Assignment

Overview

Assignment is the process of 'activating' or 'deploying' an NFC tag either by scanning the tag or encoding the tag. In the majority of cases, Assignment would take place after the tags have been installed into your products, packaging or locations.

Assignment is typically one of three things :

1. Simply changing a Tag Code's Assignment Status so that you know that the Tag Code is in use. NFC Tags will be pre-encoded and the Assignment Status changed by a scan.

2. Encoding a blank NFC Tag directly from the ixkio platform.

3. Changing a Tag Code's location (ie, moving it from on Batch to another) by scanning a pre-encoded NFC tag using Scan Assignment.

All NFC tags on the ixkio platform have an Assignment status (assigned or unassigned) and an Assignment date.

Scan Assignment

This is where you will scan your already encoded NFC tags, typically after they have been installed into your products, to Assign or 'activate' them.

For example, you might have a large pool of tags (Tag Codes) which are in a Batch in your ixkio platform. Let's call this 'Holding Batch'. You might use these tags in any product at any time.

You then create a Batch for a particular product line. For example 'New 2023 T-Shirt'.

You can use any of the NFC tags from your large pool of 'Holding Batch' tags and place them inside your new t-shirts. But now you need to make sure you know which tags you have used.

This is Scan Assignment. You activate Scan Assignment within your 'New 2023 T-Shirt' Batch, scan the tags directly from the t-shirts, and ixkio will automatically move the tags from the 'Holding Batch' to the 'New 2023 T-Shirt' Batch.

Moved tags will automatically inherit any new Rules (eg, destination URL), Extended Data and other features from their new location.

Scan Assignment

Encoding Assignment

Ixkio recommend using generic pools of pre-encoded tags and using 'Scan Assignment' in production environments rather than encoding in situ.

Encoding Assignment allows you to deploy NFC tags by encoding them directly using the ixkio mobile app.

In this instance, you would not have a pool of tags (as per the Scan Assignment). You would add non-encoded tags to your products first.

You would then create your Batch - for example 'New 2023 T-Shirt' - create a set of Tag Codes and from that Batch, activate 'Encoding Assignment'.

You would then scan each tag to encode.

Manual Assignment

For smaller configurations, it's also possible to simply change a Tag Code's Assignment Status one by one directly from the Console or in bulk via Associate Data.

Manual Assignment