Nfcinteractor

Nfc Interactor http://www.nfcinteractor.com

View low level information about NFC tags and their contents, and write your own tags with a dynamic NDEF message editor UI.

Touch an NFC tag to analyze its format and its contents. Nfc Interactor parses and shows many different NDEF messages and extends the offering of Qt through reusable convenience classes for handling additional record types: Smart Poster, Mime/Image, vCard, SMS, Social Networks, Geo-Tags, Smart URI, Windows LaunchApp, Android Application Record and custom records.

Compose your own NDEF messages by combining one or more NDEF records using the dynamic editor interface. Various templates assist you, allowing you to concentrate on the content instead of the format. While editing, Nfc Interactor will always show you the current size. Once your message is finalized, write it to as many tags as you like.

Send and receive NDEF messages through a peer-to-peer connection between devices, either using standardized SNEP or a raw LLCP connection with freely defined settings.

Nfc Interactor is written in Qt and works on Nokia Anna / Belle as well as on MeeGo Harmattan (Nokia N9). As an open source example project, it also showcases the use of Qt Quick Components, as well as the integration of C++ with QML.

Note: this version of Nfc Interactor replaces the previous Java ME-based NFCinteractor. The new Qt-version is more powerful and introduces a wealth of new features, plus improved reading support. The Java ME-based project is still useful as a code example and has therefore been renamed to Nfc Creator and is available here: https://projects.developer.nokia.com/nfccreator . This Qt-based Nfc Interactor also succeeds the "Nfc Info" project, which was only capable of reading tags.

FEATURES

Tag reading:

• Tag type (NFC Forum Tag Type 1, 2, 3, 4 and Mifare)
• Tag UID
• Tag version
• Tag memory size, static vs. dynamic memory (for tag types 1 + 2**)
• Lock bits and Capability Container access level (for static memory tag types 1 + 2**)
• NDEF message size
• List of all individual NDEF records
• Parses Smart Poster, URI, text, image and business card (vCard) records
• App is automatically launched for custom record with external RTD: "nokia.com:nfcinteractor"
• Stores parsed URI or text to the clipboard
• Automatically saves all collected NDEF messages to the phone's memory card for later reuse (if activated)

Tag writing:

• Dynamic UI to create a message consisting of multiple NDEF records, and to add information to each record
• Clone tag contents (tap on blue NDEF message contents after reading a tag -> clone)
• Save own composed tags to the file system on the phone
• Option to write empty message before real message, to better format factory-empty tags
• Open previously collected or saved NDEF message in compose mode for editing and writing again (tap on blue NDEF message contents after reading a tag -> edit, or load from compose view)
• Help for all supported message types
• NDEF message size calculation
• Specialized editors for each message type:
  • Social Network record: enter the username and choose the network to create a link to follow you. Creates a URI or Smart Poster, depending on if you add an optional title.
  • Business card record: select the data to include from a wealth of available fields, and create your own business card based on the universal vCard standard. Integrates with the Qt Mobility Contacts APIs. Note: usually large tag size requirements.
  • Geo record: enter coordinates and select the Geo Tag type. Supports Geo URI (RFC 5870), Nokia Maps links and a generic redirection script that enables Geo tags on Symbian and MeeGo, hosted at nfcinteractor.com*. Integrates with the Qt Mobility Location APIs for the coordinates. Creates a URI or Smart Poster, depending on if you add an optional title.
  • Image record: write an image from the file system of your mobile phone to the tag.
  • LaunchApp record: used on the Windows platform to directly launch an app through its ID.
  • Android Application Record (AAR): launch an app on Android through its package name.
  • App Store record: generate a download link to an app store. Creates a direct store link if one ID is specified, or a generic link using a platform detection script at nfcinteractor.com* if more app ids are specified. For Nokia, either specify a generic Nokia Store ID if it's the same for all platforms, or instead specify an own ID for Symbian, MeeGo Harmattan and if needed Series 40. Creates a URI or Smart Poster, depending on if you add an optional title.
  • SMS record: enter number and body to create a working SMS link, useful for example to request information services or for payment via SMS. Creates a URI or Smart Poster, depending on if you add an optional title.
  • Smart Posters: has to contain at least a URI, optionally an unlimited amount of titles in different languages, a recommended action and information about the linked content (size and MIME type).
  • URI records: automatically shortens URIs according to the specification to save tag space (e.g., won't save "http://www.", but encode that in a single byte).
  • Text records: set text and language.
  • Custom records: Choose the type name format and optionally add a type name and payload. Also useful for application autostart tags.

