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Anyone used QR barcodes with VFP?
- Thread starter GriffMG
- Start date
Olaf Doschke
Programmer
That has been discussed a few times over at Experts-Exchange.com
One way is to use Google:
You need to urlencode data, but that's quite simple via %xy, with xy being hex code of the asc() value, eg %20 for space.
Google might limit you to a few codes per hour, but you don't need an account or API key or credentials. This might also change.
There are OCXes and DLLs out there for sure, especially OCXes are of course easy to use in VFP.
Bye, Olaf.
One way is to use Google:
You need to urlencode data, but that's quite simple via %xy, with xy being hex code of the asc() value, eg %20 for space.
Google might limit you to a few codes per hour, but you don't need an account or API key or credentials. This might also change.
There are OCXes and DLLs out there for sure, especially OCXes are of course easy to use in VFP.
Bye, Olaf.
Olaf Doschke
Programmer
If you don't know how to get the picture, simply:
DECLARE INTEGER URLDownloadToFile IN urlmon.dll;
INTEGER pCaller,;
STRING szURL,;
STRING szFileName,;
INTEGER dwReserved,;
INTEGER lpfnCB
UrlDownloadToFile(0,"
Bye, Olaf.
DECLARE INTEGER URLDownloadToFile IN urlmon.dll;
INTEGER pCaller,;
STRING szURL,;
STRING szFileName,;
INTEGER dwReserved,;
INTEGER lpfnCB
UrlDownloadToFile(0,"
Bye, Olaf.
Mike Lewis
Programmer
Griff, do you want to print the codes, or read them?
If the former, there are a few ActiveX controls around that will do that for you. A couple of possibilities:
(I have no experience of these. I just happened to see the websites.)
Mike
__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)
Visual FoxPro articles, tips, training, consultancy
If the former, there are a few ActiveX controls around that will do that for you. A couple of possibilities:
(I have no experience of these. I just happened to see the websites.)
Mike
__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)
Visual FoxPro articles, tips, training, consultancy
- Thread starter
- #5
Not really sure what I want to do yet Mike.
I have an idea (maybe half an idea) - given to me by someone else - that if I could
put some specific information on a document in the form of a barcode, then users could
have a web site up on their smartphones scan the barcode and be told if their document
was the up to date revision.
Snag is that the originators of the documents cannot be relied on to put the barcode
on themselves (they don't even get the title, document number, revision, or any other
critical detail right most of the time). So, I need a way of taking a .pdf and watermarking
it with a barcode that a smartphone can scan and insert into a text box on a web site
or perhaps into the address bar on a browser...
I don't have a smartphone, I have a 'thickphone', so I don't know if barcode reading is
a built in thing, like inserting a wedge between a keyboard and a PC used to be good for
simple barcode reading applications.
Regards
Griff
Keep [Smile]ing
There are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
I have an idea (maybe half an idea) - given to me by someone else - that if I could
put some specific information on a document in the form of a barcode, then users could
have a web site up on their smartphones scan the barcode and be told if their document
was the up to date revision.
Snag is that the originators of the documents cannot be relied on to put the barcode
on themselves (they don't even get the title, document number, revision, or any other
critical detail right most of the time). So, I need a way of taking a .pdf and watermarking
it with a barcode that a smartphone can scan and insert into a text box on a web site
or perhaps into the address bar on a browser...
I don't have a smartphone, I have a 'thickphone', so I don't know if barcode reading is
a built in thing, like inserting a wedge between a keyboard and a PC used to be good for
simple barcode reading applications.
Regards
Griff
Keep [Smile]ing
There are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
After having heard an NPR piece a few weeks ago about the seeming diminished popularity of QR codes, you might want to consider if this is just some transient marketing fad or not.
And with that in mind, do you want to incorporate it into your application.
With that in mind, you might want to look at the Google 'finds' for:
qr codes popularity
and
qr codes popularity diminishing
Some say YES, others say NO.
Good Luck,
JRB-Bldr
And with that in mind, do you want to incorporate it into your application.
