Java Barcode reading, creating and printing

[iceman42]

I'm looking for information or ideas on implementing barcode functionality for my pos/inventory system. anyone know of where I can find good tutorials and studies of how this could be best accomplished?

[cjard]

seeing as i work as a programmer of such systems, i have a couple of ideas..

there are 2 types of barcode scanner in the world:

rs232 and keyboard wedge

rs232 are serial port scanners. any barcode they scan appears on the serial port as a sequence of numbers.
keyboard wedge are like intelligent keyboards; you connect the scanner to a ps2 keyboard port, scan the barcode and the scanner literally "presses" the number buttons 5, 0, 3, 1, 2 ... finally "pressing" return at the end, just as though the user typed the barcode and presssed return

KWedge are the easiest to use; any JTextField can accept their input

create/print is a simple matter too. use a barcode font, and print out the number of the barcode, with the font set to the barcode font. one such example is IDAutomation39, a free numerical-only barcode font. IDA will sell you a version of the font that does alphamerical characters if you need them, the only thing to remember is to put a * at either end of the code, so barcode 541346151603 becomes *541346151603*.. oh, and codes less than 4 digits long, dont scan

[iceman42]

Well thank you for that information input. If you dont mind me asking during that project did you run into any issues or have things that you would look out for?

[cjard]

no, but then.. i program the epos using vb

there really arent any major traps, cos like i say, theres nothing specifically epos... everything you do can be written and tested on a normal pc..

[java49]

If you are looking to create on-screen or print barcodes, an Open Source API exists on SourceForge. The project is called Barbecue and is located directly at http://sourceforge.net/projects/barbecue/

However, I have not yet tried it...