Editing an .apk

[woebtz]

Not sure this is in the right place, but it seems like a fairly general help area.

I wanted to edit an .apk...specifically beautiful widgets so I could make a small graphical change. I wanted the wifi and vibrate widgets to show a white light instead of a green one when activated. I found the necessary image files and changed them.

When i first installed the new .apk, it said it didn't install, but the graphics worked as I intended. When I restarted, however, beautiful widgets was gone and I could not install my edited .apk. In root explorer I get the message "Application not installed"

I know how to restore the unedited .apk, but my question is if anyone knows what step I'm missing to allow me to install my version.

Do i need to resign the .apk? if so...how exactly do I do that. Is it something else.

Anyway, any insight or help would be greatly appeciated.

Thanks in advance

 

[vbhokiefan]

I know how to restore the unedited .apk, but my question is if anyone knows what step I'm missing to allow me to install my version.

Do i need to resign the .apk? if so...how exactly do I do that. Is it something else.

Anyway, any insight or help would be greatly appeciated.

Here's how I do it (there may be easier ways, but this works)

using root explorer:

copy the apk to the sdcard root.
connect to the PC, and copy over the apk
extract the apk and find the files you want to modify and make your changes
open the original apk you copied over with 7zip (use open archive, NOT extract)
copy and paste any modified files into the appropriate locations within the apk archive (this will overwrite the stock files)
close the archive and copy the apk back to the sdcard root
copy and paste (replace) the apk over the original
set permissions to 664
run terminal emulator and go through the following commands "su", "sync" "reboot"

you should be good to go --- somebody correct me if I'm wrong

 

[woebtz]

hey thanks so much for your help.

I actually found an alternative way to do this mnutes before you responded, but I will be sure to try this in the future as it looks a little bit easier.

Again, thanks so much for taking the time to respond.

 

[motoDROID.FTW]

hey thanks so much for your help.

I actually found an alternative way to do this mnutes before you responded, but I will be sure to try this in the future as it looks a little bit easier.

Again, thanks so much for taking the time to respond.

Can you get a link to that? I was curious as to how to do this as well.

 

[mskks64]

how do you set permissions to 664?

 

[Tallica]

how do you set permissions to 664?

In root explorer longpress on the apk to change and select permissions. Then the check marks should be on rw-r-r

 

[Jim 777]

hey thanks so much for your help.

I actually found an alternative way to do this mnutes before you responded, but I will be sure to try this in the future as it looks a little bit easier.

Again, thanks so much for taking the time to respond.

Can you get a link to that? I was curious as to how to do this as well.

how do you set permissions to 664?

In root explorer longpress on the apk to change and select permissions. Then the check marks should be on rw-r-r