Missing android method: ScanRecord.parseFromBytes

Question

I was looking through the source code for android 22 to change my code to the new BLE scanning and came across the ScanRecord class. When I opened the source code for ScanRecord (sources/android-22/android/bluetooth/le/ScanRecord.java) I saw that there is a function parseFromBytes:

/**
 * Parse scan record bytes to {@link ScanRecord}.
 * <p>
 * The format is defined in Bluetooth 4.1 specification, Volume 3, Part C, Section 11 and 18.
 * <p>
 * All numerical multi-byte entities and values shall use little-endian <strong>byte</strong>
 * order.
 *
 * @param scanRecord The scan record of Bluetooth LE advertisement and/or scan response.
 * @hide
 */
 public static ScanRecord parseFromBytes(byte[] scanRecord)

But if I try and use it in my code, it cannot find the function. Also if I check the API here, the function is not mentioned at all.

I am using Android Studio 1.3.1 with compileSdkVersion 22, minSdkVersion 18, targetSdkVersion 22 and buildToolsVersion 22.0.1

What am I missing? Why can't I use the function although it is part of the android source code?

Thanks for clarification.

Answer 1

ScanRecord class was added in API level 21. You can get an instance of it from ScanResult Code:

ScanCallback leScanCallback = new ScanCallback() {
    @Override
    public void onScanResult(int callbackType, ScanResult result) {
        ScanRecord record = result.getScanRecord();
    }
}

On that object instance the public functions are available.

Answer 2

I had the same problem and wanted to use ScanRecord.parseFromBytes. After lots of googling I noticed it has the tag "@hide" which effectively hides it from the compiler. See What does @hide mean in the Android source code?

I'm in two minds to use reflection, but I want access to the fields in ScanRecord (e.g. TxPower)