Near Field Communication (NFC) Plugin. Read and write NDEF messages to tags or share NDEF messages with peers.
- Android
- Windows Phone 8
- BlackBerry 10
- BlackBerry 7
- Installing
- NFC
- NDEF
- Events
- Platform Differences
- BlackBerry 10 Invoke Target
- Launching Application when Scanning a Tag
- Testing
- Sample Projects
- Book
- License
Cordova 3.1+ is the recommended way to use phonegap-nfc, see Getting Started Cordova CLI.
INSTALL.md has older instructions for installing the nfc-plugin into your PhoneGap project.
See the doc directory for additional documentation.
Note: BlackBerry 7 support is only available for Cordova 2.x. For applications targeting BlackBerry 7, you may need to use an older version of phonegap-nfc.
The nfc object provides access to the device's NFC sensor.
- nfc.addNdefListener
- nfc.removeNdefListener
- nfc.addTagDiscoveredListener
- nfc.removeTagDiscoveredListener
- nfc.addMimeTypeListener
- nfc.removeMimeTypeListener
- nfc.addNdefFormatableListener
- nfc.write
- nfc.makeReadOnly
- nfc.share
- nfc.unshare
- nfc.erase
- nfc.handover
- nfc.stopHandover
- nfc.enabled
Registers an event listener for any NDEF tag.
nfc.addNdefListener(callback, [onSuccess], [onFailure]);
- callback: The callback that is called when an NDEF tag is read.
- onSuccess: (Optional) The callback that is called when the listener is added.
- onFailure: (Optional) The callback that is called if there was an error.
Function nfc.addNdefListener registers the callback for ndef events.
A ndef event is fired when a NDEF tag is read.
For BlackBerry 10, you must configure the type of tags your application will read with an invoke-target in config.xml.
On Android registered mimeTypeListeners takes precedence over this more generic NDEF listener.
- Android
- BlackBerry 7
- BlackBerry 10
- Windows Phone 8
Removes the previously registered event listener for NDEF tags added via nfc.addNdefListener.
nfc.removeNdefListener(callback, [onSuccess], [onFailure]);
- callback: The previously registered callback.
- onSuccess: (Optional) The callback that is called when the listener is successfully removed.
- onFailure: (Optional) The callback that is called if there was an error during removal.
- Android
- BlackBerry 7
Registers an event listener for tags matching any tag type.
nfc.addTagDiscoveredListener(callback, [onSuccess], [onFailure]);
- callback: The callback that is called when a tag is detected.
- onSuccess: (Optional) The callback that is called when the listener is added.
- onFailure: (Optional) The callback that is called if there was an error.
Function nfc.addTagDiscoveredListener registers the callback for tag events.
This event occurs when any tag is detected by the phone.
- Android
- BlackBerry 7
Removes the previously registered event listener added via nfc.addTagDiscoveredListener.
nfc.removeTagDiscoveredListener(callback, [onSuccess], [onFailure]);
- callback: The previously registered callback.
- onSuccess: (Optional) The callback that is called when the listener is successfully removed.
- onFailure: (Optional) The callback that is called if there was an error during removal.
- Android
- BlackBerry 7
Registers an event listener for NDEF tags matching a specified MIME type.
nfc.addMimeTypeListener(mimeType, callback, [onSuccess], [onFailure]);
- mimeType: The MIME type to filter for messages.
- callback: The callback that is called when an NDEF tag matching the MIME type is read.
- onSuccess: (Optional) The callback that is called when the listener is added.
- onFailure: (Optional) The callback that is called if there was an error.
Function nfc.addMimeTypeListener registers the callback for ndef-mime events.
A ndef-mime event occurs when a Ndef.TNF_MIME_MEDIA tag is read and matches the specified MIME type.
This function can be called multiple times to register different MIME types. You should use the same handler for all MIME messages.
nfc.addMimeTypeListener("text/json", *onNfc*, success, failure);
nfc.addMimeTypeListener("text/demo", *onNfc*, success, failure);
On Android, MIME types for filtering should always be lower case. (See IntentFilter.addDataType())
- Android
- BlackBerry 7
Removes the previously registered event listener added via nfc.addMimeTypeListener.
nfc.removeMimeTypeListener(mimeType, callback, [onSuccess], [onFailure]);
- mimeType: The MIME type to filter for messages.
- callback: The previously registered callback.
- onSuccess: (Optional) The callback that is called when the listener is successfully removed.
- onFailure: (Optional) The callback that is called if there was an error during removal.
- Android
- BlackBerry 7
Registers an event listener for formatable NDEF tags.
nfc.addNdefFormatableListener(callback, [onSuccess], [onFailure]);
- callback: The callback that is called when NDEF formatable tag is read.
- onSuccess: (Optional) The callback that is called when the listener is added.
