iBeacons not detected by altbeacon android library

Question

I used the reference code provided by altbeacon but was not able to detect any iBeacons. Following is my code:

Included following permission in Manifest. In addition to these, I enabled the location services also.

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET"/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.BLUETOOTH"/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.BLUETOOTH_ADMIN"/>

onCreate method for Activity

super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_ranging);
beaconManager = BeaconManager.getInstanceForApplication(this);
beaconManager.getBeaconParsers().add(new BeaconParser().setBeaconLayout("m:2-3=0215,i:4-19,i:20-21,i:22-23,p:24-24"));
beaconManager.bind(this);

onBeaconServiceConnecr tried using both RangeNotifier and MoniterNotifier (commented in the code below), but both did not work. RangeNotifier always has a collection of size zero and MoniterNotifier is never called.

@Override
public void onBeaconServiceConnect() {
    //BeaconManager beaconManager = BeaconManager.getInstanceForApplication(this);
    beaconManager.addRangeNotifier(new RangeNotifier() {
        @Override
        public void didRangeBeaconsInRegion(Collection<Beacon> collection, Region region) {
            if(collection.size() > 0){
            for (Beacon beacon : collection) {
                    Log.i("MainActivity", "I see a beacon that is about "+beacon.getDistance()+" meters away.");
                }
            }
        }
    });


    /*beaconManager.addMonitorNotifier(new MonitorNotifier() {
        @Override
        public void didEnterRegion(Region region) {
            Log.i(TAG, "I just saw an beacon for the first time!");
        }

        @Override
        public void didExitRegion(Region region) {
            Log.i(TAG, "I no longer see an beacon");
        }

        @Override
        public void didDetermineStateForRegion(int state, Region region) {
            Log.i(TAG, "I have just switched from seeing/not seeing beacons: "+state);
        }
    });*/

    try {
        beaconManager.startRangingBeaconsInRegion(new Region("myRangingUniqueId", null, null, null));
    } catch (RemoteException e) {   }
}

Appreciate your help, thanks.

Answer 1

As the documentation states, you need to request the Location permission at runtime if targeting api-23 or later, and running on Android 6 or later.

So, only initialize the BeaconManager in onCreate() if the user has already granted the Location permision:

    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_ranging);
    if (checkLocationPermission()) {
        beaconManager = BeaconManager.getInstanceForApplication(this);
        beaconManager.getBeaconParsers().add(new BeaconParser().setBeaconLayout("m:2-3=0215,i:4-19,i:20-21,i:22-23,p:24-24"));
        beaconManager.bind(this);
    }

The checkLocationPermission() method will prompt the user if needed, and if the user accepts the Location permission, you can then initialize the BeaconManager:

public static final int MY_PERMISSIONS_REQUEST_LOCATION = 99;

public boolean checkLocationPermission() {
    if (ContextCompat.checkSelfPermission(this,
            Manifest.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION)
            != PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED) {

        // Should we show an explanation?
        if (ActivityCompat.shouldShowRequestPermissionRationale(this,
                Manifest.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION)) {

            // Show an explanation to the user *asynchronously* -- don't block
            // this thread waiting for the user's response! After the user
            // sees the explanation, try again to request the permission.
            new AlertDialog.Builder(this)
                    .setTitle(R.string.title_location_permission)
                    .setMessage(R.string.text_location_permission)
                    .setPositiveButton(R.string.ok, new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
                        @Override
                        public void onClick(DialogInterface dialogInterface, int i) {
                            //Prompt the user once explanation has been shown
                            ActivityCompat.requestPermissions(MainActivity.this,
                                    new String[]{Manifest.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION},
                                    MY_PERMISSIONS_REQUEST_LOCATION);
                        }
                    })
                    .create()
                    .show();


        } else {
            // No explanation needed, we can request the permission.
            ActivityCompat.requestPermissions(this,
                    new String[]{Manifest.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION},
                    MY_PERMISSIONS_REQUEST_LOCATION);
        }
        return false;
    } else {
        return true;
    }
}

@Override
public void onRequestPermissionsResult(int requestCode,
                                       String permissions[], int[] grantResults) {
    switch (requestCode) {
        case MY_PERMISSIONS_REQUEST_LOCATION: {
            // If request is cancelled, the result arrays are empty.
            if (grantResults.length > 0
                    && grantResults[0] == PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED) {

                // permission was granted, yay! Do the
                // location-related task you need to do.
                if (ContextCompat.checkSelfPermission(this,
                        Manifest.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION)
                        == PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED) {

                    //Set up the BeaconManager
                    beaconManager = BeaconManager.getInstanceForApplication(this);
                    beaconManager.getBeaconParsers().add(new BeaconParser().setBeaconLayout("m:2-3=0215,i:4-19,i:20-21,i:22-23,p:24-24"));
                    beaconManager.bind(this);
                }

            } else {

                // permission denied, boo! Disable the
                // functionality that depends on this permission.

            }
            return;
        }

    }
}