Proximity SDK for Android

Requirements
Installation
Usage

This library allows you to integrate Jointag Proximity into your Android app.

Requirements

Minimum API level: 15 (Android 4.0.3)

Note: to use functionalities that rely on BLE, the minimum API level is 18 (Android 4.3). If the device API level is between 16 and 17 the SDK won't be able to access BLE and therefore it will be not possible to obtain data from BLE devices.

Installation

Add the Maven repository

To download the SDK package you can use our Maven repository. To include it, add the following lines to your build.gradle (Module: app) file:

repositories {
    jcenter()
    maven { url "https://artifactory.jointag.com/artifactory/jointag" }
}

Enable Java 8 language features and APIs

android {
    ...
    compileOptions {
        sourceCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
        targetCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
    }
    // For Kotlin projects
    kotlinOptions {
        jvmTarget = "1.8"
    }
}

Add the library

Now add the ProximitySDK dependency (use latest SDK version).

dependencies {
    // ProximitySDK SDK
    implementation("com.jointag:proximitysdk:1.19.+")
}

Other dependencies (Optional)

Additional dependencies should automatically be downloaded and included along with the library through the previous gradle declaration.

If you don't use Gradle to handle project building, or want to manually include the required libraries, add the following to your dependencies block in the app/build.gradle file.

dependencies {
    <...>
    implementation("androidx.appcompat:appcompat:1.2.0")
    implementation("androidx.preference:preference:1.2.0")
    implementation("org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib:1.7.21")
    implementation("com.google.android.gms:play-services-ads-identifier:18.0.0")
    implementation("com.google.android.gms:play-services-location:21.0.1")
    implementation("org.jetbrains.kotlinx:kotlinx-serialization-json:1.4.1")
    implementation("org.jetbrains.kotlinx:kotlinx-coroutines-android:1.6.4")
    implementation("org.altbeacon:android-beacon-library:2.19.5")
    <...>
}

Supporting Huawei Mobile Services

You can enable ProximitySDK support for Huawei Mobile Services by following the official Huawei documentation for integrating Huawei HMS Core into your application, then adding the dependencies for Huawei Ads Kit and Huawei Location Kit to your app/build.gradle file:

dependencies {
    <...>
    implementation("com.huawei.hms:ads-identifier:3.4.41.302")
    implementation("com.huawei.hms:location:4.0.0.300")
    <...>
}

Note: Huawei libraries may have a higher minimum API level requirement than the ProximitySDK library.

For distribution on Huawei AppGallery only

If your app will only be available on Huawei AppGallery and you want to avoid including any Google Play Services dependencies that ProximitySDK includes, you can specify the group "com.google.android.gms" from the librry transitive dependencies in your app/build.gradle file:

dependencies {
    // ProximitySDK SDK
    implementation("com.jointag:proximitysdk:1.16.+") {
        exclude group: "com.google.android.gms"
    }
}

Usage

Initialization

Automatic Initialization

You can opt to automatically initialize the SDK at application launch by adding the following entries to the application's AndroidManifest.xml file, inside the <application> tag:

        <meta-data
            android:name="com.jointag.proximity.API_KEY"
            android:value="YOUR_API_KEY" />
        <meta-data
            android:name="com.jointag.proximity.API_SECRET"
            android:value="YOUR_API_SECRET" />

⚠️ Note Some features, such as the ability to subscribe to custom events, requires their relative initialization code to be execute in the Application onCreate method, so they are not available when using Automatic Initialization

You can also set the SDK log level and log tag using the following keys:

        <meta-data
            android:name="com.jointag.proximity.LOG_LEVEL"
            android:value="verbose" />
            <!-- values : verbose|debug|info|warn|error|assert -->
        <meta-data
            android:name="com.jointag.proximity.LOG_TAG"
            android:value="MY_TAG" />

You plans to implement a user consent flow manually or using a IAB-compliat CMP, you must specify the following entry:

        <meta-data
            android:name="com.jointag.proximity.CMP_ENABLED"
            android:value="true" />

Manual Initialization

If you want to manually initialize the SDK, you have to include the initialization code in your app Application class onCreate method.

