Is the type field in NDEF records required?

Question

If I am writing or reading a NDEF record on a tag, do I need to include the Type field? Can readers still read/write it?

UPDATE

Apparently one of the types is 0x05 "Unknown." The Type field is empty, so it does what I need it to do. Thanks.

Answer 1

Yes and No. Some record types require the Type field, some do not. The ones who require:

• External type
• Mime Media
• Absolute URI
• All well-known types

The ones who forbid:

• Unknown type
• Empty record

Answer 2

You do not need to know the Type while Reading and Writing on a tag.

For Reading, you need to specify the following 3 parameters: NFC connection descriptor, Buffer to store the data read & Buffer size.

For Writing, you need to know the NFC connection descriptor, NDEF data to write and Length of the data.