reading from barcode scanner

Question

I need to read data from barcode scanner in a web page. I agree that a usb scanner or a scanner equipped with keyboard wedge driver could get the data to a text field in the web page. I'm curious to know how do we read the data from RS-232 based scanner and bluetooth scanner. Will they also get the data to a textfield in a web page without any extra effort? If not, how do I accomplish that?

Answer 1

Yes, if you're scanning into a webpage form (and not your own desktop app), you need to have some type of keyboard wedge software on the computer that browses to the webpage. Here's one (haven't used it, but it looks like it also supports "bluetooth").

However, I'd surprised that the vendor of the scanner doesn't already supply the wedge software. Also, if the scanner uses bluetooth, it might work on the Bluetooth HID profile, which would mean that your OS would "see it" as a keyboard. Check with the vendor.

Answer 2

This depends on the device model you are using, namely the software provided by the manufacturer. Basically you should use a proxy that does the hard work for you.