ifollow-beacon-manager

ifollow-beacon-manager: add beacon technology in your React Native application for both iOS and Android.

This repository is born to keep alive and up to date these 3 original awesome:

• ibeacon for android
• ibeacon for iOS
• eddyStone for iOS

If you want to know more about just have a look at my medium article.

If you want to test with a simulated beacon, there is a useful free application on android: beaconsimulator and MacOS: BeaconEmitter

Install (iOS and Android)

Ensure to have NodeJS >= v6.x.

You must run on real devices (don't forget to active Bluetooth when running).

Mobile Version compatibility:

• iOS minimum version
  • 8.0
• Android minimum version
  • 21 (alias LOLLIPOP)

1. get modules

via npm:

npm install ifollow-beacon-manager

or via yarn:

yarn add ifollow-beacon-manager

2. link to your application

react-native link ifollow-beacon-manager

3.a configuration specific to iOS

If you plan to:

• only range beacons no configuration needed (react-native init already did the job for you), or just check that you already have WhenInUse authorization declared in your info.plist:

  • 

• monitor then default authorization won't be enough:

  • in your info.plist, add Privacy - Location Always Usage Description key defined (empty value or not. It is better to define a value to a custom / more user-friendly message).

• If your Info.plist contains a NSBluetoothPeripheralUsageDescription key, you have to specify an associated text to avoid being rejected.

• use background mode check this documentation

3.b configuration specific to Android

Nothing (lucky Android :smile:).

Just don't forget to activate

• Bluetooth service (all android version)
• Location service (android < 7: beacon detection won't work on android 6 if location service is off)

4. usage

NOTE: If simple examples below don't help you as much as you wanted, check detailed documentation depending on use-case + code samples here

4.a iOS

Simple example

import { DeviceEventEmitter } from 'react-native'
import Beacons from 'ifollow-beacon-manager'

// Define a region which can be identifier + uuid,
// identifier + uuid + major or identifier + uuid + major + minor
// (minor and major properties are numbers)
const region = {
    identifier: 'Estimotes',
    uuid: 'B9407F30-F5F8-466E-AFF9-25556B57FE6D'
};

// Request for authorization while the app is open
Beacons.requestWhenInUseAuthorization();

Beacons.startMonitoringForRegion(region);
Beacons.startRangingBeaconsInRegion(region);

Beacons.startUpdatingLocation();

// Listen for beacon changes
const subscription = DeviceEventEmitter.addListener(
  'beaconsDidRange',
  (data) => {
    // data.region - The current region
    // data.region.identifier
    // data.region.uuid

    // data.beacons - Array of all beacons inside a region
    //  in the following structure:
    //    .uuid
    //    .major - The major version of a beacon
    //    .minor - The minor version of a beacon
    //    .rssi - Signal strength: RSSI value (between -100 and 0)
    //    .proximity - Proximity value, can either be "unknown", "far", "near" or "immediate"
    //    .accuracy - The accuracy of a beacon
  }
);

