Barcode scanner

  • Thread starter Thread starter martyn
  • Start date Start date
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martyn

Hi, does anyone have any experience with barcode scanners?
i need a database at the very least to scan and log a
barcode and log a time with it at the same time??
Many thanks
 
martyn said:
Hi, does anyone have any experience with barcode scanners?
i need a database at the very least to scan and log a
barcode and log a time with it at the same time??
Click to expand...

Barcodes are generally entered as data in the same manner as using a
keyboard. Either a serial port or a keyboard wedge is used. Setting the
default date of a field for new records or using the Afterupdate event of
the control for existing records should allow you to record a timestamp. All
you could possibly want to know about barcodes should be available at this
site:

http://www.adams1.com/pub/russadam/share.html
--
Arvin Meyer, MCP, MVP
Microsoft Access
Free Access downloads:
http://www.datastrat.com
http://www.mvps.org/access
 
What im trying to do is... I have a excel spreadsheet with
a table of information on. What i want to do is import
that to a access database every morning. Then at the end
of the day i want to scan a barcode which logs a time to
my database, to the customer that that barcode is alreadly
linked to.
Does that sound feasible?
Many thanks, i will check that link out.
 
Excelent. How do i do that then? :)
Ive created a table for my excel spreadsheet to go into.
I've also created a form which has a textbox for my
barcode number, a time box and a date box. When i scan a
barcode it types in the numbers into the barcode box which
is what i want. Can i get it to automatically 'press
enter' afterwards? how do i then set the date box to
automatically fill itself in, and the time box when a
barcode is entered? Or bind the time to the barcode box??
im going in circles!!
help!!
 
I don't believe you can get it to automatically press "Enter".

Set the DefaultValue property of the date box to:

= Date()

That will put today's date in the that text box for NEW records. For
existing records, you'll need to write a bit of code (aircode):

Sub Form_BeforeUpdate(Cancel As Integer)
If Me.txtDateField <> Date Then Me.txtDateField = Date
End Sub

where txtDateField is the text box bound to your date field.
--
Arvin Meyer, MCP, MVP
Microsoft Access
Free Access downloads:
http://www.datastrat.com
http://www.mvps.org/access
 
Most bar code readers are available with one of two output options.
The first option is called "Keyboard Wedge" output where you unplug
your keyboard, plug the bar code reader into the keyboard port on your
PC and then plug your keyboard into the bar code reader. This
arrangement makes the bar code reader appear as it it were simply a
second keyboard. Your original keyboard continues to work as normal
however when you read a bar code, the data encoded in the bar code
appears to any application running on your PC as if it were typed in.
The keyboard wedge interface is extremely simple however it has a few
drawbacks. If you swipe a bar code, the cursor has to be in the
correct input field in the correct application otherwise you end up
reading bar code data into whatever application has the focus. This
can cause all sorts of potential problems as you can imagine. The
keyboard output also is limited in that you cannot modify the data in
any way before sending it into the program that is to receive the
data. For example, if you needed to parse a bar code message up into
pieces or remove some of a bar code message or add in a date or time
stamp you would not be able to with a normal keyboard wedge reader.

The other possible output option is to get a bar code reader with an
RS232 or "Serial" interface. With these types of bar code readers, you
connect the reader to an available serial port on the back of your PC.
You would then need a program called a "Software Wedge" to take the
data from the bar code reader and feed it to the application where you
want the data to go. The disadvantage to this approach is that it is a
little more complex however you gain much more control over how and
where your data ends up when you read a bar code. With a Software
Wedge, you can control exactly where the data goes in the target
application and you can also perform all sorts of modifications on the
data before it is sent to the application.

The company that I work for sells a product called WinWedge which is a
Software Wedge for Windows.

WinWedge also supports date and time stamping of data so you should be
able to get it to do everything that you need.

We also sell a very high quality bar code ActiveX control for printing
bar codes.

Visit: http://www.taltech.com for more information. This web site is
also an extremely good place to obtain information about bar coding in
general. Look in the Resources section of the site for tutorials on
bar coding. It should help clear up the fog.
 
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