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Root [Help Required] How to edit Contacts.apk

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vaidyasr

Member
I have installed silverlight 4.0 which is really fast even after installing 100+ apps and really stable. The only thing I don't like is the contacs/phone/mms with white background. I would like to edit the APK's so that the background can be edited. I have tried to edit by trying various methods, but no success. Anyone who have already tried in Micromax A75 please help.

Things I have tried.
1. I have used apktool to extract the Contacts.apk with the relevant framework-res.apk and modify a xml file for testing.
2. Then packed with apktool.
3. put back the original META-INF which contains signature back to the new apk and pushed back to /system/apk.

But it doesn't recognize. Please help.
 
Use apkmanager instead of using apktool manually...it will make decompiling/compiling easy n particularly modding of system app will be painless...
N if u change background to black, u will also need to change most of black colored texts to white, u need to find out those xmls n respective strings for it.
I have modded contacts.apk for my Anarchy Reloaded but not attempted changing background yet.its on my ongoing projects n will let u know if there is some development...can't do it so early n so fast, busy with my original work..
 
apktool creates two new folders in the directory.
1-build
2-dist

build folder contains some main parts of new apk and dist folder contains the new apk without signature.So,there are ways to get the new modified apk.

1-copy the meta-inf file from original apk to the new apk in dist folder.

2 copy the parts of new apk from build folder to the original apk.

you have done the first one .
now try the second one.
good luck.
 
firoz said:
apktool creates two new folders in the directory.
1-build
2-dist

build folder contains some main parts of new apk and dist folder contains the new apk without signature.So,there are ways to get the new modified apk.

1-copy the meta-inf file from original apk to the new apk in dist folder.

2 copy the parts of new apk from build folder to the original apk.

you have done the first one .
now try the second one.
good luck.
Click to expand...

Copying everything from the build folder to the original apk works for me all the time... Good Luck
 
Tried apkmanager, no success. For testing, am just editing strings.xml, but still it doesn't recognize it. Do I need to delete the dalvik-cache too?. Because in silverlight, all dex will be created under /data folder (for all system apks and user apks).
 
vaidyasr said:
Tried apkmanager, no success. For testing, am just editing strings.xml, but still it doesn't recognize it. Do I need to delete the dalvik-cache too?. Because in silverlight, all dex will be created under /data folder (for all system apks and user apks).
Click to expand...
Did u delete resources.arsc file from "keep" folder during compilation in apkmanager???u need to delete that file plus the one u modified from "keep" folder during system file modification...u have to choose Y when asked is this system apk n also for next question.
N ya, try to remove that dalvik-cache too, safe side...
 
am trying the following steps, but I didn't found the values folder which was there in the original APK.
select option 9 for decompile APK
I got the files extracted under project files. I can able to see values folder which contains xml files (strings.xml, stypes.xml...)
select option 11 to compile system APK. It is building APK and then asking Y/N.
I pressed Y. It extracted the files under keep. But folder named 'values' is missing. the resultant apk size is smaller than the original. Am I missing anything?
 
vaidyasr said:
I have installed silverlight 4.0 which is really fast even after installing 100+ apps and really stable. The only thing I don't like is the contacs/phone/mms with white background. I would like to edit the APK's so that the background can be edited. I have tried to edit by trying various methods, but no success. Anyone who have already tried in Micromax A75 please help.

Things I have tried.
1. I have used apktool to extract the Contacts.apk with the relevant framework-res.apk and modify a xml file for testing.
2. Then packed with apktool.
3. put back the original META-INF which contains signature back to the new apk and pushed back to /system/apk.

But it doesn't recognize. Please help.
Click to expand...


There is an easier way. Just delete contacts.apk and mms.apk.
Install go contacts ex and go sms pro as system apps. Thats it ;) :D
 
kumar abhishek said:
There is an easier way. Just delete contacts.apk and mms.apk.
Install go contacts ex and go sms pro as system apps. Thats it ;) :D
Click to expand...

That's an cool option. :) I thought initially, but my opinion is go-ex sms pro and contacts will slow down a little bit, comparing to the stock. It lags few seconds. Even the Go launcher has many options, it is not good for A75.
 
vaidyasr said:
That's an cool option. :) I thought initially, but my opinion is go-ex sms pro and contacts will slow down a little bit, comparing to the stock. It lags few seconds. Even the Go launcher has many options, it is not good for A75.
Click to expand...


Yup they lag a bit but looks are amazing :)
But here is the solution.
Add these lines to build.prop
sys.keep_app_1=com.jb.gosms
sys.keep_app_1=android.process.acore
Enjoy :)
 
vaidyasr said:
am trying the following steps, but I didn't found the values folder which was there in the original APK.
select option 9 for decompile APK
I got the files extracted under project files. I can able to see values folder which contains xml files (strings.xml, stypes.xml...)
select option 11 to compile system APK. It is building APK and then asking Y/N.
I pressed Y. It extracted the files under keep. But folder named 'values' is missing. the resultant apk size is smaller than the original. Am I missing anything?
Click to expand...
In "keep" folder, u will not find that values folder as in apk build all the xmls are included in resources.arsc file, that's y u have to delete that file if u modded any xml, apkmanager will create new resources.arsc file with xmls present in projects folder.

@Kumar,
does this go contact able to select sim card before calling???i want my device to ask everytime which sim to use for calling.i tried exDialer but it directly dials from sim1 despite i set Ask everytime option in sim management settings...does go contact also do the same???if so then how to dial with sim2?

N btw it's
sys.keep_app_1=com.jb.gosms
sys.keep_app_2=android.process.acore
sys.keep_app_3=.....
n so on...
 
kumar abhishek said:
@mastermind
Just checked that it has same problem as with ex dailer :(
Click to expand...
Thats the reason i m(n will have to) sticked to stock dialer.n may be sms app will also send message from sim1 only..tried handcent sms once..!!
Worst thing, even dialer screen replacement apps also don't work.I want to have a bigger CallerId photo but almost all replacements are not compatible with MTK dual sim devices, they will show up but lead to stock dialer screen again when u accept/reject a call..:mad:
 
mastermind1024 said:
Thats the reason i m(n will have to) sticked to stock dialer.n may be sms app will also send message from sim1 only..tried handcent sms once..!!
Worst thing, even dialer screen replacement apps also don't work.I want to have a bigger CallerId photo but almost all replacements are not compatible with MTK dual sim devices, they will show up but lead to stock dialer screen again when u accept/reject a call..:mad:
Click to expand...


Good news is that go sms pro has sim1 and sim2 both options. :) so u may use that and it also comes with many themes preinstalled. :)
 
But go sms is too heavy for A75. the stock mms.apk is about 1mb where as go sms pro is 7MB and it uses 10MB of RAM which slows down the phone (if I force stay in RAM).
 
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