Barcodes Archives - MightyData

Barcode Scanning in FileMaker 13

December 3, 2013 by Anders Monsen 22 Comments

A few months ago I wrote a series of articles (Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3) about barcode scanning in FileMaker Go 12. With the release of FileMaker 13, barcode scanning is now a native feature. There is no longer any need for the FileMaker Pro URL protocol and extra iOS applications.

In FileMaker 13, there is a new “Insert from Device” script step. The action is simple. Select the target field, a container, and from which device you want to insert (music library, photo library, camera, video camera, microphone, and signature).

Once you insert the barcode, you can get information about the barcode using the GetAsText( ) and GetContainerAttribute( ) functions. The former gets only the contents; the latter gets the contents and type of barcode.

There are currently 16 supported barcode types including QR Codes.

With barcode scanning now natively supported in FileMaker 13, there are more reasons to use FileMaker Go for inventory tracking and management.

Using a Web Service to Generate Barcodes

September 4, 2013 by Anders Monsen 4 Comments

Recently I came across a web service over at ProgammableWeb that generates barcodes. This might be useful if you scan barcodes, and want an alternate method to create barcodes in your FileMaker solution.

The web service, Barcodes4.me, is a RESTful service and requires no API or fee. It supports a handful of barcodes types, as well as QR codes, and requires a simple URL call. Using FileMaker 12’s Insert from URL you can send a query to this web services and insert a barcode image into a container field.

Given that this is a free service, there is no guarantee how long it will remain available or a free service. The types of barcodes available also are limited. This is still a good option to keep in mind when developing and testing a mobile solution with barcodes. I have included a small demo file to show this in action.

WebServicesDEMO.fmp12

Scanning Barcodes with FileMaker Go – Part 3

January 17, 2013 by Anders Monsen 7 Comments

In this third and last post (see Part 1 and Part 2) we look at pulling data into FileMaker Go using magnetic stripe readers. In principle this is very similar to the barcode method. A button in the FileMaker database calls an Open URL script step. This Open URL step calls the iOS app – in this case CardSwipe – and includes a callback function to the FileMaker database to run a script. The script then receives the input from the card.

"ccqfm://?" & GetAsURLEncoded ( "fmp://$/" & Get ( FileName ) & "?script=swipe¶m=" )

With the swipe action, instead of URL encoding each character, we tried using FileMaker’s native function – GetAsURLEncoded(), and this seemed to have no ill effects. Once the button is pressed, the iPhone (or iPad) switches over to CardSwipe, which is then ready for you to swipe the card.

Once the card is read by the iMag device, it immediately switches back to FileMaker and runs the “swipe” script, which reads the data. Each card that is read encodes its data differently, so extracting information is a matter of trial and error, and the text parsing process must be coded specifically to each card. Characters like “^” often separate key pieces of information. Credit Card numbers get picked up, so security becomes an issue once you read these, as storing the numbers is never recommended. Once again we split the scripts into three separate pieces to assist with any troubleshooting.

A button calls the first script, which has one purpose: Perform script #2
This script opens the iOS app using the Open URL script step, which has a callback to script #3
The script that receives the data, using a script parameter in step #2

Issues that arose in this process centered around getting the proper URL. Luckily CardSwipe has great developer documentation. However, in the example, the one that referred to a local file (vs. one on the server) used the tilde sign instead of the $ sign, which looks for a file on the device, rather than an already open file. This sometimes caused issues with locating the right file, but when switched to the $ sign the callback worked seamlessly.

The iMag Pro hardware is attached to the iPhone through the USB connectors at the bottom. I found that this connection doesn’t remain firmly seated in the iPhone 4, but works well with an iPad. The iMag came with an adapter that is supposed to allow it to stick more firmly on the iPhone, but this didn’t work with the 4 model. If the card reader doesn’t separate from the iPhone or iPad, this method is perfect for quickly reading data from a card with a magnetic stripe.

Conclusions

Getting data quickly into an iPhone/iPad by scanning barcodes or reading cards with magnetic stripes makes your process mobile. This method can be used to not just for credit card actions, but any card that can be swiped, such as ID cards. Once the data is in your app, the next question is, “what’s next?” Some time back I wrote about building a real world FileMaker app using barcode scanning and Insert from URL to reach out to external databases and pull book information using just the barcode. You also could use this process to scan people for admission to events, read student information during school lunches, or attendees at a conference. Card readers might offer ways to get data about employees, build a POS device, and check drivers licenses or insurance card for medical offices. With a small investment (or in the case of pic2shop – no cost whatsoever) your business can be set up to read data using iPhones without having to type in data, speeding up the process and eliminating typos.

