bar, but there's no graphic for when my data connection is active. Is it possible to include this?

Thanks!

[twrock]

Great skin! I've just put it on my Treo 680 and it looks very nice.

One question: I have my "Signal" graphic on the bottom bar, but there's no graphic for when my data connection is active. Is it possible to include this?

Thanks!

Thanks for the compliment.

To answer your question, honestly I don't know. Since I don't have a Treo, I'm not sure of what your are asking. Do you know if any other ZLauncher skins include what you are looking for? If so, please give me a link to that skin and I'll try to figure it out. I only know of one set of graphics related to a "signal", and that corresponds to my TX's WiFi signal. If I have WiFi on, it shows the signal strength. Otherwise it shows that WiFi is turned off (an X over the "antennae"). Does it correspond to your Treo's cell signal or nothing at all?

[no_basho]

Thanks for the compliment.

To answer your question, honestly I don't know. Since I don't have a Treo, I'm not sure of what your are asking. Do you know if any other ZLauncher skins include what you are looking for? If so, please give me a link to that skin and I'll try to figure it out. I only know of one set of graphics related to a "signal", and that corresponds to my TX's WiFi signal. If I have WiFi on, it shows the signal strength. Otherwise it shows that WiFi is turned off (an X over the "antennae"). Does it correspond to your Treo's cell signal or nothing at all?

Thanks for the response. The icon corresponds to my phone's signal strength, but it doesn't show either (1) when I'm in range of an EDGE (data) network, or (2) when I have an active data connection.

Here's a link to pictures of what I'm talking about. The first three icons are the relevant ones:

http://kb.palm.com/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBCGI.EXE?New,kb=PalmSupportKB,CASE=obj(33088),ts=Palm_External2001

If possible, it would be great to be able to customize the data icons so that they stand out agains the black background.

Thanks again for the great skin!

[twrock]

Here's a link to pictures of what I'm talking about. The first three icons are the relevant ones:

http://kb.palm.com/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBCGI.EXE?New,kb=PalmSupportKB,CASE=obj(33088),ts=Palm_External2001


(Edit: Original post deleted because I finally found the graphics.)

It looks like I found the graphics within ZLauncher that will give you what you want. Unfortunately I have no way of testing them. Will you please give me an address to which I can send the theme file so that you can test it? If all goes well, I'll update the theme here, but I really don't want to distribute something that hasn't been tested.

BTW, I've discovered that on my TX, there is no indication of relative signal strength. I either show "wireless off" or "wireless on with full signal". There is nothing in between. So maybe that set of graphics really is designed for cellular signal, not WiFi. Can anyone confirm this?

[no_basho]

Hi twrock,

I'd be happy to test it for you. Send me a PM and I'll shoot you my email address.