[AccessD] Bar Code Printing/Scanning

William,

I have done bar codes a couple of times.  The first time was in Mexico at
the clothing Maquilla, where we used the keyboard wedge.  Those work fine
except that there is no control over where the data goes.  More precisely,
the data goes wherever the current focus is, which means that if the user is
able to switch away to some other app, the data will go into that app.

The second time was at the screw company where I used a Serial port scanner.
That works very well since you have complete control over when the scanner
is turned on, and the data does not even have to go into a control on a
form, i.e. it is just coming in to a serial port.  What you do with it is
your business.  Of course that means that you have to program it from the
top to the bottom, but you have absolute control.

In that app I actually used the Comm control that comes with VB6.  I wrote a
class to encapsulate an instance.  The class allowed me to set up the comm
port, start/stop/parity/baud, then turn it on / off as I desired.  The class
read the buffer from the comm control and assembled it into a string, then
raised an event and passed the string to the event sink.  I wrote another
class to sink the event and handle the bar code per se.  Thus the comm class
could be reusable, the bar code class "knew" that the string was a bar code
and how to check it, then use it.  By breaking it into those two pieces I
could have a clean testable interface.

As for which Bar code, it was too long ago to remember.  The bar code you
use depends on what you are doing with it, whether you need special
characters and all that.  Special purpose (UPC) etc.  It sounds like you
just need a simple bar code that understands upper/lower alpha / numeric.
Again though, I don't remember which barcode I ended up with.  I think it
was code 128 in the last one but not certain.

John W. Colby
www.ColbyConsulting.com 


-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of William Hindman
Sent: Monday, February 13, 2006 8:30 PM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: [AccessD] Bar Code Printing/Scanning

...have a need to print bar codes on badges that can be easily and reliably
scanned at a trade show entrance.

...the database is A2K3 but the data is merged to WXP to print the badges.

...the badge bar codes are printed with HP LJ 4050s

...printing the bar codes in Word using code 39 font works well but doesn't
produce the enter/exit control codes

...also need to know if anyone has experience with a particular hand held
scanner or manufacturer that you would ...or would not ...recommend.

...and how you've collected the data from the scanners.

...and anything else I should be aware of before leaping.

...anyone? 


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