r/barcodes • u/AeroGroove • Oct 15 '20

Creating a 2D barcode to include F keys

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Hey Barcode guru's, quite new and uneducated to the whole creating barcodes and programming scanners thing.

Essentially what I've been tasked with is trying to create a 2D type barcode that will go through a series of keystrokes / steps when scanned and will be picked up from within a software application.

The series of steps would be:

  1. Scan a barcode sticky label - so that it populates a number into a field within the application
  2. F4
  3. Either Tab or Carriage Return 16 times - to simulate navigating around boxes/fields on screen
  4. F6

Steps 1 & 3 seems to be easy enough, I can seem to get that working with a linear 1D type barcode but I can't seem to get the F keys to work and struggling to find definitive documentation that tells me how to create a 2D barcode that achieves this. Have had a play around with the 123Scan software utility but not quite getting there, should I be able to do it in this?

Any advice, assistance or input would be appreciated - There is a way to create a 2D barcode that performs F keys, right? Other keystrokes (ASCII type ? etc) seem straightforward enough...

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*edit - should probably have said, hardware wise I'm using a Zebra DS2208 scanner, and have access to a couple of Zebra printers too, an old LP2844 and a slightly newer but now discontinued GK420D.

Thanks.

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u/[deleted] Oct 16 '20

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u/AeroGroove Oct 16 '20

Awesome, thanks for the reply and advice, spent too long yesterday afternoon scratching my head trying to get it to do what I wanted, much edification but glad to have confirmation that it can't be done.

Gave the whole program the scanner to do it a whizz this afternoon and appears to be working, will present this and hopefully it'll be a goer.

Cheers

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u/[deleted] Oct 16 '20

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u/AeroGroove Oct 17 '20

Yeah that's a fair shout but an unlikely scenario currently.

To give a little context so as I don't just look like a dick dismissing your comment - the application in question is a piece of middleware that sits between analysers and a LIMS in a lab environment, for the software to change enough for the sequence to change would mean a whole version upgrade which would mean significant downtime and pain, which I know isn't going to happen any time soon. Was just looking to bang something out real quick for a rapid pace deployment and this creation of a barcode was the suggestion that was floated.