UriIO Android library

Android library for the UriIO Ephemeral URL API

The library takes care of creating and refreshing Eddystone-URL beacons, when the broadcasted URL is no longer valid server-side.

• About ephemeral URLs
  • Register a URL for redirecting
  • Update URL target
  • Get URL info
  • Delete URL

Ephemeral URLs

An ephemeral URL broadcasts an Eddystone-URL beacon, but it can dynamically change the beacon-advertised URL (and even the target URL).

UriIO is a cloud service for redirecting to timestamp-authenticated URLs, and requires an API key, which you can get by visiting the link below.

Read more about the UriIO API and why it is secure and anti-spoofable.

Setup

1. Add the library to your application-level build.gradle

   dependencies {
      ...
      compile 'com.uriio:uriio-android:1.0.7'
   }

2. Initialize the library in the onCreate() of your Application, or Activity, or Service:

   Uriio.initialize(this);

Note: you don't need to also call Beacons.initialize() since it's called for you.

3. Add your API key in your app's strings.xml and update your AndroidManifest.xml to reference it, inside the <application> tag:

      <meta-data android:name="com.uriio.apiKey" android:value="@string/uriio_api_key" />

Registering a redirected long URL

The snippet below registers a new "long" URL destination and creates an Ephemeral URL beacon for it. The library will call the specific API for issuing periodically beacon new URLs, and restart the advertised Eddystone-URL, according to the timeToLive property. The timeToLive is in seconds; use 0 for an initially non-ephemeral URL. If the TTL is zero, the beacon's URL remains the same. If non-zero, the UriIO server will invalidate issued URLs after they expire, using a 404. You can change the TTL at any time after an URL is registered, since it is attached to each issued beacon URL from the moment it is created.

String url = 'https://github.com/uriio/beacons-android';
int beaconTTL = 300;

// register a URL, create a beacon, save it, and start it
Uriio.registerUrl(url, beaconTTL, new Callback<UriioBeacon>() {
   @Override
   public void onResult(UriioBeacon beacon, Throwable error) {
      if (null != result) {
         // yey, URL registered and beacon created for it
         // you can modify the beacon here, but it will restart if you change TTL, TX power, or mode
         beacon.edit().setName("My first beacon").apply();
      }
      else {
         handleError(error);  // registration failed for whatever reason
      }
   }
});

If you'd like to modify the created beacon before it starts advertising:

boolean startBeacon = false;
boolean saveBeacon = true;

Uriio.registerUrl(url, beaconTTL, startBeacon, saveBeacon, new Callback<UriioBeacon>() {
   @Override
   public void onResult(UriioBeacon beacon, Throwable error) {
      if (null != result) {
         beacon.edit()
                 .setAdvertiseTxPower(AdvertiseSettings.ADVERTISE_TX_POWER_MEDIUM)
                 .apply();
         beacon.start();
      }
      else {
         handleError(error);  // registration failed for whatever reason
      }
   }
});

Updating the target URL

To update the target URL (with or without the need to change other beacon properties), use:

// beacon is a UriioBeacon instance
Uriio.updateUrl(beacon, url, new Callback<UriioBeacon>() {
   @Override
   public void onResult(UriioBeacon beacon, Throwable error) {
      if (null != result) {
         // target URL was updated. From now on, the server will redirect to the new URL.
         // the updated beacon is the same instance you provided
      }
      else {
         showError(error);
      }
   }
});

Getting registered URL info

Uriio.getUrl() can be used to fetch info about a registered URL.

Deleting registered URL

Call Uriio.deleteUrl() to remove a registered resource. You can provide either the URL resource credentials, or an UriioBeacon beacon, which will also be stopped and deleted after the operation completes.

Interacting with Eddystone-URL broadcasted beacons

Use the usual strategies explained in the Android BLE library. The broadcasted beacons are instances of Eddystone-URL beacons, with some extra properties to allow refreshing their URLs when needed.

Extract URL registration token

You can extract the URL identifier and URL token (the details needed to edit the server resource or issue new beacon URLs), either after registration, or when listing Beacons that are instances of the UriioBeacon kind.