Database Develop

APK question [SOLVED]

I'm trying to edit a few things but I'm not sure how to go about repackaging them as .apk even though I know they're archives. If I open the archive and extract everything how should I go about putting it back together? Is it as simple as throwing it in a .zip file, renaming it to .apk and signing it or am I missing something? I tried doing that with Rosie.apk because it has a lot of wallpapers I won't ever use and I wanted to throw some of my ringtones into it too.

Dyonas said:
I'm trying to edit a few things but I'm not sure how to go about repackaging them as .apk even though I know they're archives. If I open the archive and extract everything how should I go about putting it back together? Is it as simple as throwing it in a .zip file, renaming it to .apk and signing it or am I missing something? I tried doing that with Rosie.apk because it has a lot of wallpapers I won't ever use and I wanted to throw some of my ringtones into it too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there is already another thread somewhere farther down about this, but in short, you need to resign. Stericson did a one-click signing tool, but I was never able to get it working on my machine. I use the same tools, but I have to do the manual sign option, it is still easy, it just uses one more click.
As far as repacking rosie.apk, you should just be able to locate the .png and small.png files you want to replace. Find your new wallpapers, rename them to the names of the wallpapers you want replace. (you will need to resize your 480x320 wallpapers to the small wallpaper dimensions, they are 80x60. easiest way to resize is in MS paint or Gimp. once you rename just drag the files into the open winrar window. For rosie i think wallpapers are in the drawable 480x320 folder. When winrar brings up a prompt, just make sure you have the options selected to add and overwrite existing files or something of the like. It is also a good idea to adb pull your Rosie.apk just in case things go bad you can push a backup to revert you to where you were before. If you got any questions send me a PM or hit me on gtalk- [email protected]

Dyonas said:
I'm trying to edit a few things but I'm not sure how to go about repackaging them as .apk even though I know they're archives. If I open the archive and extract everything how should I go about putting it back together? Is it as simple as throwing it in a .zip file, renaming it to .apk and signing it or am I missing something? I tried doing that with Rosie.apk because it has a lot of wallpapers I won't ever use and I wanted to throw some of my ringtones into it too.
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Click to collapse
You can open Rosie.apk with something like winrar and replace the images without the need to resign. I've done it countless times. There's not much point in removing wallpapers in Rosie though, it will just reduce the size of the apk without any noticeable speed improvment. Most Hero devs use the stock Rosie apk.
As for ringtones, they don't reside in Rosie.apk. You can put them on your FAT32 (or EXT if you have one). Just put the mp3's in /media/audio/ringtones. I highly suggest putting them on ext because when the SD card is mounted in your computer your phone can't access the ringtones. Ext isn't mounted (on windows atleast) so they are still accessible.

Thanks guys, I seem to have it almost done now with this and what I stumbled through

Theme Porting Guide

Well Im not great at directions so this is the best i can do.
Summary
There are 2 ways that I know to port a theme to your device.
1. Using the metamorph app if its a metamorph theme.
2. Using 7zip ect.. if its a flashable theme. (most common)
Metamorph Instructions
1. First things first is to download the theme that you want to port.
2. Your theme will be a zip file containing only image files from apk's
3. Put the zip file on your sd card
4. Make sure your device is set to 320x480 resolution or metamorph app will not work.
5. Open metamorph app and start a new project.
6. Locate your zip file and let all the apks load up.
7. Install each apk one at a time. Do not install any jar files as they will cause your phone not to boot.
8. Reboot and your Theme should be working on your phone.
Flashable Theme Porting Instructions
Its not that difficult, once you get the hang of how 7zip works it will be your best freind. Its just a process of dragging and dropping images from one apk to another all within 7zip.
What the metamorph app does is takes themed images and places them into the correct apks res\drawable folders in your system.
Knowing what metamorph does as an app, you can do this manually using 7zip.
1. Download the theme that you want to port. It will be a system folder with an app,framework, and font folder inside of it.
2. Open up that system folder with 7zip
3. Make a copy of the system folder of your current rom and open up that system with 7zip as well. You should now have 2 different 7zips open. Make sure to keep track of witch is witch.
4. Open up the app folder of the themed system and open up the first apk thats in there.
5. Go into the res\drawable folder in the apk in both your system and the themed system.
6. highlight and drag and drop only the images from that folder to the same folder in the other base apk. Make sure to NOT highlight any xmls.
7. Do the same for any images in any other drawable folders the are mdpi.
8. If there are only hdpi folders and no mdpi folders than you will have to convert those images to mdpi size before using them. If there are both, than only use the mdpi images.
9. When finished overwriting those images in that first apk, go back to the other apks in the app folder and do the same thing. You can do all of this from with in 7zip. No need to exit 7zip in this entire process.
10. Open up the themed framework folder and you will see a framework-res.apk file. Open up that file, you will see the same res\drawable folders.
11. Also open up the framework-res.apk from the base theme in the other 7zip as well. And overwrite the images just like the other apks making sure not to overwrite any xmls.
12. Back out of that back into the framework folder itself, if there is a services.jar in the theme than you will want to use overwrite that file as well.
13. Back out of the framework folder, If there is a fonts folder in the theme, You will want to overwrite those files as well.
14. Now you are done modifying your base theme with all the images from the theme.
15. You can now close the themed 7zip that you downloaded and leave open the 7zip containing you newly modified apks. Create a folder on your desktop called "system". Inside that, create a folder called "app", "framework", and "fonts"
16. Move only the modified apks that you replaced images in into the correct folders in your new system folder.
17. Make an androidupdate.tar with 7zip out of your new system folder and you are ready to flash it using nomorootfs method.
Tips:
Using the shift button to highlight mutiple images saves time.
Using the ctrl button to highlight images with xmls between them aaves time.
Switching views to have all images at the top and xmls at the bottom saves time.
If i forgot steps, I appologize.

Excellent guide.
The only thing I would mention is that most of the time services.jar is specific to a particular rom and as such may not work correctly with the target rom. As services.jar really only contains themed elements for the titlebar, you are better off using colorChanger's, apkTool or a hex editior to manually change the titlebar colors.
Also, in some cases (Like ProLauncher) the apk's must be signed. I prefer to use the test keys and this handy context menu here.

simple direct and effective. thanks again for all you do sir.

myn said:
Excellent guide.
The only thing I would mention is that most of the time services.jar is specific to a particular rom and as such may not work correctly with the target rom. As services.jar really only contains themed elements for the titlebar, you are better off using colorChanger's, apkTool or a hex editior to manually change the titlebar colors.
Also, in some cases (Like ProLauncher) the apk's must be signed. I prefer to use the test keys and this handy context menu here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the info man.
BTW, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MYN

Dzo Odex sample with standard theme
Thanks for this info. This will help a million. Could you also put light on how to odex it?
Eg: Dzo's odexed sample of donut has plastic theme, can it be changed to a standard android theme using the steps above and then odex it to create a androidinstall.tar?

Nice guide.
Thanks for making this.
Ill probably start trying to theme when i finish school in 2 weeks or so.

how to convert hdpi to mdpi

[Q] creating task bar

how would i edit the task bar in asopmod rom i searched through google i found nothing can someone plz help

First you need to read up on theming but in short all those png's reside in the system/framework/framework-res.apk. In that apk if you goto res/drawable-hdpi folder you'll see all of the png's that make up the task bar.
You'll need apkManager and a paint program.

Simmons - I was trying to do something similar but was having no luck -
I wanted to pull the 4G icons out of an Evo rom and put them in place of the 3G icons on CM6 - i thought it would be a riot -
I extracted the 4G's and renamed them to their 3G counterparts names and have them saved on my desktop - but I dont know the right way to extract framework-res.apk, then put in my new icons, then, and probably most importantly, zip it back up so it will flash right !
any thoughts?