With that in mind, you might want to look at the Google 'finds' for:
qr codes popularity
and
qr codes popularity diminishing
Some say YES, others say NO.
Good Luck,
JRB-Bldr
- Thread starter
- #7
Mike Lewis
Programmer
Griff, I haven't had much experience with QR codes, but my initial reaction is that what you described sounds over-complicated. Could you not achieve the same goal by having the user simply type a numeric code into a web page, or even by simply visiting a web page that's specific to the document in question?
Where QR codes come into their own is when the user is out and about, and wants more details to support some information they are viewing. For example, they might see an estate agent's board advertising a flat to rent, so they scan the code to find the rent, entry date, etc. But, whatever the application, the use of a QR code should always be an optional extra, in my opinion - not something that the user has to do to achieve his goal.
As you know, not everyone owns a smartphone, and not everyone who owns one is comfortable using QR codes. Personally, I don't even carry a "scruffy phone" (which is what I call what you call a "thick phone"). I realise that's very unusual. My ambition is to become the last person in my city not to have a mobile phone. There are a couple of nonagenarians ahead of me, but apart from them I am on track.
Mike
__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)
Visual FoxPro articles, tips, training, consultancy
Where QR codes come into their own is when the user is out and about, and wants more details to support some information they are viewing. For example, they might see an estate agent's board advertising a flat to rent, so they scan the code to find the rent, entry date, etc. But, whatever the application, the use of a QR code should always be an optional extra, in my opinion - not something that the user has to do to achieve his goal.
As you know, not everyone owns a smartphone, and not everyone who owns one is comfortable using QR codes. Personally, I don't even carry a "scruffy phone" (which is what I call what you call a "thick phone"). I realise that's very unusual. My ambition is to become the last person in my city not to have a mobile phone. There are a couple of nonagenarians ahead of me, but apart from them I am on track.
Mike
__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)
Visual FoxPro articles, tips, training, consultancy
- Thread starter
- #9
Hi Mike,
There is a web site, they could do that now, the snag is that they would need a pretty close match
(having correctly located the portal, project and orginator) to an obscure numbering scheme such as this:
1331-350-R505 SH1-4
(I *think* there are two spaces between the R505 and the SH in the above example)
The number on the document is quite likely to be in a different format and may use dots, dashes or slashes
and the originator may have added a prefix on the actual drawing and not put it in the register... so the
chances of a kitchen tiler finding the right drawing out of about 20,000 or so on a given project are just
about zilch.
Hence, thought I, as the filename actually had to match my records (the records in my database) and is not changeable,
if I simply printed the project, originator and filename in a barcode using a watermark on the pdf... a quick scan
could take the user to the right place... but, in a simple barcode that information would not be very dense
and the barcode could be ten inches long... a QR can hold quite a lot of data in a more dense/compact format.
But, I'm still not 100% sure it's worthwhile.
Regards
Griff
Keep [Smile]ing
There are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
There is a web site, they could do that now, the snag is that they would need a pretty close match
(having correctly located the portal, project and orginator) to an obscure numbering scheme such as this:
1331-350-R505 SH1-4
(I *think* there are two spaces between the R505 and the SH in the above example)
The number on the document is quite likely to be in a different format and may use dots, dashes or slashes
and the originator may have added a prefix on the actual drawing and not put it in the register... so the
chances of a kitchen tiler finding the right drawing out of about 20,000 or so on a given project are just
about zilch.
Hence, thought I, as the filename actually had to match my records (the records in my database) and is not changeable,
if I simply printed the project, originator and filename in a barcode using a watermark on the pdf... a quick scan
could take the user to the right place... but, in a simple barcode that information would not be very dense
and the barcode could be ten inches long... a QR can hold quite a lot of data in a more dense/compact format.
But, I'm still not 100% sure it's worthwhile.
