Database Develop

Resigning apks

Usually when I theme an app I move it from /data/app to /system/app and then edit the files and do an update.zip to install the themed application. However, the problem with this is that I am not informed of market updates after moving the app to /system/app. Now I know that some people just edit the apk itself and resign it and that allows it to stay in /data/app.
I tried doing this, edited an apk, resigned it and that part went well. However, then I'm confused. Do I uninstall the app that's sitting in /data/app? Do I just cut and paste the new apk into /data/app? Or do I just install the new apk using Astro or something and let it overwrite the existing one.
I tried all three and it doesn't seem to work for me. It appears like everything went ok and it tells me application installed but none of the edits I make stick. Further, I noticed that in /data/app all the apks are named com.something.something.apk, whereas if you download an edited APK from some website it's usually named Facebook.apk, or Pandora.apk, etc.
So how the heck do I do this? I know the resigning is working because I edited the "Pandora.apk" that I downloaded from another source and resigned it, but when I try to pull from my phone I get the error that it either didn't install, or it does install but no changes happen.
How do you get com.something.something.apk to become Pandora.apk or Facebook.apk and then install it directly without having to do an update.zip??

anyone have a clue?

somebody anybody haha...why do my apps disappear from the app drawer after editing the apk in /data/app??

Dude i feel your pain, i've been in the same position.
Check this out it might help:
What are you editing in the apk?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=6479689&postcount=1
If your changing the name then the update can't find the apk, you cant move house but keep the same adress, you wont get your mail!!
Also if your wanting to update the edited apk, it will be overwritten by the updated version so your back to square one.
Hope this helps.

Search for apk tool, it will do what you want.

[GUIDE] How to make mymode themes

Well I haven't had much time lately to make themes but I figured i got enough time to explain how. This is how i do it in windows 7.
1) First thing i assume that you already have androidsdk on the root of your C drive. Lets go ahead and add it to your system path. If it's not called androidsdk go ahead and change it to that. Now open up your startmenu, right click computer, click properties, then click advanced system settings, in the advance system settings select environment variables. In the second box down look for path select it and choose edit. copy and paste this
Code:
;C:\androidsdk\tools
in there. Click okay.
2) download the jre and jdk from here and install them. Now you need to add them to your system path so copy paste this
Code:
;C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre6\bin;C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jdk1.6.0_20\bin
to your system path just like you did in the first step.
3) Download apk manager from here. Now run it and when it says clean out all current projects click yes. Now thats ready to go.
4) Download an image editing program. I use gimp. Also if you don't have it 7-zip
your all set to go now so lets start over with the numbers
1) choose a mymode apk and extract it with 7-zip. Open up the res folder select a png that you want to change and change it with the image editor you chose.
2) when you've changed the images you want open up the original apk as an archive with 7zip. Then place the res folder of the modified unzipped apk into the archive and close the archive.
3) Now open up apk manager and place the mymode apk into the place here for signing folder click script batch choose no then type 15.
4) Now put the newly signed apk into your androidsdk/tools folder and close apk manager.
5) open command prompt and type this
Code:
cd\
cd androidsdk/tools
adb install whatever.apk
I'll update this with pics a more thorough guide.
Thanks to everyone that made this easy

reserved for themes to come

Thanks been waiting for a thread like this.

thanks, if i ever get any free-time between jobs and kid and fiancee i will look into this a little more

This is an awesome guide! I messed around with theming mytouch/g1 back when I had one.. so this will be great to make some themes for the slide..
One question though.. let's say you pull the nest theme.. theme it and re install it.. will it just override the nest theme or in the theme listing will it appear as a new theme and still allow you to have the original theme?
Sent from my T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide using XDA App

ryanolson7 said:
One question though.. let's say you pull the nest theme.. theme it and re install it.. will it just override the nest theme or in the theme listing will it appear as a new theme and still allow you to have the original theme?
Sent from my T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The nest theme is in the framework, its not an .apk like the rest, its built into the system. The rest of the mymodes themes are .apks and if you edit those they will override the stock "nest" theme. The only way it will show up different in the theme chooser is if you edit the preview snapshot to be a preview of your theme. If you wanna keep the original theme, the nest theme is it and you should edit a different theme .apk...
-BMFC
Sent from my ROOTED MyTouch3G Slide

