General [Theme] SlantedLock v1.5.4 now on Cydia (UPDATE: iPad version 1.5.5p on Cydia)

MISC UPDATE:

Jul 9, 2011
Wow! It's been almost a year! I've finally come around to porting it over to the iPad. Not much has been updated other than to make it look nice on the iPad display. You can download the iPad theme version 1.5.5p at the link below. For screenshots and dditional change information on this post.

NOTE: This package is now available on Cydia for easier installation.
>> Download SlantedLock iPad version 1.5.5p <<

NOTE: The configuration URL for iPad version is: file:///Library/Themes/SlantedLockiPad.theme/config.html
NOTE2: You have a choice of two theme layouts: SlantedLockiPad and SlantedLockiPad2
NOTE2: To be clear. The iPhone version is still at 1.5.4. Version 1.5.5p is only for iPad.

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Nov 30, 2010
Well, hello! I've been quite busy lately, but I did find time to compile a set of 24 Christmas wallpapers for personal use. Thought I'd share them with you guys still using SlantedLock. These 24 images are from around the internet. I simply resize them and order them to my liking for use in SlantedLock. I take no credit for these images. Enjoy!

- Extract the folder "xmas" and SSH it into the theme's images folder.(Private/images)
- In Configuration menu, under Wallpaper Set, select the last radio circle. Then type in "xmas" into the empty field next to the radio circle.(without quotes. x in xmas is NOT capitalized)

>> Download 24 Christmas wallpapers <<

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Oct 1, 2010
I'm pumped for Halloween seeing that this is October 1st! I created a set of 24 Halloween themed wallpapers for use with SlantedLock so I can enjoy get even MORE into the Halloween spirit! Thought I'd share with you guys.

- Extract the folder "Halloween" and SSH it into the theme's images folder.(Private/images)
- In Configuration menu, under Wallpaper Set, select the last radio circle. Then type in "Halloween" into the empty field next to the radio circle.(without quotes. Capital H)

Enjoy!

>> Download 24 Halloween wallpapers <<

----------- ORIGINAL POST (full of instructions!) --------------
Hi folks,

Before you flame me for making a new thread, I would like to state my reasons:
1) I feel that the LockMS thread was miss leading and didn't credit the proper creator
2) Many people were asking me for help on the original theme, which is now entirely different
3) I suspect that this theme may bring a whooooole lot of questions due to a new approach I take with the configuration, so people can ask them here in a fresh thread just for it.

Honestly... I don't want to step on anyone's toes here... Just want to share my creation as I'm sure some of you would enjoy it just as much as I had fun making it.

With that out of the way... I want to let everybody know that the theme that inspired me to start making theme is call Typophony 4 by Angelman8 (http://angelman8.deviantart.com/#/d2wh6o9), which was VERY lightly tweaked and posted here on MacRumors under the name LockMS... with no credit given to Angelman8... but LockMS is how I came to know of this theme. It is true that I had started with that theme as a base. However, I've piece by piece re-written the entire thing into a totally different Theme--design AND back end code. The weather was a separate module posted by dzendeh in the old thread, which I believe originates from weatherFurik. However, even that's been re-written entirely(except for the XHR function because that's as basic as it gets...) and merged into my new script.

So the new theme...
- Outputs everything in HTML text and can easily be manipulated by a Stylesheet. If you know HTML and CSS, you can pretty much do whatever you want with the elements.
- Caches the weather using HTML5's SQLite relational database. For this reason, I've minified the scripts as I don't think tweaking the script is a wise idea.
- Configuration is no longer in a ConfigureMe.js file. All configurations are stored in the same database as the cached weather. All configurations are controlled through a web form in Safari! How easy is that?! A user name "bost" from modmyi forum gets the credit for figuring out the linking of the theme and the database together!

As far as I know, this is probably one of the first, if not the first, theme released to use this method to cache without additional plugins like cydget or something.

Word of warning though: Due to added database scripting, the initializing performance may suffer a bit when you have weak connection.

Also worthy to note is that this version does time calculation a MUCH more efficient way. It will update minutes, hours, or date ONLY when those values need changes. Otherwise the recurring function only does seconds calculation--cutting down all the excess calculation for minutes, hours AND date as in previous versions.
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Enough talk. Here's the meat of the post!

INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS
-------------------------
You MUST follow these installation to make the theme work.
Theme will show BLACK SCREEN if these set up steps are not completed.

Theme requires:
"Winterboard"
"file:// for MobileSafari" module from Cydia(free. If you downloaded the package from Cydia, this is already included.)
"LockScreen Clock Hide" -- or any other plugin/module that hides the default clock.

1) If you downloaded SlantedLock from Cydia, skip to step 2. Otherwise, download and install "file:// for MobileSafari" from Cydia.
This will enable you to access the configuration screen.

2) Open Safari and type in this(case sensitive):
file:///Library/Themes/SlantedLock.theme/config.html

*Thanks hackthatphone for the tip on the easier pathing.

BOOKMARK this link so you can return to this page on Safari anytime to make configuration changes!

3) Enable SlantedLock in Winterboard. Now enjoy!
NOTE: It may take a few seconds to initialize on first time.

This set up is a tad confusing. However, you only need to do it once to benefit using the configuration with ease in the future.


Just a food for thought on the caching idea for those conscious about their data usage:
YahooWeather: 2.33KB/fetch ----- @ 1 minute interval = 1440 fetches = 3.28MB/day(24 hrs) ----- @ 30 min interval = 48 fetches = 112KB/day
AccuWeather: 9.37KB/fetch ----- @ 1 minute interval = 1440 fetches = 13.18MB/day ----- @ 30 min interval = 48 fetches = 450KB/day

So be sensible with your update interval frequency if u do care about data use--especially for those on a 200MB data plan from AT&T. If you set update interval to 1 minute and uses accuweather, you can easily rack up 390MB of use over 30 days.
If you are using the cached version, that is what it boils down to.
If you are NOT using the cached version, it is the same as above + how ever many times you lock your phone in a day. This is because it already has the timer going, but it does not have cached data to use when you lock the phone, so it has to perform a fetch.

I think YahooWeather updates their RSS feed by the hour. Also, the reason why AccuWeather's fetches are much larger is because it includes everything... 7 days forecast, moon phases, planetary cycles, sunset, sunrise, etc. Where as yahooWeather is simply the current condition.

/***************SMALL TWEAKS SECTION*****************/
As I'm a huge advocate of efficiency, I always seek tweaks that do things.... efficiently. lol This small section will be reserved for small tweaks that are mainly cosmetics or an alternative method of achieving something more efficiently. It's totally optional, but if you know what you're doing, you can achieve a slightly better looking theme. These will eventually roll into the main package if/and when I update the main package.

Tricks for custom wallpaper use
With the latest revision 1.5.3, we now have control of the background. Here's how it works:
- Script will update wallpaper per hour.
- It will look for the corresponding wallpaper to the hour in 24 hour format.(ie. 0-23, 0 represents midnight)
- Wallpaper must be in "jpg" format at 640x960 resolution.(jpg extension in lower case)
- Works similar to weather icons--you throw the 0.jpg to 23.jpg into a folder and name it whatever, then specify in config.
- If you do not have 24 images to use, you can simply duplicate the same wallpaper and name it as another number. So lets say you want wallpaper cool_beans.jpg to be shown from noon to 3:59PM, you simply duplicate cool_beans.jpg 4 times and rename them as 12.jpg, 13.jpg, 14.jpg, and 15.jpg. A bit of a space waster... I know, but it's the easiest to work with.

Round Time Colon
This optional tweak is suggested by jpcarro on post #125 of this thread. May come in handy for anyone using a more "rounded" font type.

For those interested in round dots for the time semicolon instead of square blocks, here's the webkit instruction:
-webkit-border-radius:15px;

Just add it to sections div#secondsbox and div#ampmbox in your css.
Note: to get a clean round circle, I increased the box height and width to 16px

Click to expand...

Time colon shadows.
Now fixed in v1.5.2

/*******************END SECTION*********************/

Changes:
v1.5.4
- Critical bug fix where the iPhone becomes slow and sluggish when offline for longer than interval time.
- Cosmetic fixes in the configuration menu to clear things up.
- Updated README with various usage instructions.

v1.5.3
- Ability to specify custom wallpaper set name.
- Optimizations/reliability fixes

v1.5.2
- Configuration now show the current settings--even after respring or page refresh.
- Time colon has same shadowing smoothing as texts. No more clunky hack.
- Ability to specify custom icon set
- Ability to specify custom update interval time

Important for upgraders from 1.5.2 and older: Before accessing the configuration file, please go to Settings > Safari > Databases and delete the SlantedLockCache before proceeding. Reason: new database with new fields to support new features.
Download Theme! (v1.5.4) (now also in Cydia!)

