This lesson teaches you to
The first lesson in this class, Using Network Service Discovery, showed you how to discover services that are connected to a local network. However, using Wi-Fi Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Service Discovery allows you to discover the services of nearby devices directly, without being connected to a network. You can also advertise the services running on your device. These capabilities help you communicate between apps, even when no local network or hotspot is available.
While this set of APIs is similar in purpose to the Network Service Discovery APIs outlined in a previous lesson, implementing them in code is very different. This lesson shows you how to discover services available from other devices, using Wi-Fi P2P. The lesson assumes that you're already familiar with the Wi-Fi P2P API.
Set Up the Manifest
In order to use Wi-Fi P2P, add the CHANGE_WIFI_STATE
, ACCESS_WIFI_STATE
,
and INTERNET
permissions to your manifest. Even though Wi-Fi P2P doesn't require an
Internet connection, it uses standard Java sockets, and using these in Android
requires the requested permissions.
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" package="com.example.android.nsdchat" ... <uses-permission android:required="true" android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_WIFI_STATE"/> <uses-permission android:required="true" android:name="android.permission.CHANGE_WIFI_STATE"/> <uses-permission android:required="true" android:name="android.permission.INTERNET"/> ...
Add a Local Service
If you're providing a local service, you need to register it for service discovery. Once your local service is registered, the framework automatically responds to service discovery requests from peers.
To create a local service:
- Create a
WifiP2pServiceInfo
object. - Populate it with information about your service.
- Call
addLocalService()
to register the local service for service discovery.
private void startRegistration() { // Create a string map containing information about your service. Maprecord = new HashMap (); record.put("listenport", String.valueOf(SERVER_PORT)); record.put("buddyname", "John Doe" + (int) (Math.random() * 1000)); record.put("available", "visible"); // Service information. Pass it an instance name, service type // _protocol._transportlayer , and the map containing // information other devices will want once they connect to this one. WifiP2pDnsSdServiceInfo serviceInfo = WifiP2pDnsSdServiceInfo.newInstance("_test", "_presence._tcp", record); // Add the local service, sending the service info, network channel, // and listener that will be used to indicate success or failure of // the request. mManager.addLocalService(channel, serviceInfo, new ActionListener() { @Override public void onSuccess() { // Command successful! Code isn't necessarily needed here, // Unless you want to update the UI or add logging statements. } @Override public void onFailure(int arg0) { // Command failed. Check for P2P_UNSUPPORTED, ERROR, or BUSY } }); }
Discover Nearby Services
Android uses callback methods to notify your application of available services, so
the first thing to do is set those up. Create a WifiP2pManager.DnsSdTxtRecordListener
to listen for
incoming records. This record can optionally be broadcast by other
devices. When one comes in, copy the device address and any other
relevant information you want into a data structure external to the current
method, so you can access it later. The following example assumes that the
record contains a "buddyname" field, populated with the user's identity.
final HashMap<String, String> buddies = new HashMap<String, String>(); ... private void discoverService() { DnsSdTxtRecordListener txtListener = new DnsSdTxtRecordListener() { @Override /* Callback includes: * fullDomain: full domain name: e.g "printer._ipp._tcp.local." * record: TXT record dta as a map of key/value pairs. * device: The device running the advertised service. */ public void onDnsSdTxtRecordAvailable( String fullDomain, Maprecord, WifiP2pDevice device) { Log.d(TAG, "DnsSdTxtRecord available -" + record.toString()); buddies.put(device.deviceAddress, record.get("buddyname")); } }; ... }
To get the service information, create a WifiP2pManager.DnsSdServiceResponseListener
. This
receives the actual description and connection information. The previous code
snippet implemented a Map
object to pair a device address with the buddy
name. The service response listener uses this to link the DNS record with the
corresponding service information. Once both
listeners are implemented, add them to the WifiP2pManager
using the setDnsSdResponseListeners()
method.
private void discoverService() { ... DnsSdServiceResponseListener servListener = new DnsSdServiceResponseListener() { @Override public void onDnsSdServiceAvailable(String instanceName, String registrationType, WifiP2pDevice resourceType) { // Update the device name with the human-friendly version from // the DnsTxtRecord, assuming one arrived. resourceType.deviceName = buddies .containsKey(resourceType.deviceAddress) ? buddies .get(resourceType.deviceAddress) : resourceType.deviceName; // Add to the custom adapter defined specifically for showing // wifi devices. WiFiDirectServicesList fragment = (WiFiDirectServicesList) getFragmentManager() .findFragmentById(R.id.frag_peerlist); WiFiDevicesAdapter adapter = ((WiFiDevicesAdapter) fragment .getListAdapter()); adapter.add(resourceType); adapter.notifyDataSetChanged(); Log.d(TAG, "onBonjourServiceAvailable " + instanceName); } }; mManager.setDnsSdResponseListeners(channel, servListener, txtListener); ... }
Now create a service request and call addServiceRequest()
.
This method also takes a listener to report success or failure.
serviceRequest = WifiP2pDnsSdServiceRequest.newInstance(); mManager.addServiceRequest(channel, serviceRequest, new ActionListener() { @Override public void onSuccess() { // Success! } @Override public void onFailure(int code) { // Command failed. Check for P2P_UNSUPPORTED, ERROR, or BUSY } });
Finally, make the call to discoverServices()
.
mManager.discoverServices(channel, new ActionListener() { @Override public void onSuccess() { // Success! } @Override public void onFailure(int code) { // Command failed. Check for P2P_UNSUPPORTED, ERROR, or BUSY if (code == WifiP2pManager.P2P_UNSUPPORTED) { Log.d(TAG, "P2P isn't supported on this device."); else if(...) ... } });
If all goes well, hooray, you're done! If you encounter problems, remember
that the asynchronous calls you've made take an
WifiP2pManager.ActionListener
as an argument, and
this provides you with callbacks indicating success or failure. To diagnose
problems, put debugging code in onFailure()
. The error code
provided by the method hints at the problem. Here are the possible error values
and what they mean
-
P2P_UNSUPPORTED
- Wi-Fi P2P isn't supported on the device running the app.
-
BUSY
- The system is to busy to process the request.
-
ERROR
- The operation failed due to an internal error.