How to Build Online Barcode Scanning App with Python Django

Oct 20, 2021

 Barcode

•  BARCODE
•  DJANGO
•  PYTHON
•  WEB
•  QR CODE

Industries, such as healthcare, finance, and education, have to deal with amounts of paper per day. An excellent electronic document management system can bring high-efficiency to companies. In modern document management system, barcode and QR code are playing a key role. In this article, we combine document scanning and barcode recognition technologies to implement an online document barcode reader with Python.

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To create the online Barcode reader, we need to install Django, Dynamic Web TWAIN SDK, and Dynamsoft Barcode SDK.

• Django
• DWT
  • 
  • 
• DBR
  • 
  • 
  • 

Implementing Online Barcode Reader in Python

Step 1: Load and Scan Barcode Images with Dynamic Web TWAIN SDK

To quickly implement a web document management application that supports image loading, scanning, and uploading, you can read the article Online Document Scanning with Django and Dynamic Web TWAIN, which has provided detailed steps.

Let’s get started with the source code:

git clone https://github.com/dynamsoft-dwt/Scan-Documents-with-Python.git

Step 2: Install Python Barcode Library

Dynamsoft has published Python barcode SDK to https://pypi.org/project/dbr/. You can install the SDK via pip command:

pip install dbr

Supported Symbologies

• Linear Barcodes (1D) :
  • Code 39 (including Code 39 Extended)
  • Code 93
  • Code 128
  • Codabar
  • Interleaved 2 of 5
  • EAN-8
  • EAN-13
  • UPC-A
  • UPC-E
  • Industrial 2 of 5
  • MSI Code
• 2D Barcodes :
  • QR Code (including Micro QR Code)
  • Data Matrix
  • PDF417 (including Micro PDF417)
  • Aztec Code
  • MaxiCode (mode 2-5)
  • DotCode
  • Patch Code
  • GS1 Composite Code
  • GS1 DataBar :
  • Omnidirectional
  • Truncated
  • Stacked
  • Stacked Omnidirectional
  • Limited
  • Expanded
  • Expanded Stacked
  • Postal Codes :
  • USPS Intelligent Mail
  • Postnet
  • Planet
  • Australian Post
  • UK Royal Mail

Step 3: Integrating Python Barcode SDK into the Existing Django Project

Import the module to views.py:

from dbr import *
import json

reader = BarcodeReader()
# Apply for a trial license: https://www.dynamsoft.com/customer/license/trialLicense?product=dbr&utm_source=github
reader.init_license("LICENSE-KEY")

You need a valid license key to unlock the capabilities of Dynamsoft Barcode SDK.

Once an image is uploaded, you can call decode_file() function to recognize barcodes:

def upload(request):
    out = "No barcode found"
    if request.method == 'POST':
        filePath = handle_uploaded_file(request.FILES['RemoteFile'], str(request.FILES['RemoteFile']))
        try:
            text_results = reader.decode_file(filePath)
            if text_results != None:
                out = ''
                for text_result in text_results:
                    out += "Barcode Format : " + text_result.barcode_format_string + "\n"
                    out += "Barcode Text : " + text_result.barcode_text + "\n"
                    out += "------------------------------------------------------------"
        except BarcodeReaderError as bre:
            print(bre)
            return HttpResponse(out)


        return HttpResponse(out)

    return HttpResponse(out)

def handle_uploaded_file(file, filename):
    if not os.path.exists('upload/'):
        os.mkdir('upload/')

    filePath = 'upload/' + filename
    with open(filePath, 'wb+') as destination:
        for chunk in file.chunks():
            destination.write(chunk)

        return filePath

Now, let’s run the project as follows:

python manage.py makemigrations
python manage.py migrate --run-syncdb
python manage.py runserver

Testing the Online Barcode Reader Application

1. Load a document image which contains multiple barcodes.

   

2. Click the Read Barcode button.

   

3. Check the returned results.

   

Source Code

https://github.com/dynamsoftsamples/django-barcode-reader