Anyone know it real well and willing to help a guy out?
I just created my first package, but it worked.
What's up?
D
Going to try to create a theme for the Swype Beta. Looking into it a few people have had problems, and figured out how to do it, but none have posted what it was they did lol.
Well I have gotten the files to load into the swype apk, but instead of replacing the files within the nested folders, it is creating duplicate folders... IE when I open swype.apk, there are now two folders named "assets" etc
WooHooo I am almost done doing a more complete template for the beta version of Swype, I think this is going to work well
Anyhow, does no one know what might cause metamorph to create duplicate folders?
Related
Right away, forgive my ignorance on the subject, I'm sure I can spend 10-12 hours searching forums and figure it out or someone can take 2 min and just answer it.
Lets say one was to take an app from the market and unzip it into a folder to see what it's made out of. Let's also say that one has absolutely no clue about android, Linux or programming in general, just too much curiosity and a phone to play with. So that certain individual (and I will not admit that it was me, it was.... my friend) found .dex file inside and thought of editing it, nothing fancy, just replace some URLs with other URLs. Here the question: How would I (I mean... my friend) would edit .dex file? Notepad seems to do it but something tell me (I mean... my friend) that it's not the right way. How would I put that app back toghether into .apk format after I'm done with it (Agh, screw it, it's me, it's not my friend). I should also note that I'm not trying to do this for profit or trying to steal someone's app.
Any help is greatly appreciated
You my friend are a Grade A tard.
apk files are not unzipped.
Decompiled maybe?
topdnbass said:
You my friend are a Grade A tard.
apk files are not unzipped.
Decompiled maybe?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Whatever you would like to call it. If it make you happy, I "decompilied" apk file using WinRAR to get a number of files including above mentioned .dex file.
Now that we have that figured out, how do I edit .dex file and repack everything else into .apk?
Thanks
First off, yes you can open the .apk file and see the other files but the files for the actual app are compiled. They arent editable. You would need the source to edit the app in any way.
As to the .dex file if you can open it with a text editor and change stuff all you are likely to do is break the app. As for putting it back together and getting it to install, good luck. You will probably need to get it resigned or something.
If you are wanting to learn how to make apps for android you should download the SDK. I believe there is a tutorial with some example apps that you can make out there somewhere also.
Dharkaron said:
First off, yes you can open the .apk file and see the other files but the files for the actual app are compiled. They arent editable. You would need the source to edit the app in any way.
As to the .dex file if you can open it with a text editor and change stuff all you are likely to do is break the app. As for putting it back together and getting it to install, good luck. You will probably need to get it resigned or something.
If you are wanting to learn how to make apps for android you should download the SDK. I believe there is a tutorial with some example apps that you can make out there somewhere also.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agh, now we are getting somewhere.
Just for the record: I do not want to make apps, I'd rather leave it to pros and pay few bucks for working app that has no bugs.
The app I am referring too is StreamFusion which is a streaming audio player. Initial install puts about 30 preloaded stations in the playlist, none of which are of any interest to me. I unzipped apk and found this .dex file (resources.dex? not at home, can't check) which contained URLs for default-loaded streams. All I want to do is replace them with URLs of my own so I don't have to search shoutcast,add my stations and delete defaults everytime I decide to wipe my phone. Sounds like such a simple task, yet there's no clear documentation on how to do something like that (at least for the non-dev crowd).
With that said, I don't want to change the way StreamFusion, they do give you an option to remove defaults manually (one by one!) and they do give you an option to add your own stations in the playlist. It just takes too long and I've done it a few too many times already.
I'll keep playing with it, let me know if anyone for sure knows how to do it, otherwise I'll report when I figure it out or when I get tired of it.
Sorry for being rude earlier, i was in a bad mood
If you mean StreamFurious all you need to do is long press the radio station and hit delete
topdnbass said:
You my friend are a Grade A tard.
apk files are not unzipped.
Decompiled maybe?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you actually tried renaming an .apk file to .zip and opening it? In short, apk is just like a jar. They're just zip files with specific metadata requirements.
“Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.” -Andy Rooney
borodin1 said:
edit .dex file? Notepad seems to do it but something tell me (I mean... my friend) that it's not the right way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
when in doubt .. HEX .. hex editing of a file can maintain its purest essence and prevent it from crashing .. provided of course that you edit the right parts .. i've done this thousands of times in computer games .. change one little thing and POOF! your scrawny little piss-ant becomes mighty hercules and you can slay the dragon - LOL - ok .. so maybe not so korny
borodin1 said:
With that said, I don't want to change the way StreamFusion, they do give you an option to remove defaults manually (one by one!) and they do give you an option to add your own stations in the playlist. It just takes too long and I've done it a few too many times already.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The defaults that are hard-coded into the apk are loaded on first run into a sqlite3 database. Sure you could edit the hard-coded defaults, but this would be an unclean solution. A better solution would be to backup the sqlite3 database to your computer and restore it with adb whenever you reinstall. You can also easily edit the database conveniently on your pc as well.
The location of the db is /data/data/com.streamfurious.android.free/databases/streamfurious.db
By the way, the SF defaults already include KQED, BBC WS and TWiT. What more could anyone possibly need
You can decompile apk class files from the dex file.
http://zeaster.blogspot.com/2007/11/how-to-decompile-dex-file-on-android_28.html
As for repacking it after the edit.....check this out this might help...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=503007
or ask strazzere
Hi All,
i was wondering if there is a way to open a .apk file and see the coding for the app. Thanks in advance for your help all.
You mean like reverse engineering? It's a pretty fine line around here...
Not tryin to do anything bad or illegal..just wanted to see what an app code looks like...how its broken down....thats all
most apks arent just one thing. the apk acts like a zip file, containing potentially lots of files inside. you can use winrar to open them just fine.
thanks just tryin to learn what makes an app and how it works
jef8310 said:
thanks just tryin to learn what makes an app and how it works
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/tools/index.html
thats where you should go then lol
Thanks B-man007...i will check that out
Just rename your .apk extension to .zip and unzip it. You will get to see some stuff there.
Stuff you can't see readily:
The manifest file can be viewed with some tools available on sourceforge (very easy). You can disassemble/reassemble the .dex file(s), but I warn you that this is a pain in the A. I have done it several times and cursed all the way through each time.
What are you trying to do?
Easy apk dissassembler.
The most easy way to dissassemble APK is using this app:
Is easy and intuitive.
http://code.google.com/p/easy-apk-dissassembler/
You have this thread too
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=14049173
reverse engineering is how i learned to write my own programs for my ti-86 graphing calculator back in high school. seeing how/why things work inside an established program helped me figure out what i needed to make what i wanted. i wish app development was as easy as basic haha. of course, i say that with no knowledge of java or android programming. i plan on going to school starting next year to learn it though.
While I'm new back in playing with the Android OS, I spent a ton of time modifying my iPhone when I had it, creating custom icons, wallpapers, overlays, etc.
What I've noticed recently is that most of the icons in the Android OS really don't have much synergy in their designs. Every widget maker has something a little different in what they see as their own design, but they often times don't make all of the widgets that I would like, and I'm stuck with a hodgepodge of different looking icons and widgets cluttering my screen.
I'm curious if there is a somewhat easy way to modify the graphics files of these widgets so that I can create a very clean theme. To give you an idea of what I would enjoy creating, I'll attach a before/after picture of some modified icons that I was using on the iPhone. While they retain the color schemes for the most part, I felt like I was able to make everything feel a bit more cohesive in a theme, and I would love to continue that trend on my Hero.
So the eternal question.... can it be done? And if so, is it something a mere noob back to the Android OS can make happen?
it is actually pretty easy, i will explain as good as i can. there are some drawbacks:
you need to resign the apk. there is testkey available at this forum, and i think you can generate your own with the sdk (not sure if and how). but after resigning the apps are signed with the testkey, not the developers key. i do not really understand what that means, but it was a hint i read somewhere...
i am not sure whether the apps will be flagged by the market as "update available", but i don't think so because they won't appear in your downloads list, since you have to install them "manually".
that is AFAIK all for the cons, here's the how:
1. extract the .apk, rename to .zip if necessary.
