[S9/J3/X7] Cheetah XT

[Kizune]

What is Cheetah XT?

Cheetah XT is - or rather: will be - a complete GUI package for the Cowon S9, J3 and X7. At the moment it consists of two mainmenus and a picture UI.

It was created with four key points in mind:
- Usability
- Speed
- Customizability
- Feature-richness

Indeed Cheetah XT goes other ways than my previous UCIs in some points, most notably the way larger icons and the support for themes and apps - features no other UCIs support to that extent.

Please note that Cheetah XT is currently in Beta stage which means that there's still a long way of development to go.



Themes? Apps?

Themes can be considered as mainmenus - they are similar to regular mainmenus, but are coded exclusively for Cheetah XT and make use of Cheetah XT's fantastic API. Themes can look however the developer wants: A theme can look like the default theme (shown in the preview picture above), it can look like Windows Phone 7 or it can look entirely different.

Apps can be considered as UCIs - way faster UCIs which start in a split second. A downside of apps is that they can only be used in Cheetah XT because just like themes, they use Cheetah XT's API as well.



Development Status / Bug Reports / Suggestions

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...UxXT19TSEV5VXc

This Google Spreadsheet contains information about the current development status and lets you post suggestions and bug reports.

(Note: The Spreadsheet contains three sheets!!)



Download

Dropbox | box | MediaFire

Installation:
- Open the archive and extract it into System/Flash UI/.
- Select the file 'mainmenuN.swf' and replace the 'N' with '1', '2' or '3' (X7 users can only use '1' or '2'). Which number you choose depends on which mainmenu you'd like to replace. Read your player's manual if you don't know what I mean.
- Please note: If file extensions are hidden (so the file is only called 'mainmenuN'), do not add '.swf' to the filename.



High FPS Launcher (J3 only)

Dropbox| box | MediaFire

Installation:
- Open the archive and then open the folder that contains the desired launcher. Available launchers are 24, 30, 40, 50 and 60 FPS.
- Select the file 'launcher.swf' in that folder and paste it into System/Flash UI/

Benefits:
This launcher is based on Cowon's stock launcher but has been optimized. In other words, your player should run even smoother if this launcher is installed.



Resources for Theme and Widget Developers

External Widgets: Specifications | Sample Widget
PlugIns: Specifications | Sample PlugIn



Website

US: http://kizune.x10.mx/
EU: http://kizune.square7.ch/



Donations





If you want to show me your gratefulness or want to support the development of Cheetah XT, feel free to donate via PayPal.

[Kizune]

Chapters

- Documentation of all Settings
- Quick Start
- External Icons
- External Widgets
- PlugIns


-----------------------------------------


Documentation of all Settings


-----------------------------------------


Quick Start




Home Screen

1. System Tray: Shows information about the system's current state. Similar to Android, you can drag it down to open a menu (later referred to as "pull-down menu").
2. Desktop: Contains icons, widgets and folders. Tap an icon to use it. Press and hold an icon/widget/folder to start the desktop editor.
3. Menubar: Contains buttons to access frequently (or not so frequently) used features.

---



Pull-Down Menu (Page 1)

21. Volume: Tap to open the circular volume indicator
22. Bluetooth
23. Rotation: On the S9 and J3, this button en- or disables the g-sensor. On the X7, this button performs a virtual rotation by 90°.
24. Brightness: Slide left/right to change.
25. Sleep Timer: Slide left/right to change.
26. Speaker (J3 and X7 only): Set the speaker mode ("on", "off", "auto") here.
27. Shutdown
28. Sleep
29. Lock
30. Grab this bar and pull it upwards to hide the pull-down menu.

---



Pull-Down Menu (Page 2)

31. Message Area

---



Pull-Down Menu (Page 3)

32. Shows music-related information, e.g. eq, repeat mode,...
33. Tag area (shows in radio mode the frequency). Drag it to the left to see buttons to change playback parameters, the eq,...
34. Seek bar
35. Media buttons

---



Menubar (expanded)

4. Add item: Opens a screen where you can run icons or add icons and widgets to the desktop by holding them.
5. Expand/Collapse: Expands or collapses the menubar
6. Launcher: Not implemented yet.
7. Shutdown
8. Change mainmenu: Lets you leave Cheetah XT... do not confuse with aforementioned themes
9. Settings

---



Icons/Widgets Screen

10. Category bar
11. Close
12. Show icons
13. Show widgets (not implemented yet)

Icons which are already in use are semi-transparent.
Tap an icon to use it. Press and hold an icon to start the desktop editor.

---



Desktop Editor (while dragging)

14. Drop icon here to move it to the previous desktop
15. Drop icon here to remove it
16. Drop icon here to move it to the next desktop

---



Desktop Editor (idle)

17. Add item (-> 4)
18. Close Desktop Editor
19. Configure grid (not implemented yet)

---



While using an App

20. App button: Opens a menu with several options, e.g. an exit button to leave the current app.


-----------------------------------------


External Icons


External Icons are icons that perform a user-defined action. An External Icon can start a specific UCI, an app or a flash game.

