Introduction
Please carefully read this guide in order to fully configure this template, and remember to test it on a Real Device – the Emulator may fail.
An internet connection is required.
IMPORTANT: The backend of this template is the DBase API.
A VPS Server, minimum 2GB RAM, 1 vCPUs is required to run the DBase API.
I strongly recommend you to use AWS Lightsail with Ubuntu 18.04, solid servers and good prices
In case you want to use a different backend, you'd need to change 80% of the code. Please note that I will not be responsible for any bug encountered after editing the original source code
Quick Start
BEFORE running this app on your own device via Anroid Studio and test it, you must do the following:
Your app is now connected to your DBase backend!
General
Android Studio
This template has native Android Java/XML code so you can edit it only with Android Studio. If you don’t have it, download it for free.
Download Android Studio
PLEASE NOTE that you’ll need the latest official version of Android Studio, NO BETAS, because Betas are always buggy and never work properly.
Please make sure you have installed the following SDK Tools:
Change App Name
Enter the string.xml
file – it’s into the res/values
folder in Android Studio – and replace the App Name of this line with your new one:
<string> string name="app_name"> WallUp </string>
Change the Package Name
- In the Project panel on the left side, click on the little gear icon.
- Uncheck the Compact Empty Middle Packages option.
-
Your package directory will get separated into single directories, I'd suggest you to leave the
com
folder as it is and rename the other ones.
So, for each directory you want to rename:
• Right-click on it
• Select Refactor -> Rename...
• Click Rename Package in the popup
• Enter a new name in the text field and click Refactor
• Click Do Refractor in the Refactoring Preview tab on the bottom
• Android Studio will update the changes, it may take a few seconds, just wait for the process to be done.
Next, open build.gradle
(the Module app one) in Android Studio and rename the applicationId
into your new package name, then click Sync Now on the top-right corner.
Reskin the UI design of the app
This project contains .xml
files stored into the res/layout
folder. Those files are the ones where you can edit all Views, Buttons texts, TextView’s strings, and all Views attributes – position, font color, size, etc.
Alert messages are located in the code, they can be edited only in the .java
files.
All images are stored in the drawable
folders, where the app icons are stored into the mipmap
folders.
Terms of Use and Privacy Policy
Open the tou.html
file form the left-side panel’s list in Android Studio and edit it accordingly to your own Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Also, replace the APP_NAME
words with the new name you assigned to your App.
Please also pay attention to this line:
"mailto:support@yourdomain.com">support@yourdomain.com
There are a few identical lines like that in the tou.html
file, so you must replace support@yourdomain.com with a valid email address where people can contact you for any question, feedback or in case they want to delete their account.
Delete a User’s account upon request
Accordingly to GDPR Terms, you have 24 hours to delete an account after receiving a deletion request. In order for you to delete an account, you first need to identify the user’s row in the Users table of your Database, keep a note of its ID_id value
, select that row and click the Delete Row(s) button.
Then, just search for that ID_id
value you’ve previously noted in all the other Tables of your database, check out all the rows until you’ll find that ID_id
and delete it – this happens in case it appears into some Array type columns.
Use the Search filters function to find an ID_id
in your database:
Google Form setup – for wallpaper submissions
Users can submit wallpaper images through Google Form, when they tap the SUBMIT button in the Setting screen, the app opens a link in Safari. You have to first create a Google form under your own Google account – if you don’t have a Google account, please create it now, it’s free.
Go to Google Forms and click on the + Blank form.
Set a title for your form, and a description, here’s an example:
Wallpaper Submission Form
We’re always looking for new content to add in our app, and we would love to see and review your work! Please answer the few questions below, it’ll take the time of a snap 😉
Click the Settings icon and complete the GENERAL tab as it’s shown below:
Click the PRESENTATION tab and set it as shown below, then click SAVE:
Add a Short answer field by clicking the +
button and edit it as shown below:
Add a File upload field by clicking the + button again, and edit is as shown below:
Add a Checkbox field by clicking the + button again, and edit is as shown below:
If you click on the Preview button – the one with the eye icon – you should get something like this:
You’re done, now you have to click on SEND and in the Send form tab check the Shorten URL checkmark and copy the provided link:
Now enter the Configuration.java file and replace the string of the GOOGLE_FORM_LINK
variable with your own Google Form’s link:
public static String GOOGLE_FORM_LINK = "https://goo.gl/forms/d1RelRwhVqEtOjA93"
Check submitted Wallpapers
You should get an email when a wallpaper has been submitted via your Google Form, anyway, I suggest you to still daily check your Google Form -> RESPONSES tab to see if someone has submitted some wallpaper for review and upload them in your own Parse Dashboard.
In order to insert new Wallpapers into your own Parse Dashboard (the database), please read the Database section of this guide.
Configurations
• The strings.xml file
You can find this file into the res/values
folder in Android Studio. Open this file and keep reading this guide, you’ll have to perform some edits in this file in order to get your template ready to run.
App Name
Replace the following name with the new one you want to give to this app in this line:
<string> string name="app_name"> WallUp </string>
AdMob Ads
Replace the values of these variables with your own Interstitial Unit ID and App ID strings.
