PC/SC

Using NXP TapLinx SDK with SpringCard PC/SC couplers

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NXP TapLinx SDK (formerly Mifare SDK) is an high-level sofware library provided by NXP to work with their Mifare, Desfire, NTAG and ICode products.

Written in Java, the TapLinx library has been initially developed for Android, running over Android’s NfcAdapter object to communicate with the contactless cards or NFC tags through the tablet’s or smartphone’s integrated NFC interface.

Recently, the library has been ported to the standard JDK, making it usable in any Java desktop applications thanks to the JRE available on Windows, macOs, Linux, and more. In desktop applications, the TapLinx library relies on the system’s PC/SC stack (javax.smartcardio API in Java) to access the contactless cards or NFC tags through a standard-compliant PC/SC coupler.

This makes TapLinx an interesting solution for developers of desktop applications that have to process NXP cards or tags. This article shows how-to get started with this SDK, in the aim of using it together with SpringCard devices.

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Getting started with SpringCard Companion

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SpringCard Companion is the new all-in-one solution to manage, configure and update the latest generation of SpringCard “SpringCore” devices (Puck, SpringPark, etc). SpringCard Companion is an hybrid application that combines a clean, efficient and always up-to-date web front-end with a tiny local software, the Companion Service, that is the gateway between the cloud and the devices connected to your computer or local network.

As such, the Companion Service is also the base component to connect any application built for the web with the ‘physical world’ of PC/SC couplers and Smart Readers, using only simple WebSocket and REST API calls.

Before you start using SpringCard Companion Web application (available at companion.springcard.com) you should install the Companion Service on a Windows computer.

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PCSCCheck, the all-in-one tool to validate and tune your PC/SC installation

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An analysis of the questions that are the most frequently asked to our technical support shows that many issues and concerns are due to the settings or the behaviour of Windows operating system itself.

This is particularly the case in security-enforced corporate environments, where strict administrative policies may prevent the user to install the right driver, or even prevent the applications to access local smart card readers.

The fact that Windows raises a couple of notifications (“Setting up a device”, then “The smart card requires drivers that are not present on this system”) every time a card is inserted in a PC/SC reader for the first time is also the source of many questions, that this article will address.

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PC/SC on Linux and Mac OS X with Mono

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One the goals of the Mono project is to make Microsoft .NET applications runnable on Unix systems. Using Mono, it is therefore now possible to maintain a single C#/.NET code base, that runs on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows.

In this context, SpringCard’s PC/SC SDK (https://www.springcard.com/en/download/find/file/pcsc-sdk) has been updated, so that it now enables developers to write PC/SC applications in C#/.NET, that can execute on Windows, as well as on Linux and Mac OS X platforms.

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SCardSniffer spies the exchanges between a PC/SC application and PC/SC middleware

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SCardSniffer is a new tool used to spy the exchanges between Windows applications and the smart cards or NFC tags that are accessed through a PC/SC reader (or coupler).

SCardSniffer
SCardSniffer main window

On a Windows computer, all card-aware applications communicate with smart cards or NFC tags through the system’s PC/SC library, winscard.dll.

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SpringCard PC/SC solution for Android has been released

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SpringCard R&D team is proud to release a simple software solution to add support for SpringCard USB PC/SC Couplers to Android tablets (or smartphone). The software is made of two parts: SpringCard PC/SC Service for Android, a freeware application that installs directly from Google Play SpringCard PC/SC Library for Android, an open-source library that makes … Read more