If you don't have an Application class read the following section on how to Create an Application Class, otherwise skip to the Add the Required Code *section.

Create an Application Class

Create a class extending android.app.Application

import android.app.Application;

public class MyApplication extends Application {
   @Override
   public void onCreate() {
      super.onCreate();
   }
}

Update your AndroidManifest.xml

Add android:name=".MyApplication" to your <application> tag

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    package="com.example.app">
   <application
        android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:name=".MyApplication">
        ...
    </application>
</manifest>

Add the Required Code

Add the following call to ProximitySDK.init() in the onCreate() method of your Application class.

import com.jointag.proximity.ProximitySDK;
import com.jointag.proximity.util.Logger;

public class MyApplication extends Application {
    public static final String API_KEY = "YOUR_API_KEY";
    public static final String SECRET = "YOUR_API_SECRET";

    @Override
    public void onCreate() {
        super.onCreate();
        // Set a custom logger tag  
        Logger.setTag("MyApplication");
        // Enable verbose logging
        Logger.setLogLevel(Logger.VERBOSE);
        // Initialize with your ApiKey / ApiSecret
        ProximitySDK.init(this, API_KEY, SECRET);
    }
}

⛔ Attention: the ProximitySDK.init() method must be called from within the Application.onCreate method. Calling the init method from any other place may result in an unpredictable SDK behaviour, or a crash in the worst case.

Permissions and hardware requirements

This SDK uses user-location and notifications permissions to function. All required permissions are declared in the SDK AndroidManifest file, and automatically added to your application AndroidManifest when the library is included as a Gradle dependency (see Add the library).

For application running on Android 6.0 or later

The request for ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION or ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION permission has to be implemented by the application that includes the SDK. The request can be implemented in any point of the application, but it's recommended to ask the user for location permission as soon as possible, because until the permission is not granted the SDK can't enable proximity features involving GPS and beacons.

For applications running Android 10.0 or later

The additional permission ACCESS_BACKGROUND_LOCATION should be declared in the application AndroidManifest.xml file and requested to the user for the SDK to work properly while the application is in background.

Add the following to your AndroidManifest.xml

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_BACKGROUND_LOCATION" />

For applications running Android 11.0 or later

As per official documentation, the location and background permission should be requested incrementally in separate calls.

To implement the permission request dialog in your application follow the official Requesting Permissions at Run Time documentation.

An example of implementation is the following:

if (ActivityCompat.checkSelfPermission(context, Manifest.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION) != PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED && ActivityCompat.checkSelfPermission(context, Manifest.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION) != PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED) {
    if (ActivityCompat.shouldShowRequestPermissionRationale(context, Manifest.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION)) {
        Toast.makeText(context, "Message explaining why granting the user location permission is usefull to the user", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
    } else {
        ActivityCompat.requestPermissions(context, new String[]{Manifest.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION}, LOCATION_PERMISSION_REQUEST_CODE);
    }
}

After having requested the permissions to the user and the user has granted the required permissions (tipically in the onRequestPermissionsResult callback of the Activity), the monitoring process must be resumed by calling the ProximitySDK#checkPendingPermissions method.

Eg.

@Override
public void onRequestPermissionsResult(int requestCode, @NonNull String[] permissions, @NonNull int[] grantResults) {
    super.onRequestPermissionsResult(requestCode, permissions, grantResults);
    if (requestCode == LOCATION_PERMISSION_REQUEST_CODE && grantResults[0] == PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED) {
        ProximitySDK.getInstance().checkPendingPermissions();
    }
}

For applications running on Android 13.0 or later

The request for POST_NOTIFICATIONS permission has to be implemented by the application that includes the SDK. The request can be implemented in any point in the application, but it's recommended to ask the user for notification permission as soon as possible..

