{"id":2838,"date":"2017-08-16T07:05:46","date_gmt":"2017-08-16T07:05:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/intelligentbee.com\/blog\/?p=2838"},"modified":"2024-06-30T09:06:51","modified_gmt":"2024-06-30T09:06:51","slug":"introduction-ibeacons-ios","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intelligentbee.com\/blog\/introduction-ibeacons-ios\/","title":{"rendered":"Introduction to iBeacons on iOS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hello, I got my hands on some interesting devices from Estimote<\/b> called iBeacons<\/b> which they are used for sending signals to the users (iOS\/ Android<\/b>) phone using Bluetooth<\/b>.<\/p>\n

What I\u2019m going to do next is to build an iOS app<\/b>\u00a0using these devices which changes the background color accordingly to the nearest one of these 3 beacons.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Introduction to iBeacons on iOS<\/h2>\n

The first thing that you have to do after you create a new project from XCode<\/strong>\u00a0of Single View Application type is to install \u2018EstimoteSDK\u2019<\/strong> using Cocoa pods. If you don\u2019t have Cocoapods<\/strong> installed on your Mac please do it by following the instructions they offer.<\/p>\n

From the terminal window \u00a0use “cd<\/em>” to navigate into your project directory and run “pod init”. This will create a podfile in your project directory. Open it and under “# Pods for\u00a0your project name<\/em>” add the following line:<\/p>\n

