Question MS Access and Barcode Scanners / Barcode Label Printers (1 Viewer)

[jonathanchye]

I am thinking of implementing barcode scanning in one of my Access 2010 databases. It currently prints out barcodes using font but I would like to improve on that further.

1) Barcode Scanners
Am I right in saying that these devices should work the same as any HID devices? I.E once scanned it should capture the barcode and save it as numeric numbers into the database? Has anyone tried this with an MS Access database?

2) Barcode label printers
I've only done brief research but most of them seem to come with their own programming language. How hard is it to setup barcode label printers to read data from an Access backend?

Am I over complicating things? I would presume modern barcode label printers would just work like a normal printer so it doesn't "read" the data from tables but rather prints from a report as long as I format my report in the correct dimensions?

Any thoughts very welcomed. Thank you!

 

[pbaldy]

I've used scanners with several apps. It would be more accurate to say the scanner provides keyboard input. It won't "save it as numeric numbers into the database", it will simply input the barcode into a textbox. You have to handle the input. By the way, barcodes can be alphanumeric.

I haven't done much printing, so I'll leave 2 for someone who has.

 

[jonathanchye]

I've used scanners with several apps. It would be more accurate to say the scanner provides keyboard input. It won't "save it as numeric numbers into the database", it will simply input the barcode into a textbox. You have to handle the input. By the way, barcodes can be alphanumeric.
/QUOTE]

Thanks! This is just what I was hoping for

I am now hoping the printers will also work in the same manner too without the need for special interface/coding...

 

[pbaldy]

No problem!

 

[jonathanchye]

Well done a lot of research on the barcode part and because of the EAN/UCC 128 barcode requirements it's not as easy as just using a barcode font for the string I generate...

There's some kind of algorithm for UCC 128 which makes the barcode much more compact. I've found some free examples but more of them doesn't seem to generate the barcode I want - it seems that I will have to pay for the proper solution.

Because I propose this additional cost to my boss can anyone give any input on this? I have the standard barcode font installed (Code 128.ttf) and have tried to generate barcode straight from the string and also from the code which encodes the string but to no avail...