Okay so I got the next three days off and I already got two mymode themes pretty much done well their done but I just learned of a way to change the name so they are there own standalone apk instead of using another apk name. I've been using puppypride (which by the way isn't puppies those are full grown dogs) and switching out the pngs and you couldn't have the regular puppypride now you can have both

hope you don't mind but I did a mod of your themes and took out the bubbles since some people always create threads about it

Help with following guide
I am a newb at this so please don't attack me if I am doing something wrong. I have been struggling with following the guide posted to make mymode themes. I have successfully got up to the step of signing the apk file. I modified the files in the free_kick.apk. When I try to use APK Manager 4.8 and using the directions given the file just gets erased and nothing happens. My log file just shows errors. Any help with a more detailed directions one what to do in APK manager as I am trying different things and not getting anywhere. I use the option 15 like told in the guide. I can send my modified apk file to anyone if they can get this to work and get it installed that would be appreciated so much. I hope I can figure this out my own but thought I would try get help from the forums. Thanks in advance.

impimms said:
I am a newb at this so please don't attack me if I am doing something wrong. I have been struggling with following the guide posted to make mymode themes. I have successfully got up to the step of signing the apk file. I modified the files in the free_kick.apk. When I try to use APK Manager 4.8 and using the directions given the file just gets erased and nothing happens. My log file just shows errors. Any help with a more detailed directions one what to do in APK manager as I am trying different things and not getting anywhere. I use the option 15 like told in the guide. I can send my modified apk file to anyone if they can get this to work and get it installed that would be appreciated so much. I hope I can figure this out my own but thought I would try get help from the forums. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually the guide needs to be fixed a little because i'm guessing your getting compiling errors when using apk manager? But the best way to do this is to open up the mymode theme (using 7zip) as an archive delete meta-inf folder then replace the pngs with ones of your choice as long as they are the same scale. Then resign. and install

totally lost
I've followed these directions to a T and when it comes to using the apk manager i am getting nothing, please help

You guys that are having trouble with apk manager...its honestly not necessary to use Apk Manager for this. Mymodes themes are system .apks and shouldn't be re-signed. What you need to do is forget about apk manager (for now) and drop the UNsigned .apk into the ROM update you are using, and resign the whole ROM using the autosign tool created by jesusfreke. Or just adbpush the .apk. but don't resign the .apk.
Here's the link for the autosign tool to sign ROM updates. its in the THIRD POST and its auto-sign .zip, NOT the signing.zip in the first post. you can put it anywhere you want and you just drop (a copy of) your ROM update in the autosign folder, rename it update.zip, then run the sign.bat to sign. it will create another file, update-signed.zip. you shouldnt need to wipe when flashing the same ROM over itself, but i cant guarantee this is true for all ROMs.
you can also make an update that will only flash the .apk to /system/app, and nothing else will be changed. basically just make a copy of the update for the ROM youre using, then delete everything but the /system directory from the zip. then go into that /system directory and delete everything but the /app directory, then go into it and delete all the .apks and odex file or whatevers in there. ALL OF IT. when you are finished you should have an update with nothing in it but a /system/app directory. you put your modded .apk in there in /system/app, and thats it for that.
then you must edit the update script and remove MOST of its contents so that it only does what you want it to. THIS IS IMPORTANT! Go here to learn how to create an update script. what youll need is way simpler than the examples, youll want it to look basically like this...
Code:
assert compatible_with("0.2") == "true"
show_progress 0.1 0
copy_dir PACKAGE:system SYSTEM:
show_progress 0.1 10
this update script will copy ANYTHING in the /system directory to /system on your device, regardless of subdirectories. that means anything in /system will go in /system, anything in /system/app will go to /system/app, etc. but since you only have one .apk in there it wont mess with anything but what you put in there. this way, you have a NOWIPE update for...well, whatever you want to put in it.
so you just drop the new shortened update-script in /META-INF/com/google/android/
and then use the autosign tool to resign your new update then flash away! This also takes less time cus its only flashing one file instead of flashing a whole ROM just to replace that one file...
hope this helps...
-BMFC
Sent from my T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide using XDA App

So you cannot do this on t-mobile's rom which is 2.1 right now? I'm leery of rooting in case they ever release froyo

Tbrewer80 said:
So you cannot do this on t-mobile's rom which is 2.1 right now? I'm leery of rooting in case they ever release froyo
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm having issues with this as well... After I do the whole signing apk thing, it installs fine, but when I go to MyModes, the preview is black and when I select it, the MyModes app force closes. I don't get it.

