Tag

Class Overview

Represents an NFC tag that has been discovered.

Tag is an immutable object that represents the state of a NFC tag at the time of discovery. It can be used as a handle to TagTechnology classes to perform advanced operations, or directly queried for its ID via getId() and the set of technologies it contains via getTechList(). Arrays passed to and returned by this class are not cloned, so be careful not to modify them.

A new tag object is created every time a tag is discovered (comes into range), even if it is the same physical tag. If a tag is removed and then returned into range, then only the most recent tag object can be successfully used to create a TagTechnology.

Tag Dispatch

When a tag is discovered, a Tag object is created and passed to a single activity via the EXTRA_TAG extra in an Intent via startActivity(Intent). A four stage dispatch is used to select the most appropriate activity to handle the tag. The Android OS executes each stage in order, and completes dispatch as soon as a single matching activity is found. If there are multiple matching activities found at any one stage then the Android activity chooser dialog is shown to allow the user to select the activity to receive the tag.

The Tag dispatch mechanism was designed to give a high probability of dispatching a tag to the correct activity without showing the user an activity chooser dialog. This is important for NFC interactions because they are very transient -- if a user has to move the Android device to choose an application then the connection will likely be broken.

1. Foreground activity dispatch

A foreground activity that has called NfcAdapter.enableForegroundDispatch() is given priority. See the documentation on NfcAdapter.enableForegroundDispatch() for its usage.

2. NDEF data dispatch

If the tag contains NDEF data the system inspects the first NdefRecord in the first NdefMessage. If the record is a URI, SmartPoster, or MIME data startActivity(Intent) is called with ACTION_NDEF_DISCOVERED. For URI and SmartPoster records the URI is put into the intent's data field. For MIME records the MIME type is put in the intent's type field. This allows activities to register to be launched only when data they know how to handle is present on a tag. This is the preferred method of handling data on a tag since NDEF data can be stored on many types of tags and doesn't depend on a specific tag technology. See ACTION_NDEF_DISCOVERED for more detail. If the tag does not contain NDEF data, or if no activity is registered for ACTION_NDEF_DISCOVERED with a matching data URI or MIME type then dispatch moves to stage 3.

3. Tag Technology dispatch

startActivity(Intent) is called with ACTION_TECH_DISCOVERED to dispatch the tag to an activity that can handle the technologies present on the tag. Technologies are defined as sub-classes of TagTechnology, see the package android.nfc.tech. The Android OS looks for an activity that can handle one or more technologies in the tag. See ACTION_TECH_DISCOVERED for more detail.

4. Fall-back dispatch

If no activity has been matched then startActivity(Intent) is called with ACTION_TAG_DISCOVERED. This is intended as a fall-back mechanism. See ACTION_TAG_DISCOVERED.

NFC Tag Background

An NFC tag is a passive NFC device, powered by the NFC field of this Android device while it is in range. Tag's can come in many forms, such as stickers, cards, key fobs, or even embedded in a more sophisticated device.

Tags can have a wide range of capabilities. Simple tags just offer read/write semantics, and contain some one time programmable areas to make read-only. More complex tags offer math operations and per-sector access control and authentication. The most sophisticated tags contain operating environments allowing complex interactions with the code executing on the tag. Use TagTechnology classes to access a broad range of capabilities available in NFC tags.

Summary

[Expand] Inherited Constants

From interface android.os.Parcelable int CONTENTS_FILE_DESCRIPTOR Bit masks for use with describeContents(): each bit represents a kind of object considered to have potential special significance when marshalled. int PARCELABLE_WRITE_RETURN_VALUE Flag for use with writeToParcel(Parcel, int): the object being written is a return value, that is the result of a function such as "Parcelable someFunction()", "void someFunction(out Parcelable)", or "void someFunction(inout Parcelable)".

Fields
public static final Creator<Tag>	CREATOR

Public Methods
int	describeContents() Describe the kinds of special objects contained in this Parcelable's marshalled representation.
byte[]	getId() Get the Tag Identifier (if it has one).
String[]	getTechList() Get the technologies available in this tag, as fully qualified class names.
String	toString() Human-readable description of the tag, for debugging.
void	writeToParcel(Parcel dest, int flags) Flatten this object in to a Parcel.

[Expand] Inherited Methods
From class java.lang.Object Object clone() Creates and returns a copy of this Object. boolean equals(Object o) Compares this instance with the specified object and indicates if they are equal. void finalize() Invoked when the garbage collector has detected that this instance is no longer reachable. final Class<?> getClass() Returns the unique instance of Class that represents this object's class. int hashCode() Returns an integer hash code for this object. final void notify() Causes a thread which is waiting on this object's monitor (by means of calling one of the wait() methods) to be woken up. final void notifyAll() Causes all threads which are waiting on this object's monitor (by means of calling one of the wait() methods) to be woken up. String toString() Returns a string containing a concise, human-readable description of this object. final void wait() Causes the calling thread to wait until another thread calls the notify() or notifyAll() method of this object. final void wait(long millis, int nanos) Causes the calling thread to wait until another thread calls the notify() or notifyAll() method of this object or until the specified timeout expires. final void wait(long millis) Causes the calling thread to wait until another thread calls the notify() or notifyAll() method of this object or until the specified timeout expires.
From interface android.os.Parcelable abstract int describeContents() Describe the kinds of special objects contained in this Parcelable's marshalled representation. abstract void writeToParcel(Parcel dest, int flags) Flatten this object in to a Parcel.