Portable scanners
Your portable scanner must have an in-built clock and be capable of downloading to a serial port.
NOTE: For scanners that use the USB port, refer to the manufacturer's documentation for installing drivers that mimic a serial port.
Program the download function so that the scanner processes:
- On the first line its own ID
- On the second line the date and
- On the third line the time.
- The end of the download must be marked with an EOF
Each scanned barcode has to be written on its own line followed by a line feed and carriage return.
To keep the movement time accurate, it is advisable that if the time between scans exceeds five minutes, it will be written to the file again.
Maximum length of 30 characters. As a minimum, allow for a length of 15 characters.
If you are using barcodes printed from Content Manager, the length might be up to 15, regardless of the size of a record's number or title.
Content Manager's barcodes contain the record's URI (Unique Record Identifier) from the dataset.
If you are going to use foreign barcodes with Content Manager, adjust the maximum length to suit their requirements.
The following is an example download from an ASP portable scanner:
| Sample | Comments |
|---|---|
| ASP PPBCR | Scanner identification: Maximum of 10 characters - used for reporting purposes |
| DATE960422 | Date: In format DATEYYMMDD |
| TIME120806 | Time: In format TIMEHHMMSS - Seconds are optional |
| S450000008 | Location barcode |
| R45000000U | Record barcode |
| R450000019 | Record barcode |
| S45000000H | Next Location barcode |
| R45000001L | Record barcode |
| R45000001M | Record barcode |
| DATE960422 | Date, dumped again due to long time span between scans |
| TIME121410 | Time, dumped again due to long time span between scans |
| S450000008 | Next Location barcode |
| R45000004H | Record barcode |
| R45000003E | Record barcode |
| S45000001C | Next Location barcode |
| R45000001L | Record barcode |
| R45000003C | Record barcode |
| DATE960422 | Date, dumped again due to long time span between scans |
| TIME121622 | Time, dumped again due to long time span between scans |
| EOF | End of file indicator |
Ensure that after each line you insert a carriage return and a line feed.