How do barcode scanners for mobile computers integrate into the system?

Question

Our company is considering using handheld barcode scanners as part of our inventory management process, and I have some technical questions about how they actually integrate with the existing system. To clarify, I'm talking about handheld wireless barcode scanners with screens and keyboards on them, which are actually mini-computers. Those that connect to the network via 802.11g and interact with the database in real time.

I know this is a broad question, which is somewhat dependent on the device, but the Internet does not seem to have a good source of technically detailed information on this. The type of information that a software developer would like to know before buying one of these devices to make sure that it will actually work in a particular situation.

I found places selling them and main sales lists, but what I'm looking for is a detailed description of how these devices are actually programmed and how they talk to background software.

In particular, do you program them using a widely used language such as C? Or are they using some obscure proprietary language? Is this script or compiled?

Do you need to install special software on your desktop PC to download the application to the scanner?

Many of them say that they are running Windows Mobile or Windows CE. Does this mean that you need a Windows desktop machine to program them? To interact with them? Or can they be programmed from the Linux desktop and interact with Linux servers?

How do they really talk with the background application? Does it send XML via HTTP, for example?

Based on the background of web development, I imagine a gun with thin client software like javascript, which makes AJAX-like calls via http (via Wi-Fi) to the server. Or can they work like that?

I would like this guide to be called "programming your first barcode scanner," which teaches you to gradually create a hello world program. Is there such a thing?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

All the barcode scanner devices of a mobile computer that I have ever worked with were pre-configured with the operating system. And on all of them that I worked with, this operating system was Windows Mobile or Windows CE. You really have a PDA for Windows Mobile, which has specialized equipment for scanning barcodes.

So, the "programming your first barcode scanner" manual should really be called "programming for Windows Mobile." There are all kinds of sites that can help you learn how to program Windows Mobile, including Microsoft’s own sites . But, in general, you are locked in development in paradigms defined by Microsoft. It pretty much comes down to writing C / C ++ that uses the Windows CE API or writes .NET code that accesses the .NET Compact Framework . It also means that you're probably going to use some kind of taste of Microsoft Visual Studio for development. Fortunately, Visual Studio also comes with Windows Mobile emulation, so you can test without actually using a physical device.

After your main application is written, you can add access to the barcode scanner in a special library of the equipment supplier. Testing this part will require that you actually have a physical device.

As for communication methods, protocols, etc., it will all be up to you. If you collapse everything from scratch, you will also have to build a communication protocol from scratch. Otherwise, you will need to do some research to find out if there are any components of the integrated communication protocol that you could purchase / use.