<string>name="ADMOB_INTERSTITIAL_UNIT_ID">ca-app-pub-3940256099942544/1033173712
<string>name="ADMOB_APP_ID">ca-app-pub-3940256099942544~3347511713
You have to create your Unit ID at apps.admob.com
Follow the instructions on the AdMob’s website in case you don’t know how to generate an AdMob Unit ID.
• The DBase.java file
Open this file in Android Studio and keep reading this guide, you’ll have to perform some edits in this file in order to get your template ready to run
DBase database and admin panel
To install and configure the DBase admin panel into your VPS server, please follow the instructions of its
README file
Once you’ll have the DBase files ready in your own server, enter the _Tables folder and:
-
Delete the
Users.json
and Posts.json
files
-
Upload the JSON files included in the Tables folder of this template’s package
In this way, you’ll get all the necessary Tables and columns for this app to work, without having to manually create them in the DBase Dashboard.
Data will be empty, so after you’ll get this app’s configurations done, you’ll be able to sign up with test Users, post items, and all the other features.
Custom Colors
You can edit the HEX values of the following variables as you wish, change the numbers before the #
symbol. The main color of the app and some UI will be affected by your change:
public static String MAIN_COLOR = "#5dc2e6";
public static String LIGHT_GREY = "#FFF8F8F8";
public static String GRAY = "#bababa";
public static String BLACK_COLOR = "#252525";
PLEASE NOTE that not all views will be affected by changing the HEX values above, you may still need to go through some XML file and adjust the colors on your own with the right-side Attributes panel.
Custom fonts
This App uses some custom fonts for Buttons, TextViews and EditTexts. The font files are stored into the app/src/main/assets/font folder and are declared in this line:
public static Typeface osBold, osSemibold, osRegular, osExtraBold, osLight, osItalic, atRegular, atBold;
These fonts are initialized into the onCreate()
function as follows:
osBold = Typeface.createFromAsset(getAssets(),"font/OpenSans-Bold.ttf");
osSemibold = Typeface.createFromAsset(getAssets(),"font/OpenSans-Semibold.ttf");
osRegular = Typeface.createFromAsset(getAssets(),"font/OpenSans-Regular.ttf");
osExtraBold = Typeface.createFromAsset(getAssets(),"font/OpenSans-ExtraBold.ttf");
osLight = Typeface.createFromAsset(getAssets(),"font/OpenSans-Light.ttf");
osItalic = Typeface.createFromAsset(getAssets(),"font/OpenSans-Italic.ttf");
In case you want to add a new font, you have to first drag your .ttf
or .otf
font file into the app/src/main/assets/font
folder.
Then instantiate it at the end of the public static Typeface
line that’s into the onCreate()
function – let’s pretend you have a font file called Helvetica-Bold.ttf, you may add an instance called hBold
(it’s just an example, name it as you wish since it’s a variable):
public static Typeface popBold, popSemibold, ... hBold;
Lastly, import its path into the onCreate()
function like the existing ones. Based on the font example above, your new line of code may look like this:
hBold = Typeface.createFromAsset(getAssets(),"font/helvetica-Bold.ttf");
Admin email
Replace the email address of this variable into the one you want users to get in touch to:
public static String ADMIN_EMAIL = "admin@email.com";
List of Categories
The following array contains a list of categories for wallpapers:
public static String[] categoriesArray = {
/* c_0 */ "Starter Pack__This pack is a great starting point to find cool wallpapers for your device.__unsplash.com",
/* c_1 */ "Abstract__Awesome collection of abstract patterns and pictures, liquid sensations for your device.__unsplash.com",
/* c_2 */ "Mextures Collective__This pack showcases high-def wallpapers provided by the Mextures Collective community.__mexturescollective.com",
/* c_3 */ "Infinite Space__A fresh collection of pictures from outer space. Make your device stellar.__unsplash.com",
/* c_4 */ "Sky Collection__A collection of sky photos.__papers.co",
/* c_5 */ "Blurred Art__Nice variety of colored and blurred wallpapers.__papers.co",
// ADD CATEGORIES HERE (OR EDIT THE ONES ABOVE)
};
You may notice that there’s a comment on the left side of each item. That indicates the name of the image relative to the category. You may also notice the syntax of each array’s item, it has a double underscore separator: __
. That’s needed for the app to show data.
So, in case you want to add a Category, follow this sample steps:
• As an example, let’s pretend you want to add a new category called Awesome Art.
You need to add a new string below the last one of the categoriesArray
which must contain the name, description and website URL where you’ve picked the image from.
So here’s an example:
"Awesome Art__A brief description of this category.__unsplash.com",
The website URL must not have any www
, https://
or http://
prefix, it must be only the domain name!
As a reminder, you may also add the /* c_6 */
before the string, so it’ll look like this:
/* c_6 */ "Awesome Art__A brief description of this category.__unsplash.com",
That /* c_6 */
comment is the name of the new image you must create and save into the drawable
folder of your project’s folder. Check the existing ones to see how they look like.
Create a new .jpg image with Photoshop – or any other image editor software – with a size of 640x427px
, name it c_6.jpg, then save it into the drawable
folder:
Now, if you run the app again, it’ll show your brand new Category in the Home screen.