In order to add an External Icon, you have to modify the file "icons.xml" in System/Flash UI/Cheetah/Themes/Standard/Icons/.
By default, it looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<icons>

</icons>
<!--
    Reserved IDs: music, videos, pictures, browser, radio, recorder, documents, flash, typist, notepad, hunter, settings, calculator
    Types: img_replacement, launcher, launcher:uci, launcher:app, flashbrowser, command
-->

.
Insert the following code between <icons></icons> per icon:

<icon
    id     = "..."
    type   = "..."
    target = "..."
/>

.
id: Each icon has an id, no matter if it's internal or external. You can replace an icon by using one of the reserved IDs - they are listed within the XML file. The id is also used to determine the icon's filename - It's "id.png" if labels are disabled and "id__l.png" if labels are enabled. The PNG files have to be put into the folder where XML file is located (System/Flash UI/Cheetah/Themes/Standard/Icons/).

type:
- "img_replacement": Replaces the picture of an existing icon. The id must be one of the reserved ones.
- "launcher": Launch a UCI or an app, depending on the setting "Prefer Apps over UCIs".
- "launcher:uci": Launch a UCI.
- "launcher:app": Launch an app.
- "flashbrowser": Launch a flash game or app (from the "Flash" folder).
- "command": Execute an swf file in ".../Icons/cmd/". The id is used as filename for the swf file. The swf file must contain a function named "action", i.e. this.action = function(Void):Void { // do something }

target: The target depends on the type you set.
- type is "img_replacement": Leave this parameter out or set it to "".
- type is "launcher": The target is a filename.
- type is "launcher:uci": The target is a filename.
- type is "launcher:app": The target is an app's name.
- type is "flashbrowser": The target is a filename.
- type is "command": Leave this parameter out or set it to "".


Examples:

This is an icon which opens the game "Santoki" which is in the "Flash" folder.

<icon
    id     = "santoki"
    type   = "flashbrowser"
    target = "2SD_Santoki_0.1.swf"
/>

.
And this icon replaces Cheetah's stock music icon:

<icon
    id   = "music"
    type = "img_replacement"
/>

.
An icon which executes the file "test.swf" in ".../Icons/cmd/":

<icon
    id   = "test"
    type = "command"
/>

.
How a finished icons.xml looks like:

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<icons>
    <icon
        id     = "santoki"
        type   = "flashbrowser"
        target = "2SD_Santoki_0.1.swf"
    />
    <icon
        id     = "music"
        type   = "img_replacement"
    />
    <icon
        id     = "pictures"
        type   = "launcher:app"
        target = "Cheetah Picture UI"
    />
</icons>
<!--
    Reserved IDs: music, videos, pictures, browser, radio, recorder, documents, flash, typist, notepad, hunter, settings, calculator, shutdown, sleep, lock, app_manager, car_mode
    Types: img_replacement, launcher, launcher:uci, launcher:app, flashbrowser, command
-->

-----------------------------------------


External Widgets


External Widgets are widget created by other developers and behave just like regular widgets.

External Widgets have to be put into System/Flash UI/Cheetah/Themes/Standard/Widgets/. Usually, they consist of a folder with an swf file and an xml file inside.

Each widget has to be added to the text file "folders.txt" in System/Flash UI/Cheetah/Themes/Standard/Widgets/, entries are comma-delimited (e.g. "Test,Widget,Otherwidget").
There's also a batch script which automatically adds all folders to the list.


-----------------------------------------


PlugIns


PlugIns are swf files which can change Cheetah's behavior, add new features or do anything else.

PlugIns have to be put into System/Flash UI/Cheetah/Themes/Standard/PlugIns/.

Each swf file has to be added to the text file "list.txt" in the same folder, entries are comma-delimited (e.g. "test.swf,plugin.swf,otherplugin.swf"). There's also a batch script which automatically adds all swf files to the list.

PlugIn settings are located in Theme Settings > PlugIns - please note that not all PlugIns might be there because PlugIns can, but don't have to support settings.

[Kizune]

Other Information / Questions & Answers


- What's the so-called "FPS Fix"?
- I added External Icons and/or Widgets, but they don't show up
- Advanced Wallpaper - How do I calculate the required width for proper scrolling?
- Advanced Wallpaper - When I try to set a picture as Advanced Wallpaper, I get an error.
- Slideshow Widget / Slideshow Wallpaper - How to use "slideshow.txt"


-----------------------------------------


What's the so-called "FPS Fix"?

(Refers to: Cheetah's Settings > Advanced > FPS Fix)

If you use a custom launcher which changes the framerate of the player, you'll see that animations run way faster than usual - on framerates greater than 40 they are so fast it looks like the player is on drugs.

Anyway, the FPS Fix alters all animations in Cheetah XT so that they run as fast as intended. Additionally, your player seems to run way smoother.



I added External Icons and/or Widgets, but they don't show up

The support for external icons and widgets is disabled by default because it decreases the initial loading time.
In order to enable the support, enable the settings...

Support for external widgets: Theme Settings > General > Support: External Widgets

Support for external icons: Theme Settings > General > Support: External Icons



Advanced Wallpaper - How do I calculate the required width for proper scrolling?