Regards
Griff
Keep [Smile]ing
There are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
Mike Lewis
Programmer
I completely agree that you don't want them to have to type the likes of 1331-350-R505 SH1-4. But can you not assign an additional number to each document, in the shape of a much shorter, user-friendly code of some kind? After all, a number in form AA9999 should be easy enough to type, and it will give you around 660,000 unique combinations.
Maybe the answer is to have both: the short number and the QR code. Give 'em the option.
Just a thought. You know your users better than I do.
Mike
__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)
Visual FoxPro articles, tips, training, consultancy
Maybe the answer is to have both: the short number and the QR code. Give 'em the option.
Just a thought. You know your users better than I do.
Mike
__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)
Visual FoxPro articles, tips, training, consultancy
- Thread starter
- #11
- Thread starter
- #12
You do have a point though, each revision has a project wide unique number
would be a bit shorter than the alternative...
Regards
Griff
Keep [Smile]ing
There are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
would be a bit shorter than the alternative...
Regards
Griff
Keep [Smile]ing
There are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
TamarGranor
Programmer
To answer some of your questions:
1) I know it's possible to do QR codes with VFP because Rick Schummer does them for the Southwest Fox name badges.
2) You have to have an app on the phone to handle QR codes. I don't know whether newer phones come with such an app or not. (I have a smart phone, but it's a couple of years old.)
That said, it is pretty cool technology (even if it is becoming less popular).
Tamar
1) I know it's possible to do QR codes with VFP because Rick Schummer does them for the Southwest Fox name badges.
2) You have to have an app on the phone to handle QR codes. I don't know whether newer phones come with such an app or not. (I have a smart phone, but it's a couple of years old.)
That said, it is pretty cool technology (even if it is becoming less popular).
Tamar
Olaf Doschke
Programmer
>...then users could have a web site up on their smartphones scan the barcode and be told if their document was the up to date revision.
Well, you can embed whatever info into a QR code, so that would be a link like and a script could then tell the user if xyz is the current version or there is a newer one. If you need to modify a pdf to include a page with a QR code, you could also put in the link, much easier, if a user reads the pdf at a computer or reader. If a pdf is printed, an accompanying QR code could make a user having a smart phone at hand check the document version without a pc, reader or scuh device, so the overall idea is plausable.
Visiting a link embedded in a QR code is a standard action triggered by a QR code decoding app. At the link you embed you can simply return yes/no or in case of no a link to the newer PDF version.
Overall it looks like combining paperback with internet. With magazines pointing to more detailed and up-to-date info that's not unusual, to determine a doc version of a file, you could rather use the file version attribute or cause an automatic update, when a doc is opened, like with an application. I don't know if that sounds better, but it would be possible to put the newest version of a pdf at some constant link and make a (self extracting) executable loading that newest version for display.
In the shortest form, that solution would simply be a constant link to the newest document version itself. A user doesn't need anything else but internet access to open that newest version, which seems to be the outset, if you want the QR code to tell them, if they got the newest version. That needs to be queried at some web page, so a user needs internet access. Or how do you want to determine that? You could embed "this is the newest version" into the QR code, then a user would always be satisfied
That's as up to date as the date printed on a newspaper. Correct for that date.
Bye, Olaf.
Well, you can embed whatever info into a QR code, so that would be a link like and a script could then tell the user if xyz is the current version or there is a newer one. If you need to modify a pdf to include a page with a QR code, you could also put in the link, much easier, if a user reads the pdf at a computer or reader. If a pdf is printed, an accompanying QR code could make a user having a smart phone at hand check the document version without a pc, reader or scuh device, so the overall idea is plausable.
Visiting a link embedded in a QR code is a standard action triggered by a QR code decoding app. At the link you embed you can simply return yes/no or in case of no a link to the newer PDF version.
Overall it looks like combining paperback with internet. With magazines pointing to more detailed and up-to-date info that's not unusual, to determine a doc version of a file, you could rather use the file version attribute or cause an automatic update, when a doc is opened, like with an application. I don't know if that sounds better, but it would be possible to put the newest version of a pdf at some constant link and make a (self extracting) executable loading that newest version for display.
