magillus / beacon_broadcast

A Flutter plugin for turning your device into a beacon.

Beacon Broadcast plugin for Flutter

A Flutter plugin for turning your device into a beacon.

Usage

To use this plugin, add beacon_broadcast as a dependency in your pubspec.yaml file and import:

import 'package:beacon_broadcast/beacon_broadcast.dart';

Now you can create BeaconBroadcast object and start using it:

BeaconBroadcast beaconBroadcast = BeaconBroadcast();

In the simplest case, to start advertising just set your UUID, major and minor id and call start():

beaconBroadcast
    .setUUID('39ED98FF-2900-441A-802F-9C398FC199D2')
    .setMajorId(1)
    .setMinorId(100)
    .start();

You can also customize your beacon before starting:

beaconBroadcast
    .setUUID('39ED98FF-2900-441A-802F-9C398FC199D2')
    .setMajorId(1)
    .setMinorId(100)
    .setTransmissionPower(-59) //optional
    .setIdentifier('com.example.myDeviceRegion') //iOS-only, optional
    .setLayout('s:0-1=feaa,m:2-2=10,p:3-3:-41,i:4-21v') //Android-only, optional
    .setManufacturerId(0x001D) //Android-only, optional
    .start();

You can check what's current state of your beacon:

var isAdvertising = beaconBroadcast.isAdvertising()

You can also register for changes in beacon advertising state:

beaconBroadcast.getAdvertisingStateChange().listen((isAdvertising) {
    // Now you know if beacon is advertising
});

Before advertising, you may want to check if your device supports transmitting as a beacon. You may do it using checkTransmissionSupported() method.

var transmissionSupportStatus = await beaconBroadcast.checkTransmissionSupported();
switch (transmissionSupportStatus) {
  case BeaconStatus.SUPPORTED:
    // You're good to go, you can advertise as a beacon
    break;
  case BeaconStatus.NOT_SUPPORTED_MIN_SDK:
    // Your Android system version is too low (min. is 21)
    break;
  case BeaconStatus.NOT_SUPPORTED_BLE:
    // Your device doesn't support BLE
    break;
  case BeaconStatus.NOT_SUPPORTED_CANNOT_GET_ADVERTISER:
    // Either your chipset or driver is incompatible
    break;
}

If you want to stop advertising, just call stop():

beaconBroadcast.stop();

Examples

To broadcast as AltBeacon:

beaconBroadcast
    .setUUID('39ED98FF-2900-441A-802F-9C398FC199D2') //change UUID to yours
    .setMajorId(1) //change major id to yours
    .setMinorId(100) //change minor id to yours
    .start();

To broadcast as iBeacon:

beaconBroadcast
    .setUUID('39ED98FF-2900-441A-802F-9C398FC199D2') //change UUID to yours
    .setMajorId(1) //change major id to yours
    .setMinorId(100) //change minor id to yours
    .setLayout('m:2-3=0215,i:4-19,i:20-21,i:22-23,p:24-24')
    .setManufacturerId(0x004c)
    .start();

Android

Important note: For Android app, user needs to turn on Bluetooth on the device first.

Android beacon will advertise as the AltBeacon manufactured by RadiusNetwork. You can change it with setLayout() and setManufacturerId() methods.

iOS

For iOS, beacon will advertise as an iBeacon, it can't be changed. It's worth to mention that application needs to work in foreground. According to the CoreLocation documentation:

Important

After advertising your app as a beacon, your app must continue running in the foreground to broadcast the needed Bluetooth signals. If the user quits the app, the system stops advertising the device as a peripheral over Bluetooth.

About

This plugin uses Android Beacon Library for Android and CoreLocation for iOS.

Todo

There are still few things left to implement:

• Adding option for checking for Android device support programmatically
• Adding option to set layout and manufacturer for Android implementation
• Handle turning on BLE before transmitting