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Root How to make and use HWT files (Huawei Themes)

D

DeadDude

Android Enthusiast
Terms & Abbreviations Used

Hwt - HuaWeiTheme. A zip file with all theming elements. The zip extension is changed to hwt

EUI - EmotionUI; application for PC included in Hi-Suite. Allows reading themes from phone, packaging themes from folder with description.xml. Does NOT support our phone outright. MUST edit existing theme from phone- cannot use 'Package to Phone' option. MUST save as hwt locally and copy to phone-> SD -> hwthemes

Hi-Suite - Huawei application for PC to manage your phone. I'm still discovering what it can do.


I will eventually fill this out to match title.

In the meantime, does anyone know of an app that reads xml as formatted on android?

Doing this first sans PC, then with PC.

Theme folder
SD/hwthemes

DIYtheme folder is rubbish, ignore it.

HWT files are zips. Rename and extract. Tweak it. Zip it. Rename hwt from zip.
 
Reserved for with PC guide

On the PC you can download the emotion theming program. I was never able to create a scene from scratch with this program; it kept telling me my images were incorrect. So what I resorted to was modifying a theme that came on my device. I'd suggest to not I repeat NOT pack to phone- save it locally first and then manually copy it to the folder on your phone.

I plan on including a screenshot here, depicting the various options for saving and opening and importing.
 
Questions and answers

How to edit the preview in Themes app on device?

The only way I found to edit the preview picture is to manually unzip the theme and extract the preview folder. Change the picture there and then re zip it.

What resolution for pics?
Lockscreen 480x800
Wallpaper 960x800

How to change sounds?
Name your sound unlock.ogg and replace the one you unzipped with it. OGG is a valid file format! Not a renamed wav or zip!
 
Questions and Answers from users

1. Why use PC at all?
The application Hi-Suite includes Emotion UI Themer (EUI). While it doesn't appear to support our devices directly, it can still generate a hwt file. If you built a theme on device and it doesn't work, try importing it into EUI and packaging it.
 
got tired of the crappy default themes and started working on one for me, anyone know how to get rid of the divider(blue) under the toolbar in the notification or how to show time in non 24 hour format(ie 3:58 not 03:58), or change the clock color(I can't find the color in status_bar.xml to change it, huawei moved it:()

and what is that pc application, I haven't seen one.

you can see the divider here
Screenshot_2014_03_01_17_44_24.png
 
That looks great so far.

Maybe the blue line is in the notifications bar somewhere ?

I don't use stock notifications, I use Widgetsoid. Has no blue line...
 
Hello!

I'm sorry to bring back an old thread but you were talking in March about modifiying a *.HWT theme.

I'd like to know how you managed to do so!

I downloaded the HiSuite v1.8.10.26.06 from the huawei.com website but could not find any "Theme Editor" in it!
(see hisuite, huawei Pictures, hisuite, huawei Images, hisuite, huawei Photos, hisuite, huawei Videos - Image - TinyPic - Free Image Hosting, Photo Sharing & Video Hosting)


I also tried to rename *.hwt files in *.zip to "manually" edit its contents, but when I bring it back to a *.zip -> *.hwt the phone does not recognize the theme...

Could you please give me some advice/directions?

Thanks a lot!
 
I'll try to help... I am without a PC at the moment...

To begin, did you copy out one of the themes that came with the device? Remember, when you copy it back it will replace the original.

While you could try changing the name and creator fields, that might cause issues if done incorrectly.

Once file is copied to PC, add .zip to the end of the file.
Unzip it, keeping directories intact.
Don't use 7zip. Just normal zip. Try no compression if it doesn't work.
Modify the files as you wish. Keep dimensions the same.
Rezip the project.
It should be named something like theme.hwt.zip now. Remove the .zip
Copy the file back to phone.
Close and reopen themes app.
Apply.
Done
 
Thanks for the fast and detailed reply!

I managed to get the HWT->ZIP method to work (my archiver had the bad habit to create a folder inside the archive, hence not recognized by the phone!).
I can then modify xml's and other .9.png's...


I'd still appreciate a lot any help in the HiSuite direction, since guessing the name of the XML tags (for example, how do I change the text color in the SMS stock app?) is quite a slow (and painful) approach....

Having a GUI to tweak colors or backgrounds would be appreciated!
(or a reference to the different xml tags)

Thanks again, and anyway!


(please excuse any English-related mistakes, it's not my mothertongue!)
 
No worries, your English is better than half the people I know! 😃

I might pull my PC out next week and take a look at my notes... I never got deep into that stuff, just far enough to tweak icons, walls, and sounds.

You can also modify the lock screen and do some cool tweaks... Had a theme with swipe to unlock.... But you had to swipe down and line up a pipe to a mouth, or it wouldn't unlock.

There's a huawei site with themes, too... But our device is between theme revisions... Some newer ones work mostly, while the older ones are missing features we can use.... Or the resolution is off for our screens...

If you ever find a reference in English, please share! It is *much* sought after.
 
#UPDATE#

A little update in the HiSuite direction: the versions I managed to find on the official Huawei website do not show the Emotion UI Tool.
However, you can still find it in the version hosted on the "huaweinews" website (Downloads section, v1.8.10.2006).
Nevertheless this tool is mainly for lockscreen, wallpapers and app icons.
No detailed customization possible for notification center or SMS stock app for example.

Hence we're still stuck with the HWT->ZIP method, with guess-and-try modifications of the XML files..!

Unless someone finds a reference somewhere on the various XML tags we can use....
 
KainXS said:
got tired of the crappy default themes and started working on one for me, anyone know how to get rid of the divider(blue) under the toolbar in the notification or how to show time in non 24 hour format(ie 3:58 not 03:58), or change the clock color(I can't find the color in status_bar.xml to change it, huawei moved it:()

and what is that pc application, I haven't seen one.

you can see the divider here
Screenshot_2014_03_01_17_44_24.png
Click to expand...
Hi, I know you posted it a long time ago, but did you ever released your theme? I'm looking for something that changes more than the icons or the colors on the emui elements, I really liked how different your theme is.
 
I never did create en EMUI theme for the Valiant.

But, you can search on the internet for EMUI Themes.

I have since moved on to a Huawei Honor 5x- EMUI 3.1 (soon to be EMUI 4.0)


The Emotion UI Creation tool I mentioned above (earlier post in this thread) is still available, and completely compatible with this phone (Huawei Valiant).
 
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