Posted on

How To Develop a Cross-Platform Barcode Reader Application by Hybridizing .NET MAUI and Blazor

.NET Multi-platform App UI (MAUI) is a cross-platform UI framework for building native and modern applications in C#. It allows developers to create a single codebase for multiple platforms. Blazor is a web UI framework for building interactive client-side web applications with .NET. It allows developers to write C# code that runs in the browser through the use of WebAssembly. When used together, .NET MAUI and Blazor provide a powerful combination for building cross-platform applications that can run on multiple platforms, including desktop, web, and mobile. In this article, we will demonstrate how to create a Blazor Hybrid app with Dynamsoft Barcode SDK. The app will be able to scan linear and two-dimensional barcodes on Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android.

Prerequisites

Getting Started With Blazor WebAssembly

Since Blazor UI components can be shared between Blazor WebAssembly and .NET MAUI Blazor projects, we will start by creating a Blazor WebAssembly project. To do this, open Visual Studio 2022 and create a new Blazor WebAssembly App project.

Posted on

Building Multiple Barcode, QR Code and Datamatrix Scanner With Flutter for Inventory Management

Barcode scanning is an essential tool for modern inventory management. It improves accuracy, efficiency, real-time tracking, and cost savings, making it an important part of any effective inventory management system. In this article, we will demonstrate how to build a multiple barcode, QR code and DataMatrix scanner with Flutter for inventory management on Android and iOS.

Supported Platforms

  • Android
  • iOS

Flutter Dependencies Used for Multi-Code Scanning App

To extend the capabilities of the target Flutter project beyond what is provided by Flutter’s core libraries, third-party Flutter plugins are necessary. The following is a list of the plugins used in this project:

Posted on

How To Turn Smartphone Into a Peripheral Keyboard and Barcode QR Scanner in Flutter

Barcode scanning technology is crucial for many enterprises, such as those in the supermarket, logistics, and warehousing industries. The data obtained from scanning barcodes is used to track inventory, manage orders, and process payments. Handheld barcode scanners are widely used as peripheral devices in these industries. However, traditional handheld laser barcode scanners can only detect one-dimensional codes, while more expensive scanners with an embedded camera are needed to detect two-dimensional codes like QR codes. Smartphones with built-in cameras can detect both one-dimensional and two-dimensional codes. Nowadays, smartphones have become ubiquitous. Everyone has at least one smartphone in their pocket. If a smartphone can do the same job as a handheld barcode scanner, no additional hardware is needed. This article presents a solution that combines technologies like Flutter, Python, Bonjour, web sockets, PyAutoGUI, and Dynamsoft Barcode Reader SDK to help enterprises save costs by using smartphones instead of barcode scanners.

Supported Platforms

  • Android
  • iOS

Demo Video: Smartphone as a Peripheral Keyboard and Barcode Scanner

The demo shows how to input text from an Android phone to Windows notepad and macOS notes simultaneously.

Posted on

The Quickest Way to Create an Android QR Code Scanner

A QR code scanner application primarily consists of two parts: camera preview and QR code scanning. There are many Android QR code scanner apps downloadable in the Google Play Store. However, it is more interesting to create a QR code scanner by yourself than to use an existing one. This article aims to reveal the quickest way to create an Android QR code scanner. You will see how to step by step implement camera preview, as well as how to integrate QR code scanning SDK.

Prerequisites

The following Android libraries are required in order to implement the QR code scanner. You can feel free to replace them with your own libraries. 

Posted on

How to Implement Flutter Barcode Scanner From Scratch

About two years ago, I wrote an article sharing how to build a Flutter barcode plugin with Dynamsoft Barcode Reader step by step. At that time, Flutter was still under development and only supported Android and iOS. Nowadays, Google has released Flutter 2, which allows developers to build apps for mobile, web, and desktop from a single codebase. If you want to build cross-platform apps, it is worth putting much effort into Flutter from now on. Since the new Flutter is not compatible with the old one, I decide to refactor the APIs of the Flutter barcode plugin and add a new method to support barcode scanning by video stream in real-time.

Flutter Barcode SDK Plugin

In the following paragraphs, I will demonstrate how to develop a Flutter barcode plugin that supports reading barcodes from an image file and image buffer, as well as how to publish the plugin to pub.dev.