Tracking user identifier

Advertising ID and Installation ID

The SDK associates each tracked request with the advertisingId. If the advertisingId is not available due to a user permission denial, the device can be identified by the installationId. The installationId is a randomly generated UUID created during the first initialization that hence identifies a specific installation of the SDK for that application. If the app containing the SDK is uninstalled and then installed again the installationId will be a different one. You can retrieve the installationId after the initialization of the SDK anywhere in your code with the following line:

ProximitySDK.getInstance().getInstallationId();

External User ID

The externalUserId is an identifier you set to pair a unique user identifier of your choice with our installationId. Tipically this identifier must be set after a user has signed in to your application, and must be removed after the same user decides to sign out of you application.

You can choose any string of 255 characters or less as externalUserId.

Your externalUserId can be paired with multiple installationId, for example if the same user uses your app on multiple devices, or if the same user uninstalled and installed your app multiple times.

On the other hand, the same installationId can be associated with one and only one externalUserId, usually the last one sent.

For example, you can use the user record id of your database or your CRM, or the hash of an email address, or a third party platform identifier.

Use the setExternalUserId method to add your unique external user ids:

// Set
ProximitySDK.getInstance().setExternalUserId("SOME ID");
// Unset
ProximitySDK.getInstance().setExternalUserId(null);

Data Tags

Tags are custom key-value pairs of string, number, boolean or null type, that can be sent to our server through the SDK methods and that allow you a more effective campaigns targeting, or to receive personalized analysis based on the characteristics of your users.

Tags can be set or unset (with a null value) using the following methods:

sendTag

The sendTag method allow to set or unset a single tag at a time.

The method can be called multiple times. When sending different keys, its effects are cumulative. If the same key is used, the last value overwrites the previous ones.

ProximitySDK.getInstance().sendTag("key1", "value");
// -> { "key1" : "value" }
ProximitySDK.getInstance().sendTag("key2", 1);
// -> { "key1" : "value", "key2" : 1 }
ProximitySDK.getInstance().sendTag("key3", true);
// -> { "key1" : "value", "key2" : 1, "key3" : true }
ProximitySDK.getInstance().sendTag("key3", false);
// -> { "key1" : "value", "key2" : 1, "key3" : false }
ProximitySDK.getInstance().sendTag("key2", null);
// -> { "key1" : "value", "key3" : false }

sendTags

The sendTags method allow to set or unset a multiple tags at a time.

The method can be called multiple times. When sending different keys, its effects are cumulative. If the same key is used, the last value overwrites the previous ones.

Map<String,Object> tags = new HashMap<>();
tags.put("key1", "value");
tags.put("key2", 1);
tags.put("key3", true);
ProximitySDK.getInstance().sendTags(tags);
// -> { "key1" : "value", "key2" : 1, "key3" : true }

Map<String,Object> tags = new HashMap<>();
tags.put("key2", null);
tags.put("key3", false);
ProximitySDK.getInstance().sendTags(tags);
// -> { "key1" : "value", "key3" : false }

Customizing the notifications

It is possibile to to customize the icon and color of the advertising notifications.

In order to customize the icon, include in your project a drawable named ic_stat_jointag_default.

We recommend using Android Asset Studio to quickly and easily generate small icons with the correct settings.

If you prefer to create your own icons, make sure to generate the icon for the following densities:

mdpi
hdpi
xhdpi
xxhdpi
xxxhdpi

In order to customize the color for all notifications, include in your project a color resource named jointag_notification_color. The default icon color is #2576BC

⚠️ Note: with some versions of the android build tool a duplicate resource error may arise during the resource merging phase of the build. In this case it is sufficient to include the new drawable resources using a version qualifier.

Eg:

drawable-hdpi-v7/ic_stat_jointag_default.png

drawable-mdpi-v7/ic_stat_jointag_default.png

drawable-xhdpi-v7/ic_stat_jointag_default.png

drawable-xxhdpi-v7/ic_stat_jointag_default.png

drawable-xxxhdpi-v7/ic_stat_jointag_default.png

Receive custom events

You can receive custom advertising events (if configured in the backend) to integrate application-specific features by registering a CustomActionListener object using the addCustomActionListener method of ProximitySDK.

