Kuika's Scan Devices action allows your app to scan and list Bluetooth devices in its immediate vicinity. When you develop an app with Bluetooth capabilities, it is used to interact with other Bluetooth devices in the vicinity of the device. In this tutorial, you will learn how to add a Scan Devices action to your app.

The Scan Devices action only supports mobile applications.

This training content consists of the following topics:

Adding a data source connection to your app via Bluetooth.
Adding a new method for Bluetooth connection to your app.
Adding a Scan Devices action.

Add Data Source Connectivity to Your App with Bluetooth

Log in to the Kuika platform and open the mobile project you will work on from the Apps screen.
Go to the Datasources module. Here you can view existing data sources, actions and tables or add a new data source.

Click on the + icon next to the Sources heading.

Select the Bluetooth data source and give it a name.
Create the data source by clicking the CREATE button.
On the screen that opens, fill in the following fields:

Device Name: Display name of the device (Mandatory)
Device ID: Unique ID of the device (Optional)
Device Address: The Bluetooth address of the device. For example, the address of a Bluetooth device: “00:1A:2B:3C:4D:5E.” (Optional).

7. Complete the registration by clicking the CREATE button.

Add a New Method for Bluetooth Connection to Your Application

Characteristics are used to accurately distinguish and make sense of data measurements between Bluetooth devices. Each characteristic represents a specific type of data.

After adding the Bluetooth data source, click the ADD NEW METHOD button.

GATT (Generic Attribute Profile) is the standard protocol that regulates the data communication of BLE devices. Fill in the following fields when adding a new method:

Name Method name
Characteristic ID: Unique ID that identifies the data
Service ID Service ID of BLE devices
Characteristic Type: UUID indicating the type of data (Read, write, etc.) Each characteristic is identified by a UUID (Universally Unique Identifier) and can allow operations such as read (Read), write (Write) or mark (Notify or Indicate).

Save your method by clicking the SAVE button.
Select your method and add an action by clicking the ADD ACTION button in the Properties panel.

Sub Array: Used to select a specific part of the data. For example, click +ADD ACTION > Sub Array to ensure that the first two values read from a device are converted to Byte (divide by 128) and converted to temperature value. Click Symbol Picker in Sub Array.

In the “Count” field, enter the value “2” since the first two values are requested.

Click “+ADD ACTION>Arithmetic>Divide” for byte conversion.

Divide: Allows data conversion by dividing by a specific value. Click the Symbol Picker in Value in Divide and select Action Results>Sub Array to call the value from Sub Array. Then type “128” in the value2 field.

5. Complete the process by clicking the UPDATE button.

Add Scan Devices Action

After creating a new method:

Click on the method you created.

Select “Custom →Kuika →ScanDevices_bluetooth” from the Properties panel “+ADD ACTION” drop-down menu on the right side.
Configure the following field from the drop-down menu:

executePageInitActionAfterClose: Determines whether the page loading processes are automatically restarted after the scan is completed and the device scan window is closed when you activate the switch.

Configure Scan Devices Action Parameters

Click on the “ADD OPTIONAL PARAMETER” (1) drop-down menu.
Configure the following parameters from the drop-down menu:

serviceIds: Used to find only Bluetooth devices with specific services during the scanning process. By entering the UUIDs of the targeted services, it ensures that only devices that support this service are listed in the scan result.
connectingMessage: Used to specify the message to be displayed for 5 seconds when connecting to a Bluetooth device. For example, this parameter can be set to “Connecting to device. Please wait...”, this message will be displayed to the user during the connection process.

So you have added Scan Devices action to your application.