Writing a basic piece of software

jamoor

jamoor

jamoor

Soldato
Joined
22 Jun 2005
Posts
9,068
Location
Nottinghamshire
I run an ecommerce business and I am sometimes susceptible to fraud.
Customers claiming the item wasn't in the box or similar.

I want to make a very basic piece of software where I can install a webcam at a packing station, have the software running, and when I scan a barcode with the order number (off the order picking list) it saves the webcam picture into a directory with the order number format. So for example if the order number was 667 it would save it as 667.jpg.

How would I get this written, ideally for windows?
 
What's your setup, what scanner are you using, a phone or a scanner for a PC etc?

You could almost do this with just a .bat file I think.

If you bought a scanner for the PC there may be some option in the software to trigger the webcam after each scan or trigger some event that allows you to then trigger the cam etc.

Or you could create an app to do this. I'd suggest Android studio for Android, obviously.

Use a phone to scan the barcode and a Bluetooth webcam for the picture.

Otherwise you could use a variety of languages such as c#.

It depends on your setup.
 
I don't really have a setup so I could buy one.

I was just thinking of having a windows pc with a zebra or similar barcode scanner.

I guess I could create an app but then I would have to link it to a mobile phone? IMO mobile phones arent as good as scanning barcodes as an actual symbol barcode scanner. Then there are also reliability issues of using bluetooth + a phone app.
 
Can you/are connect the zebra to a PC?

You might be able to take an easy route and just a couple of lines of code or may need a full on app.

It depends on the options in zebra.

For example with zebra connected to the PC, after each scan you could have it save a jpg of the scan to a folder. Then have another app monitor that folder for changes and when it detects a new file it then activates the webcam.

That's a kind of a hacky way but usually it works good enough if not 100% of the time.

So it's hard to say unless you know what options the zebra software has.
 
Yes I see the zebra software isn't really something to be worried about. A barcode scanner is basically a keyboard, when you scan a barcode the barcode scanner types the content of the read barcode and presses the enter key.
Basically all I need to then program is the javascript whenever something is typed and then the enter key is pressed it saves the image as that file?

So if I type in ABC<enter> it saves it as ABC.jpeg
 
I thought you would press a button on the scanner and scan the barcode while the scanner was connected to the PC?

After the scan the JavaScript is then invoked and takes a picture?

It's invoking the JavaScript directly after the scan that you will need to work out.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom