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The actual app is actually a web app but since my first impression is that there is no way to do this with a normal (android) web browser right now, I figured this might be possible with a WebView.

Are there card reader attachments out there that have APIs/SDKs for android?

Hyangelo
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2 Answers2

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We have found a viable solution. MagTek offers a device that is similar with the one being used by SquareUp. The device is slightly larger and heavier but they offer SDKs for Android, iOS and Windows Phones. The android SDK can be found and downloaded here:

http://www.magtek.com/support/software/programming_tools/

look for SCRA SDK

You can also contact them directly as our company did so they can provide you the latest SDKs.

Update:

Also tried idtech's UniMag mobile card reader:

http://www.idtechproducts.com/products/mobile-readers/112.html

I tested this on a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1" running Android 3.1. Works as advertised.

Update 2: Our app that uses this can now be found on the android store(but it isn't really useful to anyone else aside from our enterprise customers). Essentially, the app is a native wrapper application with a WebView and the communication between webapp and wrapper is abstracted and performed using javascript. In theory, anyone can use your wrapper with their webapp as long as the webapp knows the API however I am not permitted to release the API nor any specific implementation details. I suppose if anyone is interested, a good 'ol decompiler will reveal the implementation.

Hyangelo
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  • hello Hyangelo, I am wondering if you have a prototype for that? – Thet Mon Aye Aug 16 '12 at 22:26
  • I do not have a prototype but unimag and magtek includes a sample app with their SDK that you can compile and install on your device. – Hyangelo Aug 17 '12 at 12:04
  • Is your app available on the android store? If so I'd love to download it and see it. Looking to do the exact same thing. – M Charles Feb 25 '14 at 01:26
  • idtechproducts is worst. They ask to buy the dev kit, and even if for development. – greja Mar 11 '15 at 09:57
  • @Hyangelo I'm in the similar situation, looking for Reader + SDK. MagTek looks promising but according to their [iOS] SDK they do not provide method to read complete credit card number, only last 4 digits. What was your experience on that, were you able to read to complete card data in your project? I know there are rules for processing this information, but the our intention is to send this data to stripe for tokenizing. – Arnie Schwarzvogel Sep 28 '15 at 08:56
  • Personal experience: Beware that the uDynamo doesn't "work" out-of-the-box. You can read some stuff (like the last 4 digits of a card number, the expiration date, and the name), but things like the full card number or issuer discretionary data not available. In order to get that functionality you have to pay for a MagTek service to fully decrypt the raw data from the device. This is NOT advertised on their website or the PDF docs at all. The encryption key is also unique per device and is given to the original buyer when they buy it from MagTek; therefore, be careful buying from eBay. – Brian Nov 15 '16 at 20:52
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Square ( https://squareup.com/ ) uses custom card reader pluggable into headphones socket - so hardware is definitely available. I would speculate that must be bluetooth cardreaders.

Konstantin Pribluda
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    Yes, I am aware about square but I don't think they are offering an SDK(even if it is paid/commercial). I know they are reading the data via the microphone jack but I'm not sure how hard it is to decode the data or how to to begin with. – Hyangelo Oct 24 '11 at 13:30
  • They acquire audio stream ( PCM ) and then do some magical signal processing - presumably using some fourrier transforms or whatever else. I think it is possible to google up some information on this (square published something) - from old C/S books treating magnetic drives – Konstantin Pribluda Oct 24 '11 at 18:26
  • Yes, I am aware of this as well but we are looking for a commercial SDK instead so we don't have to spend time doing what you've just described. And we just found one from MagTek(see my answer above). Thanks for the suggestion though. If it were up to me this would be the more interesting route. – Hyangelo Oct 24 '11 at 18:56