Peer to peer:

• SNEP support (Simple NDEF Exchange Protocol)
• Send and receive NDEF messages and raw data
• Connection-oriented and connection-less mode supported
• Define URI for connection-oriented mode or port for connection-less mode
• Connection-oriented: connect server and/or client socket, choose which socket to use for sending messages

Easily reusable code for developers including:

• NDEF record classes for: Smart Poster, Mime/vCard (Business Cards), Mime/Image, Geo coordinates, App Store links, Social Networks (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Xing, vKontakte, Foursquare), SMS, Smart URI (depending on content requirements uses Smart Poster or URI to create the smallest possible message)
• Tag-specifc access to read the tag size and lock status (for Tag Types 1 + 2**)

Ideas for future updates:

• Write a contact from the address book
• Write vCalendar records
• Skype call / add contact tag: http://www.skype.com/intl/en/tell-a-friend/wizard/
• Bluetooth pairing records
• Lock tags (type 1, 2**)
• Check composed record contents for errors according to specifications
• Use current location for geo tags (asynchronously updated UI)
• Birthday support for contacts (date picker UI)
• Geocoding (enter address, write coordinates to the tag - interactive UI)
• Splash screen for Symbian
• Turn NFC on from the app on Symbian: http://www.developer.nokia.com/Community/Wiki/How_to_put_NFC_ON_and_OFF_with_Qt
• Support for writing AAR records (Android Application Record): http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9016944/android-application-record-compatibility-with-pre-ics

• Disclaimer: The services hosted on nfcinteractor.com (e.g., the generic geo-tag redirection script) have no service or uptime guarantee. They are intended for testing purposes only and could be removed at any point. You should host the required server-side scripts on your own webserver for real-world deployment. ** MeeGo Harmattan currently does not allow tag type specific access through Qt APIs; therefore, it's not possible to access functionality not offered by Qt classes, such as getting tag specific information or locking tags.

SECURITY

Symbian: The application can be self-signed.

Harmattan: No special aegis manifest is required.

KNOWN ISSUES

General: the Tag Image Cache stores all images in memory. Images found in tags are usually very small, making this no issue at all. For special usage scenarios, this class might have to be extended to cache the images on the disc instead.

General: two records in a message, first has a payload, second no payload (length = 0, short record). Qt libraries keep the payload + size of the first record, instead of properly detecting an empty payload for the second record. This issue gets visible when reading a tag that is formatted as described (which is a very rare case). See: https://bugreports.qt-project.org/browse/QTMOBILITY-2077

Harmattan: In contrast to Symbian, Harmattan PR 1.0 does not provide simultaneous tag read & write access. This has been fixed in PR 1.1, which is the firmware version required by this example. For PR 1.0, the example would need to switch between those two modes. See the earlier versions of Nfc Info or Nfc Corkboards for example code if needed. This example has not been tested on PR 1.0.

Harmattan: if removing the tag while the app is interacting with it (reading or writing), the Qt Mobility APIs might not emit the 'target lost' signal on PR 1.1. This causes the app to keep the "writing..." animation active, requiring the user to touch the tag again up to 2x. This behavior has been fixed in PR 1.2.

Harmattan: No full SNEP support on the N9 - would require higher privileges to register for urn:nfc:sn:snep. Instead, using LibNDEFPush: http://harmattan-dev.nokia.com/downloads/QtSDK_additions/ for SNEP on the N9. Only works on PR 1.2+, only for sending SNEP messages and not for receiving.

Symbian: Limited SNEP support: only possible to use service name urn:nfc:sn:snep, as using a connection-oriented port of 4 is not supported by the Qt APIs.

Symbian: auto-scrolling of settings page when opening virtual keyboard on Symbian not behaving correctly.

BUILD & INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS

MeeGo Harmattan

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