Interfacing with a barcode scanner in Business Central AL

Find more information at my blog www.hougaard.com or follow me on / ehougaard
Source code can be found here: github.com/hou...

[@umarnaeem6128]

Man, I actually had to stop the video in mid to give you a like and this comment. This video is great! Thank you - Subscribed

[@Hougaard]

Check out the POS video, kinda a followup!

[@prebenborg]

Very interesting - I only wonder how Copy/Paste will behave? Just a scanner hint - you can often configure that barcode scanner it self and get it to send or attach prefix and suffixes even based on different barcode types so you only "fetch" the right type of barcodes (Code39/UPC-A/EAN-13)

[@Hougaard]

This $15 scanner do not support a prefix, only postfix. You get what you pay for :)

Holly Molly....... Awesome. I think that the idea of controlling the time between keystrokes is simply Great. Ta for sharing your knowledge

[@vossert]

Hi Erik, Thank you very much for this video. I did implement is about a year ago but recently applied a modification to the code I think is worth mentioning here. I have multiple Pages using this Scanner usercontrol. Let's say Page A, B and C. On Page A I have a button/action which runs a lookup page (B) which in turn shows page C depending on the lookup result. When all 3 pages are shown (C on top) and I use the Scanner the usercontrol action on all 3 pages fire. Not at once, only when the page gains focus again. I was able to prevent this by passing 'true' for the optional skipIfBusy argument on InvokeExtensibilityMethod. This is what solved it for me: Microsoft.Dynamics.NAV.InvokeExtensibilityMethod( "Scanned", [buffer], true )

[@antoniocheca3787]

Hi Erik, great post! I have placed a field in transfer order header and I read serial nos from that field and then create a transfer line with the related item and tracking info. The problem I have is that the scanner sends an CRLF after reading the bar code which places the cursor in the next field of the transfer header, so the user, if needs to scan other serial no, needs to place the cursor back to the scan field. I cannot control this behabiour with standard AL (or I beleive so), so my question is: would your control addin (user control now) fix this behaviour and could be able to "return" the cursor to the scanner field? Thank you

[@Hougaard]

If you want to use the scanner as a keyboard, then you need to configure the scanner not to send anything else...

[@jackpeterson480]

Can you go through more of the basics on AL? Starting my learning curve and loved your intro video!

[@Hougaard]

I've got more beginner stuff planned, stay tuned!

[@divesh6287]

Hey Erik, Can you please create one video on topic ?

[@wlfrankiej]

Hi Erik, I somehow cant get it to work. The scannerinterface keeps complaining about the JS files that cannot be found. Have you got an idea how to solve that? The files are located in the same directory, name is correct...

[@Hougaard]

Then clearly the name is not correct :)

[@ysr1582]

How to print QR code in Report in Business Central Cloud version.

[@george4804]

Is not a must using javascript control addin. You can do it simple, make page not editable except a single textbox where you scan. Set scanner to make new line after scan and cach onvalidate.

[@Hougaard]

That would not solve barcodes with FNC1 characters and there is still the options of not having the cursor in that single field, even with just one field. On top of that, BC will move cursor focus, check the next video.. Out soon :)

[@george4804]

@@Hougaard indeed will not work with FNC barcodes types. But any regular will work if you have only one control editable. Anyway adding javascript addin in BC is much easier than before.

[@Hougaard]

One of the "design goals" as stated in the video, was to be able to handle FNC1 (because they come over as Ctrl-+ (zoom)) and I wanted to show how to solve that. (but my $15 scanner did not support FNC1, so I used the linefeed to simulate that situation where you need to suppress key presses).

[@yasmeensultana2802]

Hi Erik, thanks for the great video. I have used your scanner concept (showed in this video) and I created an extension to scan a barcode and create new sale order line on sales order page. But problem is after creating new sale order line, totals fields(total Amt. inc.VAT, Total VAT etc) on sales order subform are not getting updated automaticaly. These field only get updated on refresh/onreload of sales order page. Do you have any idea how to update these field automatically after each scan and creation of sales order line.?

[@Hougaard]

Call release and reopen.

[@tonywillems4234]

I tried to use this app on BC 365 Cloud V22. I get a lot of errors in the console and the javascript doesn't run

[@Hougaard]

What kind of errors?

[@ian-scho]

@@Hougaard Using the 'window.parent.addEventListener(...)' command (modifying the DOM) in Javascript has possibly been deprecated in Dynamics products.

[@kish100100]

Hi Erik, Can we scan barcode using mobile camera and same can we store in Business central table?

[@Hougaard]

Only by using a barcode keyboard, like this: play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nikosoft.nikokeyboard&hl=en_CA&gl=US

[@lucianstinga1587]

Hi Erik, can you please make a video on how to generate and print a QR Code on a BC AL report ? Thanks

[@Hougaard]

It's not that easy, there's a lot of work involved with that.

[@hexaforce]

I think it is better to first program the scanner to just send the barcode without prefix and suffix. Then the scanner will be basically a keyboard.

[@Hougaard]

.... Yes, but that was not the point of the hack :)

[@rachitgoel2036]

Hi Erik. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us. Your content is really useful. This request is not in direct connection with this video, but could you please also shred some light on NAV/BC Sales Document approval directly from an email where approver can directly approve or reject a document from an email received from Approval workflow. Currently approver needs to login in BC to do the same. Thanks.

[@Hougaard]

Not out of the box, but if you watch my video on URL hacks ( kzbin.info/www/bejne/nWGVaH1qaLKBisk ) you could create an URL that could trigger an approval.

[@rachitgoel2036]

@@Hougaard thanks Erik

[@umarnaeem6128]

Waiting for the follow-up video ^^

[@Hougaard]

No wait kzbin.info/www/bejne/oJK4o3WQrtKSaK8

[@umarnaeem6128]

@@Hougaard thank you so much

[@ara3n]

why would add a sufix or prefix in a barcode scanner?

[@Hougaard]

to identify when something is scanned and not just typed.

[@ara3n]

@@Hougaard but aren't you doing that with speed it takes to type?

[@Hougaard]

@@ara3n the more the better, it all goes to reduce the chance of "guessing" worng.

[@TheRealMrIncognito]

Hi Erik, any idea how to open barcode/qr code scanner in mobile app?

[@Hougaard]

By using the camera on the phone?

[@george4804]

No code solution is to use a keyboard from appstore that have build in scanner. Or you can try implement zxing javascript as Erik demonstrated.

[@TheRealMrIncognito]

As long as can scan.. Or best if can detect apps for scan barcode from mobile phone

[@xkhrachana140]

does it work with wireles barcode scanner?

[@Hougaard]

If the wireless barcode scanner is a "keyboard".