I am currently writing a program where I wish to use a barcode scanner to scan a bar code into a system, then use this information to make certain decisions.
How can I get C# to react when I use the bar code scanner? Do I need certain DLLs or APIs to use a bar code reader? I can create bar codes but need a way for C# to read them externally and import them into the program.
Richard,
It is important to know that typically barcode scanners support multiple interfaces that fall into two categories. Many have an option that makes the barcode scanner appear as a keyboard and whenever you scan data the text is entered into your application at the insertion point. The manufacturer of the scanner may refer to this as Keyboard, Keyboard Wedge, HID Keyboard or simply HID mode, however the last one in this list is technically not accurate as there are other HID interfaces besides keyboard.
The second category is often referred to as application mode. There are several different interfaces that support application mode, such as IBM Scanner, HID POS Scanner, etc. Each of these interfaces represent follow a specific hardware specification. You must make sure that the mode that your scanner is in matches the SDK that you are using to interact with the scanner.
If you are using .NET Framework, you may find POS for .NET useful as it abstracts the barcodes scanner away from the software in a way that allows you to use scanners from multiple manufacturers without changes in your application. In this case, you will need to acquire an OPOS Service Object from the scanner manufacturer to use with POS for .NET. See POS for .NET 1.14.1 Download page for more information: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=55758
Terry Warwick
Microsoft
As far as it is connected to your device correctly , it will automatically pass data to your Focused itembox in your program.so if you run your program.exe which has a textbox, when you scan a barcode , it will be parsed into that textbox (it has to be focused).
Use the class SerialPort. It can listen your ports and then when you will use your scan the program will read it.
while (spPort.BytesToRead > 0)
{
carac = (char)spPort.ReadByte();
if (carac != 08)
m_mystring += carac;
}
Here is an example of how you can read it. And this is the link to the class : https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.io.ports.serialport(v=vs.110).aspx
It also depends on what form your application takes. If you have the option of uploading a picture or accessing the camera, you can pull an image into your code and then use one of many SDK's to read the barcode out of the image.
I have just implemented this using a web application, and I used the ZXing SDK, which is a free port to .Net and is available via NuGet.
https://github.com/micjahn/ZXing.Net
If you're just starting out, samples within SDKs are the best place to get started.
UWP apps to handle barcode are best explained in the universal samples at --> https://github.com/microsoft/Windows-universal-samples/tree/master/Samples/BarcodeScanner
A Win32 C# .net sample can be found in the Pos For .Net 1.14 SDK mentioned earlier.
Most barcode scanners are "HID" devices, which means that they write the data of the barcode (the small numbers) like you would do manually with your keyboard, they're also recognized as a keyboard by most operating systems.
So the easiest way is just having a textbox. Make sure the focus is automatically on the textbox before the scan, and if you want it to automatically do something, make sure to have an event listening for an enter keydown. (Most HID scanners press an enter right after the scan is complete.)
Barcode scanner has are sending keys when they detects Barcode same goes with QR Scanners.
All you need is just put the focus in a textbox and use some events like text change or keypress/keydown since most of the scanners has an option for you to add/remove newline at the end of each set of keys it returns.
Using a physical barcode scanner is one option, but you're limited to scanning one barcode at a time.
An alternative option would be passing multiple documents, either as images or PDFs, to your application to process in bulk.
IronBarcode is a c# barcode scanner that also allows you to read barcodes quickly and accurately in this way.
// The BarcodeResult.ReadBarcodesMultiThreaded method allows for faster barcode scanning of multiple images or PDFs.
// All threads are automatically managed by IronBarCode.
var ListOfDocuments = new[] { "Image1.PNG", "image2.JPG", "image3.PDF" };
PagedBarcodeResult[] BatchResults =
BarcodeReader.ReadBarcodesMultiThreaded(ListOfDocuments);
Disclaimer: I work for Iron Software.
I'm having a problem with scanning a barcode with a Symbol scanner. What the scanner does, is it reads the barcode and then returns it as basic keyboard strokes.
I now made a very simple Windows Forms apps which just needs to validate barcodes. However, I'm having trouble finding out when the scanner is actually done scanning. It wasn't a problem before because ALL barcodes would always have 12 symbols, so I could just use the following check on the OnTextChangedEvent of a textbox:
if (txtBarcode.Text.Length == 12)
However, as of recently a barcode can ALSO contain 13 symbols, which makes my check useless, since it will skip the last character if the barcode has 13 symbols.
I can't seem to figure out how to find out if the scanner is actually done scanning (done triggering keyboard strokes). I need to find out when the scanner is done scanning (it doesn't matter if the barcode has 12 or 13 symbols) and if it is, I need to execute some action.
Can you help me with this?
The Symbol brand is now own by Zebra Technologies.
You can find information about how to configure the scanner on their support website and, using the 123Scan v2 utility you can configure the scanner so that it can include the barcode data between a pre-amble and a post-amble. So you can know exactly when you hare receiving the data from the scanner.
On top of that you can do more fancy stuff using the scanner driver and then have more control on it. As an example you can enable the scanner only when you actually need to read some data.
If you have more question about the scanner and how to use them, you can take a look at Zebra Technologies developer website Launchpad, that has an area on this technologies.
Disclaimer: I work for Zebra Technologies.
I've been thinking whats the best way to handle a barcode scanner via code. The thing is, I have 3 different pattern of barcodes in one window/dialog. before I put these barcodes in the right field i should be able to handle the barcode scanner programmatically. similar to how we handle others devices via serial port. But my barcode scanner is detected as HID instead of COM. what should i do? I've tried the Point of Service for .Net but it doesn't recognized the scanner. Point of Service always returns "Simulator devices" and not the actual devices installed on the PC.
I understand that my barcode scanner detects as a keyboard. but the thing is that I want to control it programmatically to place the right barcodes in the right fields.
I am writing an application which detects if any bar-code scanner is attached to the pc or not. I don't know how to query the installed devices to check for barcode scanners. I am using C# and .NET 4.0.
Some barcode scanner are attached by keyboard wedge (Or their drivers report them as keyboards) - I believe there is no way to test if these are present.
Other specific scanners may be accessible through their USB ports but any status query will have to be on a model by model basis.
You probably want to use WMI...
Heres some CodeProject links that might help.
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/18268/How-To-Almost-Everything-In-WMI-via-C-Part-3-Hardw
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/21503/Hardware-Helper-Library-for-C
I had some questions in this scanner using WIA or TWAIN in C#.net. We are planning to buy Kodak i920 Scanner to scan Image through our Application in C#. My questions are
1 . Is it possible to scan an image in single click by using any one of the drivers. ( I dont want select device dialog and image settings dialog)
Some scanners has inbuilt OCR functionality. can i use that OCR function programatically of that scanners. So that when i click on OCR button the scanner has to scan an do an OCR and revert me back. Is it possible to do this?
Yep. You certainly could do all of that provided you could be certain that the same scanner was going to be available for every scan so that you could always just force use of the device you wanted. You can also pass along the settings you'd like the device to make use of provided that the device says they're supported. A number of SDKs either free/opensource or proprietary exist that would allow you to do that in c# -- Atalasoft, Dynamsoft, and Twain.Net provide one to name a few.