Utility Functions
Unless you are familiar with iOS programming, you should leave the code below this comment as it is:
// MARK: - TABLES & COLUMNS NAMES
DBase Backend
The backend of this template is DBase, you have to install it on your own VPS server - AWS Lightsail is strongly recommemnded - and configure it by following the README instructions.
Update the php.ini
file (optional)
You may need to update the php.ini
file of your server in order to increase the upload_max_filesize
limit (you may set it to 40M, for instance), and the post_max_size
limit (set it to 60M, for instance).
In this way, your app will be able to upload big-sized video files, in case they’ll exceed the 2MB file size (usually the default upload_max_filesize)
PLEASE NOTE: If you already bought the iOS version of this template, you don’t need to create a new database, just set the DATABASE_PATH
into the DBase.java
file
IMPORTANT: Please also note that if you want to edit the code to make this template work with a different backend (Firebase, Parse, SQL, etc.), you must do it on your own, and I will not be responsible for any bug you may encounter after editing the original source code, nor I can offer support to fix issues
Add Wallpapers in your Database
In order to add wallpapers in your database, Click + Add Row in the Wallpapers table, enter the category name in the category field, and upload your wallpaper image in the wallpaper field.
If you want to set a wallpaper as Of The Day, just set the isOfTheDay
switch ON.
PLEASE NOTE that you can set ONLY ONE WALLPAPER as Wallpaper of the day!
So, each day, you should enter your DBase database and select a wallpaper’s row, switch its isOfTheDay
value into ON and switch the old wallpaper’s value into OFF, in order to offer a different wallpaper each day.
Due to the structure of the database, it’s not possible to make any bulk upload, you must manually add Categories and Products data.
Google Sign In
-
Go to console.cloud.google.com/apis/credentials on your browser, log in with your Google account
-
Create a Project (unless you already have one)
-
Click the + CREATE CREDENTIALS button
-
Select the OAuth client ID option
-
On the next page, select Android, choose a name for your Client ID
-
Paste your own SHA-1 key – follow this tutorial to get it on your Terminal: Getting SHA1 Fingerprint for Google API Console
-
Paste the package name of your project
-
Lastly, click the Create button:
-
Once your Client ID has been created, just click the OK button on the popup ans you’ll be set:
-
You can now test the Google Sign In in your app in Development mode.
Once you’ll publish your app on the Play Store, you may need to get the Live SHA1 key and replace the existing one with your new one.
You can obtain the Live SHA1 key in this way:
-
Place the Signed
.apk
file of your app in your Desktop
-
Open the Terminal and navigate to the Desktop folder with the
cd
command
-
Use this command:
keytool -printcert -jarfile YourApkName.apk
[Replace YourApkName with the name of your .apk file]
-
Hit return
You should get the new SHA1 key, like this example:
-
Replace the existing key you have set in your Google Developer Console with the new one, so the Google Sign In will work on your Live app.
Push Notifications
Follow these steps to create a Firebase project and grab the GCM Sender ID and Server Key strings, in order for the app to send/receive Push Notifications:
F.A.Q.
Should I use the DBase API to make this template work?
The code of this app template is written using the DBase SDK for Android – included in the project – so you must download and install the DBase backend in your won VPS server to make it work the way it is.
If you’re an experienced developer and want to implement a different backend in the code, you can still buy this app and do it on your own, since UI/UX is already built.
Anyway, as mentioned earlier, please note that I will not be responsible for any bug encountered after editing the original source code to implement a different backend or extra features not included in the original source code
If I buy this app template, can I use for multiple projects?
No, only 1 app/purchase.
In case you want to publish more than 1 application using this template, you must purchase a License for each project you want to publish on the App/Play Store, either the Regular ot the Extended one
Can I use the DBase API for different projects/apps than this one?
Yes, you can use it in any other application or project
What kind of support is offered?
Free support is offered in case of bugs encountered in the original template, either in the code or the UI design.
In case you have edited the code – and so created bugs because of your editing – I may apply some fee to fix your bugs by a remote connection through AnyDesk, or by you sending me your source code for verification.
This doesn't apply in case you changed the code to implement a different backend than DBase
Should I use Android Studio to edit this template?
Yes, you must always use the latest stable official version of Android Studio to edit this application – NO Betas, they don’t work properly!
Download Android Studio
I’ve performed all configurations mentioned in this Guide, but something is wrong. What should I do?
-
Double-check all your configurations, probably you have missed something
-
Always check the Logcat in Android Studio if the app crashes, usually the error messages are shown in red color
The Logcat helps you to debug your app, it’s really important!
How do I remove AdMob ads?
It’s super easy, just open the Find in Files... tool in Android Studio by clicking Edit -> Find -> Find in Files..., and search for:
fireInterstitialAd;
The Find in Files window will show you a list of files where that string is located.
Just comment out (or delete) the following line of code in each file and the app will not show AdMob ads on next run:
fireInterstitialAd(ctx);
NOTE: In order to comment a line of code, just add //
in the beginning:
// fireInterstitialAd(ctx);