2. find the image you want to be replaced, should be somewhere in [extracted folder]/res/drawable/
3. edit the image to your needs and save it.
4. re-zip the contents of the folder (including the not changed elements of course) to whatever.zip
5. rename whatever.zip to whatever.apk
6. sign whatever.apk
as for signing, here is how to do:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=551711&highlight=howto
the process for apps is basically the same as for update.zips, just don't use with recovery image but filemanager to install as regular app...
i think there is a theme howto out there on this forum, maybe that helps too.
kendong2 explains it well .... it is easy when it all clicks into place check my siignature for more help
Hi Folks,
I'm sure the answers to my questions are somewhere on XDA, but I've not been able to find them. I've been trying to get some basic things working for a good few evenings now and I’m stuck
Using Erviuskitchen, packages creator 5.4 and EXT_PAckages_rebuilder I've been able to dump the HTC 6.5 base ROM to work from. Then put it all back together, pull some bits out, cook it and flash it to my phone....all went surprisingly well, my phone's still running and a bit more bloat-free!
What I'm stumped on though is adding things to my ROM, I'm good with packages found elsewhere, but nothing of my own.
I've got a bunch of .CABs which I'd like to 'cook in'... but when I create a package from the CAB file using packages creator 5.4 and EXT_PAckages_rebuilder and then flash it, I get no start menu icons. The app seems to be installed correctly, but without icons for it.
(my goal's to cook in a pre-configured copy of GuardMobile for if my phone's evey lost/stolen, but I'd like to be able to include other apps too).
What am I missing?
On a slightly different note: during my travels around here, I've seen various cooked ROMs which give you the option of uninstalling cooked-in apps as if they'd been installed using a .CAB file - how's this bit done?
Like I mentioned, I’m sure the these are pretty basic questions and the answers are around here somewhere, but I'm afraid my search-powers are failing me! (tbh, there's just too much info and I'm struggling to filter it down to what I need).
Any links or quick pointers would be greatly appreciated. Hey if my ROM turns out to be any good, I’ll put it up for others to use.
Thanks in anticipation!
'tunes
Most times when creating a package the shortcut created in the CAB is added to some .DAT file which you can edit using Notepad++ or any other text editor.
There should be some lines in this file like this:
Code:
Directory("\Windows"):-Directory("Start Menu\Programs")
Directory("\Windows\Start Menu\Programs"):-File("PROGRAMNAME.lnk","\Windows\SOURCESHORTCUT.lnk")
At least this is one way to do it. Con about this methode is that you need shortcuts (lnk) in your Windows folder to point to. Should be other ways. I use Mortscript in my ROM (not ready for release ) this allows me to create shortcuts without having shortcuts in my Windows folder.
EDIT:
Just did a quick search for you. THIS might help you (and us) out
Thanks mccune, I'll get reading...
Just wondering how to theme on the Hero. I know the rough idea from my small amount of experience with Winterboard. Indicate folder/app with and then have images to replace UI elements.
However I don't know how to work a .THM file or if anything special needs to be done to the zip file.. I tried to edit a theme once and it wouldn't load on MM so something was wrong..
Is there any guide?
Also: there is an app available for iPhone OS that gives you all the UI elements in a list and has an image to indicate where it's found on the phone, you can then edit it and it will change on the image so you have a preview of your theme without saving or applying it... Anything like this available or in the works?
essentially the .thm needs to be exactly the same filename as the .zip
Also, if you open the .thm with Notepad for example, you will see the format you need to keep.
If you modify someones theme, remember if you delete an apk (dir) then you need to delete the relevant lines in the .thm. Same goes for if you are adding apk's too. You need to add the lines, so it is installed to the correct location.
You do not need to do anything specific with the .zip.... This is the beauty of MM. It does the complicated bits for us.
To be brutally honest, i dont find MM very reliable (having made a very full theme). People report all kinds of crazy issues caused by MM.
There is a VERY good guide in this forum....Google 'xda metamorph theme' that will lead you to it.
Also, there is no apps like the one you mention for the iPhone.
Enjoy