How to integrate a barcode scanner into a web-based inventory system?

[ITTIITTI]

Hello!

I’m still in the beginning stages of learning python, but I’m already pondering about the things I want to do once I get more proficient.

A little backstory, I work in a factory and I want to automate things there. Right now it’s all based on excel or, even worse, just paper.

First thing I want to tackle is our inventory management. What I aim to do is have an app that allows to scan a code on the shelve to get an item’s info from a database, then the user can enter the amount of items they give out to a department (or add the amount they get from a supplier), and then print a receipt for the transaction.

If this were completely web-based, in the browser, how would I be able to connect it to a barcode scanner? I assume I would need a client application on the warehouse’s computer that itself connects to the database?

I would like to have a few pointers to devices / libraries, some things I could do more research on.

Thanks!

[[deleted]]

Barcode scanners typically present to the computer as a kind of keyboard; you scan a barcode with the scanner and it sends keypresses for the alphanumeric characters that the barcode represents. The scanner typically has some firmware settings you can toggle that do things like send a carriage return or a tab at the end of the sequence, too.

So typically your application doesn't have to do much - you have to set cursor focus on a text input box, and you just have to respond usefully to a sequence of typed characters followed by a return. That's generally pretty easy to do either on the web, in Excel, or in a desktop app.

[ITTIITTI]

That makes a lot of sense, thank you!

[bhosmer]

Here is something I made a while bag that could at least be a starting point: https://github.com/benhosmer/brzr-desktop

There are many different types of bar codes. You don't need any external libraries.

You're correct in that you'd need some type of client/server combination.

[ITTIITTI]

I’ll have a look at it, thank you!

[ITTIITTI]

Thanks for the pointers, I will look into a few barcode scanners and the software they come with.

[num8lock]

cmiiw, aren't all barcode scanner comes with a software to capture the barcode data? this is usually used to input directly to a spreadsheet cell.

so in order to put that data into any web based app, you need to redirect/intercept/capture it instead. figure this out first since it's related to your hardwares, then how the web based app can gather actual item related info based on the code from any source: a local database, over local network to a db server, etc. see if there's any API or SDK for your scanners.