Barcode software / system to work with web site

need to integrate on and offline systems

[Crazy_Fool]

I've got a client that wants to "integrate" stock control in their stores with their website. There are many other options beyond stock control but they'll be added later.

This is roughly how they want it to work:
Ideally they want to use barcode scanners to scan in product being sent out. The software will have a database of customer details. They will go to a customer account then scan each item to be sent. Customer and item details are displayed on screen. They then hit the Enter key to confirm that all is correct and send the details to a script on the remote web server (just like web forms send name/value pairs to scripts on the server). The server scripts would be written by us in ASP / PHP or Perl. There is no need to receive a reply from the server. There is no need to store the scanned data on the local machine.

So, does anyone know of any barcode software that will send details to remote servers like this? The software does not (at this time) need to do any more than this. I've searched the net but can't find anything suitable. Any clues?

[txbakers]

I use barcoding in my web based applications.

Barcoding is not mysterious at all. It is really a quick way of data entry. Think of it as a fancy keyboard.

When you scan a barcode, that information is essentially typed into the box.

Scanners have the ability to send an "enter" or "tab" or other special character along with the code.

For example, in my application, a teacher has a list of students with their ID number in barcode. To pull up information on that student, she just scans the code; the form is submitted and the information appears on the web page.

If you want the website to print barcodes you'll need to have special barcode font installed. You can find them for free on a Google search.

[IanTurner]

You will need to get an SDK for your barcode scanner and develop a VB/C++ (or other) app which integrates into IE. Essentially fairly simple - we have done similar for fingerprint and prox card systems already.

[Crazy_Fool]

>>she just scans the code; the form is submitted and the
>>information appears on the web page.

alas, you missed out the bit i need - getting the scanned data sent from the local host machine software to the remote server

>>You will need to get an SDK for your barcode scanner and
>>develop a VB/C++ (or other) app which integrates into IE

that's what i was afraid of - we can do C/C++ and VB (among others) but we don't have time to deal with this as well and the client won't foot the bill for extra development costs. is there a pre-built software application that could be easily configured?

[IanTurner]

I don't know of anyhthing that is pre-built for this. We couldn't find anything for prox or fingerprint so we had to write our own.

It took about three days to get the prox information into the browser.

The real key is the SDK for the reader - if this is any good it will give you quite a lot of code.

[txbakers]

getting the scanned data sent from the local host machine software to the remote server

I didn't miss the point, I do it every day. How do you currently get data from the host machine to the remote server? Via a web form, right?

The scanner is just an input device. It will submit a form just as if the user pressed enter or clicked a submit button.

I don't use anything other than regular web forms with the scanner.

If you want a demo, drop me a line and I'll show you.

[web_guy]

There is a canned package that accomplishes what you're trying to do on-line. There's a product from Wasp Bar Code called WebComponents, and it does exactly what you're trying to do. I don't know if this is allowed, but here's a link to the product you're looking for: www.waspbarcode.com/barcode_software/webcomponents.asp

Hope this helps.

[edited by: DaveAtIFG at 12:42 am (utc) on Dec. 14, 2002]
[edit reason] Dlinked [/edit]

[sun818]

How about sending the data as an e-mail? I know some programs like PerlDesk can accept incoming e-mail and parse the data out correctly into a database.