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DocumentationAEM 6.5User Guide

Barcoded Forms Service barcoded-forms-service

Last update: Mon Jun 24 2024 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
  • Applies to:
  • Experience Manager 6.5

CREATED FOR:

  • Admin
  • User
  • Developer

Overview overview

The Barcoded Forms service extracts data from electronic images of barcodes. The service accepts TIFF and PDF files that include one or more barcodes as input and extracts the barcode data. Barcode data can be formatted in various ways, including XML, delimited string, or any custom format created with JavaScript.

The Barcoded Forms service supports the following two-dimensional (2D) symbologies supplied as scanned TIFF or PDF documents:

  • PDF417
  • Data Matrix
  • QR Code

The service also supports the following one-dimensional symbologies supplied as scanned TIFF or PDF documents:

  • Codabar
  • Code128
  • Code 3 of 9
  • EAN13
  • EAN8

You can use the Barcoded Forms service to accomplish the following tasks:

  • Extract barcode data from barcode images (TIFF or PDF). The data is stored as delimited text.
  • Convert delimited text data to XML (XDP or XFDF). XML data is easier to parse than delimited text. Also, data in XDP or XFDF format can be used as input for other services in AEM Forms.

For each barcode in an image, the Barcoded Forms service locates the barcode, decodes it, and extracts the data. The service returns the barcode data (using entity encoding where required) in a content element of an XML document. For example, the following scanned TIFF image of a form contains two barcodes:

example

The Barcoded Forms service returns the following XML document after decoding the barcodes:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<xb:scanned_image xmlns:xb="https://decoder.barcodedforms.adobe.com/xmlbeans"     path="tiff" version="1.0">
    <xb:decode>
        <xb:date>2007-05-11T15:07:49.965-04:00</xb:date>
        <xb:host_name>myhost.adobe.com</xb:host_name>
        <xb:status type="success">
            <xb:message />
        </xb:status>
    </xb:decode>
    <xb:barcode id="1">
        <xb:header symbology="pdf417">
            <xb:location page_no="1">
                <xb:coordinates>
                    <xb:point x="0.119526625" y="0.60945123" />
                    <xb:point x="0.44457594" y="0.60945123" />
                    <xb:point x="0.44457594" y="0.78445125" />
                    <xb:point x="0.119526625" y="0.78445125" />
                </xb:coordinates>
            </xb:location>
        </xb:header>
        <xb:body>
            <xb:content encoding="utf-8">t_SID t_FirstName t_MiddleName t_LastName t_nFirstName t_nMiddleName t_nLastName 90210 Patti Y Penne Patti P Prosciutto</xb:content>
        </xb:body>
    </xb:barcode>
    <xb:barcode id="2">
        <xb:header symbology="pdf417">
            <xb:location page_no="1">
                <xb:coordinates>
                    <xb:point x="0.119526625" y="0.825" />
                    <xb:point x="0.44457594" y="0.825" />
                    <xb:point x="0.44457594" y="0.9167683" />
                    <xb:point x="0.119526625" y="0.9167683" />
                </xb:coordinates>
            </xb:location>
         </xb:header>
        <xb:body>
            <xb:content encoding="utf-8">t_FormType t_FormVersion ChangeName 20061128</xb:content>
         </xb:body>
    </xb:barcode>
</xb:scanned_image>

Considerations for the service considerations

Workflows that use barcoded forms workflows-that-use-barcoded-forms

Form authors create interactive barcoded forms by using Designer. (See .) When a user fills a barcoded form by using ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ Reader or Acrobat, the barcode is updated automatically to encode the form data.

The Barcoded Forms service is useful for converting data that exists on paper to electronic format. For example, when a barcoded form is filled and printed, the printed copy can be scanned and used as input to the Barcoded Forms service.

Watched folder endpoints are typically used to start applications that use the Barcoded Forms service. For example, document scanners can save TIFF or PDF images of barcoded forms in a watched folder. The watched folder endpoint passes the images to the service for decoding.

Barcoded form authors are encouraged to use a simple, delimited format (such as tab-delimited) when encoding data in barcodes. Also, avoid using Carriage Return as the field delimiter. Designer provides a selection of delimited encodings that automatically generate JavaScript script to encode barcodes. The decoded data has the field names on the first line and their values on the second line, with tabs between each field.

When decoding barcodes, specify the character that is used to delimit fields. The character specified for decoding must be the same character that was used for encoding the barcode. For example, on using the recommended tab-delimited format, the Extract to XML operation must use the default value of Tab for the field delimiter.

User-specified character sets user-specified-character-sets

When form authors add barcode objects to their forms by using Designer, they can specify a character encoding. The recognized encodings are UTF-8, ISO-8859-1, ISO-8859-2, ISO-8859-7, Shift-JIS, KSC-5601, Big-Five, GB-2312, UTF-16. By default, all data is encoded in barcodes as UTF-8.

When decoding barcodes, you can specify the character set encoding to use. To guarantee that all data is decoded correctly, specify the same character set that the form author specified when the form was designed.

API Limitations api-limitations

When you use the BCF APIs, consider the following limitations:

  • Dynamic forms are not supported.
  • Interactive forms are not decoded correctly, unless they are flattened.
  • 1-D barcodes must contain only alphanumeric values (if supported). 1-D barcodes containing special symbols are not decoded.

Other limitations other-limitations

Also, consider the following limitations when using the Barcoded Forms service: