RELEASE: iSwitcher v0.80

[CyberGreg]

Okay - for those that liked v0.65, this one is flippin' sweet!

Update 9-2-2007 v0.81 (slight tweak on text of theme previews)

CLICK HERE Breezy & iBrickr users just remove the .zip extension from the download.

Nothing removed feature wise. Here's what's new:

Backs up your current theme. dock, icons and DisplayOrder.plist You can then install YOUR theme from the main page in iSwitcher.

That's not all, get this.... I have included a shell script that you can run from Terminal or SSH and create a new iSwitcher theme right on your iPhone! WOW! Now you might not think this is a big deal, allow me to share a concept:

You manually load your favorite icons, use rSBT and set your homescreen just the way you want. Now just launch iSwitcher (you can only do this the very first time you launch and install a theme, obviously ).

So iSwitcher just created a thm zip file from all your icons and copied your SBDockBG2.png and DisplayOrder.plist file too.

Now through either ssh or Terminal you:
cd /usr/bin
./MakeTheme
Read the screen and follow the prompts. Make sure you name your theme WITHOUT any spaces. After a bunch of error checking it will copy your backed up theme as the name you entered in ssh or Terminal. Simply launch iSwitcher and there's your new theme (with a default preview image, which you should replace).

Sorry... I'm babbling now.... It still includes 5 themes.

As we've seen from a few users it much easier to make custom themes and we still keep the same functionality; This has been asked a couple of times so it bears repeating
Here's the installation order, obviously a later step will over write a previous file, hopefully you get the gist of it.
Phase 1
Loads icons from theme zip file
Loads dock from theme zip file
Phase 2
Loads dock from theme .thm folder
Loads DisplayOrder from theme .thm folder
Phase 3
Finally loads DisplayOrder from ThemeMaster folder

Users should be able to just install this version over v0.65 but please remove any previous version (<v0.4), theme application and theme zip files (once again this is very easy if you are using iBrickr or Breezy).

Location of files (for manual install - see Manual Install.txt file):
Apps
/Applications/iSwitcher.app
If you have to, chmod +x on iSwitcher and LoadTheme

Instroot:
/ install and chmod +x on all file if you didn't previously have them installed.

Themes:
/var/root/Media/Themes

ThemeMaster (used for ALL themes)
/var/root/Media/ThemeMaster/DisplayOrder.plist

Info.plist file (same as previous version):
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>CFBundleDevelopmentRegion</key>
<string>English</string>
<key>CFBundleExecutable</key>
<string>name_of_theme.thm</string>
<key>CFBundleIdentifier</key>
<string>name_of_theme.thm</string>
<key>CFBundleInfoDictionaryVersion</key>
<string>6.0</string>
<key>CFBundlePackageType</key>
<string>APPL</string>
<key>CFBundleSignature</key>
<string>????</string>
<key>CFBundleVersion</key>
<string>1</string>
</dict>
</plist>

[lilscrappydew25]

Damn CyberGreg your gonna have to start paying my bills because I can't stop playing with iSwitcher. Everytime I look your whipping out a new version. Keep it up, I might get put-out and be homeless, but my iPhone will look Good!

[CyberGreg]

Damn CyberGreg your gonna have to start paying my bills because I can't stop playing with iSwitcher. Everytime I look your whipping out a new version. Keep it up, I might get put-out and be homeless, but my iPhone will look Good!

Thanks, that made me chuckle

ALERT - thread jacking in progress....

Okay, so I mentioned that with this new release your iPhone now has the ability to create themes. How's that work?

The 'trigger' point is the DisplayOrder.plist file in the 1.thm theme folder. Let's just say you can put icons onto your phone but you'll be damned if you can figure out this whole 'theme-ing' thing

So again, somehow you are able to load up all the icons you like and you've finally figured out how to tweak your homescreen with rSBT. Here comes the 'hack: All you have to do is remove the DisplayOrder.plist file from /var/root/Media/Themes/1.thm. That's it! The next time you load any theme with iSwitcher, it will check for that file, see that it's not there and perform a full system backup, and I mean full. Every app folder's icon will be added to the 1.thm theme folder and quick as a flash it will ditto zip your icons for you. YES, that's right your iPhone is now a theme producing machine!

Okay, great now we can restore this way cool custom theme we just made, is that it?

Nope! Now take a trip into Terminal or ssh into your phone... what's that, you don't have Terminal installed and you can't ssh into your phone. Sorry, one of these two methods is required (for now ).

