Sending String via Bluetooth , I need some information

Question

I'm working on an application which should be quite the same as Bluehood, an application which is on the google market .

So now I'm working on Bluetooth . The fact is, I want to transfer strings (JSON) between two devices . I've seen lots of posts on stackoverflow and some examples on the internet but it's not so clear for me .

I know that I've to use createInsecureRfcommSocketToServiceRecord for sending informations and listenUsingInsecureRfcommWithServiceRecord for receiving them , but I'm searching some simple tutorial to explain how it works and how to transfer data between two devices .

Thank in advance for your explanations...

Answer 1

It's hard to know if I am answering this effectively, as you say you have searched the web and I find one of the most useful tutorials at android com on Bluetooth. I have supplied parts of the code, not the full thread classes, but the bones to give you an idea of how temp sockets are used until sockets are found and made final, for the duration of the connection, and how threads manage each stage of the connection process.

listenUsingRfcommWithServiceRecord(NAME, MY_UUID); is used to create a server socket. It listens for a connection. It acts like a server. This is on the device that is acting as a server or listening for incoming connections.

This is done is a separate thread.

    public AcceptThread() {

        BluetoothServerSocket tmp = null;

        // Create a new listening server socket
        try {

            tmp = mAdapter.listenUsingRfcommWithServiceRecord(NAME, MY_UUID);
        } catch (IOException e) {

        }
        mmServerSocket = tmp;
    }

    public void run() {

        BluetoothSocket socket = null;

        // Listen to the server socket if we're not connected
        while (mState != STATE_CONNECTED) {
            try {
                // This is a blocking call and will only return on a
                // successful connection or an exception
                socket = mmServerSocket.accept();
            } catch (IOException e) {

                break;
            }

            // If a connection was accepted
            if (socket != null) {
                synchronized (BluetoothConnection.this) {
                    switch (mState) {
                        case STATE_LISTEN:
                        case STATE_CONNECTING:
                            // Situation normal. Start the connected thread.
                            connected(socket, socket.getRemoteDevice());

                            break;
                        case STATE_NONE:
                        case STATE_CONNECTED:
                            // Either not ready or already connected. Terminate new socket.
                            try {
                                socket.close();
                            } catch (IOException e) {

                            }
                            break;
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }

There is a separate thread to act as a client, seeking a connection. It goes looking for a connection. This is on the device that seeks the connection with the server device. (These can be interchangeable).

public ConnectThread(BluetoothDevice device) {

        mmDevice = device;
        BluetoothSocket tmp = null;

        // Get a BluetoothSocket for a connection with the
        // given BluetoothDevice
        try {

            tmp = device.createRfcommSocketToServiceRecord(MY_UUID);
        } catch (IOException e) {
        }
        mmSocket = tmp;
    }

    public void run() {

        // Always cancel discovery because it will slow down a connection
        mAdapter.cancelDiscovery();

        // Make a connection to the BluetoothSocket
        try {
            // This is a blocking call and will only return on a
            // successful connection or an exception
            mmSocket.connect();
        } catch (IOException e) {
            // Close the socket
            try {
                mmSocket.close();
            } catch (IOException e2) {

            }
            connectionFailed();
            return;
        }

You then need a thread to manage the actual connection. When the client meets the server. Also in a separate thread.

public ConnectedThread(BluetoothSocket socket) {

        mmSocket = socket;
        InputStream tmpIn = null;
        OutputStream tmpOut = null;

        // Get the BluetoothSocket input and output streams
        try {
            tmpIn = socket.getInputStream();
            tmpOut = socket.getOutputStream();
        } catch (IOException e) {

        }

        mmInStream = tmpIn;
        mmOutStream = tmpOut;
    }

    public void run() {

        byte[] buffer = new byte[1024];
        int bytes;

        // Keep listening to the InputStream while connected
        while (true) {
            try {
                // Read from the InputStream
                bytes = mmInStream.read(buffer);

                // Send the obtained bytes to the UI Activity
                mHandler.obtainMessage(MESSAGE_READ, bytes, -1, buffer).sendToTarget();
            } catch (IOException e) {

                connectionLost();
                // Start the service over to restart listening mode
                BluetoothConnection.this.start();
                break;
            }
        }
    }

Within this thread you also have your code to manage writing data through this connection.

There are samples supplied through android.com. I also found this tutorial good, as a simple background into bluetooth discovery and connection, although it doesn't give you all you need to read and write data.

In terms of reading and writing the data, the following snippet is an example of a way to handle reading data and parsing it to something usable. Calling the handler from within the connection thread. In this case I am appending the data to a textView, but you can do whatever you want with it, it shows how to put it into a String. (which is what you are looking for).

private final Handler mHandler = new Handler() {

    @Override
    public void handleMessage(Message msg) {

        switch (msg.what) {
            case MESSAGE_READ:
                byte[] readBuf = (byte[]) msg.obj;
                // construct a string from the valid bytes in the buffer
                String readMessage = new String(readBuf, 0, msg.arg1);
                textView1.append("\nMessage " + messageCount + ": " + readMessage);

        ....

Likewise there is some code to write messages - this is in the connected thread class. However, I grab this information using an OnClick event with the button to send. Grab the text from the EditText and send it to a function to parse the String to bytes.

where message is a String and mChatService is calling the write method from the Connected thread. Converting the string to a byte array, so it can be sent.

        // Get the message bytes and tell the BTManager to write
        byte[] send = message.getBytes();
        mChatService.write(send);

Write method from connected thread:

    public void write(byte[] buffer) {

        try {
            mmOutStream.write(buffer);

            // Share the sent message back to the UI Activity
            mHandler.obtainMessage(MESSAGE_WRITE, -1, -1, buffer).sendToTarget();
        } catch (IOException e) {

        }
    }

It is worth noting that the states of the devices must be monitored (you can have a look a the tutorial for that).

It is also important to keep the background threads away from the UI. So that is where the skill comes in (and a handler) to transfer data to and from the UI to the socket connection.