Scanning Barcodes with FileMaker Go – Part 2

November 8, 2012 by Anders Monsen 35 Comments

This is part 2 in a 3-part series.

In Part 1 of this 3-part post examining bar codes, magnetic strip readers, and FileMaker Go, we looked at the tools necessary to integrate all the components into one FileMaker Go solution. We will focus on just the bar code and FileMaker portion here. The necessary resources are listed in part 1, and the card reader portion will appear in part 3.

To create the FileMaker Go app, we create the database up in FileMaker, and then place the app on the iPhone or iPad (via iTunes or web page, for example). Since the device is mobile and connection to a networked file can get iffy, there are advantages to having all the action local on the device, at least initially. Later, you can sync the data with the server though a variety of methods (GoZync, MirrorSync, etc). We created a simple test database (see demo file below). This file contains both the scanning and bar code reading capabilities.

The Interface

The database front end is fairly simple, and consists of a field that stores the data, plus three buttons. The Scan button handles a single scan, and could be set up for either pic2shop or CNS Barcode. The Swipe button opens the CardSwipe reader app, while the Multi-Scan button works only with CNS Barcode.

Pic2Shop

The first app, Pic2Shop, scans a single barcode, or EAN number. (EANs are 13-digit barcodes, but pic2shop will still scan older ISBN10 numbers). A good starting point is to create a button that launches the script, such as “Scan”. This script in turn launches a script to open the barcode app. In the sample database we have both the pic2shop and CNS Barcode available, and you can comment out one or the other while testing each method. We have a parameter in place to handle the two different buttons, the individual
Scan”, and the “Scan Multiple”. The “Open barcode app” scrip contains the key line, which is the “Open URL” script step. Inside this step you build the URL scheme to send to the iOS app – pic2shop or CSN barcode. The callback requirements must have the EAN string in the url, and for FileMaker 12 this looks something like

pic2shop://scan?callback=fmp://$/GoInput?script=Scan¶m=EAN

This url breaks down as follows:

the app: pic2shop://scan?callback=
the callback app, in this case Filemaker: “fmp://” for FileMaker Pro 12
the location of the FileMaker app: $ for an application already open on the phone (~ to open a database on the device, and hostname if hosted remotely)
the file name: GoInput
the script: Scan
the parameter: EAN (the barcode read by the app)

The url needs to be encoded to handle certain characters, and so the URL would change to this:

pic2shop://scan?callback=fmp%3A//%24/"&Get(FileName)&"%3Fscript%3DScan%26param%3DEAN

Characters	Encoded
Dollar $	%24
Space	%20
Equals =	%3D
Ampersand &	%26
Colon :	%3A
Question Mark ?	%3F

The last piece, the “Scan” script, handles the data received from the device. Since the barcode resides in the parameter, your script simply needs to insert the data into a field. Before looking at this script, we’ll switch over to see how CNS Barcode behaves.

CNS Barcode

The only variation we used was to enable the multiple scanning option on CNS Barcode, and this was set up via the script parameter and a Case statement inside the URL. If you are scanning multiple barcodes, having to click the scan button each time can slow down the process. However, one caveat is that CNS Barcode in this mode appears very sensitive and will scan very quickly and often the same barcode multiple times, and in some cases scanning a portion of the barcode that you don’t want. Instead of the full EAN 13 you might end up with a five digit number. When scanning multiple barcodes, all the barcodes appear in one return-delimited list in the clipboard. This list then is pasted via the script into one field in FileMaker. To split out the items, you could either extract the unique values in the script or using a custom function, and then loop through the unique values to create your records in FileMaker. The CNS Barcode Open URL script step then looks like this:

"cnsbarcode://scan?" &
Case ( $param = "multiple" ; "scanmultiple=yes&" ) &
"launchurl=" &
GetAsURLEncoded ( "fmp://$/" &
Get ( FileName ) &
"?script=scan¶m=::barcode::" )

A simple Case statement checks whether we chose a single or multiple scan. Next, add the launchurl to the FileMaker database (the name of the file), and the ::bardode:: parameter (just like EAN for pic2shop). The Open URL calculation is broken down into respective parts, but really is one continuous URL.

