The File Transfer Profile

The file transfer profile, or FP, ^[7] is the second of the three profiles in the object exchange family. Like synchronization and object push, the FP uses OBEX to exchange objects, in this case files and directories (or folders). During the early phases of the specification development, the definition of TCP/IP over Bluetooth links was investigated (see the discussion of OBEX over TCP/IP in Chapter 9) and thus the IETF file transfer protocol (FTP) was a candidate for a file transfer profile. In the end, the version 1.0 specification did not address generic IP networking over Bluetooth links, so FTP is not a part of the version 1.0 file transfer profile, although in the future this almost certainly will be an alternative method for file transfer. Within the version 1.0 realm, though, file and object transfer is via OBEX.

^[7] We use FP rather than FTP to remove any confusion with the Internet file transfer protocol.

The FP can be considered to be a less restrictive, more robust form of the OPP in that it supports full bidirectional pushing and pulling of objects, yet it supports only two object types: file and folder. The FP does not directly address exchanging other object types like vCard, vCal and so on, although those object types could certainly be packaged as files and could be transferred using the FP.