Tiny Bluetooth LE Library / Direct-BT

Goals

This project aims to create clean, modern and easy to use Bluetooth LE API. TinyB exposes the BLE GATT API for C++, Java and other languages.

TinyB Version 2

Starting with version 2.1.0, the specification has slightly changed and hence its implementation.

The TinyB project consist out of two implementations

TinyB

TinyB exposes the BLE GATT API for C++, Java and other languages, using BlueZ over DBus.

TinyB is exposed via the following native libraries

libtinyb.so for the core C++ implementation.
libjavatinyb.so for the Java binding.

Direct-BT

Direct-BT provides direct Bluetooth programming without intermediate layers targeting high-performance reliable Bluetooth support.

By having least system and userspace dependencies and no communication overhead, Direct-BT shall be suitable for embedded device configurations besides others.

Direct-BT is exposed via the following native libraries

libdirect_bt.so for the core C++ implementation.
libjavadirect_bt.so for the Java binding.

You will find a detailed overview of Direct-BT in the doxygen generated C++ API doc of its direct_bt namespace.

TinyB and Direct-BT

Pre version 2.0.0 D-Bus implementation details of the Java[tm] classes of package tinyb has been moved to tinyb.dbus. The tinyb.jar jar file has been renamed to tinyb2.jar, avoiding conflicts.

General interfaces matching the original implementation and following BlueZ API were created in package org.tinyb.

org.tinyb.BluetoothFactory provides a factory to instantiate the initial root org.tinyb.BluetoothManager, either using Tiny-B, the original D-Bus implementation, or Direct-BT, the direct implementation.

C++ namespace and implementation kept unchanged.

Build Status

Outdated information

API Documentation

Outdated information

Up to date API documentation can be found:

for C++: http://iotdk.intel.com/docs/master/tinyb/
for Java: http://iotdk.intel.com/docs/master/tinyb/java/

A guide for getting started with TinyB on Java is available here: https://software.intel.com/en-us/java-for-bluetooth-le-apps.

Using TinyB

TinyB requires CMake 3.1+ for building and requires GLib/GIO 2.40+. It also requires BlueZ with GATT profile activated, which is currently experimental (as of BlueZ 5.37), so you might have to run bluetoothd with the -E flag. For example, on a system with systemd (Fedora, poky, etc.) edit the bluetooth.service file (usually found in /usr/lib/systemd/system/ or /lib/systemd/system) and append -E to ExecStart line, restart the daemon with systemctl restart bluetooth.

mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make
make install

The last command will create the include/ and lib/ directories with a copy of the headers and library objects respectively in your build location. Note that doing an out-of-source build may cause issues when rebuilding later on.

Our cmake configure has a number of options, cmake-gui or ccmake can show you all the options. The interesting ones are detailed below:

Changing install path from /usr/local to /usr

-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr

Building debug build:

-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=DEBUG

Using clang instead of gcc:

-DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=/usr/bin/clang -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=/usr/bin/clang++

Cross-compiling on a different system:

-DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS:STRING=-m32 -march=i586
-DCMAKE_C_FLAGS:STRING=-m32 -march=i586

To build Java bindings:

-DBUILDJAVA=ON

To build examples:

-DBUILDEXAMPLES=ON

To build documentation run:

make doc

The hellotinyb example uses a TI Sensor Tag from which it reads the ambient temperature. You have to pass the MAC address of the Sensor Tag as a first parameter to the program.

Changes

2.0.0
- Java D-Bus implementation details of package 'tinyb' moved to tinyb.dbus.
- The tinyb.jar jar file has been renamed to tinyb2.jar, avoiding conflicts.
- General interfaces matching the original implementation and following BlueZ API were created in package org.tinyb.
- Class org.tinyb.BluetoothFactory provides a factory to instantiate the initial root org.tinyb.BluetoothManager, either using the original D-Bus implementation or an alternative implementation.
- C++ namespace and implementation kept unchanged.
0.5.0
- Added notifications API
- Capitalized RSSI and UUID properly in Java
- Added JNI Helper classes for managing lifetime of JNIEnv and Global Refences
0.4.0
- Added asynchronous methods for discovering BluetoothObjects

Common issues

If you have any issues, please go through the Troubleshooting Guide. If the solution is not there, please create a new issue on Github.

Contributing to TinyB

You shall agree to Developer Certificate of Origin and Sign-off your code, using a real name and e-mail address. Please check the Contribution document for more details.