iBeacon: Getting Started

Retired

This book is no longer available for sale.

iBeacon: Getting Started

A brief iOS tutorial in Swift

About the Book

This book was created from this blog post: Getting Started with iBeacon: A Swift Tutorial. The same information in the blog post is found in this eBook, and is being provided as an alternate way to follow the tutorial.

Since all the content is freely available on my blog, this eBook will also be free (with the option to pay for it only if you'd like to). I'm doing this for two reasons. First, I wanted to experiment with LeanPub and the publishing process. Second, I want to gauge demand for this format. I read lots of technical books, but not often short tutorials like this, so I simply want to see if it's something people want.

Requirements
  • Xcode 6 or newer, so you can write in Swift.
  • A BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) iOS device (iPhone 4S or newer, iPod touch 5th gen or newer, iPad 3 or newer, or iPad mini) running iOS8 or later (just because we're writing in Swift). Note: make sure Bluetooth is also turned on. You must use a real device (the Simulator cannot detect beacons).
  • Beacons. I'm using Estimote beacons, but you can use anything you'd like. You can even download an app that will turn your device into a beacon, but it will need to be a different device than the one you're running this demo on. The tutorial will work best with 2 or more.

About the Author

Will Dages
Will Dages

Will is a self-taught developer with a love for both learning and teaching. He followed his passions from filmmaking into the development world by way of iOS development and web development. He’s a voracious reader, podcast-listener, and meetup-goer, never passing up an opportunity to learn something new. His wife would tell you that he buys too many gadgets and domain names, and that he loves to tinker with silly projects that make people smile. Will loves to write tutorials, record screencasts, and present whenever he can because the only thing more rewarding than learning something new is sharing what you’ve learned.

Table of Contents

  • Introduction
    • Project Overview
    • Project Code
    • Project Screencast
    • Requirements
  • Chapter 1: Setting up the project
    • Create a new project
    • CoreLocation & CLLocationManager
    • Requesting Permission for Location Services
  • Chapter 2: Start Listening for Beacons
    • Regions
    • Finding Beacons In Your Regions
  • Chapter 3: Getting Data from Nearby Beacons
    • Setup Color References
    • Understanding Beacon Data
  • Chapter 4: Reacting to Beacons
    • Filter Out Unknown Values
    • Identify the Closest Beacon
    • Update the Background Color
  • Troubleshooting

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