react-native-beacons-android

A React-Native library for handling beacons on Android.

This library works only on Android. On iOS you should use react-native-ibeacon (I tried to name the events/method like it).

DEPRECATED

This module is deprecated.
If you're interested in handling beacons in Android I suggest you to take a look at react-native-beacons-manager, which implement this library and also provide platform parity with iOS out of the box!

Setup

  1. The library is available on npm, install it with: npm install --save react-native-beacons-android.
  2. Link the library with your project: If you're using React-Native < 0.29 install rnpm with the command npm install -g rnpm and then link the library with the command rnpm link. If you're using React-Native >= 0.29 just link the library with the command react-native link.
  3. You're done!

Eddystone support

Do you have a spare Eddystone beacon and a bit of knowledge of Java? Well, you're the perfect candidate for helping with the issue #22!

A simple example

The following example will start detecting all the close iBeacons.

import { DeviceEventEmitter } from 'react-native'
import Beacons from 'react-native-beacons-android'

// 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)
})

Example project

You can find an example project using react-native-ibeacon + react-native-beacons-android [here] (https://github.com/MacKentoch/reactNativeBeaconExample) (thanks to MacKentoch).

Usage on Android 6 (Marshmallow)

Detecting beacons on Android 6 requires runtime permission.
Thanks to @alessandro-bottamedi and @micheletedeschi for investigating on it.

Usage details

1. Import the library

import Beacons from 'react-native-beacons-android'

2. Detect a custom beacon layout (optional) A beacon layout is a string (for example: m:0-3=4c000215,i:4-19,i:20-21,i:22-23,p:24-24) that tells the library what kind of beacons you want to detect (iBeacons, altBeacons, etc...). By default the library can detect only AltBeacons but you can add any kind of beacon layout you want (you can find the layout of your beacons on Google). You can detect a custom beacon layout with:

Beacons.detectCustomBeaconLayout('m:0-3=4c000215,i:4-19,i:20-21,i:22-23,p:24-24') // iBeacons layout

For sake of simplicity I also added an utility method that you can use for detecting iBeacons:

Beacons.detectIBeacons()

3. Start ranging/monitoring for beacons You can use this library for both region monitoring and region ranging. If you don't know the difference between monitoring and ranging you can find some informations here.

// Ranging
try {
  await Beacons.startRangingBeaconsInRegion('REGION1', '2ba8e073-b782-3957-0947-268e3850lopd')
  console.log(`Beacons ranging started successfully`)
} catch (err) {
  console.log(`Beacons ranging not started, error: ${error}`)
}

// Monitoring
try {
  const myRegion = {
    identifier: 'REGION1', 
    uuid: '2ba8e073-b782-3957-0947-268e3850lopd',
    minor: 123,
    major: 456
  };
  await Beacons.startMonitoringForRegion(myRegion)
  console.log(`Beacons monitoring started successfully`)
} catch (err) {
  console.log(`Beacons monitoring not started, error: ${error}`)
}

The region is an object with 4 attributes. The identifier is for the scanned region (use whatever you like). The uuid is an identifier for your beacons and is used for limiting the detected beacons to the beacons with that specific UUID (if the parameter is omitted the library will detect any beacons). The attributes minor and major are used to identify a specific region of one beacon.

P.S.: You can stop ranging/monitoring by calling Beacons.stopRangingBeaconsInRegion() and Beacons.stopMonitoringForRegion()

4. Do something when the beacons are detected! After the ranging/monitoring starts you can get the information of the detected region and beacons using React-Native DeviceEventEmitter. Ranging will emit a beaconsDidRange event, while monitoring will emit a regionDidEnter/regionDidExit event.

import { DeviceEventEmitter } from 'react-native'

DeviceEventEmitter.addListener('beaconsDidRange', (data) => {
  console.log('Found beacons!', data) // Result of ranging
})
DeviceEventEmitter.addListener('regionDidEnter', (region) => {
  console.log('Entered new beacons region!', region) // Result of monitoring
})
DeviceEventEmitter.addListener('regionDidExit', (region) => {
  console.log('Exited beacons region!', region) // Result of monitoring
})

API docs

Beacons.detectCustomBeaconLayout(parser: string): void

Allows the detection of a custom beacon layout. For example Beacons.detectCustomBeaconLayout('m:0-3=4c000215,i:4-19,i:20-21,i:22-23,p:24-24') allows you to detect iBeacons beacons.

Beacons.detectIBeacons(): void

Allows the detection of iBeacons. It's just like calling detectCustomBeaconLayout with the iBeacons layout.

Beacons.detectEstimotes(): void

Allows the detection of Estimote beacons. It's just like calling detectCustomBeaconLayout with the Estimote layout.

Beacons.checkTransmissionSupported(): promise

Checks if the device can use the Bluetooth to detect the beacons.

try {
  const transmissionSupport = await Beacons.checkTransmissionSupported()
  console.log(`TransmissionSupport status: ${transmissionSupport}`)
} catch (error) {
  console.log(`TransmissionSupport error: ${error}`)
}
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

Beacons.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

Beacons.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

Beacons.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

Beacons.getRangedRegions(): promise

Returns a promise that resolves in an array with the regions being ranged. 

try {
  const rangedRegions = await Beacons.getRangedRegions()
  console.log(`${rangedRegions.length} regions are being ranged`)
} catch (error) {
  console.log(`getRangedRegions error: ${error}`)
}
Beacons.getMonitoredRegions(): promise

Returns a promise that resolves in an array with the regions being monitored. 

try {
  const monitoredRegions = await Beacons.getMonitoredRegions()
  console.log(`${monitoredRegions.length} regions are being monitored`)
} catch (error) {
  console.log(`getMonitoredRegions error: ${error}`)
}
Beacons.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.

try {
  const myRegion = {
    identifier: 'REGION1', 
    uuid: '2ba8e073-b782-3957-0947-268e3850lopd',
    minor: 123,
    major: 456
  };
  await Beacons.startMonitoringForRegion(myRegion)
  console.log(`Beacons monitoring started successfully`)
} catch (error) {
  console.log(`Beacons monitoring not started, error: ${error}`)
}
Beacons.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).

try {
  await Beacons.startRangingBeaconsInRegion('REGION1', '2ba8e073-b782-3957-0947-268e3850lopd')
  console.log(`Beacons ranging started successfully`)
} catch (error) {
  console.log(`Beacons ranging not started, error: ${error}`)
}
Beacons.stopMonitoringForRegion({identifier: string, uuid: string, minor: int, major: int}): promise

Stops the monitoring for beacons.

try {
  const myRegion = {
    identifier: 'REGION1', 
    uuid: '2ba8e073-b782-3957-0947-268e3850lopd',
    minor: 123,
    major: 456
  };
  await Beacons.stopMonitoringForRegion(myRegion)
  console.log(`Beacons monitoring stopped successfully`)
} catch (error) {
  console.log(`Beacons monitoring stopped with an error: ${error}`)
}
Beacons.stopRangingBeaconsInRegion(regionId: string, beaconsUUID: string): promise

Stops the range scan for beacons.

try {
  await Beacons.stopRangingBeaconsInRegion('REGION1', '2ba8e073-b782-3957-0947-268e3850lopd')
  console.log(`Beacons ranging stopped successfully`)
} catch (error) {
  console.log(`Beacons ranging stopped with an error: ${error}`)
}