http://mmmyddd.freeshell.net/wiki/android/overlay.html
OverlayMechanism
The Android overlay mechanism allows the frameworkand package resources to be customized without changing the basepackages. The customizable resourses fall into the followingcategories
For detailed introduction on Android applicationresources, please refer to:
http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/resources/available-resources.html
1 Add Overlay Directoriesfor Product
1.1 Product Overlays vsDevice Overlays
There are two types of overaly directories thataffect a product:
The PRODUCT_PACKAGE_OVERLAYS will override theDEVICE_PACKAGE_OVERLAYS if they contain same resources, thebehavior is defined by:
build/core/package.mk (Line: 93)
LOCAL_RESOURCE_DIR :=
$(wildcard $(foreach dir,$(PRODUCT_PACKAGE_OVERLAYS),
$(addprefix $(dir)/, $(LOCAL_RESOURCE_DIR))))
$(wildcard $(foreach dir,$(DEVICE_PACKAGE_OVERLAYS),
$(addprefix $(dir)/, $(LOCAL_RESOURCE_DIR))))
$(LOCAL_RESOURCE_DIR)
1.2 Change the makefile to add overlays
To add an overlay directory to a product, changethe product configuration makefile (for example:device/vendor-name/device-name/product-name.mk) to add the followinglines:
PRODUCT_PACKAGE_OVERLAYS :=device/vendor-name/device-name/product-name/overlay$(PRODUCT_PACKAGE_OVERLAYS)
Or:
DEVICE_PACKAGE_OVERLAYS :=device/vendor-name/device-name/common/overlay$(DEVICE_PACKAGE_OVERLAYS)
If multiple overlay directories are required to beadded, separate them with blank charactors. The directories definedfirst in the line will override the following directories if theycontain the same set of resources.
1.3 Create resources underthe overlay directory
To overlay the resources in a base package, thesubdirectory containing the overlay resources under the overlaydirectory, must has the same path as the base package resourcedirectory relative to the Android project root.
For example, if we want to overlay the resourcesunder the base package directory:
packages/apps/Settings/res/
we need to create the directory:
/packages/apps/Settings/res/
and in the directory, put the overlay resources inthe files with the same path and file names as where they aredefined in the base package.
Note that:
2 Check the resource inAPK
After changed the overlay resources and built thetarget packages, sometimes we need to check if the overlaydirectory took effects and the values are changed in the finallygenerated apks.
2.2 Using AAPT
Usage:
aapt l[ist] [-v] [-a] file.{zip,jar,apk}
List contents of Zip-compatible archive.
aapt d[ump] [--values] WHAT file.{apk} [asset [asset ...]]
badging Print the label and icon for the app declared in APK.
permissions Print the permissions from the APK.
resources Print the resource table from the APK.
configurations Print the configurations in the APK.
xmltree Print the compiled xmls in the given assets.
xmlstrings Print the strings of the given compiled xml assets.
Forexample:
1. To dumpstring, bool values:
aapt dump resources Settings.apk
2. To dumpa raw xml file:
aapt dump xmltree Settings.apk res/xml/appwidget_info.xml
3. To dumpthe current configurations/localizations:
aapt dump configurations Settings.apk
2.2 Usingapktools
Reference:http://code.google.com/p/android-apktool/
Apktool v1.5.0.5a056e3 - a tool for reengineering Android apk files
Copyright 2010 Ryszard Wi??niewski
with smali v1.3.4-ibot8, and baksmali v1.3.4-ibot8
Updated by iBotPeaches
Apache License 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)
Usage: apktool [-q|--quiet OR -v|--verbose] COMMAND [...]
COMMANDs are:
d[ecode] [OPTS] [
Decode to
OPTS:
-s, --no-src
Do not decode sources.
-r, --no-res
Do not decode resources.
-d, --debug
Decode in debug mode. Check project page for more info.
-f, --force
Force delete destination directory.
-t , --frame-tag
Try to use framework files tagged by .
--keep-broken-res
Use if there was an error and some resources were dropped, e.g.:
"Invalid config flags detected. Dropping resources", but you
want to decode them anyway, even with errors. You will have to
fix them manually before building.
b[uild] [OPTS] [] []
Build an apk from already decoded application located in .
It will automatically detect, whether files was changed and perform
needed steps only.
If you omit then current directory will be used.
If you omit then /dist/
will be used.
OPTS:
-f, --force-all
Skip changes detection and build all files.
-d, --debug
Build in debug mode. Check project page for more info.
if|install-framework []
Install framework file to your system.
For additional info, see: https://github.com/iBotPeaches/brut.apktool
For smali/baksmali info, see: http://code.google.com/p/smali/
2.3 Usingdumpres
3 More on AAPT andOverlay
3.1 How overlayworks
Whilebuilding the package APKs, the overlay directories are passed toaapt command lines using-S
options in the same order as they are definedin
PRODUCT_PACKAGE_OVERLAYS
andDEVICE_PACKAGE_OVERLAYS
.
Forexample, while building theSettings
APK, the following command areexecuted:
out/host/linux-x86/bin/aapt package -u -z
-M packages/apps/Settings/AndroidManifest.xml
-S device/vendor-name/device-name/product-name/overlay/packages/apps/Settings/res
-S vendor/vendor-name/media/common/overlay/packages/apps/Settings/res -S packages/apps/Settings/res
-I out/target/common/obj/APPS/framework-res_intermediates/package-export.apk
--min-sdk-version 16 --target-sdk-version 16 --product default
--version-code 16 --version-name 4.1.2-eng.xxxx.20121121.152327
-F out/target/product/product-name/obj/APPS/Settings_intermediates/package.apk
Note: some overlay directories that don't contain theSettings resources will be filtered first, and do not appear in theabove command line.
3.2 Add extra resources inOverlay
Though not recommanded, we can add new resources in overlaydirectory, for example, if base packageSettings
doesn't define a bool value with keyno_such_key
, wecan add it in the overlay filebool.xml
likethis:
... ...
true
... ...
Iftheadd-resource
lineis missing,aapt
toolwill complain while creating the apk file:
device/vendor-name/device-name/product-name/overlay/packages/apps/Settings/res/values/bools.xml:30:error: Resource at no_such_key appears in overlay but
not in the base package; use toadd.
Another way to avoid the complaint is torunaapt
with the option:
--auto-add-overlay
Automatically add resources that are only in overlays.