Forum Moderators: phranque
I am doing a resaerch on easy way to get data from barcode scanners to a web form on the host station of the scanner. I would like to scan multiple items, i.e., a ID card, a plate id tag, and few more other items. And then I can push the submit button to submit the web form.
A while ago someone had discussed about this topic. However the message is not detail enough to enable me to choose a barcode scanner and the associated SDK. Can you help me?
Thanks in advance
A barcode scanner is nothing more than an input device like a keyboard. In fact, mine shares the same DB2 port as the keyboard.
The scanner translates the barcode into ascii text. It's a shortcut, nothing more.
When you scan a barcode, the "number" will appear in your text box on the form. You can scan as many as you like, then click submit.
The scanner can be configured to submit automatically after each read, or to insert a tab (great for forms), or do nothing after each read. That is up to you when you configure the device. By default, they are usually set to send a CarriageReturn after scanning once.
There are various companies from which you can buy a scanner. WASP is one of the biggest.
Thank You.
Let me rephase what you have just tell me: Say if I bring up a Web form, which has mutiple input fields. For example, employeeID, toolID, plateID, etc.. Then I will move my mouse cursor to a field, say employeeID, if I scan the employee ID card, the barcode will be translated to ascii and the ascii text will be shown in the employeeID field. Is that what you meant?
In that case, I can program the barcode scanner to insert "tab" instead of "return" so it will automatically jump to next field. That's cool.
By the way I am looking at the Metrologic 9520 scanner. Do you like Wasp scanners better than Metrologic?
Best Regards
Jeff
I don't know that brand of Scanner, having only used WASP. I'm a dealer and reseller for them as well.
My page has two forms, each with one field. First is the field for the shipment barcode and second is the field for the barcode of the location the shipment is moved to. I open the page focused on the first field and once the barcode is scanned and populates the field, the onSubmit event triggers some code that I have to validate the barcode and then sets the focus to form number two while passing the value of form one to form two, where I scan the location. If all data is good I post the results to a processing page that updates the shipping system.
There's alot more to the particular app, but you get the idea and it works pretty good.
Dave
