Android XML Extracted from APK - Bad Encoding

Using DDMS I took a downloaded APK off my phone and unzipped it.

The PNGs look great, but when I try to read the XMLs their encoding is such that non开发者_运维知识库e of my text editors can read it (Word, Notepad, Visual Studio etc)

Is there something done to the XMLs in a APK that prevents us from reading them?

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You can decode them using a Java program - AXMLPrinter2.jar.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=514412

http://code.google.com/p/android4me/downloads/detail?name=AXMLPrinter2.jar&can=2&q=

I'm sure there are better details out there, but that should set you on the right path.

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Take a look at android-apktool, as detailed here.

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The XML files are stored in a compiled format. From android docs:

When you compile your application, each XML layout file is compiled into a View resource.

I'm not aware of a decompiler, its probably possible though.

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You can see some implementation through aapt tool.

Navigate to "platform-tools" in your sdk folder.

copy and paste the apk to this folder.

Execute the command: " aapt l -a apk_name.apk "

Where the "apk_name.apk" is your apk's name.