About the NDPP Reader

The NDPP Reader application is an example of how on-device Digital Product Passport (DPP) data could be stored on and retrieved from a product or tag. Below is a quick overview of how the app works, rationale for design decisions along with a short list of future features.

Overview

While NFC Forum specifications define a NFC-based data exchange format (NDEF), the default behavior on mobile operating systems are primarily designed to handle only a single URL. Generally, when a tag is tapped on a mobile handset, the first NDEF record is read and the following data is ignored. Certain Android OS versions allow for a user to configure this behavior, most notably allowing the user to select the desired NDEF record for operation.

Given these various implementations and to future-proof our standards, the NFC Forum defined a flexible architecture that allows tags to store more than one NDEF record for various operations.

As our community looks to support Digital Product Passport initiatives, we are developing a specification that defines this operation while also ensuring coexistence of other NDEF-based applications and operation. At this time we are considering defining a special NDEF record type for inclusion of DPP data along with standard hyperlink cloud-based operation.

Basic Operation

While not expected to be the final implementation for our standard, the NDPP Reader app will read a tag looking for a data record of text/ndpp type. The payload expected is a json object which the app will render for readability. The Android version will display the full json file, and the iOS version only a limited number of fields. This was a "time to market" decision and not reflective of the operating system capabilities. A sample json file with data is available here.

Lessons Learned

A number of key learnings were discovered while building this application. Most notably is the need for standards-based encoding of JSON data. While highly portable, json is an inefficient structure to store lots of data in small memory systems, most notably NTAG 215 tags. We are also looking to add a cloud-to-product validation feature in the near future.

What's Next?

The NFC Forum welcomes your feedback and participation in developing the underlying standards presented in the NDPP Ready Application. The Devices and Applications Working Group is currently developing our specification. NFC Forum Members can participate at https://members.nfc-forum.org/wg/devappwg/dashboard.

Additionally the NFC Forum and its members are participating in other standards efforts related to the Digital Product Passport in CIRPASS2, ISO 59404 and CEN/CENELEC JTC 24.

Download the Application