The Scan script itself places the barcode into a text field. With multiple data you would loop through and create multiple records.

Set Error Capture [ On ]
Go to Layout [ “Input from Barcode” (zSystem) ]
If [ Get( TotalRecordCount ) = 0 ]
 New Record/Request
End If
Set Variable [ $code; Value:Get(ScriptParameter) ]
If [ not IsEmpty($code) ]
 #
 If [ PatternCount ( $code ; "Multiple" ) ]
   Paste [ zSystem::gScanData ]
 Else
   [ Select; No style ]
 Set Field [ zSystem::gScanData; $code ]
End If
Commit Records/Requests
#
End If
#
Go to Layout [ original layout ]
Set Variable [ $Barcode; Value:zSystem::gScanData ]
Loop
  Exit Loop If [ Let ( $i = $i + 1 ; $i > ValueCount( $Barcode) ) ]
  New Record/Request
  Set Field [ ScanInfo::inputText; GetValue( $Barcode ; $i ) ]
  Commit Records/Requests
End Loop
#

This script creates a new record for each scanned item. In theory once you have a valid barcode you can reach out to other databases and get additional information if required, or a custom barcode would be written to contain all the information that you need.

Note the number in the red circle at the bottom. When scanning multiple items you can see how many are currently in memory. You can view the details by clicking on this icon.

Note the first item in the list, which contains ALL the numbers from the barcode, including the smaller barcode section, whereas the others are all ISBN numbers. In your database if you are scanning books, you would need to validate the numbers before trying to pull additional information.

Finally, when you click done, the app switches back to FileMaker via the callback section in the Open URL script step.

CNS Barcode’s multi-scanning action seems to quickly scan the same number multiple times, and also sometimes scans barcode numbers other than the ISBN10 or 13. Possibly there are some settings that might limit such behavior. Otherwise the multi-scan mode significantly speeds up getting that barcode data into FileMaker without switching back and forth between the apps.

The sample file: GoInput.fmp12 applies also to the magnetic strip reading process in part 3.

GoInput.fmp12

Using Barcodes and Magnetic Stripes with iOS

October 10, 2012 by Kirk Bowman 10 Comments

The other day, Anders Monsen and I were prototyping a custom iPad app to help a stage company manage work crews for large arena events. Each event has multiple shifts (7am, 7:45am, 8:30am, etc.). At the start of each shift, several employees need to clock-in quickly and receive their work assignments.

We researched two ways to identify an employee with an ID card: scanning a barcode and reading a magnetic stripe. We found three apps in the App Store that can integrate with FileMaker Go, two for scanning barcodes and one for reading a magnetic stripe using a third-party card reader.

I really enjoy exploring the usability of a solution during prototyping. In this article, I will share some of my observations for this use case. Anders will explain the technical side of integrating FileMaker Go and iOS apps with URL scripting in a separate articles.

Observations

For the prototype, we created a simple layout with two buttons, Scan and Swipe. The purpose of each button is to switch to the companion iOS app, perform the scan/swipe, and return the data to a text field in FileMaker Go.

Scanning / swiping iOS prototype

Some of my preliminary observations include:

Holding the iPhone – I am right-handed so I visualize the user holding the device in his left hand and the ID card with his right. I liked cradling the iPhone in my left palm (portrait orientation), allowing my thumb to tap the buttons.
Holding the iPad – With the iPad, weight is the determining factor. I liked balancing it with my hand halfway between the top and bottom edges (portrait orientation). Again, my thumb was available to tap the buttons.
Button Design – Larger buttons that are easier to tap. I made the button height 50 points for the iPhone and 72 points for the iPad. To tap a button with a thumb, I made the buttons extremely wide, 75% of the iPhone screen and 85% of the iPad screen.
iPhone Case – For this app, a case cannot block the camera, which scans the barcode, or the dock connector, which connects to the third-party card reader. A thin case like the Fitted for iPhone 4 from Speck works nicely.
iPad Case – Besides working with the camera and dock connector, a case will need to help the user grip the iPad. A thin case with a rubber texture like the NGP Semi-Rigid Shell from Incipio is a good match.
Camera – For scanning a barcode, the device needs a good auto-focus camera. For this solution, we need either an iPhone 4/4S/5 or Retina display iPad. Of course, reading a magnetic stripe does not have the same requirement.
Barcode App – For scanning barcodes, we tested pic2Shop (free) and CNS Barcode ($9.99). I selected CNS Barcode because it is designed for FileMaker Go, scans more accurately, and supports scanning several barcodes in rapid succession.
Mag Stripe App – Reading a magnetic strip requires an app that can communicate with an external card reader and supports URL scripting. CardSwipe ($15.99) is designed for FileMaker Go and is the only app we found that meets these requirements.
Card Reader – The iMag Pro MagStripe Reader ($60-$70) is the only card reader that CardSwipe supports. It plugs into the dock connector on the iPhone and iPad. So far, my only concern is it can become slightly unseated when aggressively swiping a card, especially with the iPhone.

