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How to transmit as a beacon?

by | Apr 26, 2017

How to transmit as a beacon?

My previous post explains basics of the beacon. We are going to see how to transmit as a beacon using your application.

AndroidBeaconLibrary is an open source project providing APIs to interact with beacons. Using this library we can easily create an app act as a beacon transmitter.

You can only start this when all following requirements are met:

* BLE hardware
* Bluetooth on
* Location on (Android 6+)
* Location runtime permission granted (Android 6+)

1. Basic Setup:

Configure your app’s build.gradle File. Set the minSDK value as 21 and add the following dependency in your dependencies list.

implementation 'org.altbeacon:android-beacon-library:2.15.2'
2. Add permissions to the manifest:

Now you need to add the permission declarations in the manifest file.

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.BLUETOOTH" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.BLUETOOTH_ADMIN" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION" />
<uses-permission-sdk-23 android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION" />
3. Checking Bluetooth connection:

First, you need to check the Bluetooth connection of your device. For this, we are using the util class called BluetoothHelper, and also implements the needed interface they provide the relevant callback function based on the Bluetooth connection status.

public class BeaconTransmitterActivity extends AppCompatActivity implements
BluetoothListener.OnBluetoothSupportedCheckListener,BluetoothListener.OnBluetoothEnabledCheckListener,
BluetoothListener.BluetoothTrigger
{
BluetoothHelper bluetoothHelper;
@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
bluetoothHelper = new BluetoothHelper();
bluetoothHelper.initializeBluetooth(this);
}
}
4. Initiate the BeaconManager:

To initiate the beacon manager and reduce the power consumption of the app, you need to add the following set of code into your application class.

public class MyApplication extends Application {
BackgroundPowerSaver backgroundPowerSaver;
BeaconManager beaconManager;
@Override
public void onCreate() {
super.onCreate();
beaconManager = BeaconManager.getInstanceForApplication(this);
// enables auto battery saving of about 60%
backgroundPowerSaver = new BackgroundPowerSaver(this);
}
}
5. Transmitting as a Beacon:

For beacon transmission, we need UUID, major and minor values. So you need to enter all these inputs via input field or hard-coded values. Now we can transmit as a beacon using the following snippet.

String major, minor, uuid;
uuid = etUUID.getText().toString().trim();
major = etMajorValue.getText().toString().trim();
minor = etMinorValue.getText().toString().trim();
beacon = new Beacon.Builder().setId1(uuid).setId2(major).setId3(minor)
.setManufacturer(0x0118)
.setTxPower(-59)
.setDataFields(Arrays.asList(new Long[]{6l, 7l})) .build();
// Change the layout below for other beacon types
beaconParser = new BeaconParser()
.setBeaconLayout(parserLayout[beaconLayout]);
beaconTransmitter = new BeaconTransmitter(getApplicationContext(), beaconParser);
beaconTransmitter.startAdvertising(beacon, new AdvertiseCallback() {
@Override
public void onStartSuccess(AdvertiseSettings settingsInEffect) {
super.onStartSuccess(settingsInEffect);
}
@Override
public void onStartFailure(int errorCode) {
super.onStartFailure(errorCode);
}
});
6. Changing the beacon format:

We can easily change the beacon format by setting the beacon layout. For changing the beacon format you can use the following code and here is the list of the main beacon layouts you can use with the android beacon library.

beaconParser = new BeaconParser().setBeaconLayout("##FORMAT##");
// Replace the ##FORMAT## for the corrosponding beacon types
ALTBEACON m:2-3=beac,i:4-19,i:20-21,i:22-23,p:24-24,d:25-25
IBEACON m:2-3=0215,i:4-19,i:20-21,i:22-23,p:24-24
EDDYSTONE TLM x,s:0-1=feaa,m:2-2=20,d:3-3,d:4-5,d:6-7,d:8-11,d:12-15
EDDYSTONE UID s:0-1=feaa,m:2-2=00,p:3-3:-41,i:4-13,i:14-19
EDDYSTONE URL s:0-1=feaa,m:2-2=10,p:3-3:-41,i:4-20v

I created a project on GitHub to demonstrate the things covered in this article.

View on GithubDownload .zip

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Elsewhere

Jaison Fernando

Android Developer at NFN Labs
Elsewhere

Latest posts by Jaison Fernando (see all)

  • Dharmesh Basapati

    Hey there,
    Can you describe about each element in this layout -> m:2-3=0215,i:4-19,i:20-21,i:22-23,p:24-24
    OR Where can I know more about each element that is used in above layout or can we customize the numbers in layout for our flexibility?

    Thanks in Advance

    • Bernard Ng

      I have very limited knowledge about this but a quick look at http://altbeacon.github.io/android-beacon-library/javadoc/org/altbeacon/beacon/BeaconParser.html shows

      Each prefix is followed by a colon, then an inclusive decimal byte offset for the field from the beginning of the advertisement. In the case of the m prefix, an = sign follows the byte offset, followed by a big endian hex representation of the bytes that must be matched for this beacon type. When multiple i or d entries exist in the string, they will be added in order of definition to the identifier or data array for the beacon when parsing the beacon advertisement. Terms are separated by commas.

      All offsets from the start of the advertisement are relative to the first byte of the two byte manufacturer code. The manufacturer code is therefore always at position 0-1

      All data field and identifier expressions may be optionally suffixed with the letter l, which indicates the field should be parsed as little endian. If not present, the field will be presumed to be big endian. Note: serviceUuid fields are always little endian.

      Identifier fields may be optionally suffixed with the letter v, which indicates the field is variable length, and may be shorter than the declared length if the parsed PDU for the advertisement is shorter than needed to parse the full identifier.

      If the expression cannot be parsed, a BeaconLayoutException is thrown.

      Example of a parser string for AltBeacon:

      “m:2-3=beac,i:4-19,i:20-21,i:22-23,p:24-24,d:25-25”
      This signifies that the beacon type will be decoded when an advertisement is found with 0xbeac in bytes 2-3, and a three-part identifier will be pulled out of bytes 4-19, bytes 20-21 and bytes 22-23, respectively. A signed power calibration value will be pulled out of byte 24, and a data field will be pulled out of byte 25.

      Note: bytes 0-1 of the BLE manufacturer advertisements are the two byte manufacturer code. Generally you should not match on these two bytes when using a BeaconParser, because it will limit your parser to matching only a transmitter made by a specific manufacturer. Software and operating systems that scan for beacons typically ignore these two bytes, allowing beacon manufacturers to use their own company code assigned by Bluetooth SIG. The default parser implementation will already pull out this company code and store it in the beacon.mManufacturer field. Matcher expressions should therefore start with “m2-3:” followed by the multi-byte hex value that signifies the beacon type.
      Extra layouts can also be added by using: