Google Awareness API with Beacons MAC

Question

I have some custom beacons for communicating via Bluetooth LE. Currently I am performing an LE-scan and check if the MAC-address of any found BLE-device is one of mine.

I would like to use Google Awareness Fence API to get triggered, if one of my beacons is in range instead of implementing the whole stuff by myself. But, if I want to create such a AwarenessFence , I only can define the attributes

• Namespace,
• Type

when using the TypeFilters:

final BeaconState.TypeFilter typeFilter = BeaconState.TypeFilter.with("abc", "def");
    final AwarenessFence beaconFence = BeaconFence.found(typeFilter);
    Awareness.FenceApi.updateFences(
            client,
            new FenceUpdateRequest.Builder()
                    .addFence(BEACON_FENCE, beaconFence, pi)
                    .build())
            .setResultCallback(new ResultCallback<Status>() {
                @Override
                public void onResult(@NonNull Status status) {
                    if (status.isSuccess()) {
                        Log.i(TAG, "Fence was successfully registered.");
                    } else {
                        Log.e(TAG, "Fence could not be registered: " + status);
                    }
                }
            });

Questions:

1. What does namespace and type mean? Are these attributes given to all BLE devices and can I read them somehow from my beacons? Or is this eg something Eddystone specific?

2. Can I use the Awareness API with MAC addresses of my beacons?

Answer 1

1) Had the same problem and solved it.

From https://developers.google.com/beacons/proximity/attachments you get a attachment context with a field "namespaceType". All you have to to is splitt up the hole String from "namespace/type" to "namespace" and "type" for your FenceState.TypeFilter. The namespace should be your project-id form the GoogleDevConsole.

To setup your beacon get the "Beacon Tools"(Google Inc.) from GooglePlayStore and find your beacon, there you can add an attachment.

---

2) As far as I can see: When a fence is triggered, you only get the fence key. So the answere is NO. But you could make a getBeaconState()-request, to see which beacons are near to you.