Bar Code Scanner

[Rob Fogle]

How would I integrate a bar code scanner into my code to
allow scanning of id cards, parking passes and textbooks?

[Lee Mitchell]

Hi Rob:

There are several downloads regarding the use of bar codes in Visual FoxPro
on www.universalthread.com. Go to Universalthread, click on the Download
icon, choose Visual FoxPro as the product and search on these download
examples:

Code39--Download ID 9177

How to use Barcode Fonts with FoxPro--Download ID 9901

Barcode font--Download ID 9121

I hope this helps.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Sincerely,
Microsoft FoxPro Technical Support
Lee Mitchell

*-- VFP8 HAS ARRIVED!! --*
Read about all the new features of VFP8 here:
http://www.universalthread.com/VisualFoxPro/News/VFP8Release.asp
Purchase VFP8 here:
http://shop.microsoft.com/Referral/Productinfo.asp?siteID=11518

Keep an eye on the product lifecycle for Visual FoxPro here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?id=fh;[ln];lifeprodv
- VFP5 Mainstream Support retires June 30th, 2003
- VFP6 Mainstream Support retires Sep. 30th, 2003

[Lee Mitchell]

Hi Rob:

There are several downloads regarding the use of bar codes in Visual FoxPro
on www.universalthread.com. Go to Universalthread, click on the Download
icon, choose Visual FoxPro as the product and search on these download
examples:

Code39--Download ID 9177

How to use Barcode Fonts with FoxPro--Download ID 9901

Barcode font--Download ID 9121

I hope this helps.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Sincerely,
Microsoft FoxPro Technical Support
Lee Mitchell

*-- VFP8 HAS ARRIVED!! --*
Read about all the new features of VFP8 here:
http://www.universalthread.com/VisualFoxPro/News/VFP8Release.asp
Purchase VFP8 here:
http://shop.microsoft.com/Referral/Productinfo.asp?siteID=11518

Keep an eye on the product lifecycle for Visual FoxPro here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?id=fh;[ln];lifeprodv
- VFP5 Mainstream Support retires June 30th, 2003
- VFP6 Mainstream Support retires Sep. 30th, 2003

[Eric den Doop]

Hello, Rob!
You wrote on Wed, 18 Jun 2003 10:57:16 -0700:

RF> How would I integrate a bar code scanner into my code to
RF> allow scanning of id cards, parking passes and textbooks?

Most barcode scanners emulate key strokes. Simply catch the input in a
textbox/editbox or KeyPress() event. To display or print barcodes, you need
a barcode font. The 3 of 9 barcode font is often used. Search the web for
free fonts.
--
Eric den Doop
www.foxite.com - The Home Of The Visual FoxPro Experts - Powered By VFP8

[Neil Waterworth]

Further to Lee and Eric's posts, an alternative to the keyboard wedge, which
allows the scanner to emulate key strokes, is to capture the barcode data
via a serial port. You can do this with the MSCOMM32 ActiveX Control (aka
Microsoft Communications Control, version 6.0). Either way, the data will
be input to your code as plain text. The keyboard wedge typically consists
of a Y shaped cable with two inputs, which allows you to attach both the
scanner and a keyboard to the keyboard socket on your PC. The upside of
using the keyboard method is ease of programming (it's like someone typing
into a textbox), the downside is that the application needs "focus" all the
time (the form has to be ready to receive input when you scan, so you can't
use a different app, and scan at the same time).

Most scanners read a number of different symbologies (barcode types), which
might help you if you're scanning the ISBN barcode on a textbook, as well as
a different symbology (say Code 3 of 9) on an ID card into the same app with
the same scanner. Many scanners are programmable, so you can program them to
let your app know which scanner was used, which symbology was scanned, etc.

If you want to print barcodes, you either need a Windows (or Mac, etc)
barcode font, or a printer which has embedded barcode fonts.

This link should help (not affiliated with them, nor a customer - but useful
info),
http://www.barcodehq.com/primer.html

Neil

"Rob Fogle" <r...@deltaed.com> wrote in message
news:009901c335c3$0de19bd0$a501...@phx.gbl...

> How would I integrate a bar code scanner into my code to
> allow scanning of id cards, parking passes and textbooks?

---

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