+Gil Littman @Santiago Will the NFC deal in appsheet read the natural UID off of the NFC chip, or does the chip need to be actually encoded with a UID? (Cause this would completely eliminate a tough step in my process. If I can just hijack the UID thatโs already present, that would be awesome.)
If not, can you hook it up with an expression or some way of letting us pull in the NFC chips UID? (the good thing about the chip UID is that it is locked in at manufacture and supposedly canโt get rewritten, it is what it is. And, it also letโs the chip be actually encoded so it could do double duty.)
@Grant_Stead Right now you canโt read the UID with AppSheet, only the Ndef records in the tag. In theory, we could add this feature (in Android at least), but Iโm not sure what use cases it will be useful for, and are they worth making the editor more complicated. Could you please share more details of how were you planning to use the UID? You can use NFC Tools free app to read the tagโs UID (will appear as Serial number) and then write it to the tag as a record so that AppSheet will be able to read it. NFC Tools - Apps on Google Play play.google.com
@Gil_Littman_AppSheet Sure, check this outโฆ Iโm going to call it a companion post. LOLโฆ
plus.google.com - I create an appsheet system generated UNIQUEID() for the Key value for peopleโฆ I create an appsheet system generated UNIQUEID() for the Key value for peopleโฆ plus.google.com
@Grant_Stead I guess if you have a large number of tags it would make sense to use the existing UID. Weโll keep it in mind when we consider our next steps with NFC.
@Gil_Littman_AppSheet yes, and the real deal is that I betcha 99% of the time were just trying to get a UID into the system. So, from what I understand most systems do what Iโm doing. A system UID for the person, and another UID for the badge that is assigned at badge creationโฆ (Most places have a stack of pre programmed id cards, all theyโre doing is printing your picture on it, and associating your employee ID.)
Anyway hijacking the existing UID would make the whole process more approachable for appsheet users. Cause then we donโt have to encoded each Iโve, we just simply associate itโฆ
Just something to chew on.
We really need to use
the natural UID of the NFC chip.
We assign the NFC to a Location, a Person or a Task.
We want to use this for our security software.
A person are working a round at the facility documenting that he was there by scanning a NFC Tag. When the tag is scanned we store location, time and USERMAIL, if he have to report something - light was on, window open or dor unlocked etc. the he can take a picture, write a text and so on. If he meet a person he can ask for a signature.
It would be nice to just let buy som NFC Tags and start using them using the
natural UID of the NFC chip.
If you need further explanation, please contact me directly.
I second this feature and would like to ask for it again.
Storing potentially sensitive data on the tag often does not make sense.
Rather, it's better to associate an NFC tag with the potentially sensitive information it relates to, and to do this securely in the cloud database.
That way, even if an unauthorised person can read the tag, they cannot determine the secure information it relates to without secure access to the database.
We have an application related to the medical industry where we want to associate an NFC toe-tag for a cadaver with medical records to reduce errors within a system.
It makes no sense at all to store actual data on the NFC tag.
Is there a place where I can log a request to have the *UID from an NFC tag* be loaded into a form, rather than any data stored on it.
It seems quite fitting that you're talking about dead bodies whilst bringing a 4 year old thread back to life...
You can write an UUID.
I think the main problem is that we might want to use the ID already in the tag that shouldn't be cloned
We could, but we don't want to have to write a UUID to the tag.
And since the unique ID of the tag already has that, writing another one creates a separate and un-necessary process that we then have to manage.
So, I think the request stands, can we have access to the UID of the NFC tag, rather than the contents of the tag.
I guess at some point the Appsheet developers made a conscious or unconscious decision that in reading an NFC tag, the objective is usually to read some contents that were written there in a prior event.
I maintain that it's an equally valid use-case, that you read the ID and then associate it with what you want it to signify; links, apps, documents, records, images, etc
But you hit the nail on the head with needing to reduce the risk that an NFC tag could be cloned. Any fool can create another tag with a duplicate UUID. But it would take some extra technical competence to fudge an NFC serial number.
The thing is the following.
Either way, if you try to use the ID that comes with the tag or you write your ID, you need to think a workaround for it.
You store the ID on your database and try to use it as some kind of key or pseudo-key or your write the key that's already on your database to one or more tags.
The easiest method seems to be the second one, and the one that's supported.
If you want to use the ID that's on the NFC Tag you have to come up with a way to use that and I see it as a problem anyway.
Generaly, we don't save important data on NFC Tags or QR/Barcodes, we just make them with an ID that makes no sense on any system rather than our own so from a security stand point the only problem I see is that we can clone the data written on a tag so that people can have multiple of it, like on a system where workers have to mark their entrance to the job in the morning using a NFC wrist and you log the timestamp, if they can clone their tags, another worker could mark another's entrance. Other than that, the current implementation is the one that matches the majoritie's needs
@SkrOYC wrote:You store the ID on your database and try to use it as some kind of key or pseudo-key or your write the key that's already on your database to one or more tags.
The easiest method seems to be the second one, and the one that's supported.
Sadly that's not correct. You are maybe making some assumptions. The consumable we have the NFC tag is bought in bulk. Coding each tag with a unique ID is not "easy" compared to "not coding it".
So if you are asking this customer what they want, what I want is to be able to read the unique, unalterable, UID of the NFC tag and to have that entered into an Appsheet form.
That being said, I admit that the solution you propose is the "easiest" for Appsheet.
Do you think this is a feature that you could offer industrial customers?
I don't think AppSheet is meant for something big. It's better for small-medium business that can't affort the usage of a big ERP and try to make their own solutions.
https://about.appsheet.com/faq/
Now, if you get a bunch of nfs tags, you need to know which one has which ID, I don't think there is an easy way to do that.
Can you give an example of what you would do in that case? All of this on the context of the feature idea you are bringing to the table
Example:
Your solution requires me to pre-code tags with information I need to make up
My suggestion does not.
We are a small company, 140 years old, with 40 employees. I guess we qualify as the small-medium business who can't afford a big ERP.
At this stage it remains to check:
I can totally understand if any of the above is a "no". But at this stage I'm not sure where the "no" is. ๐
Let me put this the way I would do it
BTW, do you plan to reuse those bags/tags? If so, your solution can't be used because the Key column needs to have a unique value
@SkrOYC, I appreciate your trying to help. I've been using Appsheet for 5 years and am very well familiar with general solutions.
But our starting point is that we want to design-out the need for writing anything to the NFC tag ourselves at all. Why?
So back to the design challenge, which is for Appsheet devs ...
Can Appsheet modify their software to allow the serial number to be optionally read into the field.
@Grant_Stead maybe you can help @SkrOYC to understand your use case and why you arrived at the conclusion that you needed access to the unique ID of the NFC.
I wonder if the feature that @Gil_Littman_App alluded to could also be resurrected!
And while we are on the topic ... HAPPY EASTER!!!
There is also a bug with the NFC fields that I'm reporting here.
@SantiagoU do you also agree that this may need fixing?
Sorry for interrupting your conversation!
I think reading UID of NFC by Appsheet will expand the future choices!
Like apps for entry / exit management, tracking system, circulation record, attendance management, etc.
As in Japan, most people have NFC cards to use daily transportation, so using these cards to read by the app is highly convenient. I guess some countries are the same.
And then you can actually use your NFC cards like a key to operate many apps.
So it would be very appreciated if Appsheet can read the UID of NFC very soon!
Hello
I want to recover this thread to know if progress has been made on the petition.
In my case I would like to use the UID of the NFC card to use it as the ID of a list of members of an association.
In this way, each user could use an NFC card he already owns(means of transport, bank, personal ID...) and it would not be necessary to use new NFC cards by recording a unique identifier for each member.
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