Retrieve String Resource From Another App

Question

So I want to retrieve a string resource from another app. The app is the Android PackageInstaller (most probably a System app) and the String I want to retrieve has multiple language versions (Source Code here > Link). So Package Installer's resource directory looks like this:

I want to retrieve the String permission_warning_template from the values folder (I realize that Android will automatically determine the current language and will fetch me that language's value, but I may be wrong).

These are the 2 methods I wrote (Minimal, Complete, and Verifiable example) and neither works. Is it even possible? How to get it done?

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

        //First Try
        testUseAndroidString();

        //Second Try
        Resources res = null;
        try {
            res = getPackageManager().getResourcesForApplication("com.android.packageinstaller");
        } catch (PackageManager.NameNotFoundException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        if(null != res) {
            int sId = res.getIdentifier("com.android.packageinstaller:string/permission_warning_template", null, null);

            if(0 != sId) {
                Log.d("TagLet", res.getString(sId));
            }
        }
    }

    public void testUseAndroidString() {
        Context context = this;
        Resources res;
        try {
            res = context.getPackageManager().getResourcesForApplication("com.android.packageinstaller");
            int resourceId = res.getIdentifier("com.android.packageinstaller:string/permission_warning_template", null, null);
            if(0 != resourceId) {
                CharSequence s = context.getPackageManager().getText("com.android.packageinstaller:string/permission_warning_template", resourceId, null);
                Log.d("TagLet", "resource=" + s);
            }
        } catch (PackageManager.NameNotFoundException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        Log.d("TagLet", "FAIL");

    }
}

Thanks.

Answer 1

So you actually almost solved your problem. As you have the resources of another application retreived, you just have to call get{Something} on this res object, and you will get the exact resource.

So I tried this method:

public void testUseAndroidString() {
    Context context = this;
    Resources res;
    try {
        res = context.getPackageManager().getResourcesForApplication("com.android.packageinstaller");
        int resourceId = res.getIdentifier("com.android.packageinstaller:string/permission_warning_template", null, null);
        if(0 != resourceId) {
            String s = res.getString(resourceId);
            Log.d("TagLet", "resource=" + s);
        }
    } catch (PackageManager.NameNotFoundException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
}

And got

Allow %1$s to %2$s?

Which I guess is exactly what you're looking for.