Database Develop

Editing APK's w/ Mac and Betterzip?

Ok so i've been easing into learning how to edit apk's, theming I guess you can call it. I'm in the exploratory early stages, here's my question. I use BetterZip on my Mac to edit the apk's (zips). So I copied the facebook.apk from Super D 1.10.3 (built in?) and move the apk to my sdcard and renamed it with a .zip extension. Edit some png's, save it. Return to Root Explorer and rename with the .apk extension again, and install. Install comes back successful but my image changes do not show up? I havent gotten creative with it because I want to know the steps first before getting creative. So i just turned random icons black and such and they remain the same. It "overwrites" the FB app that is installed initially in system/app, should there not be two apk's around? prob not right? If someone could just briefly tell me their steps, and obviously you'd have to have a mac to help. Thanks.
And for the record, i've checked out other threads about editing apk's on a mac and its just too difficult it seems, creating keystores and whatnot? I feel like my method is pretty close, I'm just missing something.

joe.kerwin said:
Ok so i've been easing into learning how to edit apk's, theming I guess you can call it. I'm in the exploratory early stages, here's my question. I use BetterZip on my Mac to edit the apk's (zips). So I copied the facebook.apk from Super D 1.10.3 (built in?) and move the apk to my sdcard and renamed it with a .zip extension. Edit some png's, save it. Return to Root Explorer and rename with the .apk extension again, and install. Install comes back successful but my image changes do not show up? I havent gotten creative with it because I want to know the steps first before getting creative. So i just turned random icons black and such and they remain the same. It "overwrites" the FB app that is installed initially in system/app, should there not be two apk's around? prob not right? If someone could just briefly tell me their steps, and obviously you'd have to have a mac to help. Thanks.
And for the record, i've checked out other threads about editing apk's on a mac and its just too difficult it seems, creating keystores and whatnot? I feel like my method is pretty close, I'm just missing something.
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I don't know much about mac's but I'm pretty good at theming. How are you signing your modified .apk files? If you don't sign them then they will fail to install.

Double post - sorry

Have you seen this thread - it's a droplet for your mac to sign apks.....maybe it will help?

yeah I have that droplet app to sign apps. Maybe it's just a bad apk to start with? I used the FB apk and edited it, signed it, and tried installing it on a fresh install of Superfast (facebook isn't included in system apps) and it still says "This program will overwrite a system blah blah blah" So maybe i'm just messing with the wrong apk? I haven't tried anything else, I just really wanted to tweak the FB widget, haha. Any advice?

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.

help modifing system/framework/framework-res.apk

Hi Everyone
I hope this is the right place for this posting.
I pulled system/framework/framework-res.apk from my phone. I was trying to find the launcher button images that my rom (Aloyuis) uses (turns out the images aren't in this particular apk nore are they in htc.com.resource) Any ways, I didn't like the direction the battery indicator was pointing in on the status bar so I rotated all the images. I then zipped the file back up keeping the name (framework-res.apk) and then pushed it back to phone (adb push <path to file on computer> /system/framework/framework-res.apk)
No problems occurred pushing the file to the phone. I then issued the reboot command from the sdk. The phone rebooted but I could not get past the HTC load screen. Any ideas on why this is and what I am doing wrong?

Don't re zip it. Use 7 zip, pull out the files you want to modify, while leaving the apk intact, modify, then use 7 zip to open (right click on the apk, go to 7 zip then open), navigate to the applicable res folder, drag and drop your modified files on top of the stock ones. Then push your modified apk. As for the launcher, look in system/app for launcher.apk (or he might be using adw)
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danaff37 said:
Don't re zip it. Use 7 zip, pull out the files you want to modify, while leaving the apk intact, modify, then use 7 zip to open (right click on the apk, go to 7 zip then open), navigate to the applicable res folder, drag and drop your modified files on top of the stock ones. Then push your modified apk. As for the launcher, look in system/app for launcher.apk (or he might be using adw)
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dana I really want to thank you for your reply to my post. Since you were so awesome to help me out the first time maybe you can help me out a second time. I am not entirely sure what happened. I was able to modify the png files I wanted to and push the package back to the phone. All the changes were present last night. They were also present again this morning when I turned my phone on. Though here is the confusing part. I went to check my phone and something seemed different, after looking at my status bar more closely all the changes I made were gone. The battery indicatore had gone back to its original right facing image with a blue level metter. Do you know what could have caused this? Should I pull the package again to see of the png files reverted back some how (not sure how since I replaced them so not sure where they came from) and if so push the changes back?

BTW if its the sense launcher then the png's u want r in htcresources /Res/mdpi port. Also some r in Rosie app. If Modding the files open up app. Copy and paste Res file out to a place u can work on it. Mod the files. Drag and drop back into app. Either push files back to phone via adb or create a folder. Name it update inside folder create another folder...call it system. In that make another folder. Name it app the put the app or apps in there that u modded. Now back in update folder itself...go find a theme or mod someone else did and open it up with 7zip. Take the Meta file out of it and put it into the update folder. Zip up update folder via 7zip. Next find app on forum via a search called avabox. Dl it. If in a zip take out of zip. Open it. In there is a file called auto sign. Drag the update zip into the auto sign folder. Click on sign. Put new signed zip onto SF card(u can rename file now if u want). Go into recovery and flash the file. Reboot. LOL really it isn't hard

you may have to repush the file, then reboot to recovery and clear dalvik cache. It's reloading images from the cache

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.

APK files and swype keyboard

OK.. so I want to change the keyboard colors on my phone and I've been reading for a while on apk files and just want to make sure I have it right
I took the original swype apk (after backing up a copy) and changed it to a zip file and unzipped. Went into where the keyboard png files live and changed the color of the text to my liking.
I took the original backed up swype.apk and used the apk package manager to decompress it (files were in projects folder). I copied over my keyboard pngs over the originals and then use apk manager to package it back up I'm pretty sure but
1. Is swype a system app?? Apk manager warns about keeping the signature or not
2. Does my new swype apk have to have the same name?? I now have a unsignedswype.apk file in my "place-apk-here-for modding" folder probably because I chose that
Was planning on using sideload wonder machine to put it on the phone, just wanted to make sure I had everything correct before screwing something up royally

I've played around a bit with Swype themes. MetaMorph is an easy way to apply your theme. I've also had no problems with copying my Swype.apk from /system/App, opening it with Astro, deleting the files I changed, and pasting in the replacements. Then I just overwrite the original apk with mine using Root Explorer.
Let me know if you need any more help, can also show you how to hex edit the lib to change the trail color (mine is green).
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