You can use the following formula:

272 + 100 * (n - 1); n is the number of desktops.

Don't worry if the picture you want to use is smaller or larger than that - Cheetah XT is flexible and automatically adjusts the scrolling behavior to make everything look fine.



Advanced Wallpaper - When I try to set a picture as Advanced Wallpaper, I get an error.

Cowon's players support two ways of browsing: A physical way and a logical way.

• The physical way is based on the folder structure and is identical to the way you browse folders on your computer. The home folder is "Library/Folders/Pictures/".
• The logical way is based on tags ... in case of pictures, all pictures are just put into the virtual folder "Library/Pictures/"

Due to certain limitations, it's impossible to access a picture in the virtual folder outside of the picture browser - thus, you'll get an error if you try to set a "virtual picture" as advanced wallpaper.
The solution: Go to the root folder "Library", open "Folders" -> "Pictures" and open the picture you want to set as wallpaper.



Slideshow Widget / Slideshow Wallpaper - How to use "slideshow.txt"

The file "slideshow.txt" is a file which contains a list of pictures you want to play as slideshow and can be put into any folder. Don't forget to set the location using the button "Location of slideshow.txt".

Either you manually add all files to your "slideshow.txt" - it's a comma-delimited list, e.g. "file.jpg,otherfile.jpg,test.jpg" - or you use this batch script: Just put it into the folder where the pictures are and run the script - it will automatically generate a list of all pictures which are in the folder.

Widget: For the small widget variant a resolution of 200x160 is recommended, for the large variant it's 200x300. Anything larger is useless because larger pictures are downscaled and increase loading times.

Wallpaper: A resolution of 272x480 is recommended. However, you can use larger wallpapers and thus use the wallpaper scrolling feature (i.e. the wallpaper scrolls when you open another desktop).

[WAI]

7-zip and Windows based Zip details that wallpaper_browser is broken

Edit: ok it's fixed

[AfroSamurai]

Try dl again its workin for me

[checkmate134]

Did the option to prefer Apps over UCIs disappear in the beta?

[Kizune]

Originally Posted by checkmate134

Did the option to prefer Apps over UCIs disappear in the beta?

Nope... but the whole App Manager disappeared from the settings screen.
You can open it using the icon in the category "Cheetah XT".

[checkmate134]

Ah I see. But if the Apps and UCIs now have different icons, what is the point of the "Prefer Apps over UCIs" option under the App Manager?

This is really awesome by the way; I can finally stop using the WP7 theme . Also, I actually love that corner taken off of the App icons. It gives the whole thing a really unique feel. Right now though, it looks a bit weird with those and the traditional square icons, but I suppose that won't be a problem when this is finished.

[Kizune]

Originally Posted by checkmate134

Ah I see. But if the Apps and UCIs now have different icons, what is the point of the "Prefer Apps over UCIs" option under the App Manager?

I don't want to remove the possibility to use apps and UCIs simultaneously - a mainmenu is there to make all features accessible to the user. The "Prefer..." option usually takes effect in apps.

Originally Posted by checkmate134

This is really awesome by the way; I can finally stop using the WP7 theme . Also, I actually love that corner taken off of the App icons. It gives the whole thing a really unique feel. Right now though, it looks a bit weird with those and the traditional square icons, but I suppose that won't be a problem when this is finished.

Really, is it weird? Oo
It wouldn't be a problem for me to remove the corners from all icons.

[checkmate134]

Only a little bit, but once again, it really shouldn't be a problem later. Plus, it's a way for us to differentiate between Apps and UCIs. Anyways, I like it, but I guess you should get other people's opinions too before making such a decision.

Also, under Theme Settings - Desktop, I think "Number of Desktops" would be more appropriate than "Amount of Desktops". Amount is usually used for things that you can't physically count, such as time or money - at least that's my understanding of it.

[Kizune]

Originally Posted by checkmate134

Also, under Theme Settings - Desktop, I think "Number of Desktops" would be more appropriate than "Amount of Desktops". Amount is usually used for things that you can't physically count, such as time or money - at least that's my understanding of it.

Hmm, mine too... I don't know why I used "amount". I suppose I'm too tired...

[jooopy]

Surprise! Wow! Great!!!!!!!

[checkmate134]

One more thing: scrolling seems to have a few minor issues when your first press if on an icon. If you scroll too slow, you end up entering the desktop editing mode and the main menu is stuck in between two desktops. Other times when you scroll not too slowly but not too quickly either, the App or UCI opens. This would be a little bothersome if I loaded a desktop up with icons or when they're just on the sides of the screen, so hopefully you can do something about it. Other than that though, scrolling is perfect as far as I can tell .

I saw your edit after I returned to the thread, and YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY. I thought advanced wallpapers weren't implemented yet, but I guess I was wrong. It's one of my favorite features DDD.

[Kizune]

Alright, download my sneaky-ninja-update.
(I also added the new icons... please tell me if you like them or if you prefer the old ones)

[checkmate134]

I like the new icons!