BLE Update Strategy

BLE Contract

The BLE contract is the communication protocol used directly between the consumer side and the business side of a payment flow when both use the same Vipaso SDK. It is separate from the HTTP API communication with the Vipaso backend.

Why it's special

Breaking changes to server-side APIs can often be handled centrally in the backend. The BLE contract is different because it runs directly between two Vipaso SDK participants in the field. For a payment to succeed, the consumer side and the business side must understand the same contract.

Risk scenario

Partial rollouts can lead to payment failures when one side updates and the other does not. For example, a consumer side running a newer SDK version may try to interact with a business side that is still using an older version, or the reverse may happen. In either case, a breaking BLE contract mismatch can cause the payment flow to fail because the two sides can no longer communicate correctly over BLE.

Update planning requirement

If your application integrates the Vipaso SDK, you must define and validate an update strategy before rolling out any version that contains breaking BLE contract changes.

Update strategy approaches

Applications should be configured to receive update signals from a trusted source such as remote configuration or an app store API.

One possible approach is a gentle rollout, where BLE-based payment features are disabled when an incompatible SDK version is detected and the user is prompted to update the application.

Another possible approach is a more explicit rollout, where the application shows a full-screen update notification on launch and blocks continued use until the application is updated.

Changelog note

Vipaso SDK changelogs will clearly identify versions that include breaking BLE contract changes.