Once in (commands as follows, <return> = press the return key):
cd /usr/bin <return>
./MakeTheme <return>

Screen displays:
Hello, this script will help create your
very own iSwitcher theme.
First, did you select the home screen
preview page in iSwitcher? If not, then
please EXIT this script now, simply press
the iPhone 'Home' button.
Come back once you have made your theme
backup.

Press 'Return' to continue...

Second screen displays, after pressing return
--------------------------------------
Okay, now please CAREFULLY type in your
NEW theme name. Please 'DO NOT' put
'.thm' at the end of your theme.
I will do that FOR YOU!
--------------------------------------

myCoolTheme <return>

If all goes well and with the help of some magic 'theme' dust you'll get this message:

Okay, that easy.... we're done!
Launch iSwitcher and pick your new theme


That's it, now you made your own iSwitcher theme right on your iPhone and now that you've copied it over, you can work on another one, this one is safe and sound in your themes folder. Please do try it out to confirm it loads the way you want it to.

The only cautionary point is, try not to use a MasterTheme/DisplayOrder.plist file because we don't back that one up when making the backup.

[N818]

Awesome

[Cody Overcash]

jeeze i just installed .65 lol

[SundayDuffer]

Greg,
Is it just me or it does happen to everyone else.
Somehow the theme doesnt line up right..about less then half an inch is cut off on the left hand side vertically...this happened with every themes..i uninstalled and re-intalled iswitcher two times...the screen is still off.

Josh

Just found out why..I installed SummerBoard..and it jacked the background of the theme, and it also jacked up rSBT...and it also cut off part of the icons on the left hand side...I uninstalled it..reset..and everything back to normal. Perhaps in the future, SummerBoard could be cool..because you can change the background on your theme by changing your wallpaper....I'll just wait and learn more about SummerBoard later...for now it is off on my phone.

[CyberGreg]

Thanks Josh Good to know - I have not used Summerboard but given it's functionality I can imagine that many 'SpringBoard' utilities including iSwitcher will not function properly.

[darngooddesign]

I have a global do.plist in ThemeMaster, and one particular theme shows field test. I added a custom do.plist in both the ZIP and then just in the nameoftheme folder and neither took hold.

I have the following permissions:
Theme Folder - 755
Contents of folder are 644 except for do.plist which is 755

[CyberGreg]

I have a global do.plist in ThemeMaster, and one particular theme shows field test. I added a custom do.plist in both the ZIP and then just in the nameoftheme folder and neither took hold.

I have the following permissions:
Theme Folder - 755
Contents of folder are 644 except for do.plist which is 755

Just to clarify, if you have a DisplayOrder.plist file in /var/root/Media/ThemeMaster then none of the other do.plist files matter.

If you want, send me your theme zip and I'll take a look. cybergreg atthewonder hotmail period com.

Is it the fieldtest icon or the actual fieldtest app or both?

[darngooddesign]

Just to clarify, if you have a DisplayOrder.plist file in /var/root/Media/ThemeMaster then none of the other do.plist files matter.

If you want, send me your theme zip and I'll take a look. cybergreg atthewonder hotmail period com.

Is it the fieldtest icon or the actual fieldtest app or both?

Ok that explains it. I would prefer to have a global file that can be overwritten by a local file. Except for one, all my themes have the 4 across layout so I can easily maintain one global do.plist. Then this one particular theme has 5 in the dock so it would be nice if that would override the global do. It would make everything easier to maintain as opposed to having to rewrite the dos for every theme just because I added a new app.

Regardless, excellent app.

PS. Where does the "Slide to left to change themes" graphic reside?

[CyberGreg]

Ok that explains it. I would prefer to have a global file that can be overwritten by a local file. Except for one, all my themes have the 4 across layout so I can easily maintain one global do.plist. Then this one particular theme has 5 in the dock so it would be nice if that would override the global do. It would make everything easier to maintain as opposed to having to rewrite the dos for every theme just because I added a new app.

Regardless, excellent app.

PS. Where does the "Slide to left to change themes" graphic reside?

You can kind of do that now, create your master DisplayOrder.plist and copy it to all the theme folders you want to use it on, then make a custom one for that special theme and put it in its theme folder.

The order of install is:
Zip file, then theme folder and then MasterTheme folder. If the order was reversed we'd have to update the zip file for every new app that was installed.

