Estimote SDK for Android

The Estimote SDK for Android is a library that allows interaction with Estimote beacons & stickers. The SDK system works on Android 4.3 or above and requires device with Bluetooth Low Energy (SDK's min Android SDK version is 9).

It allows for:

• beacon ranging (scans beacons and optionally filters them by their properties)
• beacon monitoring (monitors regions for those devices that have entered/exited a region)
• nearables (aka stickers) discovery (see quickstart)
• Eddystone scanning (see quickstart)
• easy way to meet all requirements for beacon detection (runtime permissions, acquiring all rights),
• beacon characteristic reading and writing (proximity UUID, major & minor values, broadcasting power, advertising interval), see [BeaconConnection] (http://estimote.github.io/Android-SDK/JavaDocs/com/estimote/sdk/connection/BeaconConnection.html) class and demos in the SDK

Start with Android tutorial for monitoring & ranging beacons.

Learn more:

• Comprehensive JavaDoc documentation.
• Play with SDK Examples (includes scanning beacons, nearables, Eddystone beacons, connecting to Estimote beacons).
• Download Estimote app from Play Store to see what SDK is capable of.
• Check our Estimote Forums where you can post your questions and get answers.
• Estimote Community Portal

Installation

Gradle via Maven Central

Estimote Android SDK is available on Maven Central. Declare in your Gradle's build.gradle dependency to this library.

dependencies {
  compile 'com.estimote:sdk:0.10.4@aar'
}

Initialize Estimote SDK in your Application class.

//  App ID & App Token can be taken from App section of Estimote Cloud.
EstimoteSDK.initialize(applicationContext, appId, appToken);
// Optional, debug logging.
EstimoteSDK.enableDebugLogging(true);

Manual installation

Eclipse users: Mark Murphy on his blog explained how to use aar format in Eclipse.

1. Create libs directory inside your project and copy there estimote-sdk.aar.
2. In your build.gradle add flatDir entry to your repositories

repositories {
  mavenCentral()
    flatDir {
      dirs 'libs'
    }
}

3. Add dependency to Estimote SDK. All needed permissions (BLUETOOTH, BLUETOOTH_ADMIN and INTERNET) and services will be merged from SDK's AndroidManifest.xml to your application's AndroidManifest.xml.

dependencies {
  compile(name:'estimote-sdk', ext:'aar')
}

4. Initialize Estimote SDK in your Application class if you are using Estimote Cloud.

//  App ID & App Token can be taken from App section of Estimote Cloud.
EstimoteSDK.initialize(applicationContext, appId, appToken);
// Optional, debug logging.
EstimoteSDK.enableDebugLogging(true);

Usage and demos

SDK Demos are located in Demos directory. You can easily build it with Gradle by typing gradlew installDebug (or gradlew.bat installDebug on Windows) in terminal when your device is connected to computer. If you use Android Studio you can just simply open build.gradle.

Demos include samples for ranging beacons, monitoring beacons, nearable discovery, calculating distance between beacon and the device and also changing minor value of the beacon.

Android 6.0 and runtime permissions

Depending on Android platform you need different permissions to be granted. It is recommended to implement future proof Android M runtime permissions model.

In order to reliably detect beacons following conditions must be met:

• Bluetooth permissions are granted (android.permission.BLUETOOTH and android.permission.BLUETOOTH_ADMIN). This is done automatically if you use Estimote SDK.
• BeaconService is declared in AndroidManifest.xml. This is done automatically if you use Estimote SDK.
• If running on Android M or later, Location Services must be turned on.
• If running on Android M or later and your app is targeting SDK < 23 (M), any location permission (ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION or ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION) must be granted for background beacon detection.
• If running on Android M or later and your app is targeting SDK >= 23 (M), any location permission (ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION or ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION must be granted.

Sounds difficult? No worries. From time to time SDK will put warning in device logs what is missing. You can use the SystemRequirementsChecker#check method to determine which requirements are not met for beacon detection.

Use SystemRequirementsChecker#checkWithDefaultDialogs method in your activity for a convenient way to ask for all permissions and rights. It's all handled by the SDK, and should be of great help if you want to get up and running quickly.