Simple how to theme.
Vandelay007 said:
Simmons - I was trying to do something similar but was having no luck -
I wanted to pull the 4G icons out of an Evo rom and put them in place of the 3G icons on CM6 - i thought it would be a riot -
I extracted the 4G's and renamed them to their 3G counterparts names and have them saved on my desktop - but I dont know the right way to extract framework-res.apk, then put in my new icons, then, and probably most importantly, zip it back up so it will flash right !
any thoughts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
heres the How to
An apk is really just a zip file... apk stands for android package (if i remember correctly). So treat it like a standard zip file.
You'll need apk manager this will allow you to sign zips which makes them flashable. get that here
Now get your favorite Rom and make a folder. In that folder make 2 folders one called packed the other called packed. Take your rom and unzip it in the unpacked folder. and then take the original zip and move it to the packed folder.
Next go into the unpacked folder and nav to system/framework.framework-res.apk take this apk and unzip it in this folder and then make a copy of the apk and move the copy to the packed folder.
Now when you want to make a change to the framework-res.apk use the unpacked as a reference. us the packed as the change dir, you do this by opening but not unzipping the apk you want to change and just dragging the files you are replacing into the apk, this will replace them. You might want to make a a 3rd folder sorta of a master copy if you ever mess up the packed roms.
Now that you have an altered framework-res.apk you can just push it to system/framework folder (i think) and reboot and your changes are in. I never do this since flashable is easier to manage I make a flashable.
A flashable is like a but allot smaller, so d/l one of my themes and take the zip file and place in in a folder next to the packed and unpacked folder call it something like staging. now unzip apk manager into the top dir next to 3 other folders you just made.
Now my theme zip can be renamed to whatever you want your going to use it as a place holder for signing flashable zips. go into the theme zip and delete ever thing in the system folder except the framework folder then go into the frame work folder and delete everything.
Your flashable zip folder should only have a a meta-inf folder and a system folder, the system folder should only have a framework folder. Now drag your altered framework-res.apk into the flashable zip folder you just cleaned out.
Ok now you have to sign it copy that flashable zip to the place-apk-here-for-signing folder, this should have shown up when you unzipped apk manager into the folder the also contains unpacked and packed folders.
Now click on the script.bat and you'll see a bunch of option you can do option 16 to sign your zip. it takes a second or two and the date should get updated on the flashable.zip file in the place-apk-here-for-signing folder.
Now you have your new them ready to install. if your changing something else find the apk and replace framework-res.apk in these instruction and it works the same. note that most app reside in system/app so you next to take that into account.
Edit: Maybe I should have made a new thread.

creating task bar
thanks simmons i will let u know how bad i mess up but yes thanks alot man

[Guide] Simple guide to theming ANY ROM

A lot of people have asked in various threads lately about getting this theme on x rom, or can someone port this theme for me, etc. It really isn't that hard. It actually is pretty much a simple matter of copying and pasting. This will work on any ROM, and it only takes a few minutes, easy enough for an amateur to do it.
1. First, download the ROM that has the theme that you want on your current ROM.
2. Extract framework-res.apk from /system/framework and rename it to framework-res-old.zip and then right click it, and click extract all. Just extract them to currentdirectory\framework-res-old, which should be the default option anyway.
3. Take your current ROM, and extract framework-res.apk from /system/framework, and repeat step 2 except name it framework-res-new.zip.
4. Browse to the framework-res-old\res folder and select all of the folders starting with "drawable", such as "drawable-mdpi"
5. Browse to the framework-res-new\res folder and paste those folders, it should prompt you to merge and replace files and all that jazz, just click yes and do for the next x conflicts. It will copy and replace all of the image files.
6. Go back to the root of your framework-res-new folder, highlight all of the contents, right click, Send to > Compressed (zipped) archive
7. Windows will re-zip framework-res-new. When it finishes, rename the new zip file to framework-res.apk and push it to /system/framework. If you haven't gotten s-off on your phone, you have to do this while in clockwork recovery (make sure you mount /system in the partitions menu, or if you are s-off and booted, type adb shell mount -o rw,remount /system if it gives you memory errors)
For other operating systems, the steps are similar. If you use a linux distro, I'm going to assume you are smart enough to figure out the compression tools and menu items to unzip and rezip the apk files.
NOTE: You don't actually have to change the extensions to .zip, in fact, you won't be able to unless you unchecked hide known file extensions in the windows folder options in control panel. I just thought it would be easier. If you don't want to unhide extensions, just use a tool like 7-zip or winrar to open and extract the APK. In simple terms, all you are doing is replacing the res folder of your new framework-res.apk with the one from the theme you want. Not very hard.
ANOTHER Note: Sense roms are a bit more difficult to theme, since all of the HTC apps are themed from images in com.htc.resources.apk in /system/framework. But if you are on a sense ROM, you probably can just use a MyModes theme. If you do however choose to try this on a sense ROM, it will only theme user and non-HTC apps. This guide will technically work for any ROM but it works best for AOSP based ROMs, like CyanogenMod or ArayrayMod. The only thing is that if there is a change in the color of text, then you have to decompile both framework-res APKs and copy styles.xml from the old one to your new one and recompile it. APKtool or APK Manager both work great for that.
DO A NANDROID BACKUP BEFORE PUSHING THE NEW FRAMEWORK! Sometimes you can get boot loops from screwing with other files in framework-res, or if it is not signed properly. But you shouldn't get boot loops as long as you stay away from XMLs.

