We need to parse the GS1 datamatrix barcode which will be provided by other party. We know they are going to use GTIN(01), lot number(10), Expiration date(17), serial number (21). The problems is that barcode reader output a string, the format is like this 01076123456789001710050310AC3453G321455777. Since there is not separator and both serial number and lot number are variable length according to GS1 standard, we have trouble to identify segments. My understanding is that it seems like the best way to parse is to embed the parser in the scanning device, not from the application. But we didn't plan an embed software yet. How can I implement the parser? Any suggestions?
There should be a FNC1 character at the end of a variable-length field that is not filled to maximum; so that FNC1 will appear between the G3 and the 21.
FNC1 is invisible to humans but can be detected by scanners and will be reproduced in the string reported by the scanner. Simply send the string directly to a text file and examine the text with a hex reader. the FNC1 should be obvious.
If you can, it might be an idea to swap the sequence of the 21 field and the 10 field since you appear to be using a pure-numeric for 21. This would make the barcode produced a little shorter.
One way to deal with this is to program the scanner to replace FNC1 with space or another plain text character before sending it to your application. The scanner manufacturer usually provides a tool to produce programming bar codes that can do simple substitutions in the scanner. Then you can parse the data without having to handle special characters.
Related
I am trying to extract data from this Japanese PDF using tabula-py (and tabula-java), but the output is gibberish. In both tabula-py and tabula-java, the output isn't human readable (definitely not Japanese characters), and there are no no error/warning messages. It does seem that the content of the PDF is processed though.
When using the standalone Tabula tool, the characters are encoded properly:
Searching online in the tabula-py and tabula-java documentation, and below are suggestions I could find, but these don't change the output.
Setting the -Dfile.encoding=utf8 (in java call to tabula-py or tabula-java)
Setting chcp 65001 (in Windows command prompt)
I understand Tabula and tabula-java (and tabula-py) use the same library, but is there something different between the two that would explain the difference in encoding output?
Background info
There is nothing unusual in this PDF compared to any other.
The text like any PDF is written in authors random order so for example the 1st PDF body Line (港区内認可保育園等一覧) is the 1262nd block of text added long after the table was started. To hear written order we can use Read Aloud, to verify character and language recognition but unless the PDF was correctly tagged it will also jump from text block to block
So internally the text is rarely tabular the first 8 lines are
1 認可保育園
0歳 1歳 2歳3歳4歳5歳 計
短時間 標準時間
001010 区立
3か月
3455-
4669
芝5-18-1-101
Thus you need text extractors that work in a grid like manner or convert the text layout into a row by row output.
This is where all extractors will be confounded as to how to output such a jumbled dense layout and generally ALL will struggle with this page.
Hence its best to use a good generic solution. It will still need data cleaning but at least you will have some thing to work on.
If you only need a zone from the page it is best to set the boundary of interest to avoid extraneous parsing.
Your "standalone Tabula tool" output is very good but could possibly be better by use pdftotext -layout and adjust some options to produce amore regular order.
Your Question
the difference in encoding output?
The Answer
The output from pdf is not the internal coding, so the desired text output is UTF-8, but PDF does not store the text as UTF-8 or unicode it simply uses numbers from a font character map. IF the map is poor everything would be gibberish, however in this case the map is good, so where does the gibberish arise? It is because that out part is not using UTF-8 and console output is rarely unicode.
You correctly show that console needs to be set to Unicode mode then the output should match (except for the density problem)
The density issue would be easier to handle if preprocessed in a flowing format such as HTML
or using a different language
I have created one bar code scanner application and used AVFoundation native framework. Some of our barcode contains hidden unicode characters and we are unable to scan it. Here is an example of bar code:
]d201000000000010!0000-023
I am getting above code like: \u{1D}01000000000010\u{1D}0000-023
In above barcode ]d2 varies. I am unable to find type of the barcode. How can I parse that Unicode contained string into normal string? Does any one face this type of issue or barcode? Thanks in advance.
\u{1D}01000000000010\u{1D}0000-023 Looks to be a GS1-formatted barcode. Full spec is here And the values after the {1D} delimiter are call "application identifiers" and identify the type of data contained in that field. GS1 is really common in any industry where full supply-chain tracking is needed such as the medical device industry, etc. A concise list of application identifiers is here
I am trying to read a text in a given rectangle using readText() function.
The function works correctly except when it has to read some text which has special characters like ' _ & etc.
I tried using validCharacters with readText() function. But it didn't help.
Code -
put ReadText((287,125,810,164),validCharacters:"_-'.ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz01234567890") into Login
I tried working with character collections. But that doesn't seem to be right because the text trying to pick is a dynamic text combination of numbers alphabets and a special character. So one cannot create a library of character collection of every alphabet (a-z, A-Z), numbers(0-9) and special characters.
Example of text trying to read:
Login_Userid1_1, Login'Userid1_1
So how do I read such text correctly
Debugging OCR is a bit of an imprecise science. EggPlant has a lot of OCR Parameters to tweak. When designing test cases it's best to try use other mechanisms to gather information whenever possible. ReadText() should be considered a last resort when more reliable methods are unavailable. When I've used it I've often needed to do a lot of trial and error to find the right set of settings, and SearchRectangle to get consistent results. Without seeing exactly what images you are trying to read text from it's difficult to impossible to troubleshoot where the issue might be.
One thing that does stand out to me is that you're trying to read strings that may contain underscores. ReadText() has an optional property IgnoreUnderscores which treats underscores as spaces. By default this property is set to ON. It defaults to ON because some OCR engines have problems identifying underscore characters consistently.
If you want to have ReadText() handle underscores you'll want to explicitly set this property to OFF.
ReadText(rect, validCharacters:chars, ignoreUnderscores:OFF)
The bar code 128 subset C the number of digits should always be even.
How to print bar code with odd character? example:
1517072011170323703007607271023031701
Using DelhiXE7 and Fortes Report 4.0 VCL
Is this question related to finnish banking barcode ?
if YES: You must pad the data to be of even length, according to the documentation published by the bank. Switching the barcode encoding system is not allowed by the relevant banking standard.
reference URL: http://www.finanssiala.fi/maksujenvalitys/dokumentit/Bank_bar_code_guide.pdf
if NO: Just first encode the even-length part, then switch to code 128A or 128B using the encoding switching special "character" and finally encode the last digit using either 128A or 128B, whichever serves you better.
I'm reading barcodes in an iOS app using the built-in barcode recognizer.
I scanned the barcode on a bottle of prescription medication. I'm expecting this barcode to resolve to a number that I can use to refer to a medication database. What iOS tells me is this:
type: org.iso.Code128
string value: xAAAJ5wEA
I checked the Wikipedia entry for "Code 128" but I'm still not sure how to decode the string further. I'm assuming it's a "Code Set C" value, but I don't see how to translate it into the series of decimal numbers I'm expecting.
Any help would be appreciated, thanks.
Code 128 is a compact one-dimensional barcode primarily used for alphanumeric barcodes. All 128 characters in ASCII are encoded.
In this case, your result is almost certainly a barcode encoding "xAAAJ5wEA". That barcode looks like this Code 128 barcode:
Prescription medication tend to encode a great deal of information. Possibly the customer record number, how many refills, what medication, etc. It can be used to pull up all information about the customer in the pharmacy computers. Precisely how this data is encoded will likely be based on the pharmacy policies. Therefore you will need to customize your software for each pharmacy.