Note
There is an extra section for Java and Android.
The Java bindings allow you to control Bricks and Bricklets from your Java programs. The ZIP file for the bindings contains:
The Java library has no external dependencies.
If and how the Java bindings have to be installed depends heavily on how you are going to use them. If you are just calling the Java compiler from the command line then you can just put the Tinkerforge.jar file into the same folder as the Java code of your program and include it in the class path.
How the bindings can be used in a certain IDE depends on the specific IDE and will be explained in the documentation of the IDE.
The bindings are also available from the Central Maven Repository. This allows to use them directly in Maven project. Just add tinkerforge as a dependency to your Maven project file (pom.xml). The placeholder X.Y.Z represents the specific version of the bindings to be used, e.g. 2.1.1:
<project ...>
...
<dependencies>
...
<dependency>
<groupId>com.tinkerforge</groupId>
<artifactId>tinkerforge</artifactId>
<version>X.Y.Z</version>
</dependency>
...
</dependencies>
...
</project>
The Maven package does not include the examples. Those are available as part of the bindings ZIP file.
To test a Java example Brick Daemon and Brick Viewer have to be installed first. Brick Daemon acts as a proxy between the USB interface of the Bricks and the API bindings. Brick Viewer connects to Brick Daemon and helps to figure out basic information about the connected Bricks and Bricklets.
As an example let's compile the configuration example for the Stepper Brick. Copy the Tinkerforge.jar file and the ExampleConfiguration.java file from examples/Brick/Stepper/ into a new folder:
example_project/
-> Tinkerforge.jar
-> ExampleConfiguration.java
In the example HOST and PORT specify at which network address the Stepper Brick can be found. If it is connected locally to USB then localhost and 4223 is correct. The UID value has to be changed to the UID of the connected Stepper Brick, which you can figure out using Brick Viewer:
private static final String HOST = "localhost";
private static final int PORT = 4223;
private static final String UID = "XYZ"; // Change to your UID
Now we can execute the Java compiler in the example_project/ folder like this on Windows (replace ; in class path with : on Linux and Mac OS X):
javac -cp Tinkerforge.jar;. ExampleConfiguration.java
and run it with the following parameters on Windows (replace ; in class path with : on Linux and Mac OS X again):
java -cp Tinkerforge.jar;. ExampleConfiguration
Alternatively you can use the Java library and example in an Java IDE of your choice such as Eclipse or NetBeans.
Links to the API reference for the IP Connection, Bricks and Bricklets as well as the examples from the ZIP file of the bindings are listed in the following table. Further project descriptions can be found in the Starter Kits section.