how do i extract an apk? it shows up as an apk and when i click extract it does nothing

Sometimes pushing new frameworks cause boot loops fyi..

Happened to me twice :/
Sent from my T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide using XDA App

purple1 said:
how do i extract an apk? it shows up as an apk and when i click extract it does nothing
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you try renaming it to framework-res.zip rather than .apk? If you have 7-zip or winrar you can also right click, open with, and choose 7-zip or winrar from the choose default program option.
arayray said:
Sometimes pushing new frameworks cause boot loops fyi..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Only if you screw with the non-drawable folders. If you leave the XMLs intact and only change the images it boots fine. The boot loops are caused by incompatible or conflicting XML files, which happens when you just push a random framework-res from another ROM, you have to just move the images over.

I use apkmanager for linux and its immensely helpful. Also you can loop one even without modifying the xmls. Least I have that's why the most important part of theming is knowing how to backup/restore or flash sbf or w/e.

Only if you screw with the non-drawable folders. If you leave the XMLs intact and only change the images it boots fine. The boot loops are caused by incompatible or conflicting XML files, which happens when you just push a random framework-res from another ROM, you have to just move the images over.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you should state that in the OP

Added a note at the bottom, thanks

[Q] Requesting Red Theme for kf1 roms

I was wondering if there were any themers out there that have or can make a red theme for fasty 2.5. I would be very greatful. Ive been trying the past couple weeks but im not doing very good. Alot of boot loops.
PS Fasty 2.5 if a kf1 based rom. If that helps at all.

What you trying to do, I know how to code but I'm new to Java and dalvik code. Learning as I go, but maybe I can help you out.

I don't know what all you've been trying, but what I've had success (to a limited degree) with is to pull a current copy of your framework-res.apk, twframework-res.apk, and systemui.apk files out of /system/framework and /system/app (you may need to dig to find them), then open/unzip the folder with 7zip. Make copies of each apk to a safe place as a backup.
Dig around in each folder and change anything without a .9.png extension. An easy thing to do is just to use photoshop and automate a color shift. (You may have to play around with some icons - they don't like being opened if they're indexed color.)
Once you have some files ready, open the pulled .apk's with 7zip again (use the open archive option), and overwrite the files inside of them with the files you edited.
Once that's done, fire up adb again and push your updated files back to the respective folders they came from.
Reboot, and you should be good to go.

I would like to make a red version of the theme honeysmoke by the creators of fasty. I would post the link to it but the website is down.

First thing is your going to need something like Apkmanager if you don't already have it.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1227179
Like jmtheiss said, pull the system files out and unzip them. I use Paint.net, which isn't photoshop, but works well.

OK i have apk manager i decompiled the framework-res.apk

voldomart13 said:
OK i have apk manager i decompiled the framework-res.apk
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Click to collapse
Well if your just starting out you should select to extract it first and then look in res/drawable-hdpi and you will see some .png files. Just look at your phone and figure out what you want to try to mod that you see in the folder. The same would hold true for systemui and twframework-res, both will have .png files in the res/drawable-hdpi folder. Be careful not to modify .9.png files, they are a special file that is stretchable and most paint programs don't recognize them and are difficult to modify with draw9patch editor.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=908270