VintaSoft Barcode .NET SDK Discussions

Hi,

When trying to encode data into DataMatrix we came across the following issue:
When using the EDIFACT encoding the last 3 characters
(tested with the advanced barcode reader) are encoded as ASCII.

This can be reproduced using the following code snippet to generate a barcode

      var barcodeWriter = new Vintasoft.Barcode.BarcodeWriter ();
      barcodeWriter.Settings.Barcode = Vintasoft.Barcode.BarcodeType.DataMatrix;
      barcodeWriter.Settings.ProcessSpecialSymbols = false;
      barcodeWriter.Settings.BarsWidthAdjustment = 1.0;
      barcodeWriter.Settings.BarsRatio = 1.0;
      barcodeWriter.Settings.ValueVisible = false;
      barcodeWriter.Settings.Padding = 1;
      barcodeWriter.Settings.PrintableValue = null;
      barcodeWriter.Settings.ValueGap = 0;
      barcodeWriter.Settings.DataMatrixEncodingMode = DataMatrixEncodingMode.EDIFACT;
      barcodeWriter.Settings.MinWidth = 2;
      barcodeWriter.Settings.Resolution = 60.0;

      barcodeWriter.Settings.Value = dataInput;
      var outputImage = barcodeWriter.GetBarcodeAsBitmap ();

whereas dataInput was tested with one of the following data inputs

• 110;P;73300000000022'
  110;P;PM;LIFE;YAPP;YNEW;73300000000022'
  110;P;PM;LIFE;YAPP;YNEW;73300000000022;2300000123'

When saving the resulting image to disc and loading in the advanced barcode reader software you can see 3 decoded value items.

в„–	Type	Value	HEX
0	C40	*DEMO*	2A 44 45 4D 4F 2A 
1	EDIFACT	110;P;PM;LIFE;YAPP;YNEW;73300000000022;2300000	31 31 30 3B 50 3B 50 4D 3B 4C 49 46 45 3B 59 41 50 50 3B 59 4E 45 57 3B 37 33 33 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 32 32 3B 32 33 30 30 30 30 30 
2	ASCII	123	31 32 33 

The last value item is in my opinion an unexpected output, since I defined EDIFACT encoding in the code snippet above.
Is there a specific reason for the last 3 characters to be encoded in ASCII, or is this an issue in either the writing or the reading component of the SDK?

Is there a possibility to show the control characters or the codewords of the barcode using the advanced barcode reader?
We would expect the option "Show Non-data Flags" in the "Reader results" tab of the advanced barcode reader to do this,
but this option does not seem to have any effect.
This would be quite usefull, since we are now evaluating which encoding scheme to use for the input data we are expecting of our customers.

kind regards,
Roman

Hello Alexander,

I also tested this with the following inputs:
"1" =>

в„–	Type	Value	HEX
0	C40	*DEMO*	2A 44 45 4D 4F 2A 
1	ASCII	1	31 

"12" =>

в„–	Type	Value	HEX
0	C40	*DEMO*	2A 44 45 4D 4F 2A 
1	ASCII	12	31 32 

"123" =>

в„–	Type	Value	HEX
0	C40	*DEMO*	2A 44 45 4D 4F 2A 
1	ASCII	123	31 32 33 

"1234" =>

в„–	Type	Value	HEX
0	C40	*DEMO*	2A 44 45 4D 4F 2A 
1	EDIFACT	1	31 
2	ASCII	234	32 33 34 

"12345" =>

в„–	Type	Value	HEX
0	C40	*DEMO*	2A 44 45 4D 4F 2A 
1	EDIFACT	12	31 32 
2	ASCII	345	33 34 35 

"123456" =>

в„–	Type	Value	HEX
0	C40	*DEMO*	2A 44 45 4D 4F 2A 
1	EDIFACT	123	31 32 33 
2	ASCII	456	34 35 36 

"1234567" =>

в„–	Type	Value	HEX
0	C40	*DEMO*	2A 44 45 4D 4F 2A 
1	EDIFACT	1234	31 32 33 34 
2	ASCII	567	35 36 37 

"12345678" =>

в„–	Type	Value	HEX
0	C40	*DEMO*	2A 44 45 4D 4F 2A 
1	EDIFACT	12345	31 32 33 34 35 
2	ASCII	678	36 37 38 

"123456789" =>

в„–	Type	Value	HEX
0	C40	*DEMO*	2A 44 45 4D 4F 2A 
1	EDIFACT	123456	31 32 33 34 35 36 
2	ASCII	789	37 38 39 

So as you can see, there are always 3 ascii characters as the last 3 characters (if the input is longer than 3 characters)
So either there is something wrong in the packing of the EDIFACT symbols or I'm overlooking something here.

Also is there a possibility to show the control characters or the codewords of the barcode using the advanced barcode reader as I asked in my original post?

kind regards,
Roman

Hello Roman,

In version 6.1.0.3 we have optimized encoding algorithm of DataMatrix barcodes in Edifact mode and know you will have the following results:

• "1" => ASCII("1")
• "12" => ASCII("12")
• "123" => EDIFACT("123")
• "1234" => EDIFACT("1234")
• "12345" => EDIFACT("1234") + ASCII("5")
• "123456" => EDIFACT("1234") + ASCII("56")
• "1234567" => EDIFACT("1234567")
• "12345678" => EDIFACT("12345678")
• "123456789" => EDIFACT("12345678") + ASCII("9")
• "1234567890" => EDIFACT("12345678") + ASCII("90")

Best regards, Alexander