Android - How to extract resources and source code from apk

 Hi Guys,

This is for the people who has apk file and lost the source code unfortunately and who wants some initial push to write great apps( i mean by copying :P ).

 First download the apk file you want to decode into a separate folder.

Step 1: How to Get images and Icons :

•  add extension ".zip" to your .apk file.                                                                                               

          Ex:  Myexample.apk   rename to  Myexample.apk.zip

• Unzip the file, then it will create a folder with all resources folders , AndroidManifest file and "classes.dex" file which contains source code.

Now,  you have all the images and all xml files. Problem is all xml files are in unreadble format.If you just need images this step is enough. If you want images and readable xml also then follow following approach.


Step 2 : Decode Resources and Xml files :

Open another new folder and put following  files in that

• put .apk file which you want to decode
• download apktool XX.tar and apktool-install-windows XXX.tar and extract both in same folder 

          http://code.google.com/p/android-apktool/downloads/list                                               

         apktool xx.tar will give you apktool.jar                                                                         
         apktool-install-XX.tar will give you apktool.bat. This bat file uses apktool.jar so both should be in
         same folder.

• download framework-res.apk file and put it in same folder.                                      http://www.2shared.com/complete/MIFn5Cuo/framework-res.html 
• Open command prompt
• Navigate to the root directory of APKtool.bat and type the following command:     

             >  apktool if   framwork-res.apk                                                                                            
             >  apktool d "fname".apk ("fname" denotes filename which you want to decode)                     
                 Ex: apktool d Myexample.apk

             






Now you get a folder contains resources and readable xml files too. enjoy!!!

Not satisfied, you want source too.. then following steps are for you.

Step 3 : Decoding Source files :

• First we need to do Step 1. 
• When you open the folder you can see "classes.dex". We need to De-compile it.
•  Download dex2jar tool from following link and extract to same folder.

           http://code.google.com/p/dex2jar/

• Copy classes.dex file into extracted dex2jar folder where you can see "dex2jar.bat"

• Open command prompt and reach to that folder which contains "dex2jar.bat" and type,

            >  dex2jar classes.dex

         you will get "classes_dex2jar.jar" in same location.That means you converted .dex files .class files.

•  To get source code we again need to De-compile it. For this download following java De-compiler

           http://java.decompiler.free.fr/?q=jdgui

• Now double click on jd-gui and click on open file then open  classes_dex2jar.jar  file from that folder...

• Now you get class file...save all these class file (click on file then click "save all sources" in jd-gui)

• It will give you "classes_dex2jar.src.zip" it contains all source files.