Phone Book Access Profile

Commands and D-Bus checks for validating Bluetooth PBAP contact access on an AGL target.

PBAP validates contact and call-history access from a paired phone. BlueZ exposes PBAP through the OBEX service org.bluez.obex, so these checks use obexctl and the OBEX D-Bus APIs rather than the normal org.bluez adapter and device APIs.

Before running this test, complete the Profile GAP flow so the adapter is powered on and the remote phone is paired and trusted. If obexctl is missing from the target image, see Install OBEX on Yocto.

For D-Bus examples, replace F8:7D:76:9D:9B:6B and /org/bluez/obex/client/session0 with the values from your target.

Check OBEX support#

PBAP requires the BlueZ OBEX daemon. On many Linux images, OBEX runs as a user D-Bus service.

Check that obexctl is available:

obexctl --version

Sample output:

obexctl: 5.84

Check that the OBEX service can be activated:

busctl --user tree org.bluez.obex

Sample output:

`-/org
  `-/org/bluez
    `-/org/bluez/obex

Verify remote PBAP UUID#

Use bluetoothctl to confirm that the phone advertises PBAP server support.

bluetoothctl info <bt_address>

Example:

bluetoothctl info F8:7D:76:9D:9B:6B

Sample output:

Device F8:7D:76:9D:9B:6B (public)
	Name: Phone
	Paired: yes
	Trusted: yes
	UUID: Phonebook Access Server (0000112f-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)

Connect a PBAP session#

Start an interactive obexctl session:

obexctl

Connect to the phone with the PBAP target:

connect <bt_address> pbap

Example:

connect F8:7D:76:9D:9B:6B pbap

Sample output:

Attempting to connect to F8:7D:76:9D:9B:6B
[NEW] Session /org/bluez/obex/client/session0
Connection successful

Using D-Bus:

busctl --user call org.bluez.obex /org/bluez/obex org.bluez.obex.Client1 CreateSession sa{sv} F8:7D:76:9D:9B:6B 1 Target s pbap

The returned object path is the session path used by later PBAP calls.

Select a phonebook#

PBAP operations should select the object store before listing or pulling contacts.

In obexctl, list the current folder or change folders if the phone exposes the PBAP hierarchy as folders:

ls
cd telecom
ls
cd pb

Using D-Bus:

busctl --user call org.bluez.obex /org/bluez/obex/client/session0 org.bluez.obex.PhonebookAccess1 Select ss int pb

Common phonebook values:

pb is the saved phonebook.
ich is incoming call history.
och is outgoing call history.
mch is missed call history.
cch is combined call history.

List contacts#

List contact handles from the selected phonebook.

Using D-Bus:

busctl --user call org.bluez.obex /org/bluez/obex/client/session0 org.bluez.obex.PhonebookAccess1 List a{sv} 1 MaxCount q 20

Sample output:

a(ss) 2 "1.vcf" "Alice Example" "2.vcf" "Bob Example"

Get the number of entries:

busctl --user call org.bluez.obex /org/bluez/obex/client/session0 org.bluez.obex.PhonebookAccess1 GetSize

Sample output:

q 42

Pull the full phonebook#

Pull all contacts from the selected phonebook into a local vCard file.

Using D-Bus:

busctl --user call org.bluez.obex /org/bluez/obex/client/session0 org.bluez.obex.PhonebookAccess1 PullAll sa{sv} /tmp/pb.vcf 1 Format s vcard30

Sample output:

o "/org/bluez/obex/client/session0/transfer0"
a{sv} 3 "Status" s "queued" "Name" s "pb.vcf" "Filename" s "/tmp/pb.vcf"

Monitor the transfer:

busctl --user get-property org.bluez.obex /org/bluez/obex/client/session0/transfer0 org.bluez.obex.Transfer1 Status
busctl --user get-property org.bluez.obex /org/bluez/obex/client/session0/transfer0 org.bluez.obex.Transfer1 Filename

Pull one contact#

After listing contacts, pull a single vCard handle.

