Question

Adding barcode scanning/reading to existing program

Asked by: mindserve

What would be the best way to add barcode scanning/reading to an existing vb6 program.
The user can now manually add products once he has defined a category for the product and entered the required
fields into the database.
But simply adding a txt field to the existing won't work in this program. Should I create a new form specifically for the barcode reading and work with this? Is this how it's done.
I have no knowlege of barcode scanners and would need to do this for a customer. I don't have a way to test it out either, but the customer understands this and will work with me.
Any information anyone can provide along with links to sourcecode that you know work,,,, will be appreciated.

Also, I have questions on how to create a form which would be read by a scanner. If the product database requires price, sales tax , category etc for each product entered, how would a user be able to scan the product from the vendor into the database? Would a form created have to have all those fields? I am in the dark completely on this.
Jamie

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Asked On
2003-08-30 at 06:52:34ID20724516
Tags

vb6

,

barcodes

,

read

Topics

Visual Basic Programming

,

Point of Sale

Participating Experts
3
Points
500
Comments
6

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Answers

 

by: bingiePosted on 2003-08-30 at 07:26:14ID: 9253983

Check out these links:

How Barcodes Work:
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/upc.htm


Reading Data From The Com Port
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Programming/Programming_Languages/Visual_Basic/Q_20721710.html

To Purchase Bar Code Equiptment
http://www.barcodehq.com/G2/index.html
http://www.zebra.com


I have programmed many terminals to print and read barcodes with Zebera products.

I can assist with any questions, But the documentation included with the printers/readers are really easy to understand.

greg

 

by: bingiePosted on 2003-08-30 at 07:33:23ID: 9253999

Oops, I'll now answer the rest of your questions:

>>What would be the best way to add barcode scanning/reading to an existing vb6 program.

Most barcode scanners are connected to the Com port. The baud rate, parity, etc. is included in the documentation for the scanner so you can set the port parameters properly.

>>The user can now manually add products once he has defined a category for the product and entered the required
fields into the database.But simply adding a txt field to the existing won't work in this program. Should I create a new form specifically for the barcode reading and work with this? Is this how it's done.

In my POS system at work, the UPC code is stored in another field with the rest of the item data. In the relational DB, if UPC 1 is scanned, the system has access to the Products description, Cost, selling.....

>>I have no knowlege of barcode scanners and would need to do this for a customer. I don't have a way to test it out either, but the customer understands this and will work with me. Any information anyone can provide along with links to sourcecode that you know work,,,, will be appreciated.

See above

>>Also, I have questions on how to create a form which would be read by a scanner. If the product database requires price, sales tax , category etc for each product entered, how would a user be able to scan the product from the vendor into the database? Would a form created have to have all those fields? I am in the dark completely on this.

No. You must have one field in the record that is individual to that item. For instance, an item number. Item number 5585 is related to UPC 0000265523. Thus when 00265523 is scanned, the item number 5585 is called. Then the other fields can be found from this item number. At work, we print all our own bar codes and the UPC is the same as the item number.


Greg

 

by: mindservePosted on 2003-08-30 at 08:31:17ID: 9254151

A couple of other questions Bingie:
http://www.barcodehq.com/primer.html
I was at the site you gave me above and read up on both the Wedge and Serial Readers. It seems that these are the easiest to program. Actually, the Wedge needs nothing as far as any coding goes ( is this true?), but an extra  txtfield would have to be added and it would then read the barcode input to it as a simple txtfield. The serial reader uses the com port. So what I am asking is if your code that you gave as a link would work  for a serial reader? And I guess if so, then every scanner would have it's own com port settings or is this basically standard?
& Sorry for all the stupid questions....Jamie

Which one would you suggest????
I already can add a simple txtfield to the database for the scanner, and the serial com port is equally easy to implement.



 

by: bingiePosted on 2003-08-30 at 10:17:10ID: 9254477

The wedge reader describes its output to be like a keyboard. If so, the only coding needed would be to set focus to the text box when your are scanning:

txtBarCode.setfocus

would place the barcode data in the text box. Then you would need code to show the other data, which is not hard.

Even the Com Port (Serial) scanner is easy to use with the proper settings.  Each unit probably has it's own settings BUT if you are selling a commercial product, you can just save the settings in a DB and have a menu where the user selects which scanner they are using. The proper parameters are set based on the data stored in the DB, with an option to use "user specified" settings if needed.

Which would I suggest? What ever fits your budget. I'd reccomend buying a scanner with good reviews. The best way to get it to work is to connect it and try. It's almost impossible to configure the reader without having one at your disposable. The manual will contain all necessary information needed to connect and configure, and if not, it should be available on the net.

greg


 

by: dmakwanaPosted on 2003-11-05 at 08:47:36ID: 9688083

That means I can scan on my asp web page too..?

 

by: aot2002Posted on 2003-11-18 at 17:37:14ID: 9775666

with a ps2 port scanner / wedge scanner you can

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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