In the shortest form, that solution would simply be a constant link to the newest document version itself. A user doesn't need anything else but internet access to open that newest version, which seems to be the outset, if you want the QR code to tell them, if they got the newest version. That needs to be queried at some web page, so a user needs internet access. Or how do you want to determine that? You could embed "this is the newest version" into the QR code, then a user would always be satisfied
That's as up to date as the date printed on a newspaper. Correct for that date.Bye, Olaf.
- Thread starter
- #15
Hi Olaf
That's helpful.
We are talking about big old pieces of paper, while people do try and read them on tablets, even PCs, it's always
the case that they need the paper copy to meet around, pour coffee over, scale off (even when it says do not scale)
and all the other things people do on building sites...
But if, as you say, the common use of QR codes is to take the user to a web address, with loaded parameters - this
looks like it could be a goer.
All I need to do is put the watermark on the document before it is printed. 'Should be a piece of Cake'
Perhaps
Regards
Griff
Keep [Smile]ing
There are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
That's helpful.
We are talking about big old pieces of paper, while people do try and read them on tablets, even PCs, it's always
the case that they need the paper copy to meet around, pour coffee over, scale off (even when it says do not scale)
and all the other things people do on building sites...
But if, as you say, the common use of QR codes is to take the user to a web address, with loaded parameters - this
looks like it could be a goer.
All I need to do is put the watermark on the document before it is printed. 'Should be a piece of Cake'
Perhaps
Regards
Griff
Keep [Smile]ing
There are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
Griff - my point about the popularity of the QR codes is that they are currently being used primarily for auxiliary Marketing purposes ("go here to visually find out more info on this item") as opposed to other barcodes which are typically being used for information purposes related to some form of automation.
If your users are going to use the codes to go physically 'look at something' then fine (at least until Marketing comes up with the next approach), but if you are intending to use the barcodes for some form of automated data gathering/tracking/logging/etc. then another code might be a better choice.
Good Luck,
JRB-Bldr
If your users are going to use the codes to go physically 'look at something' then fine (at least until Marketing comes up with the next approach), but if you are intending to use the barcodes for some form of automated data gathering/tracking/logging/etc. then another code might be a better choice.
Good Luck,
JRB-Bldr
- Thread starter
- #17
Mike Lewis
Programmer
Could be. But another way of looking at is that QR codes are designed for consumers, who can scan them with their smart phones, whereas conventional bar codes are intended for commercial and industrial applications, where dedicated equipment is used. But I might be wrong about that.
Mike
__________________________________
Mike Lewis (Edinburgh, Scotland)
Visual FoxPro articles, tips, training, consultancy
Olaf Doschke
Programmer
Well, one major commercial use for QR codes is onoline tickets, train, flight, perhaps also concert. In an EAN13 line code you can embed 12 decimals info +1 check digit. 2d QR codes are not limited, just by being scannable again. Eg german train tickets have about 8x8 inch size. Ticket inspectors have industrial scanners, for sure, these devices scan in 2 directions with a laser and not via OCR.
Bye, Olaf.
Bye, Olaf.
Yes, 2-D barcodes can certainly contain more information, but are those used in non-consumer applications really QR codes?
The variety of 2-D barcode symbologies are:
* PDF417
* DataMatrix
* Maxicode (also sometimes called: UPScode)
* QR Code
* Data Code
* Code 49
* 16K
For example: UPS was using the Maxicode symbology long before the rise of QR codes.
Are the Tickets (train, flight, etc.) really using QR codes or are they using one of the other 2-D barcode symbologies?
JRB-Bldr
The variety of 2-D barcode symbologies are:
* PDF417
* DataMatrix
* Maxicode (also sometimes called: UPScode)
* QR Code
* Data Code
* Code 49
* 16K
For example: UPS was using the Maxicode symbology long before the rise of QR codes.
Are the Tickets (train, flight, etc.) really using QR codes or are they using one of the other 2-D barcode symbologies?
JRB-Bldr
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