In the end, our customer decided to scan barcodes with CNS Barcode. And, now we have knowledge of using magnetic stripes for future projects.

Scanning Barcodes with FileMaker Go – Part 1

October 8, 2012 by Anders Monsen 10 Comments

This is Part 1 of a 3-part series.

A smartphone today does far more than make calls. With a variety of apps available we have access to a world of information at our fingertips, or hours of distraction. Productivity is vital from the business side of mobile computing. Reading and storing data is one powerful aspect, but collecting data on the device makes our information interactive. Getting data on to the device quickly and error-free becomes imperative for any business.

FileMaker Go is a perfect tool for storing data on a iOS device like the iPhone and iPad. But, the lack of a physical keyboard makes data-entry a slow and tedious affair. Scanning bar codes or reading magnetic cards like credit cards, drivers licenses, and so forth, enables fast access to data. This three-part article first will discuss the requirements to pull data into FileMaker Go from an iOS device, and then demonstrate two different methods of adding data.

First, your iOS device will require some software and hardware. FileMaker Go is free, though you will need to develop your database using FileMaker Pro on the desktop. To read bar codes I have used two different apps. One, Pic2Shop, is free and performs its task fairly well, though it is limited to scanning one item at a time. CNS Barcode costs $9.99, but adds a variety of features such as multi-scanning, and also can create bar codes.

To read magnetic card strips the cost climbs. You will need a paid iOS app ($15.99), CardSwipe, and a small device that plugs into your iPad or iPhone (this was tested prior to iPhone 5), such as iMag Pro, around $60. With iMag Pro you can run cards through the reader from the context of the CardSwipe software.

The glue that binds the app and FileMaker Go database is called a URI scheme or protocol. When you build your FileMaker app (you’ll have to wait for part 2!), you create scripts that call the iOS app with their URI scheme. In that URI scheme you then have a callback action to FileMaker using its URI scheme, indicating the database name and the script to run.

With the exception of Pic2Shop, you must pay for the companion app. In part 2, we’ll switch over to FileMaker and see how to set up the database, and how to pull in the data without typing a single character by scanning a barcode. Part 3 will cover reading information from magnetic strips, such as drivers licenses or credit cards.

Real-World FileMaker Web Service

August 10, 2012 by Anders Monsen 14 Comments

In a previous post, I enthused about FileMaker 12’s new “Insert from URL” script step. The ability to pull in data from web pages through RESTful web services is akin to the science fiction idea of wormholes into other dimensions. Programmable Web currently lists over 6,000 web services in its directory, and the trajectory only points upward. Though some web services come with commercial restrictions, and others may change without notice, getting this data into FileMaker has never been easier.

In this article I’m going to move from general enthusiasm to showing a FileMaker Pro database that I built to import book information based on ISBN values (a link to my demo file appears below). The power of “Insert from URL” grows exponentially when combined with the FMP URL protocol and FileMaker Go. In a fairly short amount of time I was able to integrate my iPhone to scan a book’s ISBN bar code from within FileMaker Go–reading the data using an app called Pic2Shop, then using “Insert from URL” to load the rest of the book information, virtually eliminating any manual data entry.

The reason I chose books for my example is that it combines two passions of mine: books and FileMaker.

Years ago in FileMaker 5.0 days, I built a database to track my book collection. Each book has certain data I need to track, such as author, title, publisher, value. etc. Entering this manually took a great deal of time. Looking for books that I didn’t have also presented problems.

With hundreds of books (paperbacks included), keeping track of books I bought years ago became a tedious effort. I would write down on index cards ones that I had or wanted, and if I happened to be in a used bookstore, I’d pull out that card from my wallet and try to find the book. With the iPod, it was possible to export some text files to the iPod, but I didn’t always carry my iPod everywhere. I carry around my iPhone, and so text notes replaced the old paper notes. However, this method is far from efficient.

