I have Motorola MC55 with Windows Mobile 6.5 on-board. This nice palm contains also an embedded bar-code scanner. My question is - Will I need anything special in .NET CF in order to use the bar-code scanner? I would expect that the bar-code are read as normal strings and delivered as keyboard events? Is any special .NET CF library necessary?
Thanks for help
Dominik
That entirely depends on what you want to achieve.
Handheld barcode scanners based on Windows Mobile usually come with a piece of software that translates barcode module output to keystrokes -- you can put it in the autorun folder and then handle text input in your textbox.
Alternatively, there's usually an SDK that contains libraries with which you can hook the scanner directly and have all the additional information (type of the barcode, binary data etc).
We use MC9090 here, and we went the SDK way. Works like a charm. The SDK can be dowloaded here. If the link doesn't work (I had to crop it), go to the seach form and search for "SDK".
Usually, for Motorola (earlier Symbol) scanners there's a set of libraries for the Comapact Framework including samples.
We use mobile devices a lot with our customers (not only Motorola) and I strongly advise against using keyboard emulation if possible, as you will run into trouble when there are multiple input fields (or no input fields at all). Also, you will not be able to detect special characters within barcodes when you get them through keyboard emulation.
Link to SDK is provided by GSerg in his answer. I strongly recommend using the SDK as it provides access to other device functionality as well.
There's a utility for these devices called DataWedge that lets you treat the built-in scanner as a keyboard device.
Related
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.
We have a Casio DT-X8 scanners that we are using in our company. They run .NET Framework 3.5 and WindowsCE 5.0
I have developed an app for them to suit our needs. The keypad on those scanners is the old mobile phone style, so a number 2 would be the number 2 but also ABC and abc. You switch between modes using the F8 button on the scanner. We have textboxes in the application that requires either a text input or a number input. It is sometimes time consuming to switch between the modes using the F8.
My question is, is there a way to set the input method through the app? I am already using the core.dll file to set the correct date and time on the scanner, so is it also possible to do similar with the input method?
I have searched google and stackoverlow but couldn't find anything that relates to my question. Many problems were to do with controlling the language input, but not the actual input type.
I am not looking for a complete code as that I can do myself. I just need some directions as to what to look for and how to tackle it.
I think that this feature is specific for that device.
Windows CE provides a way to change the software keyboard (look for Software Input Panel or SIP in the documentation), but does not apply to HW keyboards.
Do you have any "companion" app that can do this? If you have you know, at least, that it's possible to do it in SW.
If the HW manufacturer provides his own SDK that would be the first place where I would check for such a feature.
You may also have a look at the keybd_gen API in CE, this can be used to generate an emulated pressure of the F8 key. But I'm not too confident that this will work, since the key may be managed inside the keybd driver or at a lever lower than the one affected by that API and, in any case, it may be tricky to keep track of the keyboard state if the user presses that key when not running your app.
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 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
Can anyone point to libraries that can be used for Printing from Compact .Net Framework 1.0?
Criteria:
I need to be able to print Text and Bar codes.
The library should preferably be upgradable to .Net 2.0 or above with minimal disruption.
Can be either Open Source [that can be distributed as part of Commercial application] or that can be purchased.
Edit
More information:
We are an ISV and this application is sold to our customers.
This application is usually installed on Symbol, Opticon devices. But occasionally this is installed on a generic Windows Mobile PDA or Phone devices.
I want the library to work with Printers from multiple vendors. [I now have printers from O'Neil and Citizen-Systems for testing].
We want the printers to be connected using bluetooth. I guess the library should in general work with any serial port connections.
PrinterCE.NetCF from FieldSoftware appears to fit the bill. Thanks ctacke. I am looking for something similar.
Thanks,
Kishore
You've not given us much detail, like the device you're using or the printer type you want to print to (local, lan, serial, network, etc), however I'll see if I can at least point you in the right direction.
The de-facto standard for CF printing is PrinterCE from Field Software. PrintBoy from Bachmann Software also works well. I'm not certain if eitehr has the ability to print barcodes though.
Now if you're printing barcodes, that suggests that you're using a device like a Symbol (now Motorola) or Intermec handheld. If that is the case then those manufacturers have their own SDKs that allow printing.
If you are printing to something like a Zebra barcode printer, they typically have some serial PCL commands for printing barcodes as well, so you don't actually need to "print" the barcode. Instead you send the PCL command to tell the printer that the data should be output a barcode instead of text. The printer manufacturer can provide a PCL reference, as the PCL for these types of things isn't standardized.