Designer Dev Log #1 (Patreon)

Designer is a very in depth tweak. With these dev logs I plan to share more frequent and more in depth updates I make to Designer.

Note: I share debs in discord that include changes I make, before updates are released. Patreons do have access to this.

Since the last update (1.2.4) I started working on (1.2.5) here is what i've done since then.

Fixed alpha animations on AppIcon element

In Designer when apps are hidden with alpha they still can be tapped. This isn't normal in iOS, usually when something is hidden it doesn't receive touches anymore. In Designer however sometimes we want to actually hide the app icon and still have it receive the touch to activate the app. Since this is the case I put the AppIcon element inside another view which has the touch and only hide the views inside. In doing this it breaks any alpha animation. When the animation plays its only changing the alpha on the parent view, not the elements inside. I have fixed this where it acts like it should.

Added other ways of getting to Designer settings

To get to Designer settings you must open settings app, scroll to tweaks, then click Designer. Now I have added a settings gear icon in the app drawer which will open directly to Designer settings. I also added this option to the Creator itself. Press the gear in Creator settings then press Open Designer Settings. This only makes sense in the Designer app though. The Designer app is available in Discord for patrons. 

Added animations to UIImageView

Actions were added to UIImageView, but I failed to add animations. Therefore if you set an action for an animation it never gave animation options to you.

Added openAppLibrary and openTodayView.

This was a nightmare. The thing with Designer is to get touches and hide icons on the stock springboard I hide the IconViews and disable touches on the IconListView. This is great and works perfectly, but if you want to show the TodayView it will be blank, same for AppLibrary due to me hiding all apps. 

I changed this where it only hides apps that are in SBIconLocationRoot and SBIconLocationDock. This fixes the items showing on today and library, but there is still the issue of not having touch in those locations. Because I disable touch on the IconListView. To fix this I hook wether the todayview or library are open. If they are open I enable touches again. Then disabled touches when they close. I don't mind things like this but try to avoid them as much as possible. Changes like this can be very firmware dependent. If something changes in future firmwares these will most likely be things I have to update.

It took awhile to find the correct methods for AppLibrary and TodayView. Roughly 4hrs give or take to find the methods and test them. From iOS14 to iOS16 Apple uses 3 separate methods to do this just for AppLibrary. This was the beginning of the AppLibrary so it makes sense why they kept changing it. In the end I did find what I needed. TodayView being a little easier than AppLibrary.

Also there was a request to disable swipe access but still allow an action to trigger them. If what I did above wasn't enough then here's more! I can see how this can be confusing to users as I have a toggle in SB Hide Options that hides today view and hides app library, but they still activate when READ BELOW is enabled.

When the READ BELOW toggle is enabled. These toggles that hide todayview and hide applibrary do nothing. When the READ BELOW toggle is enabled it gives all control to Designer. Nothing on the original home screen is available, including gestures for todayview and applibrary. 

The way the Hide Today View and Hide App Library work is I simply stop the gesture. Example when on the stock springboard and on the last page, when you scroll that last page it opens the AppLibrary. Instead of disabling the AppLibrary all together (which could cause issues with other tweaks) I just stop that gesture from happening. In never really hides AppLibrary but that's what users think.

When READ BELOW is enabled Designer handles the opening of todayview and applibrary, not the home screen gestures so those toggles will do nothing. For this I have added more options. These options which are now under the READ BELOW button disable the swipe on Designer. This is how you disable the todayview and applibrary when READ BELOW is enabled. Since this is only changing the swiping in Designer actions will still trigger openTodayView and openAppLibrary.

Changelog will say (added option to swipe to todayview and applibrary) but you see how it's not as easy as it sounds.

Changes to the color picker

There was a request to add the option to update an elements color before the color picker was closed. I added this awhile ago. This was so whoever was changing the color could pull down the color picker (not close it) and preview the color on the element.

The way I did this was simply updating the theme when a color was selected, which was fine. Except when you drag the opacity slider it updated a TON. As it updated every opacity the slider went through. On bigger themes this could cause the opacity slider to "lag". 

To fix this issue I don't update the theme anymore. I just update the element itself. This limits  on what all colors will get previewed, but it handles most of the common ones and in turn fixes the lag. This is mainly due to some elements being custom and colors arent applied on a normal element but elements inside that element. While I could add code to make it happen on all custom elements (example batterybar) I don't think it's worth the time. How many people even know about "previewing" the color.

Added mailBadge, phoneBadge, messageBadge as data options

Simple, just give a data option to show badges for these few apps. When data is triggered it grabs the app badge at that time. These are the most commonly used apps that people will use for separate badges. Maybe i'll add more in the future, but I need these and everyone has them installed :)

Added what I call a hint for what element you are adjusting styles for

When you select an element to change its style if you don't remember the element you clicked you have no way of knowing what element you are styling. For this I put a tiny view just above the menu bar. I struggled where to put this, but I think this is fine. It definitely does the job if you forget which element you are styling. You can see where it now says htcforecast in this screenshot. The white border is an option in the creator named Toggle Highlight which highlights the element you are styling.

These are my updates over the last couple days. If you like these "Dev Logs" hit the heart.