When FileMaker 12 came out I rebuilt my old library database using one of the starter solutions that came with iPhone and iPad layouts. After importing my records I now had access to my library on my iPhone, and could scroll through the list.

But what if wanted to add a book? Previously I entered most of my books by hand, or scanned them using Bookpedia or some other tool where I held up the book to my computer’s camera. But I like FileMaker. It lets me control the design of my library. I don’t want to scan books on my desktop using an app, then export that to FileMaker.

Using FMP URL and Pic2shop, I can set up an interface on my FileMaker Go version to scan the book’s ISBN and use Insert from URL to load up the data, all in about one second. So, to the details.

Here is a copy of the demo file (zipped): DemoLibrary

ISBN Lookup

There are several ways to get book details from the ISBN number. You can enter a scaled down Amazon.com URL, such as <http://www.amazon.com/dp/0743273567>. This will give you a web page with all the book information that you can scrape, if you want to spend hours figuring out what to pull from the huge HTML page. You could use Amazon’s own web service API, which would return XML. However, I found that Amazon some years ago changed its method, so that instead submitting a straightforward URL, you now had to encode that URL into a key using SHA encryption. After several fruitless attempts, I gave up.

As a commercial enterprise, Amazon probably wants API users to drive traffic to buy books from Amazon, not to pull book information for a personal project. Instead, I turned to Open Library and isbndb.com, services that seem friendlier and more open. Isbndb.com requires a developer API key, but the amount of information they have is staggering. My example files show both methods, though you need to provide your own API key for the ISBNDB API portion to work. Prior to testing the isbndb actions in my demo file you need to request and input your own API key in FileMaker Pro.

Scanning Books using iPhone

In my scaled down sample database, the scan process uses four scripts. For this process I relied on a sample file that Greg Lane from Skeleton Key showed me at DevCon 2012. Greg had demoed this process on his blog almost two years ago, but his process to import the data uses a web viewer and PHP. I wanted native FileMaker 12 stuff, which I already had with Insert from URL.

The first script, triggered from a button on the iPhone, is an Open URL script step:

"pic2shop://scan?callback=fmp%3A//%24/" & Get ( FileName ) & "%3Fscript%3DScan%26param%3DEAN"

This script opens Pic2shop, and once the book is scanned, calls a script in the database called “Scan”. I modified this script from Greg’s demo file to use “Insert from URL” and then it just parses the returned JSON from Open Library with some basic text parsing. (This is why we really need native JSON and XML parsing functions in FileMaker.) The ISBNDB result is in XML, and I found an existing function that parsed XML, except for certain attributes, and so it was back to text parsing for those pieces.

This script then “Inserts the URL” from Open Library into a global field and parses the result with a semi-accurate custom function. I say semi-accurate because the data from Open Library doesn’t always behave as expected. In the instance of The Great Gatsby, the title picked up “Wiki” as the JSON came over with multiple “title” nodes. Also, ideally the function would handle names like F. Scott Fitzgerald as well as L. Sprague de Camp and Clark Aston Smith, not just First Last named authors.

This sample desktop includes a couple of fields where I pulled additional information from isbndb.com; again this requires an API key, and in this sample database that key would go in the System table. The key loads into a global variable on startup. Again, this is a demo file, so some functionality is spelled out to illustrate how things work.

FileMaker Go and iPhone

Once I moved the database to my iPhone, I could scan any new books very quickly, search for books, and even highlight any books on a wish list using conditional formatting — all very handy when far from home and trying to remember if I have a copy of this or that. Sometimes I have multiple editions, and I can tap on the title to view more details.

Conclusion

Combining Insert from URL and FMP URL, or just Insert from URL and FileMaker Go, truly gives you total control to create your own app in a pocket. With FileMaker Go and the iPhone, and all those thousands of APIs out there, just image what you could create! Not to mention turning your own FileMaker Server into a RESTful web service with Goya’s RESTfm, and consuming this as needed on your iPhone.

What are the next steps? The logical one is syncing. After all, once the book is scanned into FileMaker Go, you need your FileMaker Pro database to know this, so you don’t overwrite the books in your iPhone the next time you change your database and bring it over. I’ve heard good things about a certain SeedCode/Todd Geist product.