Tutorials

Android tutorial is available on Estimote Developer Docs. Tutorial is divided into three parts:

• Part 1: Setting Up
• Part 2: Background monitoring
• Part 3: Ranging beacons

In addition, we suggest you to check our guides for using Location Beacons and Proximity Beacons:

• Scanning and monitoring
• Beacon connection
• Multiple advertisers in Location Beacons
• Using telemetry packets
• Monitoring after system restart

Quick start for nearables discovery

  private BeaconManager beaconManager = new BeaconManager(context);
  private String scanId;

  // Should be invoked in #onCreate.
  beaconManager.setNearableListener(new BeaconManager.NearableListener() {
    @Override public void onNearablesDiscovered(List<Nearable> nearables) {
      Log.d(TAG, "Discovered nearables: " + nearables);
    }
  });

  // Should be invoked in #onStart.
  beaconManager.connect(new BeaconManager.ServiceReadyCallback() {
    @Override public void onServiceReady() {
      scanId = beaconManager.startNearableDiscovery();
    }
  });

  // Should be invoked in #onStop.
  beaconManager.stopNearableDiscovery(scanId);

  // When no longer needed. Should be invoked in #onDestroy.
  beaconManager.disconnect();

Quick start for Secure UUID

Ranging and region monitoring works transparently with Secure UUID enabled beacons. All you need is:

1. Enable Secure UUID via Estimote app from Google Play or via SDK

DeviceConnection connection = connectionProvider.getConnection(device); boolean enable = true; connection.settings.beacon.secure().set(enable, new SettingCallback() { @Override public void onSuccess(Boolean value) { // Handle success here }

@Override public void onFailure(DeviceConnectionException exception) { // Handle failure here } });

2. Make sure you have initialised SDK with your App ID & App Token.
```java
//  App ID & App Token can be taken from App section of Estimote Cloud.
EstimoteSDK.initialize(applicationContext, appId, appToken);

3. Use SecureRegion instead of Region when starting ranging or monitoring.

// Initialise BeaconManager as before.
// Find all *your* Secure UUID beacons in the vicinity.
beaconManager.startRanging(new SecureRegion(“regionId”, null, null, null));

// Remember that you can also range for other regions as well.
beaconManager.startRanging(new Region(“otherRegion”, null, null, null);

Quick start for Eddystone

Eddystone is an open protocol BLE protocol from Google. Estimote Beacons can broadcast the Eddystone packet.

With Estimote SDK you can:

• find nearby Eddystone beacons (BeaconManager#startEddystoneScanning)
• configure Eddystone ralated properties:
  • URL property of Eddystone-URL (see BeaconConnection#eddystoneUrl)
  • namespace & instance properties of Eddystone-UID (see BeaconConnection#eddystoneNamepsace, BeaconConnection#eddystoneInstance)
• configure broadcasting scheme of beacon to Estimote Default, Eddystone-UID or Eddystone-URL (see BeaconConnection#broadcastingScheme)

SDK Examples contains Eddystone related samples.

Note that you can play with Estimote Beacons broadcasting the Eddystone packet and change their configuration via Estimote app on Google Play.

In order to start playing with Eddystone you need to update firmware of your existing Estimote beacons to 3.1.1. Easiest way is through Estimote app on Google Play. Then you can change broadcasting scheme on your beacon to Eddystone-URL or Eddystone-UID.

Following code snippet shows you how you can start discovering nearby Estimote beacons broadcasting Eddystone packet.

  private BeaconManager beaconManager = new BeaconManager(context);
  private String scanId;

  // Should be invoked in #onCreate.
  beaconManager.setEddystoneListener(new BeaconManager.EddystoneListener() {
    @Override public void onEddystonesFound(List<Eddystone> eddystones) {
      Log.d(TAG, "Nearby Eddystone beacons: " + eddystones);
    }
  });

  // Should be invoked in #onStart.
  beaconManager.connect(new BeaconManager.ServiceReadyCallback() {
    @Override public void onServiceReady() {
      scanId = beaconManager.startEddystoneScanning();
    }
  });

  // Should be invoked in #onStop.
  beaconManager.stopEddystoneScanning(scanId);

  // When no longer needed. Should be invoked in #onDestroy.
  beaconManager.disconnect();

FAQ

There is Estimote SDK FAQ on wiki. There is also Estimote SDK for Android forum where you can post your questions.

Changelog

To see what has changed in recent versions of Estimote SDK for Android, see the CHANGELOG.