Android Question [B4XPages][B4X] Barcode QrCode Reader not working

Mike1970 · Sep 24, 2021

Hi everyone i followed this tutorial

[B4X] [B4XPages] Barcode Reader

B4A + B4i barcode reader. Don't miss: - #PlistExtra in B4i. - Manifest code + #AdditionalJar in B4A Depends on BCToast: https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/threads/b4x-bctoast-cross-platform-custom-toast-message.111046/#content (BCToast will be an internal library in the near future) While the...

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I've two Android phone.
1. Honor 8A (Android 9)
2. Meizu 5c (Android 6)

On the first everything works ok, on the second the detector for the codes is not creating... infact it does not pass this check

B4X:

 Dim operational As Boolean = detector.RunMethod("isOperational", Null)
If operational = False Then
        ToastMessageShow("Error creating detector", False)
End If

So.. it will never fire the sub that finds the qrcode/barcode

In the tutorial it is said that it should work for Android 5+

I'm a bit worried because i don't want that on some smartphones (even new) it will not work..

Thanks in advance

agraham · Sep 24, 2021

If it doesn't work on that phone then I don't think there is anything you can do about it. Everything obviously compiles fine and runs without error on one phone so the problem has to be in the other phone. How widespread that incompatibility is I don't know but I have six Android 10 and 11 phones that the barcode detection works fine on.

Mike1970 · Sep 25, 2021

agraham said:
If it doesn't work on that phone then I don't think there is anything you can do about it. Everything obviously compiles fine and runs without error on one phone so the problem has to be in the other phone. How widespread that incompatibility is I don't know but I have six Android 10 and 11 phones that the barcode detection works fine on.

Thanks for your feedback agraham

drgottjr · Sep 25, 2021

according to sources, the meizu m5's software is proprietary and
"based" on android 6.

barcode (vision) software required has to be downloaded from google
(usually the first time you run the barcode reader app.), but there seems
to be an issue regarding the lack of support for google mobile services on the device.

i don't know if you've tried to run the app more than once, but it
has to be online when you do, until the mobile vision software
has been retrieved from play. try again a few times. note:
business at play does not grind to a halt just because mike has
checked in to get his download. after one failed attempt, i've
come back to my phone a few hours later only to discover that
the software was downloaded while i was away...

another note: i picked up an android knockoff which was
advertised as android 10. tests showed that it was actually
android 6, and - even then - was missing capabilities that an
android 6 was supposed to handle.

Mike1970 · Sep 26, 2021

drgottjr said:
according to sources, the meizu m5's software is proprietary and
"based" on android 6.

barcode (vision) software required has to be downloaded from google
(usually the first time you run the barcode reader app.), but there seems
to be an issue regarding the lack of support for google mobile services on the device.

i don't know if you've tried to run the app more than once, but it
has to be online when you do, until the mobile vision software
has been retrieved from play. try again a few times. note:
business at play does not grind to a halt just because mike has
checked in to get his download. after one failed attempt, i've
come back to my phone a few hours later only to discover that
the software was downloaded while i was away...

another note: i picked up an android knockoff which was
advertised as android 10. tests showed that it was actually
android 6, and - even then - was missing capabilities that an
android 6 was supposed to handle.

i thought was something related to Google Services or something similar..
however i tried waiting some time, but nothing changes. it seems to not support this way of detecting qrcodes and barcodes.

probably with libraries a bit more outdated it should work, because downloading an app from the store to read the qrcode it works. so the problem is the approach i think. but in this case i will loose the advantages of the "modern" way to do it.

drgottjr · Sep 26, 2021

google's mobile vision is not the only way to read barcodes,
but if an app does use it, the required software has to be
downloaded from play, either on installation or the first time
the app is launched (and the user is online). you didn't say,
but it's unclear whether or not the app you downloaded uses
mobile vision.

note: mobile vision is a black box. it works most of the time,
but there is no way to tweak it in the event of a problem.

note II: mobile vision barcode reader uses the zxing software
(which google took over a couple years ago). there are a few
libraries available here which use zxing. i think they're
all written by our resident barcode maven from south africa,
schoermann - i think - is his name. he seems to have spent
a lifetime working with zxing. and fine work it is.

i'm guessing you liked the idea of live barcode reading; if
the zxing libraries don't offer it (it's been a while since i've
looked at them), it shouldn't be difficult to incorporate a
live preview into an app that uses zxing rather than mobile
vision: you capture your preview, convert it to a bitmap and
feed it to zxing. with mobile vision, you capture your preview,
convert it to a "frame" and feed it to mobile vision's reader (zxing).
basically the same flow, same actors, just a different middle step.

Mike1970 · Sep 27, 2021

drgottjr said:
note II: mobile vision barcode reader uses the zxing software
(which google took over a couple years ago). there are a few
libraries available here which use zxing. i think they're
all written by our resident barcode maven from south africa,
schoermann - i think - is his name. he seems to have spent
a lifetime working with zxing. and fine work it is.

yes i'm pretty sure of this, i think i the past i used it.
the fact is that i developed the app following the suggested (new) ways , and trying on the old phone i found out the problem.

If this will not cause any problem in the future i think i will keep the app as is, in the worst case i will replace the reader with the one of shoermann. The app at the moment is finished and because of deadlines i can't reopen the project now. i hoped for something stupid like an additional libraries that was missing for particular cases or something else in the manifest.

Well thanks drgottjr for the explanation

Johan Schoeman · Sep 29, 2021

Mike1970 said:
yes i'm pretty sure of this, i think i the past i used it.
the fact is that i developed the app following the suggested (new) ways , and trying on the old phone i found out the problem.

If this will not cause any problem in the future i think i will keep the app as is, in the worst case i will replace the reader with the one of shoermann. The app at the moment is finished and because of deadlines i can't reopen the project now. i hoped for something stupid like an additional libraries that was missing for particular cases or something else in the manifest.

Well thanks drgottjr for the explanation

Error using ZXing Scanner with BAXpage

I am trying to use the ZXing Scanner library with B4X Page and it generates the following error: Sub Class_Globals Private Root As B4XView 'ignore Private xui As XUI 'ignore Private zx1 As BarcodeScanner Private pmain As Panel Private b1 As Button Private b2...

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Android Question [B4XPages][B4X] Barcode QrCode Reader not working

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