Is it possible to install 3rd party apps via installer.app or other means (iphone apper, for instance) but not have them show up on springboard? Im out of space on there, and I could access them via MobileFinder if I wanted. I know I can get rid of the sanctioned application icons with iFuntastic, but I would love it if installer.app didnt show up on springboard, for example.
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Do not want 3rd party apps on Springboard
- Thread starter linshiwen
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You can certainly hide any 3rd party app from showing up on the home screen, and can launch them with mobile finder, but you'd need to have at least MobileFinder or Launcher on the springboard to lunch the hidden apps, so basically, you're looking at having a least 1 thing there.
I suppose if you really just wanted to keep 12 icons on the home screen to keep it clean, you could always replace Stocks or somethign you don't use often with the Launcher or Mobilefinder. You'd still have a 3rd party app on there, but at least you'd preserve the original look and feel. Hell, you could even replace the icon for the Launcher or MobileFinder with the Stocks icon.
Just my 3 cents.
I suppose if you really just wanted to keep 12 icons on the home screen to keep it clean, you could always replace Stocks or somethign you don't use often with the Launcher or Mobilefinder. You'd still have a 3rd party app on there, but at least you'd preserve the original look and feel. Hell, you could even replace the icon for the Launcher or MobileFinder with the Stocks icon.
Just my 3 cents.
I believe you can just move the associated entries into the "special" section, within the DisplayOrder.plist file, which is in the SpringBoard.app. I think this is what iFuntastic is manipulating. It's just a text file, in XML format, so it's easy to figure out the patterns, for how the application icons are ordered / hidden.
Hope this helps.
Hope this helps.
Thanks for the suggestions. Ill have to look into that text file and see whats going on there. Springboard.app is at /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app, in case anyone was wondering
P.S. Oh, Stocks.app was the first to go
I also figure it makes sense to have settings accessible through finder, since I dont use it very often. Im not concerned about preserving the look of it, Im just running out of space on the screen!
P.S. Oh, Stocks.app was the first to go
I also figure it makes sense to have settings accessible through finder, since I dont use it very often. Im not concerned about preserving the look of it, Im just running out of space on the screen!So in the plist file, under the special section, the entries for hidden files are like this:
<dict>
<key>displayIdentifier</key>
<string>com.apple.DemoApp</string>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>displayIdentifier</key>
<string>com.apple.fieldtest</string>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>displayIdentifier</key>
<string>com.apple.MALogger</string>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>displayIdentifier</key>
<string>com.apple.springboard</string>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>displayIdentifier</key>
<string>com.apple.stocks</string>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>displayIdentifier</key>
<string>com.apple.Preferences</string>
From this you can see that in addition to the default hidden apps, I also have stocks and preferences hidden. So if I wanted hide Installer.app, what do I put in place of com.apple.Preferences?
<dict>
<key>displayIdentifier</key>
<string>com.apple.DemoApp</string>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>displayIdentifier</key>
<string>com.apple.fieldtest</string>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>displayIdentifier</key>
<string>com.apple.MALogger</string>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>displayIdentifier</key>
<string>com.apple.springboard</string>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>displayIdentifier</key>
<string>com.apple.stocks</string>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>displayIdentifier</key>
<string>com.apple.Preferences</string>
From this you can see that in addition to the default hidden apps, I also have stocks and preferences hidden. So if I wanted hide Installer.app, what do I put in place of com.apple.Preferences?
I kind of did this like this...
I used the bottom left section of the 4th row as my launcherapp spot. You cant see the icon because the icon image is the lower part of my screen thanks to digitalkids theme. Instead of using demoapp as that icon to get the wallpaper I just used Launcher and now when I need to get to my apps that are in Launcher I just click where the red X is on the second image. Its PERFECT!!!
I've also attached my plist so you can see what I did
![SCREENSHOT-1.jpg]()
![XSCREENSHOT.jpg]()
![Launcher.jpg]()
I used the bottom left section of the 4th row as my launcherapp spot. You cant see the icon because the icon image is the lower part of my screen thanks to digitalkids theme. Instead of using demoapp as that icon to get the wallpaper I just used Launcher and now when I need to get to my apps that are in Launcher I just click where the red X is on the second image. Its PERFECT!!!
I've also attached my plist so you can see what I did
Your screen is pretty cool, but Im still confused about one thing:
official Apple apps are listed in the plist as com.apple._______ (calculator, springboard, fieldtest, whatever) and the 3rd party apps in your plist are listed as
<key>displayIdentifier</key>
<string>org.deliciousmonster.lightsoff</string>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>displayIdentifier</key>
<string>com.sadun.VoiceRecorder</string>
so how do you know to type org.deliciousmoster.lightsoff or com.sadun.VoiceRecorder ? What would I type if I wanted to hide Installer (which you have showing at the top left)
**As usual, if I calm down and do a little digging myself instead of bothering you good people, I can come up with my own answer. You open up the .app folder and look at a file called info.plist, and that will tell you the correct string. Just in case anyone else wanted to know!
official Apple apps are listed in the plist as com.apple._______ (calculator, springboard, fieldtest, whatever) and the 3rd party apps in your plist are listed as
<key>displayIdentifier</key>
<string>org.deliciousmonster.lightsoff</string>
</dict>
<dict>
<key>displayIdentifier</key>
<string>com.sadun.VoiceRecorder</string>
so how do you know to type org.deliciousmoster.lightsoff or com.sadun.VoiceRecorder ? What would I type if I wanted to hide Installer (which you have showing at the top left)
**As usual, if I calm down and do a little digging myself instead of bothering you good people, I can come up with my own answer. You open up the .app folder and look at a file called info.plist, and that will tell you the correct string. Just in case anyone else wanted to know!
