Using ACR35 Reader in App Inventor App

[ArjunParticipant]

Hello,
I used MIT’s App Inventor platform to build my Locatera ‘tri-app’. Details about my app solution is available here:
medium.com/@Arjuninventor/lateralogics-launches-locatera-pro-the-most-innovative-mobile-app-solution-to-track-children-in-38f54709b081

MIT App Inventor platform doesn’t offer a provision to add any SDKs. My question is “Will ACR35 work smoothly with my ‘LOCATERA – Attendant’ app by just plugging in the hardware (without adding any additional SDK codes)?”

Eagerly look forward to hear from you on this.

Regards,
Arjun
Founder & President, LateraLogics (www.LateraLogics.com)

[RichardKeymaster]

Hi Arjun, I looked over your application. Congrats on your work!! The FloJack and the ACR35 are the same hardware, but the FloJack includes our Flomio SDK to make integration with the reader much easier. The Flomio SDK also includes support for our other readers soon to be release like the FloBLE that will make your use case much more seamless. Something to consider.

All readers we currently support require driver support to operate. What this means is that you won’t be able to connect a reader and expect it to start reading NFC tags like Android devices do out of the box. Android devices with built in NFC hardware and special software that makes this hardware work smoothly with the MIT App Inventor. Flomio products have that special software in the form of the Flomio SDK, so MIT App Inventor will have to integrate that in if they want apps like yours to work with our devices. We work with initiatives like this because it helps us sell more readers, but the work will need to be done for your app to work.

Our volume pricing for the ACR35 follows:

Buy 1 = $35.00 each
Buy 10 save 2% = $34.30 each
Buy 25 save 3% = $33.95 each
Buy 50 save 5% = $33.25 each
Buy 100 save 10% = $31.50 each
Buy 500 save 15% = $29.75 each
Buy 1000 save 25% = $26.25 each
Buy 5000 save 35% = $22.75 each

I hope that answers your questions. Feel free to ask for further details if you need.
Richard

[ArjunParticipant]

Hi Richard, do you have an app for ACR35 that my App Inventor app can use (to read the UID values) through Android Intent?

[RichardKeymaster]

Hey Arjun, we do have sample apps that do this. These are based on our Flomio SDK so each ACR35 would need to be register for a license to use (more details here). That said, it’s unclear why you would want to use an ACR35 for your application with Android when there are Android devices with NFC that natively provide this functionality. Why don’t you use an NFC-enabled Android device?

[ArjunParticipant]

Hi Richard, the idea behind this exercise (using your ACR35 NFC readers for making non-NFC phones NFC-enabled) originates from the fact that NFC-enabled phones are much expensive and also not common in schools. Hope that clarifies your question. Please let me know.

[RichardKeymaster]

Hi Arjun, I understand. So you’re making the assumption that schools will allow staff to use their own phones to operate your app. Have you validated that assumption? Furthermore, will the school be willing to pay the $35 for the ACR35 and $24.99 for the Flomio SDK to enable your app functionality for those that have non-NFC enabled phones? Finally is the size of the market on Android (given App Inventor dependency) large enough to convince the school board to invest in your solution deployment or will they require iOS support as well?

We can provide an app on Google Play that broadcasts intents every time a tag is scanned. This will require our app to be in the foreground though and your App Inventor App running in the background to catch the intents. I believe this will be a poor user experience since your app and UI should be in the foreground for the user’s context to make sense. Same problem would apply on iOS where app-to-app messaging is possible but having the Flomio SDK app in the foreground is required to scan tags.

The best way to solve this issue of foreground+background apps is to port your app to Cordova and use our Flomio SDK Cordova Plugin to run the reader within your app. I’m not too familiar with MIT App Inventor but I’m almost certain that it uses javascript as the underlying programming language that builds the app on Android. If that’s the case porting your app to Cordova is somewhat trivial. Ultimately this will allow for your app and the Flomio SDK to be integrated and remove the need for foreground+background shenanigans.

best,
Richard

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