Is it possible to access resources in another APK without using content providers?

Question

I thought that it is impossible to access resources contained in other APK unless content providers are used. However, I stumbled upon an app called Better Keyboard. It uses

Answer 1

Try this

 PathClassLoader loader = 
 new PathClassLoader ("/data/app/com.skin.apk", null,PathClassLoader.getSystemClassLoader());
 InputStream f = loader.getResourceAsStream("res/drawable/icon.png");
 Bitmap bitmap=BitmapFactory.decodeStream(f);
 BitmapDrawable b=new BitmapDrawable(bitmap);
 mButton.setBackgroundDrawable(b);

Answer 2

I believe you're looking for

Resources res = mPackageManager.getResourcesForApplication("org.example.foo");

http://developer.android.com/reference/android/content/pm/PackageManager.html#getResourcesForApplication%28java.lang.String%29

Answer 3

It is possible by using getresoucesforapplication and you need res.getidentifier to retrieve the resource Id. However, It seem not work when retrieving style resource.