Connecthings SDK

All notable changes to the Android SDK are documented in this file.

2.5.6 - (January 19, 2017)

FEATURE: Automatic Notification
- The SDK now comes with a default implementation of the BeaconNotificationListener and BeaconWelcomeNotificationListener
  - This means the SDK can generate beacon notifications as soon it has been initialized
  - You can disable the beacon notifications if you don't want your application to generate local notification when detecting beacons.
FEATURE : The SDK permits to detect beacons over multi uuids.
FEATURE: All logs are now automatic but you have to take care when configuring your intent to respect the specification.
IMPROVEMENT: The scanning frequency when an application is in background to get notifications quicker.
CHANGE: all dependencies to the SDK must be replaced with com.connecthings (was previously android.connecthings)
CHANGE: the didRangeBeaconsInRegion from the BeaconRange listener has been renamed didRangeBeacons and the Region argument has been removed

FEATURE: restart of the beacon service when the application is killed or the phone is rebooted
FEATURE: the Alert process has been re-designed, with simpler beacon interactions when the application is in the foreground, and more flexibility.
FEATURE: introduction of the concept of "Welcome Notifications".

A Welcome Notification is displayed the first time your application detects a beacon.
A specific Welcome Notification can be displayed when your application has no internet connection.

FEATURE: addition of the background Beacon Scanning Manager to have control over the beacon scanning period by the SDK
FEATURE: addition of the background bluetooth activation management feature to choose the behavior of your application if bluetooth is disabled
FEATURE: to avoid any conflict with any other AltBeacon library, creation of our own fork on Github using a different package name (com.connecthings.altbeacon vs org.altbeacon).
IMPROVEMENT: notification strategies have two new methods to save associated data
- load(DataHolder): to restore the data of a Notification Strategy
- save(DataHolder): to save the data of a Notification Strategy
CHANGE: all dependencies to the org.altbeacon library must be replaced with com.connecthings.altbeacon
CHANGE: all Notification Strategies have migrated from android.connecthings.util.adtag.beacon.strategy package to android.connecthings.util.adtag.beacon.strategy.Notification package
CHANGE: the AdtagBeaconManager.start(context) is not available anymore. It is now automatic.

Feature: Add the Adtag Demo Platform to the list of available Platform.
Bug: Correct a bug when no BeaconNotification was registered to the AdtagBeaconManager

The SDK introduces the "Notification Strategy" concept.

A Notification Strategy permits to modify the algorithm that manages the display of a local notificaiton associated to a beacon.

The SDK permits to log the permissions accepted/refused by a user
Update cBeacon and QRNfcDemo sample to give an integration example of the new permission system:
- cBeacon, integrating the beacon SDK, needs ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION
- QRNfcDemo, integrating the QR CODE and NFC SDK, needs PERMISSION_REQUEST_CAMERA

Tracking of the beacons around a user
Rewrite the user tracking based on the User Google Accounts using instead the Google Advertiser Id
Log the new Location Permission approval

AdtagContent, BeaconContent has moved from package android.connecthings.adtag.model to android.connecthings.adtag.model.sdk
enum PROXIMITY into BeaconContent has been renamed BEACON_PROXIMITY and has moved to package android.connecthings.utils