API

| Method | Description | |:----------------------------------|:----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | requestWhenInUseAuthorization | This method should be called before anything else is called. It handles to request the use of beacons while the application is open. If the application is in the background, you will not get a signal from beacons. Either this method or Beacons.requestAlwaysAuthorization needs to be called to receive data from beacons. | | requestAlwaysAuthorization | This method should be called before anything else is called. It handles to request the use of beacons while the application is open or in the background. Either this method or Beacons.requestWhenInUseAuthorization needs to be called to receive data from beacons. | | getAuthorizationStatus | This methods gets the current authorization status. While this methods provides a callback, it is not executed asynchronously. The values authorizedAlways and authorizedWhenInUse correspond to the methods requestWhenInUseAuthorization and requestAlwaysAuthorization respectively. | | startMonitoringForRegion | When starting monitoring for beacons, we need to define a region as the parameter. The region is an object, which needs to have at least two values: identifier and uuid. Additionally, it can also have a major, minor version or both. Make sure to not re-use the same identifier. In that case, we won't get the data for the beacons. The corresponding events are regionDidEnter and regionDidExit. | | stopMonitoringForRegion | Stops monitoring for beacons. We pass a region as parameter, which has the same shape as the argument we pass in startMonitoringForRegion. | | startRangingBeaconsInRegion | When ranging for beacons, we need to define a region as the parameter. The region is an object, which needs to have at least two values: identifier and uuid. Additionally, it can also have a major, minor version or both. Make sure to not re-use the same identifier. In that case, we won't get the data for the beacons. The corresponding events are beaconsDidRange. The event will fire in every interval the beacon sends a signal, which is one second in most cases. If we are monitoring and ranging for beacons, it is best to first call startMonitoringForRegion and then call startRangingBeaconsInRegion. | | stopRangingBeaconsInRegion | Stops ranging for beacons. We pass a region as parameter, which has the same shape as the argument we pass in startRangingBeaconsInRegion. | | requestStateForRegion | When requesting state for beacons, we need to define a region as the parameter. The region is an object, which needs to have at least two values: identifier and uuid. Additionally, it can also have a major, minor version or both. Make sure to not re-use the same identifier. In that case, we won't get the data for the beacons. The corresponding events are didDetermineState. | | startUpdatingLocation | This call is needed for monitoring beacons and gets the initial position of the device. | | stopUpdatingLocation | This method should be called when you don't need to receive location-based information and want to save battery power. | | shouldDropEmptyRanges | Call this method to stop sending the beaconsDidRange event when the beacon list is empty. This can be useful when listening to multiple beacon regions and can reduce cpu usage by 1-1.5%. |

                                                                                                                                                                                                                         |

| Event | Description | |:---------------------------------|:------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | authorizationStatusDidChange | This event will be called when authorization changed for receiving data location. PLEASE NOTE: starting a location service will not provide data location until authorization is given by the user ("authorizedAlways" or "authorizedWhenInUse"). | | beaconsDidRange | This event will be called for every region in every beacon interval. If you have three regions you get three events every second (which is the default interval beacons send their signal). When we take a closer look at the parameter of the callback, we get information on both the region and the beacons. | | regionDidEnter | If the device entered a region, regionDidEnter is being called. Inside the callback the parameter we can use returns an object with a property region that contains the region identifier value as a string. Additionally, we get the UUID of the region through its uuid property. | | regionDidExit | In the same regionDidEnter is called if the device entered a region, regionDidExit will be called if the device exited a region and we can't get any signal from any of the beacons inside the region. As for the payload, we get a property called region that represents the region identifier and is a string as well as the uuid. | | didDetermineState | If there is a boundary transition for a region, didDetermineState is being called. Inside the callback the parameter we can use returns an object with a property region that contains the region identifier value as a string. Additionally, we get the UUID of the region through its uuid property. | | authorizationDidChange | When the user permissions change, for example the user allows to always use beacons, this event will be called. The same applies when the user revokes the permission to use beacons. The payload is a string which can either be: "authorizedAlways", "authorizedWhenInUse", "denied", "notDetermined" or "restricted" |

4.b Android

Simple example

import { DeviceEventEmitter } from 'react-native'
import Beacons from 'ifollow-beacon-manager'

// Tells the library to detect iBeacons
Beacons.detectIBeacons()

// Start detecting all iBeacons in the nearby
try {
  await Beacons.startRangingBeaconsInRegion('REGION1')
  console.log(`Beacons ranging started succesfully!`)
} catch (err) {
  console.log(`Beacons ranging not started, error: ${error}`)
}

// Print a log of the detected iBeacons (1 per second)
DeviceEventEmitter.addListener('beaconsDidRange', (data) => {
  console.log('Found beacons!', data.beacons)
})