Re-Ordering Apps Help
After spending a LONG time messing with the DisplayOrder.plist file trying to get my apps in the right places without experiencing unpredictable results, I finally figured out how to make it do exactly what I wanted. Here's some tips:
1) Make a backup copy of your existing file before you mess with it. I whacked mine a couple of times and couldn't see any reason why my all my apps mysteriously disappeared. It's easy to start over with a good working copy.
2) The 3 sections you find in the file have the following purposes.
buttonBar = the items in the bottom "dock" region. This can be expanded to 5 items by using some custom icons. Check out modmyiphone.com for lots of great stuff.
iconList = the main apps section. The apps listed here will appear in the order listed, so long as all the apps installed on your phone are in one (and only one) of the three sections of the plist. If you are experiencing troubles getting things to stay in the proper order, I'd bet that you have some app that isn't listed in this file. APPS THAT ARE NOT LISTED IN THIS FILE JUST SEEM TO SHOW UP ANY PLACE. That's what was driving me crazy. You can completely control the order by simply adding apps to this list in the desired section.
special = apps that are installed that you don't want to show up. If you add a new app and you have any spots open in the main apps section, they will show up here. To hide them, just open this plist file and add them to this special section and they'll stay hidden, but accessible via Launcher or Finder (both 3rd party apps that you must install separately).
To add something to any of these sections, you just need to copy one of the existing keys and edit the string info. Here's an example of the Weather app key:
<dict>
<key>displayIdentifier</key>
<string>com.apple.weather</string>
</dict>
The <string> information for each app is found in the Info.plist file located in that particular applications folder.
Pretty simple, once you know the rules. Hope this helps!
After spending a LONG time messing with the DisplayOrder.plist file trying to get my apps in the right places without experiencing unpredictable results, I finally figured out how to make it do exactly what I wanted. Here's some tips:
1) Make a backup copy of your existing file before you mess with it. I whacked mine a couple of times and couldn't see any reason why my all my apps mysteriously disappeared. It's easy to start over with a good working copy.
2) The 3 sections you find in the file have the following purposes.
buttonBar = the items in the bottom "dock" region. This can be expanded to 5 items by using some custom icons. Check out modmyiphone.com for lots of great stuff.
iconList = the main apps section. The apps listed here will appear in the order listed, so long as all the apps installed on your phone are in one (and only one) of the three sections of the plist. If you are experiencing troubles getting things to stay in the proper order, I'd bet that you have some app that isn't listed in this file. APPS THAT ARE NOT LISTED IN THIS FILE JUST SEEM TO SHOW UP ANY PLACE. That's what was driving me crazy. You can completely control the order by simply adding apps to this list in the desired section.
special = apps that are installed that you don't want to show up. If you add a new app and you have any spots open in the main apps section, they will show up here. To hide them, just open this plist file and add them to this special section and they'll stay hidden, but accessible via Launcher or Finder (both 3rd party apps that you must install separately).
To add something to any of these sections, you just need to copy one of the existing keys and edit the string info. Here's an example of the Weather app key:
<dict>
<key>displayIdentifier</key>
<string>com.apple.weather</string>
</dict>
The <string> information for each app is found in the Info.plist file located in that particular applications folder.
Pretty simple, once you know the rules. Hope this helps!
It's pretty easy...(provided you have hacked the phone with the instructions provided in this thread. Read through that, and you'll be ready for what follows. If you haven't done this, you probably won't understand the rest of this.
First, visit modmyiphone.com and download your favorite theme there. I didn't use any of their install routines, because I wanted to pick and choose which graphics to replace. The various icons are in the apps directories, and each is named icon.png.
Next, use an SFTP client like Cyberduck or Transmit to connect to your phone and upload the files to the appropriate directories. All apps are found in the /applications directory. I'd suggest renaming the originals to something like icon_old.png, then just upload the new version.
Next, edit your DisplayOrder.plist file. Just move the key entry you'd like to add to the dock from the iconList section to the buttonBar section. Note that this will open up one spot on your main area, which means you should probably replace it with another entry in the iconList section with a new app.
If you've chosen icons that are small enough to fit in the dock, you shouldn't have any problems with the display.
Finally, just restart your phone, and voila...you're in business!
quick question
when i open the displayorder.plist, omni outliner opens up. now can you edit that list in omni?
when i open the displayorder.plist, omni outliner opens up. now can you edit that list in omni?
Hmm.. it should. I prefer a text editor though. Assuming you're on a Mac, based on the default Omni behavior: try right-clicking, two-finger tapping or control-clicking the file and selecting the "Open With..." option and then select "Other" to browse around and find something like TextEdit or the like.
Hope this helps.
yeah i am on an intel mac.....looks to me the text edit way is easier, that is as soon as i can wrap my brain around what i am doing...lol...it is fun learning this stuff tho.
thx,
C