Using D-Bus:

busctl --user call org.bluez.obex /org/bluez/obex/client/session0 org.bluez.obex.PhonebookAccess1 Pull ssa{sv} 1.vcf /tmp/contact.vcf 1 Format s vcard30

Sample output:

o "/org/bluez/obex/client/session0/transfer1"
a{sv} 3 "Status" s "queued" "Name" s "contact.vcf" "Filename" s "/tmp/contact.vcf"

Search contacts#

Search by contact name or number.

Using D-Bus:

busctl --user call org.bluez.obex /org/bluez/obex/client/session0 org.bluez.obex.PhonebookAccess1 Search ssa{sv} name Alice 1 MaxCount q 10

Sample output:

a(ss) 1 "1.vcf" "Alice Example"

Disconnect the PBAP session#

In obexctl:

disconnect

Using D-Bus:

busctl --user call org.bluez.obex /org/bluez/obex org.bluez.obex.Client1 RemoveSession o /org/bluez/obex/client/session0

BlueZ OBEX Proxy XML#

Use this proxy XML as a compact reference for the BlueZ OBEX D-Bus interfaces used by the PBAP commands above.

<node>
  <interface name="org.bluez.obex.Client1">
    <method name="CreateSession">
      <arg name="destination" type="s" direction="in"/>
      <arg name="args" type="a{sv}" direction="in"/>
      <arg name="session" type="o" direction="out"/>
    </method>
    <method name="RemoveSession">
      <arg name="session" type="o" direction="in"/>
    </method>
  </interface>

  <interface name="org.bluez.obex.Session1">
    <method name="GetCapabilities">
      <arg name="capabilities" type="s" direction="out"/>
    </method>
    <property name="Source" type="s" access="read"/>
    <property name="Destination" type="s" access="read"/>
    <property name="Channel" type="y" access="read"/>
    <property name="Target" type="s" access="read"/>
    <property name="Root" type="s" access="read"/>
  </interface>

  <interface name="org.bluez.obex.PhonebookAccess1">
    <method name="Select">
      <arg name="location" type="s" direction="in"/>
      <arg name="phonebook" type="s" direction="in"/>
    </method>
    <method name="PullAll">
      <arg name="targetfile" type="s" direction="in"/>
      <arg name="filters" type="a{sv}" direction="in"/>
      <arg name="transfer" type="o" direction="out"/>
      <arg name="properties" type="a{sv}" direction="out"/>
    </method>
    <method name="List">
      <arg name="filters" type="a{sv}" direction="in"/>
      <arg name="vcards" type="a(ss)" direction="out"/>
    </method>
    <method name="Pull">
      <arg name="vcard" type="s" direction="in"/>
      <arg name="targetfile" type="s" direction="in"/>
      <arg name="filters" type="a{sv}" direction="in"/>
      <arg name="transfer" type="o" direction="out"/>
      <arg name="properties" type="a{sv}" direction="out"/>
    </method>
    <method name="Search">
      <arg name="field" type="s" direction="in"/>
      <arg name="value" type="s" direction="in"/>
      <arg name="filters" type="a{sv}" direction="in"/>
      <arg name="vcards" type="a(ss)" direction="out"/>
    </method>
    <method name="GetSize">
      <arg name="size" type="q" direction="out"/>
    </method>
    <method name="UpdateVersion"/>
    <method name="ListFilterFields">
      <arg name="fields" type="as" direction="out"/>
    </method>
    <property name="Folder" type="s" access="read"/>
    <property name="DatabaseIdentifier" type="s" access="read"/>
    <property name="PrimaryCounter" type="s" access="read"/>
    <property name="SecondaryCounter" type="s" access="read"/>
    <property name="FixedImageSize" type="b" access="read"/>
  </interface>

  <interface name="org.bluez.obex.Transfer1">
    <method name="Cancel"/>
    <method name="Suspend"/>
    <method name="Resume"/>
    <property name="Status" type="s" access="read"/>
    <property name="Session" type="o" access="read"/>
    <property name="Name" type="s" access="read"/>
    <property name="Type" type="s" access="read"/>
    <property name="Time" type="t" access="read"/>
    <property name="Size" type="t" access="read"/>
    <property name="Transferred" type="t" access="read"/>
    <property name="Filename" type="s" access="read"/>
  </interface>
</node>

References#

BlueZ OBEX API: OBEX API
Install OBEX tools on AGL/Yocto: Install OBEX on Yocto