The image your looking for is located in the 1.thm folder (/var/root/Media/Themes). If you remove it you'll loose the ability to restore your backup theme but by all means change it to suit your liking

[bluemax189]

Any help for us guys using SCP? got the program on there, up and running, but it wont install the actual themes. I loaded the app, made the /Theme folder and /ThemeMaster folder. I put the themes in the theme folder and nothing in the ThemeMaster folder. What goes in that folder? It would be nice if someone could help us windows users.

[DiPSET08]

Yes, I'm new here and this is really confusing.
I can get to the part where you customize your own theme, but don't know how to get past that. =[

[CyberGreg]

Any help for us guys using SCP? got the program on there, up and running, but it wont install the actual themes. I loaded the app, made the /Theme folder and /ThemeMaster folder. I put the themes in the theme folder and nothing in the ThemeMaster folder. What goes in that folder? It would be nice if someone could help us windows users.

Um, you've had iBrickr longer than Mac users have had Breezy

http://pxl.ibrickr.com/

If you used that there is like two steps, double-click the .pxl file and click install.

Anyhow, in the folder there is a 'Manual Install.txt" file. You have to set the permissions on both iSwitcher and LoadTheme in the .app folder.

[SundayDuffer]

Greg,

I was able to add my own themes to iSwitcher, and they worked flawlessly.
However, i did not go with your v8 1.thm route..(i understood it after messing with it for awhile, but it is hard to digest at first).
I kindly apologize to you, and i dont mean to diisrespect you at all for hijacking your thread.

This is how i did it, by mirroring your themes on there...everything on iBrickr.

go to var/root/media/themes
click on create folder button
popup window comes on..type in whatever your theme name is as yourthemename.thm/ and hit enter.
click on yourthemename.thm/
click on upload button...and here are the 5 items you need to upload under the yourthemename.thm/ folder (given that you had prepared these and save them on your harddrive somewhere)
1. DisplayOrder.plist
2. Info.plist (must be match yourthemename on the strings)
3. SBDockBG2.png
4. yourthemename.thm.zip
5. thm.preview.png

reset you iphone...and launch iSwitcher...Voilaaaaaaaaaa..your new theme is there...scroll to it and tap on it....and ENJOY.

Greg, thanks for all your help...i really enjoy iSwitcher. But, i am still trying to find out how edit plist files and re-save as .plist files on Vista...I was able to ask a friend to edit mine on his Mac. Hopefully someone can come up with an app to do this.

[darngooddesign]

How compatibile is iSwitcher with Summerboard. Assuming I'm just using it to swap out regular icons and the dock image.

[CyberGreg]

How compatibile is iSwitcher with Summerboard. Assuming I'm just using it to swap out regular icons and the dock image.

100&#37; compatible and you are correct just copies .png files and DisplayOrder.plist.

Now, do some themes look pretty funky? You bet and clearly you shouldn't load themes with backgrounds in them 'cause that one icon will look pretty messed up.

I guess I'm just really anal about having all the homescreen icons match, so I used SummerBoard and didn't really gain anything out of it because I'd simply hide the rest of my icons and use iLauncher. Plus, iLauncher has displayed my wallpaper since 0.2 was released

[cameron]

CyberGreg;23221 wrote:
| Now through either ssh or Terminal you:
| cd /usr/bin
| ./MakeTheme
| Read the screen and follow the prompts. Make sure you name your theme
| WITHOUT any spaces. [...]

Unless there are limitations elsewhere in the system, the requirement to
have no spaces seems to be lack of shell quoting in your script. Would you
like a modified version that is space safe?
- Cameron

[CyberGreg]

CyberGreg;23221 wrote:
| Now through either ssh or Terminal you:
| cd /usr/bin
| ./MakeTheme
| Read the screen and follow the prompts. Make sure you name your theme
| WITHOUT any spaces. [...]

Unless there are limitations elsewhere in the system, the requirement to
have no spaces seems to be lack of shell quoting in your script. Would you
like a modified version that is space safe?
- Cameron

Sure error proofing is always a good thing. "LoadTheme" in the iSwitcher.app folder is the workhorse to "install" each theme and in /usr/bin is MakeTheme, that's the script to create the new theme folder.

I'm always up for improvements - thanks!


PS If you don't already have iSwitcher installed, here they are (as text files).

[noosphere]

Hey is anyone else having problems downloading iswitcher? Whenever I click on the link there some kinda weird script... There's no pxl file available for me to upload via Breezy (Mac Intel)