Re: Expose all GAP Characteristics to CoreBluetooth clients

Subject: Re: Expose all GAP Characteristics to CoreBluetooth clients
From: François Beaufort 🇫🇷 <email@hidden>
Date: Tue, 21 Jun 2016 15:42:34 +0200

Thank you very much for your detailed answer Stuart.

I'm actually currently working on the experimental Web Bluetooth API https://webbluetoothcg.github.io/web-bluetooth/ whose goal is to let websites discover and communicate with devices over the Bluetooth 4 wireless standard using the Generic Attribute Profile (GATT).

It works already well on Chrome OS, Android M+ and Linux. Support for macOS and Windows is coming really soon. Since it is a Web API, the goal is to have some consistency across platforms.

Android lets you scan GAP Characteristics without any issues. Check out https://googlechrome.github.io/samples/web-bluetooth/gap-characteristics.html for instance

Hence why I'd love for macOS and iOS users to have the same abilities.

Please let me know what you think of this API if you have some free time. It would be much appreciated.

Here is an introduction article at https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2015/07/interact-with-ble-devices-on-the-web, some samples at https://googlechrome.github.io/samples/web-bluetooth/ and demos at https://github.com/WebBluetoothCG/demos

On Mon, Jun 20, 2016 at 7:55 PM, Stuart Smith <email@hidden> wrote:

François,
I forgot to mention what the mailing lists are good for – if you present the question differently, the readership may be able to help.
There's something you are doing on Android and you can't do it on iOS. What? Maybe someone has found another way on iOS already.

Regarding the preferred connection parameters, I know you can't read them, and you can't directly influence them from an iOS app either. Only your accessory can request new connection parameters; the phone is at liberty to ignore that request.

E.g. we sometimes need to update firmware on a device which usually has a very slow connection interval and high latency. During a firmware update we'd like it to connect with lower latency and more frequently. As part of the firmware update process, the hardware requests new connection parameters (because we sent a particular write request to a GATT characteristic). This way we have some control over the connection parameters.

We've never needed the Appearance characteristic because our apps usually talk to our own accessories, and we know exactly what they look like (with much more detail than the Appearance enumerations would give us).

Stuart

From: François Beaufort 🇫🇷 <email@hidden>
Date: Monday, June 20, 2016 at 6:03 AM
To: Stuart Smith <email@hidden>
Cc: bluetooth-dev <email@hidden>
Subject: Re: Expose all GAP Characteristics to CoreBluetooth clients

Thank you really much Stuart!
I didn't realize this mailing list wasn't a good place for feature requests.

I'll file a FR at bugreport.apple.com then.

On Tue, Jun 14, 2016 at 9:59 PM, Stuart Smith <email@hidden> wrote:
The mailing lists aren't a good place for feature requests. The lists are
mostly for developers to help other developers, sometimes Apple employees
answer questions (on their own time), but it isn't Developer Tech Support,
nor is it an official feedback route.

Apple maintains a database of bugs and feature request, accessible via
bugreport.apple.com. You can enter feature requests there. They'll want to
know _why_ you want/need the feature, and _why_ the workaround is
unacceptable.

You only have one question in your post - "Could we simply
un-blacklist...". I'm pretty sure the answer has to be "no", it isn't
something we (the bluetooth-dev readership) have any control over.

Stuart

On 6/14/16, 12:00 PM,
"bluetooth-dev-bounces+stuart=email@hidden on behalf of
email@hidden"
<bluetooth-dev-bounces+stuart=email@hidden on behalf of
email@hidden> wrote:

>Message: 1
>Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2016 08:28:53 +0000
>From: François Beaufort 🇫🇷 <email@hidden>
>To: email@hidden
>Subject: Expose all GAP Characteristics to CoreBluetooth clients
>Message-ID:
> <email@hidden" target="_blank">email@hidden>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
>According to a previous thread (
>http://lists.apple.com/archives/bluetooth-dev/2016/Feb/msg00018.html),
>iOS
>does not expose the GAP service directly to CoreBluetooth clients.
>
>This means I can't read some GAP characteristics such as *Appearance*,
>*Peripheral
>Preferred Connection Parameters*, *Central Address Resolution* and
>*Peripheral
>Privacy Flag* which are accessible on Android Bluetooth APIs for instance.
>
>The workaround of creating a custom service which would hold same
>characteristics is not that exciting. Could we simply un-blacklist the GAP
>Service and its Characteristics so that CoreBluetooth clients which need
>this info can have it?
>
>Thanks in advance,
>Francois.

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References:
	>Expose all GAP Characteristics to CoreBluetooth clients (From: Stuart Smith <email@hidden>)
	>Re: Expose all GAP Characteristics to CoreBluetooth clients (From: François Beaufort 🇫🇷 <email@hidden>)
	>Re: Expose all GAP Characteristics to CoreBluetooth clients (From: Stuart Smith <email@hidden>)

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