pod 'EstimoteSDK'<\/pre>\n
Then run “pod install”<\/em> command in your terminal. After the installation of the cocoapod \u00a0close the project and open the .workspace<\/em> file and\u00a0create a bridging header.\u00a0Import there the EstimoteSDK<\/b> with the code below.<\/p>\n
#import <EstimoteSDK\/EstimoteSDK.h><\/pre>\n
Now let\u2019s continue by creating a \u2018iBeaconViewController\u2019<\/strong> with a UILabel<\/em> inside of it having full width and height and the text aligned center, after this please create an IBOutlet to it and name it ‘label’<\/strong>\u00a0. Then set the new created view controller as the root view for the window.<\/p>\n
 func application(_ application: UIApplication, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions: [UIApplicationLaunchOptionsKey: Any]?) -> Bool {\r\n        \/\/ Override point for customization after application launch.\r\n        \r\n        window?.rootViewController = UIBeaconViewController(nibName: String(describing: UIBeaconViewController.self), bundle: nil)\r\n        \r\n        return true\r\n    }<\/pre>\n
The next step is creating the \u2018BeaconManager\u2019<\/b>< file, you have it\u2019s content below.<\/p>\n
import UIKit\r\n\r\nenum MyBeacon: String {\r\n    \r\n    case pink = \"4045\"\r\n    case magenta = \"20372\"\r\n    case yellow = \"22270\"\r\n}\r\n\r\nlet BeaconsUUID: String = \"B9407F30-F5F8-466E-AFF9-25556B57FE6D\"\r\nlet RegionIdentifier: String  = \"IntelligentBee Office\"\r\nlet BeaconsMajorID: UInt16  = 11111\r\n\r\nclass BeaconManager: ESTBeaconManager {\r\n\r\n    static let main : BeaconManager = BeaconManager()\r\n    \r\n}\r\n<\/pre>\n
But let\u2019s first explain what is the purpose of each item in this file. So an iBeacon contains the following main properties, an UUID<\/b>, MajorID<\/b>, MinorID<\/b>. All of these properties represents a way for the phone to know which device should listen to.<\/p>\n
The MajorID<\/b> is used when having groups of beacons and the MinorID<\/b> is to know each specific device, the minor ids are represented in the MyBeacon<\/b> enum<\/b> among with the beacon color<\/b>. The RegionIdentifier<\/b> represents a way for the app to know what region are the beacons part of and it\u2019s used to differentiate all the regions that are monitored by the app.<\/p>\n
Now let\u2019s go back on the UIBeaconViewController<\/b> and start writing some action.<\/p>\n
import UIKit\r\n\r\nclass UIBeaconViewController: UIViewController, ESTBeaconManagerDelegate {\r\n    \r\n    \/\/ MARK: - Props\r\n    \r\n    let region = CLBeaconRegion(\r\n        proximityUUID: UUID(uuidString: BeaconsUUID)!,\r\n        major: BeaconsMajorID, identifier: RegionIdentifier)\r\n    \r\n    let colors: [MyBeacon : UIColor] =\r\n        [MyBeacon.pink: UIColor(red: 240\/255.0, green: 183\/255.0, blue: 183\/255.0, alpha: 1),\r\n         MyBeacon.magenta : UIColor(red: 149\/255.0, green: 70\/255.0, blue: 91\/255.0, alpha: 1),\r\n         MyBeacon.yellow : UIColor(red: 251\/255.0, green: 254\/255.0, blue: 53\/255.0, alpha: 1)]\r\n    \r\n    \/\/ MARK: - IBOutlets\r\n    \r\n    @IBOutlet weak var label: UILabel!<\/pre>\n
You can guess what region<\/b> does, it defines a location to detect beacons, pretty intuitive. The colors<\/b> is an array which contains the mapping between the minorID<\/b> and the color<\/b> of each beacon.<\/p>\n
\/\/ MARK: - UI Utilities\r\n    \r\n    func resetBackgroundColor() {\r\n        self.view.backgroundColor = UIColor.green\r\n    }\r\n    \r\n    \/\/ MARK: - ESTBeaconManagerDelegate - Utilities\r\n    \r\n    func setupBeaconManager() {\r\n        BeaconManager.main.delegate = self\r\n        \r\n        if (BeaconManager.main.isAuthorizedForMonitoring() && BeaconManager.main.isAuthorizedForRanging()) == false {\r\n            BeaconManager.main.requestAlwaysAuthorization()\r\n        }\r\n    }\r\n    \r\n    func startMonitoring() {\r\n        \r\n        BeaconManager.main.startMonitoring(for: region)\r\n        BeaconManager.main.startRangingBeacons(in: region)\r\n    }\r\n<\/pre>\n
The functions above are pretty self describing from their names, one thing I need to describe is Monitoring<\/b> and Ranging<\/b>. The monitoring<\/b> actions are triggered when the phone enters\/ exits a beacons area and the ranging<\/b> is based on the proximity of the beacon.<\/p>\n
    \/\/ MARK: - ESTBeaconManagerDelegate\r\n    \r\n    func beaconManager(_ manager: Any, didChange status: CLAuthorizationStatus) {\r\n        \r\n        if status == .authorizedAlways ||\r\n            status == .authorizedWhenInUse {\r\n            startMonitoring()\r\n        }\r\n    }\r\n    \r\n    func beaconManager(_ manager: Any, monitoringDidFailFor region: CLBeaconRegion?, withError error: Error) {\r\n        label.text = \"FAIL \" + (region?.proximityUUID.uuidString)!\r\n    }\r\n    \r\n    func beaconManager(_ manager: Any, didEnter region: CLBeaconRegion) {\r\n        \r\n        label.text = \"Hello beacons from \\(region.identifier)\"\r\n    }\r\n    \r\n    func beaconManager(_ manager: Any, didExitRegion region: CLBeaconRegion) {\r\n        \r\n        label.text = \"Bye bye beacons from \\(region.identifier)\"\r\n    }\r\n    \r\n    func beaconManager(_ manager: Any, didRangeBeacons beacons: [CLBeacon], in region: CLBeaconRegion) {\r\n        \r\n        let knownBeacons = beacons.filter { (beacon) -> Bool in\r\n            \r\n            return beacon.proximity != CLProximity.unknown\r\n        }\r\n        \r\n        if let firstBeacon = knownBeacons.first,\r\n            let myBeacon = MyBeacon(rawValue:firstBeacon.minor.stringValue)   {\r\n            \r\n            let beaconColor = colors[myBeacon]\r\n            self.view.backgroundColor = beaconColor\r\n        }\r\n        else {\r\n            resetBackgroundColor()\r\n        }\r\n    }\r\n    \r\n    func beaconManager(_ manager: Any, didFailWithError error: Error) {\r\n        label.text = \"DID FAIL WITH ERROR\" + error.localizedDescription\r\n    }\r\n}\r\n<\/pre>\n
After the insertion of all the code, the app should run with no errors or warning and should look like this:<\/p>\n
\"\" \"\"<\/p>\n
I hope this is a good introduction for i<\/strong>Beacons<\/strong> in iOS Mobile App Development<\/b>. If you have any improvements or suggestions please leave a comment below.<\/p>\n
You can get the code from here: https:\/\/github.com\/intelligentbee\/iBeaconTest<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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