Project
  alt installer for android

1. Summary
  My goal is that users can install IME as a user application on Android devices.
  This project is my first proposal for Android OS, which improves the android package installer. It enables application developers customize the install procedure when their applications are installed.
  I started this project for improvement of IME installer but the custom installer is useful for all applications.

2.Files
  README
    readme written in English.

  README_ja
    readme written in Japanese.

  images
    This is an Android OS system image, system.img, that contains my proposal. You can try my proposal using the emulator in Android SDK 1.6 or later.

  android-ws
    This is a part of android source code that I modified, not a full part of it.

  patch
    There are three differential files. I created them using unix diff command as follow:
    diff -cr original modified

  samples
    A sample application, PinyinIME, with the custom installer.
　　PinyinIME is a Chinese IME included in android source branch.

  script
    This is a script that merge my modification to original android source with diff files.
    
3. Getting start
  You can check my proposal in three ways. 

  3-1. See how the custom installer works
    a. run an emulator in android SDK with images/system.img.
    b. install a sample application, PinyinIME.
        cd your_android-sdk/tools
        ./adb install PinyinIME.apk
    c. In Settings/Locale & Language/inputmethod, you can see the Pinyin IME that is checked, which shows that Pinyin IME is now available. 
    d. When you click on a text area, you can input Chinese text, which shows the Pinyin IME is now set as a default input method.
    e. When you see a log data, you can find log messages that are written by the Pinyin IME custom installer.
       ./adb -d logcat | grep PinyinIME

  3-2. See how I modified
    I surrounded source code I modified with a term, 'custom installer experiment' or 'custom IME installer experiment'. Therefore, you can find them as follows:
      find your_android_source_root -print0 | xargs -0 -e grep 'installer experiment'

　　You can also see the changes by a git command.

  3-3. Create your own custom installer
　　When You create your own custom installer, you have to create your own SDK.

    a. get android source code
    b. merge my changes to it
         cd your_source_code_root
         ../android-alt-installer/scripts/merge_code.sh ../android-alt-installer/path 
    c. build
         make update-api
         make sdk
    d. add Android.jar to classpath
    e. create your own installer

4. My proposal
　4-1. issues about install IME
　　There are two problems when you install a IME into your android devices,
　　1) the IME does not become avaiable.
　　　You have to do it by yourself; move Settings/Locale & Language/inputmethod dialog and you have to click the checkbox.
    2) the IME does not become the default input method.
　　　You have to do it by yourself. You select the IME as input method (step1) and use it.

　Therefore, the current android framework is inconvenient for you to install the IME.

　4-2. My Proposal
　　My proposal is customizing android installer to solve these problems, which enables application developers add pre/post methods to the original installer.
　　As a sample, I implemented an IME installer, which enables the IME available and set it the default input method.

　4-3. Implementation
　　There are two part of implementations. One is the modification of android framework in which I added to custom installer mechanism.  The other is the application for IME installer.

　4-4. changes
　　1) modification of Framework
      add PackageInstaller interface
        framework/base/core/java/android/content/pm/IPackageInstaller.java

      add DefaultPackageInstaller class
        Each methods of this class only writes a log message.
        framework/base/core/java/android/content/pm/IPackageInstaller.java

      move two classes, PackageInstalledInfo and PackageRemovedInfo from PackageManagerService, they are the inner classes, to framework/base/core/java/android/content/pm package because these classes are necessary as arguments of interface method.
        	
      modify PackageManagerService class
        load an application installer class from the install package and call the preInstallPackage and postInstallPackage methods.
      framework/base/services/java/com/android/server/PackageManagerService.java

      I also modified the delete method in the same way.

    2) modification for the IME installer
　　　- add two methods to InputMethodManagerService class, which enable IMEs avaiable and set them as the default input method.
      framework/base/services/java/com/android/server/InputMethodManagerService.java
      - add methods to IInputMethodManager interface, which is necessary to call above methods from PackageManagerService.
          frameworks/base/core/java/com/android/internal/view/IInputMethodManager.aidl
          frameworks/base/core/java/android/view/inputmethod/InputMethodManager.java
      - add DefaultIMEPackageInstaller that extends DefaultPackge and add procedures  to postInstallPackageMethod, which enable IMEs available and set the default input method.

      - I created the custom installer for an IME application, PinyinIME.