Android Package manager and Manifest File reading

Question

I have a list of application's package names. These applications are all 3rd party applications. I want to parse the Manifest files for these packages and get information about the services they have along with other details available in service tag.

Can someone point me the direction as how to do this xml parsing using package manager?

Answer 1

If the applications are installed on the system, you can use the following:

• public PackageInfo getPackageInfo (String packageName, int flags)

If the applications aren't installed, but you have access to the APK files, then use:

• public PackageInfo getPackageArchiveInfo (String archiveFilePath, int flags)

The PackageInfo object that you get returned using either approach has the following public field populated (provided there were services defined in the manifest):

• public ServiceInfo[] services

That's where you should be able to find the details you're interested in.