+Gil Littman +Santiago Uribe Montoya [AppShee...

+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 thatโ€™s 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 canโ€™t get rewritten, it is what it is. And, it also letโ€™s the chip be actually encoded so it could do double duty.)

https://help.gototags.com/article/nfc-uid/

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@Grant_Stead Right now you canโ€™t read the UID with AppSheet, only the Ndef records in the tag. In theory, we could add this feature (in Android at least), but Iโ€™m 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 tagโ€™s 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 outโ€ฆ Iโ€™m going to call it a companion post. LOLโ€ฆ

plus.google.com - I create an appsheet system generated UNIQUEID() for the Key value for peopleโ€ฆ I create an appsheet system generated UNIQUEID() for the Key value for peopleโ€ฆ plus.google.com

@Grant_Stead I guess if you have a large number of tags it would make sense to use the existing UID. Weโ€™ll 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 Iโ€™m doing. A system UID for the person, and another UID for the badge that is assigned at badge creationโ€ฆ (Most places have a stack of pre programmed id cards, all theyโ€™re 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 donโ€™t have to encoded each Iโ€™ve, we just simply associate itโ€ฆ

Just something to chew on.

@Gil_Littman_AppSheet

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.

gefaila
Participant III

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:

  • we take a delivery of 10,000 protective bags that a customer has to place their product in before putting into our machine
  • Each bag has an NFC tag fixed to it which has no contents.  They are just used as unique IDs
  • The department putting the product in the bag, scan the NFC tag.  The *SERIAL NUMBER* gets used as the UID for a row.
  • They then add details to the row, e.g. the temperature, duration, pressure etc.
  • Remember NOTHING is stored on the tag. The association is done in the database.
  • The machine operator (different factory) can take the bag, and scan the *SERIAL NUMBER* 
  • This brings up the record of how the product is to be processed.

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:

  • Understanding of context: Have I explained the case well enough that developers can follow?
  • Understanding of request: Have I explained the request well enough that developers can follow? (i.e. the option that when an NFC tag is read it loads the serial number into the box instead of the contents of the tag)
  • Approval:  Do you agree it might be something that other customers might value. (note that this was requested by another customer above

     

I can totally understand if any of the above is a "no".  But at this stage I'm not sure where the "no" is. ๐Ÿ˜

Let me put this the way I would do it

  1. Bought 10.000 bags
  2. Each one has an NFC
  3. The department creates a row with the products that are inside of the bag and then writes the row ID [Uniqueid()] into the NFC tag
  4. Then your operator reads the key and see a details screen with the contents. Better yet, a Bag table's detail view with Items children on an Inline.

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?

  • It's cumbersome
  • It requires someone to do it - for thousands of bags
  • it requires a separate app 

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.

gefaila
Participant III

I wonder if the feature that @Gil_Littman_App  alluded to could also be resurrected!

And while we are on the topic ... HAPPY EASTER!!!

gefaila
Participant III

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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