iPhone 5 frequent misreads on barcode scans

[DavidW]

I have a PhoneGap app that I've made that implements the ZXing plugin.  It all works fine.  However, we recently got an iPhone 5 to try it out on and have noticed that it has a 50% failure rate at reading the correct barcode.

An example barcode I would expect: LANTSB120

But infact it returns something like this: LA%&ST20
(actual example)

It's not 100% perfect on other devices and other versions of iOS, but it's close enough.

Is there something I can do to improve this for iPhone 5?

[Sean Owen]

What format? It's likely a bug that was fixed a while ago in Java, like something to do with PDF417 modes. I have no idea how ancient the PhoneGap fork, of the C++ port, is.

[DavidW]

We're mainly using Code 128 barcodes and that is where we've seen the trouble.  I tried a PDF417 code out of curiosity, but it seems that they aren't detected  in the version I have.

[Sean Owen]

As far as I can tell the Code128 reader was ported forever ago in Feb 2010, and nothing was ported since. I see fixes for shift-related issues in Nov 2010 and June 2011. You can see if the java version is OK: http://zxing.org/w/decode.jspx  If so consider re-porting this code.

[Steven Parkes]

The Code128 reader was part of the 1D upgrade I committed in April. I didn't port every line but the results on the blackbox tests were at parity with the Java at the time. There may be some more recent updates that I haven't had time to apply yet. I should get to those soon, if they're relevant.

My suspicion is that the version of zxing in phonegap doesn't include the changes from April, but that's just a guess, since I have no idea how phonegap is built.

On Aug 1, 2013, at 8:27 AM, Sean Owen <sro...@gmail.com> wrote:

> As far as I can tell the Code128 reader was ported forever ago in Feb 2010, and nothing was ported since. I see fixes for shift-related issues in Nov 2010 and June 2011. You can see if the java version is OK: http://zxing.org/w/decode.jspx If so consider re-porting this code.
>

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[Sean Owen]

Oops, my bad, I missed your update. But yes I agree with your assessment that the phonegap fork is older than that.

[Christian Frauscher]

I encountered the same problem with code 128 barcodes - it works fine on Android: scans fast and 100% correct. But on iOS it is a pain to detect anything and if it scans it will return a wrong code most of the time. :\

I was searching for another PhoneGap compatible BarcodeScanner Plugin, but without luck so far. I'm already very confused with XCode - so i don't think i could ever do a working port on my own.