(I've received recommendations for this donate button and I feel that I've done at least enough coding and maintenance to deserve one. Please do not feel obliged. )


iPad version by Leddhedd
Leddhedd has created an iPad compatible version and even created the 24hr background compatible for it! All credit to the iPad version goes to Leddhedd!

leddhedd said:

Thanks!

yes, i created a custom .CSS and custom backgrounds,
you might want to use my iphone backgrounds also to keep the look the same across the theme, obviously you dont have to but i will upload them just in case.

here are the ipad backgrounds -
http://rapidshare.com/files/418701255/Slantedlockipad.zip

Iphone
http://rapidshare.com/files/418701457/SlantedlockIphonemod.zip

and the custom .css for people who want to get this on the ipad now -
http://rapidshare.com/files/418700051/Slantedlock_Ipad.zip

just make sure that when you go to your file:// config in safari you specify that you want SlantedLockiPad as the config file

thanks for the support!

Click to expand...

UCLAKoolman said:

I've moved on to the REDLOCKScreen now, but this slant theme was awesome until all the modifications people posted for it kind of killed it for me.

Click to expand...

That's the beauty of it all. I'm a big advocate for freedom in customization. I started making this theme in the first place because I feel like the original theme "locks" people in a certain way with very few avenues to tweak and customize. If you know CSS, you can literally build an entirely different layout, sizing, color, fonts, orientations, you name it! If HTML and CSS supports it, you can do it. Everyone can make a unique one for himself while still riding on the scripting framework!

Benji222 said:

So question.
How long is the delay from when u hit the top button to seeing it this way?
You said up to 3 seconds before and I just couldnt deal with that to check the time.

Click to expand...

If the phone is in sleep mode already and u just hit the home or lock button, it's instantaneous.

If the phone is in homescreen and you hit lock. It varies. I notice that if you lock/unlock repeatedly a lot in seconds, it will lag more. When I'm at home, it's about half a second to a full second for everything to load. When I'm at work, it takes a bit longer depending on the internet connection speed when fetching new data.(I guess the same can be said about other themes that fetches data since they also perform internet fetches)

bakasam said:

Just FYI

Typing "file:///var/stash/Theme.xxxxx/SlantedLock/config.html" did not work for me so i tried to add .theme to Slanted lock to make it "SlantedLock.theme" and that seemed to have work

So it should look like:
file:///var/stash/Theme.xxxxx/SlantedLock.theme/config.html

Click to expand...

Whoopz, you are right. It should be SlantedLock.theme. As per Saurik's folder naming convention

bakasam said:

Is the latest version up on cydia?

tried installing the theme via ssh managed to get to the config page. configged. respring but the weather icon doesn't show up at all :/

Also i was wondering the NEXT time you enter the config page should it be displaying my old config settings or the default ones?

Click to expand...

If you didn't respring, it should keep your previous settings. I didn't wanna spend more time presetting it since you're probably not in that screen a lot and when you do, there's not that many choices to go through.

bakasam said:

Ahhh makes sense.

Any known issues with the weather widget not showing up at all? Mine does not show up at all (and yes weather is enabled under config and yes my postal code/yahoo code is correct too )
Edit:: Even the "dunno.png" pic does not show up

I've been using Robs edition of the slanted lock (before this was released) and had no issues with the weather widget

Click to expand...

Hmm... I have ran into that before, but that was a few iterations ago, I have not ran into it again. When that happens, I usually unlock the phone and relock it to reinitialize it. Whenever you lock the phone, it attempts to check your cache, if you have no cache, it will attempt to fetch new data.

scirica said:

I kind of like the Tango weather icon set. Would it be difficult to add this? It was pretty straightforward in the other LockMS themes.

Click to expand...

Hmm... Given the way that it was built, you only get 3 themes. I had chosen this approach to reduce user error. Next update(if there is one), I will allow a field where user can type in the name, which should allow for any icon set--so long as the icon names are the same.

snobny said:

Ok I downloaded File from Cydia--where do I go to know to see my folders??

Click to expand...

I don't think v1.5 is up on Cydia yet.