API

| Method | Description | |:--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|:-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | detectCustomBeaconLayout(parser: string): void | Allows the detection of a custom beacon layout. For example detectCustomBeaconLayout('m:0-3=4c000215,i:4-19,i:20-21,i:22-23,p:24-24') allows you to detect iBeacons beacons. | | detectIBeacons(): void | Allows the detection of iBeacons. It's just like calling detectCustomBeaconLayout with the iBeacons layout. | | detectEstimotes(): void | Allows the detection of Estimote beacons. It's just like calling detectCustomBeaconLayout with the Estimote layout. | | checkTransmissionSupported(): promise | Checks if the device can use the Bluetooth to detect the beacons. | | setForegroundScanPeriod(period: number): void | Sets the duration in milliseconds of each Bluetooth LE scan cycle to look for beacons (in foreground). For more info take a look at the official docs | | setBackgroundScanPeriod(period: number): void | Sets the duration in milliseconds of each Bluetooth LE scan cycle to look for beacons (in background). For more info take a look at the official docs | | setBackgroundBetweenScanPeriod(period: number): void | Sets the duration in milliseconds spent not scanning between each Bluetooth LE scan cycle when no ranging/monitoring clients are in the foreground. For more info take a look at the official docs | | setRssiFilter(filterType: int, avgModifier: number): void | Sets the RSSI averaging method. The parameter filterType must be one of the exported constants ARMA_RSSI_FILTER or RUNNING_AVG_RSSI_FILTER. The avgModifier param changes the rate of the averaging function For the ARMA filter it's in the range 0.1-1.0, for the running average it's the filter window in milliseconds. For more info take a look at the docs | | setHardwareEqualityEnforced(e: boolean): void | Configures whether the bluetoothAddress (mac address) must be the same for two Beacons to be configured equal. This setting applies to all beacon instances in the same process. Defaults to false for backward compatibility. Useful when all the beacons you are working with have the same UUID, major and minor (they are only uniquely identifiable by their mac address), otherwise the module will detect all the beacons as if they were only one. For more info take a look at the official docs | | getRangedRegions(): promise | Returns a promise that resolves in an array with the regions being ranged. | | getMonitoredRegions(): promise | Returns a promise that resolves in an array with the regions being monitored. | | startMonitoringForRegion({identifier: string, uuid: string, minor: int, major: int}): promise | Starts monitoring for beacons. The parameter identifier must be an unique ID. The parameter uuid is optional, it allows you to detect only the beacons with a specific UUID (if null every beacon will be detected). The parameters minor and major are optional, they allow you to monitor only the region of a specific beacon. | | startRangingBeaconsInRegion(regionId: string, beaconsUUID: string): promise | Starts range scan for beacons. The parameter regionId must be an unique ID. The parameter beaconsUUID is optional, it allows you to detect only the beacons with a specific UUID (if null every beacon will be detected). | | startRangingBeaconsInRegion({identifier: string, uuid: string}): promise | Starts range scan for beacons. The parameter identifier must be an unique ID. The parameter uuid is optional, it allows you to detect only the beacons with a specific UUID (if null every beacon will be detected). Prefer the use of this method over startRangingBeaconsInRegion(regionId: string, beaconsUUID: string), as this method signature more closely matches the signature for the equivalent iOS method. PLEASE NOTE: to listen EddyStone beacons on iOS, you have to pass an identifier as: EDDY_STONE_REGION_ID, (example: Beacons.startRangingBeaconsInRegion({identifier: 'EDDY_STONE_REGION_ID', ...restOptions})). | | stopMonitoringForRegion({identifier: string, uuid: string, minor: int, major: int}): promise | Stops the monitoring for beacons. | | stopRangingBeaconsInRegion(regionId: string, beaconsUUID: string): promise | Stops the range scan for beacons. | | stopRangingBeaconsInRegion({identifier: string, uuid: string}): promise | Stops the range scan for beacons. Prefer the use of this method over stopRangingBeaconsInRegion(regionId: string, beaconsUUID: string), as this method signature more closely matches the signature for the equivalent iOS method. | | requestStateForRegion({identifier: string, uuid: string, minor: int, major: int}): void | Retrieves the state of a region asynchronously. The parameter identifier must be an unique ID. The parameter uuid is optional, it allows you to detect only the beacons with a specific UUID (if null every beacon will be detected). The parameters minor and major are optional, they allow you to monitor only the region of a specific beacon. |

TODO:

Standardization of iOS and android to make library more coherent:

• iOS

  • [x] startRangingBeaconsInRegion and startMonitoringForRegion should return promises like android

• android

  • [x] startRangingBeaconsInRegion should accept an object like iOS and other methods (won't prevent from accepting current parameters: not to break existing)

Improvements or new feature:

• iOS
  • [x] add support to Eddystone
• android
  • [ ] add support to Eddystone