Music Player colors

Ok, so this hasn't really been a problem for me before since I couldn't use the samsung music player at all since it wouldn't sort by artist. However, now that I'm using JM6, it is letting me sort by artist. I really like the widget on the lock screen and on the pull down notification bar, so I'd like to use music player of Mixzing.
The problem is, on both of the widgets the background is an ugly purple color. Why would they do this? Ew. Is there any way to change the background color of these widgets? If I could do that, I would be as close to 100% happy with this phone that I've ever been.
Edit: Nevermind. I got it.

Care to share what you did? I didn't see anything in the settings. My ultimate goal would be to have the widget with a transparent background.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

keredini said:
Care to share what you did? I didn't see anything in the settings. My ultimate goal would be to have the widget with a transparent background.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could do that. The files you need to change are located in the twframework and framework apk's. They are in system/framework, but I just used the twframework file from here. I don't remember the names of the files I changed (sorry). I just searched for music or background or bg in the drawable-hdpi folder of the apk's and when I found the ones I wanted to change, (really the only purple ones) I changed the color to something else. To make it transparent just replace the file (keep the same name) with a transparent .png file.
The twframework file can just be edited and then copied back over the original, but the framework apk caused a lot of force closes on me when I tried that. So I just edited the files inside the circle clock.zip file and then ran the .zip file and it applied the changes for me without any problems.
I also changed the ugly pink icon to something that looks like a real cd in the background with an orange music note on top. Looks a billion times better.
I apologize that I can't be more technical with you, if you have any questions about anything shoot me a pm or post it up here.

dontshakepandas said:
You could do that. The files you need to change are located in the twframework and framework apk's. They are in system/framework, but I just used the twframework file from here. I don't remember the names of the files I changed (sorry). I just searched for music or background or bg in the drawable-hdpi folder of the apk's and when I found the ones I wanted to change, (really the only purple ones) I changed the color to something else. To make it transparent just replace the file (keep the same name) with a transparent .png file.
The twframework file can just be edited and then copied back over the original, but the framework apk caused a lot of force closes on me when I tried that. So I just edited the files inside the circle clock.zip file and then ran the .zip file and it applied the changes for me without any problems.
I also changed the ugly pink icon to something that looks like a real cd in the background with an orange music note on top. Looks a billion times better.
I apologize that I can't be more technical with you, if you have any questions about anything shoot me a pm or post it up here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Strange, I couldn't get this to work...here are the steps i took:
Used adb push to get the twframework-res.apk file to my PC.
Used APK Manager to unzip the APK.
Modified the purple background file (quick_panel_music_bg.9.png) to be transparent.
Used APK Manager to zip the APK using the new PNG file. (I only Zipped the APK, I did not sign it since it was a system APK and did not Zipalign it)
Dropped the APK on the root of my sdcard.
Used Busybox to copy it over the existing APK.
Rebooted.
Any ideas why this wouldn't work? I tried twice, both times the background is still purple.

Hmmm, I went back and looked at the framework-res.apk and noticed i missed a file in there with purple background, so i edited that PNG file, then used APK Manager to zip and then ADB to copy over the original.
Now my phone will boot only to the Galaxy S boot screen, then just goes black. Looks like I will need to adb the backup files back onto the phone. Can you explain how you did this using an update.zip file. That seems like maybe an easier route.

when changing the twframework file I used 7zip to open the archive without ever unzipping the file. I dragged the already edited png files into the correct directory to replace the purple ones.
For the update.zip I downloaded the .zip file for thecircle battery mod. I then put the updated png files that I wanted to replace using 7 zip again. I ran the update.zip file and everything worked.
If you are able to use metamorph (using older su version) you can download the simplistic theme, replace the res files with the ones from the stock apks then apply them in metamorph.

[REQ] Captivate Stock AT&T Theme

I would like to flash a new ROM but i like the stock captivate theme the best.
is there any update.zip packages of the default theme floating around? i want to wait until i know i can do it before i flash. Also, is there any way to "rip" the theme from my ROM? because then i can just do that

I posted a request for this a few weeks back and got really no help.... What I did was unzip the framework.apk's from the theme I wanted and from the JH7_OTA that's floating around here somewhere and compared the images in the drawbale-hdpi folder. I think there are some files in tw-framework.apk that need to be changed if you want to change the pull down menu.
Hope this helps

The themes are mostly inside framework-res.apk, which is very ROM-specific. You can't just install them randomly inside one another.
If you'd like to port a theme, you can either replace the image files using 7-zip, WinRAR, etc. or decompile the .apk using APK Manager for more extensive changes (things like battery mods, etc.).

