Scan Barcodes To Do Keyboard Commands

Legacy Poster

• 22 de noviembre de 2011 14:51

Hello,

I'm trying to scan a barcode that has keyboard shortcuts in it. On the bartender white paper: What's new in Bartender 9.0 the document states that the program can do this but I can't figure it out. An example of a shortcut I need is: CTRL+F2

Edition: Automation, 9.3 SR1


Any help is great.
Thanks in advanced.

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  Ian Cummings

  Moderador

  ★ BarTender Hero ★

  • 22 de noviembre de 2011 15:00
  Can keyboard control and function characters be encoded into barcodes? The answer is both yes and no!
  
  Strictly speaking, barcodes cannot encode keyboard control and function keys. The reason is that these keys (F1 - F12) are unique to the hardware and are not an ASCII code. For a PC keyboard, control and function keys are transmitted as keyboard scan codes and have no equivalent ASCII control codes that can be encoded into a barcode. However, there is a work around.
  
  Many keyboard wedge scanners can be programmed to substitute a control/function key each time they scan a specified character. Since a keyboard wedge reader uses the same data transmission standards as a keyboard, they can send a scan code representing a control+function key.
  
  For example, if the application will never need a plus sign (+) in the barcode, the keyboard wedge replaces the plus sign with a control+F2 key scan code. Therefore, if "12345+" was scanned from a barcode it would produce the data stream "12345" followed by the control+F2 keys. This same approach may be used even with bar code readers attached to a serial port if a "soft wedge" program is used. This "soft wedge" is a program that takes data from a serial port and treats it as if it had come in through the keyboard. Some of these programs also allow character substitution.
  
  Start by reading the programming manual of the barcode reader you are using. These can normally be found online as a PDF if you don't have a printed copy. Search on Google to find.

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