Hi, I work for a cold storage/trucking company that has outgrown hand written inventory tracking, they already use a decent inventory control software (Inventory Traker) that has bar code capability, but very little support. My question is how do I go about setting them up with bar coding? He had a guy work on it then quit cuz he couldn't get it to work with Inventory Traker, after spending $1000+ on the software and scanner, then returned it all. Anybody have any good info? All all scanners universal with all software??
Bar coding for newbie
- Thread starter ell
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I see, thanks! So its all about the software that creates/prints the codes, any recommendations?
The barcode is basically a FONT
Look for barcode fonts and you can print them from your own regular printer
and it should work fine
usually they have a special code i remember that for the scanner to read it you
had to put a * at the beggining and to the end
easy to do, I spent like 40$ to make it work, just get the font and get a barcode reader
Look for barcode fonts and you can print them from your own regular printer
and it should work fine
usually they have a special code i remember that for the scanner to read it you
had to put a * at the beggining and to the end
easy to do, I spent like 40$ to make it work, just get the font and get a barcode reader
isavecomputers
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I would recommend barcode font code 128 versus code 3 of 9 which requires the asterix before and after the info you want to print as barcode. There are many off the shelf programs you can use. Bartender by seagull is popular. I even use free fonts and used avery templates in office to do some quick easy labels. I have been working with barcoding for over 15 years you need anymore help.
NETWizz
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Make your own web-based inventory software like we do.
Basically, you make an html form where you could type a number (or inventory asset ID or whatever would be on the barcode) and make it submit the form when you press enter.
Okay, now let's say your inventory assets have two things like ours at work:
1. An Asset Tag
2. A Serial Number
... and you want to efficiently enter both... It would SUCK to scan the asset tag and have the form submitted when "Enter" is sent, so you would setup some JavaScript to jump to the next Form Field instead of submit the form.
You could also have a JavaScript automatically put the cursor in the "Asset Tag" field, so a user could click "Add Asset" and immediately scan the Asset Tag then scan the Serial Number...
*****************************
You get the idea. You can do whatever you want. Basically, we use HTML with CSS to display the forms and content from our Inventory. We use JavaScript to automate which field is selected and get rid of needing 5 mouse clicks to do a simple task... <==JavaScript can put the cursor in any field that has focus.
When the form is submitted, the data goes to a .php (Server Side) script where it is added to a MySQL database.
Any data on the screen is queried from that database via a PHP script that generates the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript content to send to the browser and dispaly/format that data.
I hope that all makes sense... You don't necessarily have to buy software.
These are the scanners we bought for inventory and shipping/receiving: http://www.honeywellaidc.com/CatalogDocuments/VoyagerGS9590_DS_RevB_0610_EN.pdf They run about $100 and will read pretty much ANY standard Linear barcode (i.e. ISBN, EAN, UPC, Code 39, Code 128)...
Someone here said you need the *'s on Code 39 and that isn't really true. Our Inventory software uses Code 39 without them simply because I found a PHP script to generate Code 39 bar-codes (as images) and it works fine.
Typically, you reference a picture like this <img src="picturename.jpg"/> You might have length, width, alt, etc... but the "SRC" is the attribute that tells the browser where to get the picture and what to display. I basically have a PHP script that does this <img src="barcode.php?123456"/>
What it does is then create an image of a barcode that says "123456" and tells the browser it is a JPG image (mime type)... Then it sends back the proper JPG binary data... Sure enough, a bar code appears.
In our software if we print out a work-order they ALL have a barcode on them... They attach that to the computer OR they go on-site with it. When they come back, they SCAN all the work orders they worked on and it opens them all up to make notes on EACH one. Then when they are done, they submit the notes... There is a check-box to close the work-order too.
If they want to bulk Close work orders, there is a Textarea where they scan each barcode and it types them (one on each line)... Then they submit.
Basically, you make an html form where you could type a number (or inventory asset ID or whatever would be on the barcode) and make it submit the form when you press enter.
Okay, now let's say your inventory assets have two things like ours at work:
1. An Asset Tag
2. A Serial Number
... and you want to efficiently enter both... It would SUCK to scan the asset tag and have the form submitted when "Enter" is sent, so you would setup some JavaScript to jump to the next Form Field instead of submit the form.
You could also have a JavaScript automatically put the cursor in the "Asset Tag" field, so a user could click "Add Asset" and immediately scan the Asset Tag then scan the Serial Number...
*****************************
You get the idea. You can do whatever you want. Basically, we use HTML with CSS to display the forms and content from our Inventory. We use JavaScript to automate which field is selected and get rid of needing 5 mouse clicks to do a simple task... <==JavaScript can put the cursor in any field that has focus.
When the form is submitted, the data goes to a .php (Server Side) script where it is added to a MySQL database.
Any data on the screen is queried from that database via a PHP script that generates the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript content to send to the browser and dispaly/format that data.
I hope that all makes sense... You don't necessarily have to buy software.
These are the scanners we bought for inventory and shipping/receiving: http://www.honeywellaidc.com/CatalogDocuments/VoyagerGS9590_DS_RevB_0610_EN.pdf They run about $100 and will read pretty much ANY standard Linear barcode (i.e. ISBN, EAN, UPC, Code 39, Code 128)...
Someone here said you need the *'s on Code 39 and that isn't really true. Our Inventory software uses Code 39 without them simply because I found a PHP script to generate Code 39 bar-codes (as images) and it works fine.
Typically, you reference a picture like this <img src="picturename.jpg"/> You might have length, width, alt, etc... but the "SRC" is the attribute that tells the browser where to get the picture and what to display. I basically have a PHP script that does this <img src="barcode.php?123456"/>
What it does is then create an image of a barcode that says "123456" and tells the browser it is a JPG image (mime type)... Then it sends back the proper JPG binary data... Sure enough, a bar code appears.
In our software if we print out a work-order they ALL have a barcode on them... They attach that to the computer OR they go on-site with it. When they come back, they SCAN all the work orders they worked on and it opens them all up to make notes on EACH one. Then when they are done, they submit the notes... There is a check-box to close the work-order too.
If they want to bulk Close work orders, there is a Textarea where they scan each barcode and it types them (one on each line)... Then they submit.
Last edited:
The whole thing hinges on him being about to import the data into "Inventory Traker" I spoke with them, turns out they have proprietary format for bar coding- blah so he has to buy a scanning pkg from them.
NETWizz
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Well, that really sucks.
I don't personally see how a barcode itself could be proprietary unless they have a proprietary code (i.e. NOT Code 39 or Code 128...) and a special scanner.
That said, I could totally see the software being proprietary NOT having options to export or import data...
I don't personally see how a barcode itself could be proprietary unless they have a proprietary code (i.e. NOT Code 39 or Code 128...) and a special scanner.
That said, I could totally see the software being proprietary NOT having options to export or import data...
He purchased a $1000 gun and software pkg and hired a guy to get it going only to find he could not figure out how to import the data into Traker. At least he was able to return the scanner.
