[Advanced-java] barcoding system.

[Crane, Shawn R (N-MAXIM Group)]

Joel,

I haven't used Java for bar codes, but I have used other languages and
basically what you want to do is get a reader that has a serial interface.
Then plug it into the serial port and either send commands to it or read bar
codes as just plain ASCII commands.  The ones I've seen have a simple ASCII
interface that you can use; basically they send the bar code when they read
it if you set them up for fully automatic, or you can send a command to tell
them when to read.  It all depends on the model for what the command syntax
and setup procedures are.

It's been a few years since I worked with them, but they shouldn't be
substantially different now.

As far as using Java, I've used the Java serial interface package on
Windows, and it worked great.  It's easy to read and write with it, so it
should work great for bar codes.

The hard part isn't the code, but configuring the bar code reader correctly
and getting someone to mount it properly (these were industrial applications
so they were supposed to work fully automatically).

Good luck!

Shawn R. Crane
shawn.r.crane@lmco.com
(618) 628-3195


-----Original Message-----
From: Joel Thompson [mailto:joel@rhinosystemsinc.com]
Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2003 1:11 AM
To: advanced-java@lists.xcf.berkeley.edu
Cc: joel@rhinosystemsinc.com
Subject: [Advanced-java] barcoding system.


I would like to know if anyone can recommend a
simple (hopefully inexpensive, but not necessarily)
barcode reader that I can attach to a parallel,
serial, or usb port of a Windows (or LINUX) machine
and use a Java API (is there one? I am sure there has to be) to read
barcode labels, and deliver me an ID.

Another part of this equation is to somehow get the
barcodes (can you buy sheets of barcodes that you can
just peel off and paste on the object you want to
track?). Then I'd run the reader over the label, and
assign my object to that ID.  Can you buy such labels and
will they work with any barcode reader?

I would be interacting with a database, obviously to
store all the object information, that I want to
track (by barcode ID).

Thanks,
Joel


_______________________________________________
Advanced-java mailing list
Advanced-java@lists.xcf.berkeley.edu
http://lists.xcf.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/advanced-java