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Scanning From Web Pages

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Sean Owen edited this page Jul 3, 2017 · 2 revisions

Android

On Android, you can invoke Barcode Scanner from a web page and have the result returned to your site via a callback URL. For example, when 01234 is scanned, to have the user return to http://foo.com/products/01234/description, simply link to a URL like this, where {CODE} is a placeholder for the value of the returned code:

http://zxing.appspot.com/scan?ret=http%3A%2F%2Ffoo.com%2Fproducts%2F%7BCODE%7D%2Fdescription&SCAN_FORMATS=UPC_A,EAN_13

Note that the URL in the ret= parameter is URL-escaped, and that {CODE} is used as a placeholder for the scanned value (above, it appears as %7BCODE%7D). SCAN_FORMATS, and other parameters, can be set here as well to control the scan behavior. For example is can be used to supply a comma-separated list of format names.

Additional placeholders are available in the URL pattern:

  • {CODE}: the formatted content of the barcode, or the raw content (unparsed) if raw=true
  • {RAWCODE}: the raw content (unparsed)
  • {FORMAT}: the name of the barcode format scanned like UPC_A
  • {TYPE}: the name of the type of parsed content, like PRODUCT
  • {META}: a string representation of the scan metadata, like {POSSIBLE_COUNTRY=US/CA}

The following URL also works, and some have found it works where the HTTP URL above doesn't. This also shows usage of SCAN_FORMATS:

zxing://scan/?ret=http%3A%2F%2Ffoo.com%2Fproducts%2F%7BCODE%7D%2Fdescription&SCAN_FORMATS=UPC_A,EAN_13

Custom search URL

Separately, users can specify a custom search URL to invoke when a barcode is scanned with the Android app Barcode Scanner. When set under Settings, a Custom Search button will appear. The search URL can contain two placeholders: %s for the barcode content, %t the type, and %f for the format. For example, http://example.org/?q=%s&format=%f&type=%t might invoke, on a scan, a URL like http://example.org/?q=10359050900&format=EAN_13&type=PRODUCT

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