- onFailure: (Optional) The callback that is called if there was an error.
Function nfc.addNdefFormatableListener registers the callback for ndef-formatable events.
A ndef-formatable event occurs when a tag is read that can be NDEF formatted. This is not fired for tags that are already formatted as NDEF. The ndef-formatable event will not contain an NdefMessage.
- Android
Writes an NDEF Message to a NFC tag.
A NDEF Message is an array of one or more NDEF Records
var message = [
ndef.textRecord("hello, world"),
ndef.uriRecord("http://github.com/chariotsolutions/phonegap-nfc")
];
nfc.write(message, [onSuccess], [onFailure]);
- ndefMessage: An array of NDEF Records.
- onSuccess: (Optional) The callback that is called when the tag is written.
- onFailure: (Optional) The callback that is called if there was an error.
Function nfc.write writes an NdefMessage to a NFC tag.
On Android this method must be called from within an NDEF Event Handler.
On Windows Phone this method should be called outside the NDEF Event Handler, otherwise Windows tries to read the tag contents as you are writing to the tag.
- Android
- BlackBerry 7
- Windows Phone 8
Makes a NFC tag read only. Warning this is permanent.
nfc.makeReadOnly([onSuccess], [onFailure]);
- onSuccess: (Optional) The callback that is called when the tag is locked.
- onFailure: (Optional) The callback that is called if there was an error.
Function nfc.makeReadOnly make a NFC tag read only. Warning this is permanent and can not be undone.
On Android this method must be called from within an NDEF Event Handler.
Example usage
onNfc: function(nfcEvent) {
var record = [
ndef.textRecord("hello, world")
];
var failure = function(reason) {
alert("ERROR: " + reason);
};
var lockSuccess = function() {
alert("Tag is now read only.");
};
var lock = function() {
nfc.makeReadOnly(lockSuccess, failure);
};
nfc.write(record, lock, failure);
},
- Android
Shares an NDEF Message via peer-to-peer.
A NDEF Message is an array of one or more NDEF Records
var message = [
ndef.textRecord("hello, world")
];
nfc.share(message, [onSuccess], [onFailure]);
- ndefMessage: An array of NDEF Records.
- onSuccess: (Optional) The callback that is called when the message is pushed.
- onFailure: (Optional) The callback that is called if there was an error.
Function nfc.share writes an NdefMessage via peer-to-peer. This should appear as an NFC tag to another device.
- Android
- BlackBerry 7
- BlackBerry 10
- Windows Phone 8
Android - shares message until unshare is called
Blackberry 10 - shares the message one time or until unshare is called
Windows Phone 8 - must be called from within a NFC event handler like nfc.write
Stop sharing NDEF data via peer-to-peer.
nfc.unshare([onSuccess], [onFailure]);
- onSuccess: (Optional) The callback that is called when sharing stops.
- onFailure: (Optional) The callback that is called if there was an error.
Function nfc.unshare stops sharing data via peer-to-peer.
- Android
- BlackBerry 7
- BlackBerry 10
Erase a NDEF tag
nfc.erase([onSuccess], [onFailure]);
- onSuccess: (Optional) The callback that is called when sharing stops.
- onFailure: (Optional) The callback that is called if there was an error.
Function nfc.erase erases a tag by writing an empty message. Will format unformatted tags before writing.
This method must be called from within an NDEF Event Handler.
- Android
- BlackBerry 7
Send a file to another device via NFC handover.
var uri = "content://media/external/audio/media/175";
nfc.handover(uri, [onSuccess], [onFailure]);
var uris = [
"content://media/external/audio/media/175",
"content://media/external/audio/media/176",
"content://media/external/audio/media/348"
];
nfc.handover(uris, [onSuccess], [onFailure]);
- uri: A URI as a String, or an array of URIs.
- onSuccess: (Optional) The callback that is called when the message is pushed.
- onFailure: (Optional) The callback that is called if there was an error.
Function nfc.handover shares files to a NFC peer using handover. Files are sent by specifying a file:// or context:// URI or a list of URIs. The file transfer is initiated with NFC but the transfer is completed with over Bluetooth or WiFi which is handled by a NFC handover request. The Android code is responsible for building the handover NFC Message.
This is Android only, but it should be possible to add implementations for other platforms.
- Android
Stop sharing NDEF data via NFC handover.
nfc.stopHandover([onSuccess], [onFailure]);
- onSuccess: (Optional) The callback that is called when sharing stops.
- onFailure: (Optional) The callback that is called if there was an error.
Function nfc.stopHandover stops sharing data via peer-to-peer.
- Android
Check if NFC is available and enabled on this device.
nfc.enabled(onSuccess, onFailure);
- onSuccess: The callback that is called when NFC is enabled.
- onFailure: The callback that is called when NFC is disabled or missing.