MikeyMike01 said:
The themes are mostly inside framework-res.apk, which is very ROM-specific. You can't just install them randomly inside one another.
If you'd like to port a theme, you can either replace the image files using 7-zip, WinRAR, etc. or decompile the .apk using APK Manager for more extensive changes (things like battery mods, etc.).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what he said ^^^^
but as a beginner's guide, you will need to pull your FRAMEWORK-RES.APK and TWFRAMEWORK-RES.APK from /system/framework folder
For this, you will need to use either ADB or an app like ASTRO or ROOTEXPLORER
when you copy these two apk's to your computer, you will need to open it up (NOT extract it) and simply replace the images inside with those from a stock FRAMEWORK-RES.APK & TWFRAMEWORK-RES.APK
The images you want to change are going to be in res/drawable-hdpi folder
Don't just replace everything, you will need to see which one's are different.. if there is something you want to change and don't know what .png file it is, just post it back up here and I will help you out

How to change icon apps on the app drawer? (rooted)

I'm trying to change the icons on the app drawer with Root Explorer but I can't find the correct PNG to replace that on the system/app/"application.apk"/res/drawable/_____.png
Anyone knows the right name of the icon?
Thanks!

res/drawable-hdpi/file_manager_r.png ypu will have to turn the apk into a zip then put your new file into the hdpi folder and change the zip back to an apk then re install

Can I follow this steps with the Captivate or I need to do this on the computer?
Any easy way?
Thanks for the tip!

hi, i changed an image in drawable-hdpi in "phone.apk" (ic_jog_dial_unlock.png) like aceman said, but if i try to install new phone.apk it says "application not installed" (or something similar, my language phone is not english). how can i install new phone.apk??
I tried to istall it from recovery and there is the same result
thanks

You have to push the phone.apk file into /system/app with a root explorer or adb. Just installing it won't work like most other apks.

i have "root browser", can i use it? can u say to me all the steps i have to do with it or adb? i'm not an android expert user...

up...anyone ca help me?

install a different launcher app that lets you customize it. try launcherpro from the android market.
you wont understand the mod instructions.

screw it here they are...
mod instructions... basic if you need more info. learn to search there are 4000 guides on how to change an app image.
you need winrar on windows. if you arent running windows you should know better.
use root level file manager to go to 'system/app' folder and copy your launcher.apk to sdcard.
copy to PC
right click .apk > open with... > choose program > WinRar
look through folders inside APK and copy all folders with .PNG images to desktop (or work folder)
look through the images in the folders (change veiw to thumbnails) and find the name of the image you want to change and the name of the folder it was in.
Go get, or create your custom image, and name it that name. **Close to original shape size.
Use winRar to open the .APK again and naviage to the place where your image goes and drop the new one into that folder.
A window with options will come up and select Compression Profile : STORE
Click ok
Close winrar.
Copy .apk to SDcard
Use root file manager to rename original /system/app/launcher.apk to launcher.apk.bak (backup)
Then copy your modded .apk to /system/app.
Reboot (pull battery)
DONT MESS WITH ANY IMAGE ENDING IN .9.PNG only regular .pngs
for more on .9.pngs... search google.. what is ....

i*have*to*modify*phone.apk,*no*launcher.apk..*i*just*did*steps*you*sayd,*but*if*i*try*to*rename*phone.apk,*my*nexus*goes*in*full*crash

fist off this is the Captivate forums. not nexus.
and i was giving help to OP question not yours. either way the *stars*and*sp ac*es are friggin annoying. use your computer if your phone is messed up.
if you "tried" to modify the name... DID IT? try doesnt tell me much.
if it wouldnt let you, then nothing changed and your phone is screwed up from something else.
if it DID rename, then CHANGE IT BACK.. duh.

sorry for space and *, i wrote it with the mouse using google translate keybord and i saw them when i cut/past the text
i "tried" to rename phone.apk, so the phone went in a full crash and i had to restore system using an old backup in recovery

paino85 said:
sorry for space and *, i wrote it with the mouse using google translate keybord and i saw them when i cut/past the text
i "tried" to rename phone.apk, so the phone went in a full crash and i had to restore system using an old backup in recovery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try apktool to extract all replace wteva ocon u want to and rebuild apk using the same tool and u need to sign the apk usin signapk tool so that device can recognise the.apk file for installation. I have done this and everything went fine in galaxy note. But i couldn't locate the file to rename the icon. Icon changing was not a prob.