Roll your own minimal Swype

[emjayes]

How to modify Swype to include desired languages only:

In this example Finnish and US English

You will need:
-Swype_1.60.36.8214_HVGA.apk
-Android SDK installed
-basic knowledge of your operating system of choice, I have used Linux and OSX. The procedure will most likely work with Windows as well.
-10 minutes of time

Let's begin

-rename Swype_1.60.36.8214_HVGA.apk to Swype_1.60.36.8214_HVGA.zip
-unzip it
-cd to Swype_1.60.36.8214_HVGA/assets/files

-remove unnecessary languages .zkb.le .zkb.le .htm -full.htm

-remove unnecessary keyboard layouts, Qwertz* Azerty* etc.

make sure you don't delete Qwerty-LS.Latin1.zkb.le Qwerty-PT.Latin1.zkb.le Edit-LS-Latin1.zkb.le Edit-PT-Latin1.zkb.le or any keyboard layouts that your preferred languages us, like
QwertyFiSv-LS-Latin1.zkb.le QwertyFiSv-PT-Latin1.zkb.le for the Finnish language.

-edit the languages.lst file, remove all languages you do not need. Note that there may not be a newline character at the end of the line, otherwise the last language is not usable

If your editor does not support this, leave one language as placeholder after the languages you really want, or create the file using echo -n Language1,Language2>language.lst
the -n parameter for echo (in Linux and OSX at least) suppresses the newline character.

If you do not delete the extra languages they are still selectable in the language selection of Swype, and you will have trouble finding you languages from a list that is too long.
Also you will receive an error message if you accidentally choose a language you have removed.

-cd to Swype_1.60.36.8214_HVGA/assets/keyboards

-remove all unnecessary keyboard images (Azerty*,Qwertz* etc..)

-if you already know how to use Swype and want to further minimize the package size, you can remove files from Swype_1.60.36.8214_HVGA/assets/tutorial

-cd //tools/ (naturally substituting to the real location of our SDK installation)

-make an unsigned APK from the source directory by running this:
./apkbuilder ~/Desktop/Swype-minimal1.60.36.8214_HVGA.apk -u -rf //Swype_1.60.36.8214_HVGA/

-uninstall any previous version of Swype you may already have installed and reboot your phone. I had varying results without uninstalling previously installed Swype with same version number.

-transfer the resulting Swype-minimal1.60.36.8214_HVGA.apk to your SD-card using your preferred method and install as usual with your preferred method (Estrongs etc.)

-enjoy your new minimal Swype. Original 19 language version took over 20 Mb of precious space, my FI-EN version takes only 3.5Mb. YMMV depending of selected languages.

-to make Swype survive factory reset, load faster, prevent you from accidentally uninstalling or updating it to a version with more languages and further reduce the memory usage on /data, push it to /system using your preferred method.

You know how it's done, if not, search the forums as it is out of scope for this tutorial.


Sorry, I have not, nor will I attach a package for your preferred languages. As the title says, roll your own.
This thread gave me the idea to try to minimize the installation: Swype

[Gwystyl]

I tried this a few weeks ago, but left out the 'remove languages you don't use from the list' part. This makes the procedure a lot easier.
On a windows machine, open the .apk with winrar/winzip. If that doesn't work, add .zip as an extension

Delete the languages you don't want from /assets/files
Delete the keyboards from ssets/keyboards

transfer the smaller apk back to the phone.
Uninstall a previous installed swype and reboot
Install the smaller swype.

As emjayes already points out this way you still have a large list of languages to choose from, but since I only use dutch and english, I'm fine with it and prefer the easy method over the better one described above.

By the way, just moving my modded swype.apk to /system/app didn't work. Apparently some (sym) links are made also? I got it working by copying swype.apk (no spaces in the filename!) to /system/app, then install it regurarly, reboot and remove swype.apk from /data/app. Does anybody know why this works and which might be an easier way to get swype working from /system/app?

[schermvlieger]

Thanks emjayes, this is really interesting!

I get an error when trying to install though:

E/PackageParser( 1943): Package com.swype.android.inputmethod has no certificates at entry AndroidManifest.xml; ignoring!

This whether I try to install from the sdcard using ES File manager or the "adb install" method.

[jipo]

Where I can find languages.dat ??

[emjayes]

Where I can find languages.dat ??

sorry, should have been languages.lst

---------- Post added at 12:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:17 PM ----------

Thanks emjayes, this is really interesting!

I get an error when trying to install though:

E/PackageParser( 1943): Package com.swype.android.inputmethod has no certificates at entry AndroidManifest.xml; ignoring!

This whether I try to install from the sdcard using ES File manager or the "adb install" method.

Did you remember to use the -u parameter for apkbuilder? I think I had similar issue if -u was omitted and apkbuilder used debub.keystore.

[schermvlieger]

sorry, should have been languages.lst

---------- Post added at 12:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:17 PM ----------




Did you remember to use the -u parameter for apkbuilder? I think I had similar issue if -u was omitted and apkbuilder used debub.keystore.

Yes I did use the -u flag. I do have my own keystore as well since i develop android apps myself. maybe apkbuilder got confused?

[emjayes]

Yes I did use the -u flag. I do have my own keystore as well since i develop android apps myself. maybe apkbuilder got confused?

Quite possibly. Since I do not have a keystore, I used the unsigned option. The whole tutorial is based on trial and error and is "Works for me, YMMV"

[jipo]

Thanks..
Anyone know how to backup our swype dictionary ??

[emjayes]

If anyone has an idea of howto modify the Swedish/Finnish keyboard layout please help.
I would like to swap the place of Ä and Å keys.
The reason is that in Finnish language the Å key is never user, only when typing Swedish names.
The letter Ä however is used very often and since in the original layout the Å is more prominently located next to the letter L whereas the Ä is located
in a very awkward place between . and Search in the bottom row.
Most likely the files that needs to be edited are QwertyFiSv-PT-Latin1.zkb.le and QwertyFiSv-LS-Latin1.zkb.le but I have no idea how to proceed.

[ker0ltjuh]

I have an idea :P everybody who did this for his version plz post it
e.g. when you live in holland and you customized the version plz post it here so other ppl can download it