How to get source from .apk file?

How to get source from .apk file?

Hello Readers, Today we are going to share another Android Trick, by this trick you can extract/get the source code of any Android apps. we all know that Android apps are on .apk format just like windows PC softwars are in .exe format.

So first we are going to know what is .apk file?

Android application package file (APK) is the file format used to distribute and install application software and middleware onto Google's Android operating system. To make an APK file, a program for Android is first compiled, and then all of its parts are packaged into one file. This holds all of that program's code (such as .dex files), resources, assets, certificates, and manifest file. As is the case with many file formats, APK files can have any name needed, but must end with the four character, three letter extension, .apk.
APK files are ZIP file formatted packages based on the JAR file format, with .apk file extensions. The MIME type associated with APK files is application/vnd.android.package-archive.

How to get source (java files) from .apk file?

As we now know that apk file is just a zip file containing all program resource file, we can now get java code from apk files with ease. Following are steps to get java code from apk files.

Step 1:Renaming .apk file

Rename the .apk file with the extension .zip (for example let the file be "demofile.apk" then after renaming it becomes "demofile.apk.zip")
Step 2:Getting java files from apk

Now extract the renamed zip file in specific folder, for example let that folder be "demofolder".

Now Download dex2jar from the link for windows and extract that zip file in folder "demofolder".

Now open command prompt and go to the folder created in previous step and type the command "dex2jar classes.dex" and press enter.This will generate "classes.dex.dex2jar" file in the same folder.
Now  Download java decompiler from the link and extract it and start(double click) jd-gui.exe
From jd-gui window browse the generated "classes.dex.dex2jar" file in demofolder, this will give all the class files by src name.
Now from the File menu select "save all sources" this will generate a zip file named "classes_dex2jar.src.zip" consisting of all packages and java files.
Extract that zip file (classes_dex2jar.src.zip) and you will get all java files of the application.

Above steps will generate java files but to get xml files perform following steps.



Step 3:Getting xml files from apk


Download apktool and apktool install from the link and extract both files and place it in the same folder (for example "demoxmlfolder").
Place the .apk file in same folder (i.e demoxmlfolder)
Now open command prompt and goto  the directory where apktool is stored (here "demoxmlfolder") and type the command "apktool if framework-res.apk"
Above command should result in "Framework installed ..."
Now in command prompt type the command "apktool d filename.apk" (where filename is name of apk file)
This will generate a folder of name filename in current directory (here demoxmlfolder) where all xml files would be stored in res\layout folder.
That's all, Hope you have Enjoyed this Article :)