Function nfc.enabled explicitly checks to see if the phone has NFC and if NFC is enabled. If
everything is OK, the success callback is called. If there is a problem, the failure callback
will be called with a reason code.
The reason will be NO_NFC if the device doesn't support NFC and NFC_DISABLED if the user has disabled NFC.
Note: that on Android the NFC status is checked before every API call NO_NFC or NFC_DISABLED can be returned in any failure funtion.
- Android
The
ndefobject provides NDEF constants, functions for creating NdefRecords, and functions for converting data. See android.nfc.NdefRecord for documentation about constants
Represents an NDEF (NFC Data Exchange Format) data message that contains one or more NdefRecords. This plugin uses an array of NdefRecords to represent an NdefMessage.
Represents a logical (unchunked) NDEF (NFC Data Exchange Format) record.
- tnf: 3-bit TNF (Type Name Format) - use one of the TNF_* constants
- type: byte array, containing zero to 255 bytes, must not be null
- id: byte array, containing zero to 255 bytes, must not be null
- payload: byte array, containing zero to (2 ** 32 - 1) bytes, must not be null
The ndef object has a function for creating NdefRecords
var type = "text/pg",
id = [],
payload = nfc.stringToBytes("Hello World"),
record = ndef.record(ndef.TNF_MIME_MEDIA, type, id, payload);
There are also helper functions for some types of records
Create a URI record
var record = ndef.uriRecord("http://chariotsolutions.com");
Create a plain text record
var record = ndef.textRecord("Plain text message");
Create a mime type record
var mimeType = "text/pg",
payload = "Hello Phongap",
record = ndef.mimeMediaRecord(mimeType, nfc.stringToBytes(payload));
Create an Empty record
var record = ndef.emptyRecord();
Create an Android Application Record (AAR)
var record = ndef.androidApplicationRecord('com.example');
See ndef.record, ndef.textRecord, ndef.mimeMediaRecord, and ndef.uriRecord.
The Ndef object has functions to convert some data types to and from byte arrays.
See the phonegap-nfc.js source for more documentation.
Events are fired when NFC tags are read. Listeners are added by registering callback functions with the nfc object. For example nfc.addNdefListener(myNfcListener, win, fail);
- type: event type
- tag: Ndef tag
- tag
- ndef-mime
- ndef
- ndef-formatable
The tag contents are platform dependent.
id and techTypes may be included when scanning a tag on Android. serialNumber may be included on BlackBerry 7.
id and serialNumber are different names for the same value. id is typically displayed as a hex string ndef.bytesToHexString(tag.id).
Windows Phone 8 and BlackBerry 10 read the NDEF information from a tag, but do not have access to the tag id or other meta data like capacity, read-only status or tag technologies.
Assuming the following NDEF message is written to a tag, it will produce the following events when read.
var ndefMessage = [
ndef.createMimeRecord('text/pg', 'Hello PhoneGap')
];
{
type: 'ndef',
tag: {
"isWritable": true,
"id": [4, 96, 117, 74, -17, 34, -128],
"techTypes": ["android.nfc.tech.IsoDep", "android.nfc.tech.NfcA", "android.nfc.tech.Ndef"],
"type": "NFC Forum Type 4",
"canMakeReadOnly": false,
"maxSize": 2046,
"ndefMessage": [{
"id": [],
"type": [116, 101, 120, 116, 47, 112, 103],
"payload": [72, 101, 108, 108, 111, 32, 80, 104, 111, 110, 101, 71, 97, 112],
"tnf": 2
}]
}
}
{
type: 'ndef',
tag: {
"tagType": "4",
"isLocked": false,
"isLockable": false,
"freeSpaceSize": "2022",
"serialNumberLength": "7",
"serialNumber": [4, 96, 117, 74, -17, 34, -128],
"name": "Desfire EV1 2K",
"ndefMessage": [{
"tnf": 2,
"type": [116, 101, 120, 116, 47, 112, 103],
"id": [],
"payload": [72, 101, 108, 108, 111, 32, 80, 104, 111, 110, 101, 71, 97, 112]
}]
}
}
{
type: 'ndef',
tag: {
"ndefMessage": [{
"tnf": 2,
"type": [116, 101, 120, 116, 47, 112, 103],
"id": [],
"payload": [72, 101, 108, 108, 111, 32, 80, 104, 111, 110, 101, 71, 97, 112]
}]
}
}
The raw contents of the scanned tags are written to the log before the event is fired. Use adb logcat on Android and Event Log (hold alt + lglg) on BlackBerry.
You can also log the tag contents in your event handlers. console.log(JSON.stringify(nfcEvent.tag)) Note that you want to stringify the tag not the event to avoid a circular reference.
Only Android and BlackBerry 7 can read Non-NDEF NFC tags.
