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How can I view the source code of an android app?

This is probably a noob question, but how can you view the coding of an android application? I just had a small test app developed for me and I would like to look at the "guts" of it.
I downloaded the emulator but I haven't been able to figure out how to see my app's code using it. Maybe there is another way that's easier? You know, something akin to the "view page source" tab enabled in many browsers that allows you to see an html page's code?
I tried opening it with TextEdit on my Mac but it says its not readable.
What's an easy way to take a look at/edit the code?
Thanks in advance for your help!

Android-apktool
Android-apktool - A tool for reengineering Android apk files ...
http: / / code.google.com/p/android-apktool
It is a tool for reengineering 3rd party, closed, binary Android apps. It can decode resources to nearly original form and rebuild them after making some modifications; it makes possible to debug smali code step by step. Also it makes working with app easier because of project-like files structure and automation of some repetitive tasks like building apk, etc.
It is NOT intended for piracy and other non-legal uses. It could be used for localizing, adding some features or support for custom platforms and other GOOD purposes. Just try to be fair with authors of an app, that you use and probably like.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Google "apk manager"
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App

Thank guys, however it says it can't be found - see this screencast I recorded: screencast.com/t/kII8UcBqE1RQ
Any ideas?
I feel like it can't be that complicated, but there is almost no info about in on Google...

[Q] how execute/apply xml file?

Hello,
I have a lot of problems with omnia 7 due to app profile network of samsung haven´t got the profile of my operator. I can set it thanks to a post of here, but I think that it is a bit difficult and you need the computer to set it. As I have studied some of programming c#, I decided to make an app that set mms and internet. I have already done the screen and I´ve get to make that app create the file xml with the code in order to set mms and internet, but I haven´t found information about how execute/apply the file xml with the app. Where can I find about it?
PD: Sorry, I do not control English very well

Hi,
I guess it's a topic a bit complex, but can not someone help me with this?

You use an OEM COM interface, accessed from C# by using Microsoft.Phone.InteropServices.ComBridge. One easy way to see how this is done is to look at the source of an app that does it. If you can't get the source to DiagProvXML, you could always just decompile it (decompiling .NET code is pretty easy and there are several tools that can do it). There are several other apps that also use provxml; one or more of them may offer source access.

Hi,
Thank for your help and I can select the services that I have load, but I have a small problem that I hadn't taken into account. I know c# but my apps are a lot of more easy that diagprovxml, and I can´t find the part of program that I´m interested. I use "JustDecompile" to decompile the app. Could you tell me what class(or classes) is (are) what I'm looking for?
Thank you very much again

Hmm... it's not linked in my SIG because it's out-o-date, but you could try using Search to find my old DeployProvXml app. It includes a pretty straightforward example of using provxml.
Essentially, you need the following things:
The interopservices DLL (allows you to use the ComBridge class).
The OEM DLLs (DMXMLCOM.dll and such).
COM class and interface definitions for them in C# (this is the stuff with the [ComImport] attributes and the GUIDs).
ID_CAP_INTEROPSERVICES in your WMAppManifest.
WPInteropManifest.xml file in your project.
Use the ComBridge to register the COM interfaces, then create an instance of the COM class(es), cast to the appropriate interface type(s), and use a variable of the interface type like any other .NET object.
You can read a bit more about COM and native code in Heathcliff74's guide. It's aimed at making your own native libraries, so skip all the stuff about creating your own COM classes and writing native code. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1299134

Hi again, Does the method WP7RootToolsSDK.Environment.ProcessConfigXml allow to set the parameters that have a tipical xml file?
thank you again

I'm not sure what you mean by "set the parameters" but the Root Tools SDK does in fact allow you to consume ProvXML files now (I think it even supports the query provXML and returns the output, though I haven't tried).

[Q] To which language does the following code belong to ?

Hey Guys,
Recently I was planning to learn to code android apps, so I decompiled an app I wanted to modify & was going through the source code. All of the .smali files were un-encrypted. I would like to know if this code is Objective-C or Java.
I tried to add the code snippets & also tried to pastie it but apparently the posts doesn't seem to accept foreign links so I'll try to post it in the comments.
File Names: h, h$a
Also, I wanted to know what do these file names represent & what does the "dollar" sign stand for in the file names.
Thanks in Advance,
Netguy
Update: I tried posting it via comments but it wasn't possible. Let me know how can I share the code over here. Thanks.

Smali is disassembled Dalvik virtual machine byte code.
The source of it is Java, although you can't easily reconstruct the original source.
MyClass.smali is the class file for MyClass
MyClass$SubClass.smali is the class file for the nested subclass SubClass
MyClass$1.smali is the class file for an anonymous nested subclass.
ab.smali and ab$bd.smali are obfuscated file names.
Some companies rename everything using automatic tools to hide the intent.
Yes, you can write in smali if you like.
Usually such use is limited to small changes in an existing program.

Thanks a lot for the information Renate NST. While digging through some of the smali files, I found some URLs related to the google ads. So will changing the URL to something else disable the ads or will it just result in malfunctioning of the app ? Thanks a lot once again.

how to against apk-tool&modify apktool,protect my app?

code.google.com/p/android-apktool/wiki/KnownIssues
The author' wrote：
Some APKs won't decompile
I've found that some APKs don't conform to regular Android standards. They were probably built using a modified aapt, which makes decompiling near impossible. These APKs are called "Magic" apks and probably won't be supported.
can i protect my app?
I'm interseted in " modified aapt",but i have no idea about it,who can help me?
thank you

thinkinbunny said:
code.google.com/p/android-apktool/wiki/KnownIssues
The author' wrote：
Some APKs won't decompile
I've found that some APKs don't conform to regular Android standards. They were probably built using a modified aapt, which makes decompiling near impossible. These APKs are called "Magic" apks and probably won't be supported.
can i protect my app?
I'm interseted in " modified aapt",but i have no idea about it,who can help me?
thank you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can try 'Anti Decompiler(Android)Trial' on google play .
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tth.AntilDecompilerTrial
*** Main function of 'Anti decomplier (Android) Trial' App:
- Obfuscate class names, function names, filed names, files name in your source code(Proguard doesn't support to change file names) to make them harder to read.
- Add fake code to your source code. The decompiler tools will get a lot of errors when trying to reverse your original code from the exported apk files.
...+Note Trial: ' Add fake code' is not available on Trial version ---​- Hide all const values (string, character)
...+ Note Trial: ' Hide const values' is not available on Trial version ---​

Isn't proguard/dexguard not what your are searching for?

Recompiling with additional resources and activities

Hello All,
I have an application that I want to add some features to in the form of an additional activity. I have decompiled it with APK tool and attempted to add my own smali files (from the decompiled 2nd app that I developed). I immediately run into problems with the dependencies of my app being different than those of the original app. For example, my app uses the google Easy Permissions lib to ask for permissions. What is the right strategy to help de-conflict the res/values/*.xml files between two apps that both have their own resources? Are there any tools that can assist in this? What about layout and drawable resources?
I started writing a python script to merge public.xml and the others, re-map the ID's for those resources, and then search the smali files to change the values there. That seems error-prone, and I am not even sure if that is the right thing to do.
I had a second thought that perhaps aapt2 compilation of resources could perhaps be modified to give me a different package ID for the app I created and control source to (such as 0x80... instea of 0x7f...) but I am not sure exactly how to go about that, or if that would even work either
Any advice or tools I should be looking at?