Barcode App Feedback
Thanks everyone who posted a feedback. First of all I would like to make clear that I’m not a barcode guru. I wrote this app two days after the iPhone SDK was available. In May I gave a “how-to program a iPhone DataMatrix reader” presentation on a CocoaHeads meeting. I haven’t done much on the app since then except some small fixes that were necessary after Mike updated his DataMatrix library that I’m using.
I then attended the WWDC “Submitting to the App Store” session and added the app just for fun right in that session. Unfortunately I was not able to upload the binary then. When Apple announced we may now upload our app I tried it but somehow it didn’t work. On the day before the App Store launch I tried it again and it worked. The app was rejected first because the reviewer tried it with an 1D barcode and because Mike hadn’t implemented a timeout yet the library searched forever. The reviewer thought the app crashed and rejected it. I told Mike an he updated his library and I had to change some of my code. I then had a lot of trouble uploading the binary again. Finally it was accepted today.
I was quite surprised this morning seeing all the comment notices from by blog software. I actually didn’t had any big plans for the app because I thought there would be a lot of barcode reader app from day one. I wrote the app just for fun and made the source code available for download. Now having read all your comments I would like to extend the app to a universal barcode reader and writer.
Because most of you are requesting QR decoding I will add this very soon. DataMatrix encoding is already working, I just have to create a nice and easy to use interface for it. Unfortunately I don’t know how long it will take until Apple accepts this new version. I think I will have QR decoding working at the end of the week. So hopefully the new version will be available early next week.
I will now collect all your comments and make a roadmap. So if you have more feature requests or proposals please let me know.
As I’ve previously said, I’m no barcode expert. I don’t have the time to develop libraries for other barcode types on my own. So I depend stronly on open source libraries. I even thought about making this whole app open source, so this would be a community project. So if you would like to contribute please let me know.
That’s it for the moment. Watch out for the QR updated in the App Store.
Barcode for iPhone is a nice first step. Thanks a lot.
But it should do an action depending from the barcodes contenttype, like accessing the URL in safari, dialing the number, saving as contact, etc.
Unfortunately the iPhone-camera seems to be unable to focus on short distances, so the barcode hast to be bigger than 3×3cm.
On my phone the application crashes many times at “saving picture”, returning to home screen after black screen or even freezing the phone completely.
Besides one presumes from “saving picture” it was saved to the “film”-directory. Wouldn’t it be better renamed to “searching for barcode”?
There is a bunch of open librarys out there, and a bunch of barcode schemes.
But I’d like to suggest that PDF417 be your next upgrade.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDF417
It seems to be in use quite a bit, even for Drivers Liscenses.
http://www.adams1.com/pub/russadam/stack.html
http://support.psoft.sk/
http://www.barcode.com/
Thank you for a great app.
Krille wrote:
“But it should do an action depending from the barcodes contenttype, like accessing the URL in safari, dialing the number, saving as contact, etc.”
Yes, please, pretty, please, with sugar on top. That wouylds be immensely useful.
Stefan, this is very welcome news. I’ve been waiting for just such an app to start a quasi-academic geotagging project at Purdue University (U.S.A.). I’ll need to wait a little longer for URL action(s) as Krille suggested, but this is still better than having to hire an undergrad to write the app itself. Very eager to see the next version.
Have you noticed the “2D Sense”-app: http://www.2dsense.com/2dsp/default.aspx?id=faq
Scanning looks the very same as in your Barcode.
Unfortunately it doesn’t scan codes below 3×3cm either.
@Krille – it’s nice, but it’s geared towards using a web service for most barcode decoding… I’d like a reader like the kaywa reader that takes action on the content of the barcode, not requiring a web service. (therefore, support for SMSTO: style commands would be awesome too!)
Stefan: take a look at the different ‘commands’ that kaywa supports: http://qrcode.kaywa.com/ .