When the application user interacts with a custom-action notification, the onCustomAction method is invoked by passing a payload string object.

⚠️ Note: No activity is launched by default, and the application is not automatically brought to the foreground. It is up to you to decide whether to launch an activity in response to receiving the custom event.

Furthermore make sure you are adding your CustomActionListener in the onCreate() method of your Application class, otherwise you will likely loose the custom event.

Programmatically Disable Advertising

It is possible to programmatically disable/enable the advertising delivery by setting the SDK's advertisingEnabled property to false. It is useful for example to disable the delivery of advertising for specific users of the application. In that case, simply change the property as soon as the user sign in or out of the application. The default value for the property is true.

// disable advertising delivery
ProximitySDK.getInstance().setAdvertisingEnabled(false);
// enable advertising delivery
ProximitySDK.getInstance().setAdvertisingEnabled(true);

⚠️ Note: disabling the advertising via setAdvertisingEnabled(false) has always effect regardless of any other control method (ie: the user consent)

GDPR Consent

As a publisher, you should implement a user consent flow either manually or using a Consent Management Platform (CMP) and request for vendor and purpose consents as outlined in IAB Europe’s Mobile In-App CMP API v2.0: Transparency & Consent Framework.

Enabling the Consent Flow support

To ensure that the SDK support the handling of user-consent preferences when a IAB-compatible CMP library is present, you must enable the feature through the ProximitySDK.enabledCmp() static method or the com.jointag.proximity.CMP_ENABLED meta-data in your AndroidManifest.xml file.

If you are following the Manual Initialization procedure, this method must be called before calling the library init method to guarantee an error-free process.

Using Consent Management Platform

When configuring a third-party CMP to use with the Jointag Proximity SDK, the following requirements must be met in order to enable the delivery of advertising:

Your CMP must be fully compliant with v2.0 of the IAB Tansparency & Consent Framework. IAB TCF v1.1 is no longer supported.
A Custom Publisher Purpose must be configured in the CMP, and it must be the first custom purpose.

Implementing a Custom Consent Flow

If you need to handle the user consent flow manually without the use of a IAB-compatible CMP library, or if the CMP you are using do not allow the customization of custom publisher purpose, it is possibile to do so by implementing an in-app consent screen and interacting with the SDK using the following methods:

// Retrieve or update the manual user profiling consent
ProximitySDK.getInstance().getManualConsent(ManualConsent.Profiling);
ProximitySDK.getInstance().setManualConsent(ManualConsent.Profiling, true);

// Retrieve or update the manual user monitoring consent
ProximitySDK.getInstance().getManualConsent(ManualConsent.Monitoring);
ProximitySDK.getInstance().setManualConsent(ManualConsent.Monitoring, true);

// Retrieve or update the manual user advertising consent
ProximitySDK.getInstance().getManualConsent(ManualConsent.Advertising);
ProximitySDK.getInstance().setManualConsent(ManualConsent.Advertising, true);

// Retrieve or update the manual user advanced tracking consent
ProximitySDK.getInstance().getManualConsent(ManualConsent.AdvancedTracking);
ProximitySDK.getInstance().setManualConsent(ManualConsent.AdvancedTracking, true);

⚠️ Note: When the manual consent method is used in the presence of a CMP library, the choices made using the above methods take precedence over the choices made by the user in the CMP library screen.

Background Jobs ID

On Android 5.0 or later, the SDK use Job Services to perform scheduled tasks. Since the JobScheduler need to identify each jobs with a unique ID, the SDK gives each job an identifier starting from a predefined constant (182734746).

If for any reason this identifier should collide with any one used by the application or by another library, it is possible to change the starting value for the SDK job identifiers by calling Scheduler.setBaseJobId before the ProximitySDK.init call.

import com.jointag.proximity.scheduler.Scheduler;

...
int newJobID = 123456;
Scheduler.setBaseJobId(newJobID);

ProximitySDK.init(this, "YOUR_API_KEY", "YOUR_API_SECRET");
...

jointag/JTProximitySDK-Android