tech thought...

[Sarlon]

not sure if this is the right area...

but I'm looking for a barcode based program complete with scanner for them.

anyone have any suggests on this?

[csquared]

What are you looking to do with them?

Most barcode wands are input device. They look to the computer like a keyboard. As such, they will work with any application. Move to the field you want to populate, scan the bar code, field is filled in with the barcode.

If you are looking to print barcodes, lots of free software out there.

[Sarlon]

sorry, I guess what I'm thinking is, I scan the barcode that is attached to an account, so that at a glance I know who is attached to the item that the code is associated with....

for example...

I scan barcode, it pulls up Mr. Smith's information to whom the barcode is programed with.

barcode would be a unique 16 digit code that Mr Smith has in our data base, but I don't want Mr Smith's name on the item where the barcode is imprinted on.

am I making any sense?

[Nurian]

A barcode reader?

[csquared]

As I said, most barcode wands are input devices. Choose what ever software you want for your customer account information. Use the wand to populate the search field.

[TheSHAD0W]

There are several libraries out there which will generate a bar code from a number. Given this, you ought to be able to adapt any database to use bar codes. Pick a random number as an ID number for each record, print the number out as a bar code; then use a bar code scanner to read the bar code and enter the resulting number into a search form.

[Andara Bledin]

I work for the company that bought up Digital Convergence's physical stock of CueCats when they finally went down, and while I tried to find software that would allow me to use the USB version as an input device, I could never get it to actually work, which cheesed me the heck off.

However, if I had actually acquired a proper piece of paid software that would generate and read codes, I suspect I wouldn't have had any difficulties. >_>

^-.-^

[Pedersen]

Actually, it worked just fine. The problem was that the output was, by design, scrambled, to make you use their software. However, following instructions from http://www.cexx.org/cuecat.htm will help you get them working nicely. With no extra software.

[Andara Bledin]

Um, no.

The problem was that my system couldn't see the the input. At all. As far as it was concerned, there was no input.

^-.-^

[Pedersen]

Ah. It worked for me. If your system was defective, or the unit was, you were hosed, of course. But those tips worked for me, and a lot of others, too.

[Sarlon]

a friend suggested QR barcodes?

[Gizmo]

We use a special excel/word add on at work to create the barcodes - it works like a font. The boss has a scanner for them that looks like a supermarket hand scanner - its old so I'm not sure where he gets it.

[Chromatix]

There are usually barcode scanners on sale in most large computer and office supply stores. They'll usually work with traditional linear barcodes.

Printing barcodes and associating them with other information would be a completely separate topic, and there are many ways of doing it.