Managing Barcodes

For each device group, you may control the manner in which barcodes are scanned for that device group. The following window is presented when you click on the Manage Barcodes button on the Update Device Group window. The window contains some device group level barcode settings and a list of specific barcodes defined for this device group.

Enable Undefined Barcodes: This option works in conjunction with the list of barcode types that are configured for this device group. Check this box if you want to allow the device to scan barcode types that are not specifically configured for this device group.

Append Field Exit to Short Scan (5250): For 5250 sessions, select this option to cause a FieldExit to be automatically appended to barcodes that are shorter than the field into which they are being

scanned. This option is often used to enhance scanning into display fields that cause an automatic end-of-record advance via the CHECK(ER) display attribute. (This setting has no effect for 3270 or VT).

Append Enter on Last Field (5250 & 3270): For 5250 and 3270 sessions, select this option to cause an Enter to be automatically appended to barcodes that are scanned into the last field on the current application screen. (This setting has no effect for VT).

Barcode Scan Prefix: This feature provides for the definition of characters to be inserted as a prefix to the scanned data. Select from the Drop-down list, or key in your prefix characters. This setting will affect all barcode symbologies unless a specific prefix is defined for a specific symbology.

Barcode Scan Suffix: This feature provides for the definition of characters to be inserted as a suffix to the scanned data. Select from the Drop-down list, or key in your suffix characters. This setting will affect all barcode symbologies unless a specific suffix is defined for a specific symbology.

You may add, edit, and delete Barcode Type entries using the “Barcode” menu or by right clicking on a specific Barcode Type entry in the list. When adding or editing barcode types for this device group, the following window will be displayed.

This dialog allows you to configure specific settings for specific barcode symbologies and lengths.

You can add more that one configuration for a various lengths of a single symbology so long as the Minimum Length matches the Maximum Length and you do not already have a setting defined for the specific length. There can be only one setting for a symbology where the Minimum Length and the Maximum Length are different or are zero. Using these length settings, you can have different barcode settings for the same symbology where the barcode values have different lengths.

The following criteria are used to determine if the scanned barcode data will be affected by this particular barcode setting:

Barcode Type: Use this drop-down list to select the barcode type that you wish to define.

Minimum Length: Specifies the minimum value length to have this setting apply.

Maximum Length: Specifies the maximum value length to have this setting apply.

• Note: Input length restrictions for barcode types can be eliminated by setting both the Minimum and Maximum parameters to zero (0).

If the scanned barcode meets the criteria for this barcode setting, then you can control whether the scanned barcode is allowed to be processed using the following option:

Decode this type: Use this checkbox to enable the use of the scanned barcode in the session. If this option is checked, then the barcode is allowed and the barcode data manipulation functions are applied.

If this option is not checked, then the scanned barcode is rejected and the device will beep.

For scanned barcodes that meet the criteria defining this barcode setting, the following barcode data manipulation functions will be applied in dialog order, from the top down:

1) Trim all spaces from

7) Adding Scan Prefix and Suffix.

Trim all spaces from: This option determines how leading and trailing spaces in the barcode data will be handled. You can select to have spaces trimmed from neither side, the left side, the right side or both sides of the barcode data.

Substitute: This option allows you to specify a character or string within the barcode data to be replaced by a different character or string. Single character substitutions must be represented in the hexadecimal (0x00) format to differentiate them from string substitutions. To remove data, use [null]

as the substitution string value or use 0x00 as the substitution character value.

Substitute all embedded Control Codes with this character: This option allows you to specify a character to be used as a substitute for all control codes that are embedded in the barcode data. Control Codes are defined as characters with values less than 0x20. This substitution character must be

represented in the hexadecimal (0x00) format.

Trim from Beginning: Specifies the number of characters to trim from the beginning of the scanned data. Type in the number of characters to trim, or select the option to trim ‘to fit field’ which will trim characters from the beginning when the barcode data is longer than the field length.

Trim from End: Specifies the number of characters to trim from the end of the scanned data. Type in the number of characters to trim, or select the option to trim ‘to fit field’ which will trim characters from the end when the barcode data is longer than the field length.

Use First ## Digits: Specifies the number of characters from the beginning of the scanned data to use.

This value is evaluated after the ‘Trim’ attributes have been applied. Set this value to Zero (0) to cause all of the remaining barcode data to be used.

Regular Expression Processing: Provides the ability to use sophisticated ‘Regular Expression Processing’ to manipulate barcode data. You can enter one or more ‘Expressions’ that are evaluated against the barcode data. If an expression matches the scanned barcode data, then the ‘Substitution’

will be processed against the barcode data. Regular Expression Processing for barcode data is covered in detail in the ‘Stay-Linked Regular Expression User Guide’.

Scan Prefix: Specifies the characters to be inserted as a prefix to the scanned data. Select from the Drop-down list, or key in your prefix characters. This setting will override the device group level setting for this specific barcode symbology.

Scan Suffix: Specifies the characters to be inserted as a suffix to the scanned data. Select from the Drop-down list, or key in your suffix characters. This setting will override the device group level setting for this specific barcode symbology.