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Improvements_and_updates.md

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Improvements and updates

Many improvements have been made to this library vs the original, this is a brief overview of the most significant changes. Refer to the class documentation for further information on class specifics.


Server

NimBLEService::NimBLEService::createCharacteristic takes a 3rd parameter to specify the maximum data size that can be stored by the characteristic. This allows for limiting the RAM use of the characteristic in cases where small amounts of data are expected.

NimBLECharacteristic::setValue(const T &s) NimBLEDescriptor::setValue(const T &s)

Now use the NimbleAttValue class and templates to accommodate standard and custom types/values.

Example

struct my_struct {
    uint8_t  one;
    uint16_t two;
    uint32_t four;
    uint64_t eight;
    float    flt;
} myStruct;

    myStruct.one = 1;
    myStruct.two = 2;
    myStruct.four = 4;
    myStruct.eight = 8;
    myStruct.flt = 1234.56;

    pCharacteristic->setValue(myStruct);

    // Arduino String support
    String myString = "Hello";
    pCharacteristic->setValue(myString);

This will send the struct to the receiving client when read or a notification sent.

NimBLECharacteristic::getValue now takes an optional timestamp parameter which will update it's value with the time the last value was received. In addition an overloaded template has been added to retrieve the value as a type specified by the user.

Example

    time_t timestamp;
    myStruct = pCharacteristic->getValue<myStruct>(&timestamp); // timestamp optional

Advertising will automatically start when a client disconnects.

A new method NimBLEServer::advertiseOnDisconnect(bool) has been implemented to control this, true(default) = enabled.

NimBLEServer::removeService takes an additional parameter bool deleteSvc that if true will delete the service and all characteristics / descriptors belonging to it and invalidating any pointers to them.

If false the service is only removed from visibility by clients. The pointers to the service and it's characteristics / descriptors will remain valid and the service can be re-added in the future using NimBLEServer::addService.

Advertising

NimBLEAdvertising::start

Now takes 2 optional parameters, the first is the duration to advertise for (in seconds), the second is a callback that is invoked when advertising ends and takes a pointer to a NimBLEAdvertising object (similar to the NimBLEScan::start API).

This provides an opportunity to update the advertisement data if desired.

Also now returns a bool value to indicate if advertising successfully started or not.

Client

NimBLERemoteCharacteristic::readValue(time_t\*, bool) NimBLERemoteDescriptor::readValue(bool)

Have been added as templates to allow reading the values as any specified type.

Example

struct my_struct{
    uint8_t  one;
    uint16_t two;
    uint32_t four;
    uint64_t eight;
    float    flt;
}myStruct;

    time_t timestamp;
    myStruct = pRemoteCharacteristic->readValue<myStruct>(&timestamp); // timestamp optional

NimBLERemoteCharacteristic::registerForNotify Has been deprecated as now the internally stored characteristic value is updated when notification/indication is received.

NimBLERemoteCharacteristic::subscribe and NimBLERemoteCharacteristic::unsubscribe have been implemented to replace it. A callback is no longer required to get the most recent value unless timing is important. Instead, the application can call NimBLERemoteCharacteristic::getValue to get the last updated value any time.

The notify_callback function is now defined as a std::function to take advantage of using std::bind to specify a class member function for the callback.

Example:

using namespace std::placeholders;
notify_callback callback = std::bind(&<ClassName>::<memberFunctionCallbackName>, this, _1, _2, _3, _4);

<remoteCharacteristicInstance>->subscribe(true, callback);

NimBLERemoteCharacteristic::readValue and NimBLERemoteCharacteristic::getValue take an optional timestamp parameter which will update it's value with the time the last value was received.

NimBLEClient::getService
NimBLERemoteService::getCharacteristic
NimBLERemoteCharacteristic::getDescriptor

These methods will now check the respective vectors for the attribute object and, if not found, will retrieve (only) the specified attribute from the peripheral.

These changes allow more control for the user to manage the resources used for the attributes.

NimBLEClient::connect() can now be called without an address or advertised device parameter. This will connect to the device with the address previously set when last connected or set with NimBLEDevice::setPeerAddress().

General

To reduce resource use all instances of std::map have been replaced with std::vector.

Use of FreeRTOS::Semaphore has been removed as it was consuming too much ram, the related files have been left in place to accomodate application use.

Operators ==, != and std::string have been added to NimBLEAddress and NimBLEUUID for easier comparison and logging.

New constructor for NimBLEUUID(uint32_t, uint16_t, uint16_t, uint64_t) added to lower memory use vs string construction. See: #21.

Security/pairing operations are now handled in the respective NimBLEClientCallbacks and NimBLEServerCallbacks classes, NimBLESecurity(deprecated) remains for backward compatibility.

Configuration options have been added to add or remove debugging information, when disabled (default) significantly reduces binary size. In ESP-IDF the options are in menuconfig: Main menu -> ESP-NimBLE-cpp configuration.
For Arduino the options must be commented / uncommented in nimconfig.h.

Characteristics and descriptors now use the NimBLEAttValue class to store their data. This is a polymorphic container class capable of converting to/from many different types efficiently. See: #286