BlackBerry 7, BlackBerry 10 and many newer Android phones will not read Mifare Classic tags. Mifare Ultralight tags will work since they are NFC Forum Type 2 tags.
Windows Phone 8 and BlackBerry 10 read the NDEF information from a tag, but do not have access to the tag id or other meta data like capacity, read-only status or tag technologies.
Multiple listeners can be registered in JavaScript. e.g. addNdefListener, addTagDiscoveredListener, addMimeTypeListener.
On Android, only the most specific event will fire. If a Mime Media Tag is scanned, only the addMimeTypeListener callback is called and not the callback defined in addNdefListener. You can use the same event handler for multiple listeners.
On BlackBerry 7, all the events fire if a Mime Media Tag is scanned.
On Android, addTagDiscoveredListener scans non-NDEF tags and NDEF tags. The tag event does NOT contain an ndefMessage even if there are NDEF messages on the tag. Use addNdefListener or addMimeTypeListener to get the NDEF information.
On BlackBerry 7, addTagDiscoveredListener does NOT scan non-NDEF tags. Webworks returns the ndefMessage in the event.
{
type: 'tag',
tag: {
"id": [-81, 105, -4, 64],
"techTypes": ["android.nfc.tech.MifareClassic", "android.nfc.tech.NfcA", "android.nfc.tech.NdefFormatable"]
}
}
{
type: 'tag',
tag: {
"id": [4, 96, 117, 74, -17, 34, -128],
"techTypes": ["android.nfc.tech.IsoDep", "android.nfc.tech.NfcA", "android.nfc.tech.Ndef"]
}
}
This plugin uses the BlackBerry Invocation Framework to read NFC tags on BlackBerry 10. This means that you need to register an invoke target in the config.xml.
If your project supports multiple platforms, copy www/config.xml to merges/config.xml and add a rim:invoke-target tag. The invoke-target determines which tags your app will scan when it is running. If your application is not running, BlackBerry will launch it when a matching tag is scanned.
This sample configuration attempts to open any NDEF tag.
<rim:invoke-target id="your.unique.id.here">
<type>APPLICATION</type>
<filter>
<action>bb.action.OPEN</action>
<mime-type>application/vnd.rim.nfc.ndef</mime-type>
<!-- any TNF Empty(0), Well Known(1), MIME Media(2), Absolute URI(3), External(4) -->
<property var="uris" value="ndef://0,ndef://1,ndef://2,ndef://3,ndef://4" />
</filter>
</rim:invoke-target>
You can configure you application to handle only certain tags.
For example to scan only MIME Media tags of type "text/pg" use
<rim:invoke-target id="your.unique.id.here">
<type>APPLICATION</type>
<filter>
<action>bb.action.OPEN</action>
<mime-type>application/vnd.rim.nfc.ndef</mime-type>
<!-- TNF MIME Media(2) with type "text/pg" -->
<property var="uris" value="ndef://2/text/pg" />
</filter>
</rim:invoke-target>
Or to scan only Plain Text tags use
<rim:invoke-target id="your.unique.id.here">
<type>APPLICATION</type>
<filter>
<action>bb.action.OPEN</action>
<mime-type>application/vnd.rim.nfc.ndef</mime-type>
<!-- TNF Well Known(1), RTD T -->
<property var="uris" value="ndef://1/T" />
</filter>
</rim:invoke-target>
See the BlackBerry documentation for more info.
On Android, intents can be used to launch your application when a NFC tag is read. This is optional and configured in AndroidManifest.xml.
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.nfc.action.NDEF_DISCOVERED" />
<data android:mimeType="text/pg" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
</intent-filter>
Note: data android:mimeType="text/pg" should match the data type you specified in JavaScript
We have found it necessary to add android:noHistory="true" to the activity element so that scanning a tag launches the application after the user has pressed the home button.
See the Android documentation for more information about filtering for NFC intents.
Tests require the Cordova Plugin Test Framework
Create a new project
git clone https://github.com/chariotsolutions/phonegap-nfc
cordova create nfc-test com.example.nfc.test NfcTest
cd nfc-test
cordova platform add android
cordova plugin add ../phonegap-nfc
cordova plugin add ../phonegap-nfc/tests
cordova plugin add http://git-wip-us.apache.org/repos/asf/cordova-plugin-test-framework.git
Change the start page in config.xml
<content src="cdvtests/index.html" />
Run the app on your phone
cordova run
- Ionic NFC Reader
- NFC Reader
- NFC Writer
- NFC Peer to Peer
- ApacheCon 2014 Demos
- Rock Paper Scissors Android 2.x only
Need more info? Check out my book
Beginning NFC: Near Field Communication with Arduino, Android, and PhoneGap
The MIT License
Copyright (c) 2011-2014 Chariot Solutions
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