Hello! I’m new to Automate and node-red but I’m learning.
I’m working on how to move our current processes over.
One of the hold ups I’ve ran into is Automate does not seem to have a barcode scan node.
I have a pdf file, which I currently mine for the 2D information to a .csv file, which I then use to identify where the boundaries are of each record in the datamapper.
Has anyone found a good solution for mining/reading 2D barcode information with Automate?
You can read this.
Also, as you’ll notice, Node-RED, the back engine of Automate, is open code. That means lots, and I mean lots of Nodes are avaialble, most for free, on the web.
In your browser, simply type Node-RED PDF barcode reader or whatever else you look for and your most likely to find it.
Hi kgoldtrap,
As JC mentioned at the moment, OL Connect Automate doesn’t include a barcode-scanning node out of the box. Do you happen to have any other elements in the input data that could be used to define the boundaries directly in DataMapper? Perhaps something like “Page 1 of …” or other consistent text that can serve as delimiters.
If you’re not sure whether that would work in your case, feel free to send me a sample file via DM. I’m happy to take a look.
Erik
P.S. I’d also be interested to hear whether you think adding barcode reading directly into DataMapper could be a viable future enhancement.
Unfortunately, with these pdfs, the Barcode is really the only way to identify where the record breaks are. They are sometimes single letters, sometimes groups of letters with a Cover Letter. There can be multiple page 1s, etc.
I’m going to do some more looking into the other pdf barcode scanning options that are out there, everything I was seeing were asking that I rasterize it first and then map the image file.
As for mapping barcodes directly from the datamapper, YES PLEASE!!! 100% This is something I have wanted since I started working with planetpress.
75% of my job ends up being pulling apart fully formed pdfs and adjusting them so that they actually work for mailing. Being able to map the barcode either to a field or to use for boundaries would be amazing! Right now I do it via the workflow, breaking it apart into pieces, mapping the 2D barcodes to a .csv and then using the .csv file to create the boundaries in the datamapper passing the original pdf through as background. So being able to map the barcodes directly would be a huge time savings for us.
Thank you! I’ll do some more looking into pdf barcode options. Like I mentioned in my reply to Erik, everything I was seeing required rasterizing it first, which I wanted to avoid if possible. I’ll see if I can find something closer to our needs.
Should you not find the tool you need, you could do the same as in Worflow.
Rasterize a copy of your PDF, get the barcode from it, store these info into the JSON flow and then use the real PDF in your Datamapper with the data obtained from your rasterized PDF.
Hi Erik, I have the exact same issue myself here and yes a barcode reader within mapper would be ideal. This is exactly what I used to do in quadient and was much easier
kgoldtrap, jbeal84 great feedback and I like the suggestion of having barcode scanning/extraction in DM (and being able to use that for document boundaries). I’ll dive into this and discuss internally. What would be first barcode types for us to support?
If we could have the ones that are currently available in the workflow and remove/add any if need be. That would be good.
Erik - Here, we utilize the datamatrix barcodes, so that is the most valuable to us!
Thanks both! We’ll have a look and research what is possible within DataMapper.
Yeah +1 for datamatrix for us too
If you could also include Code 39 and QR codes, that would be helpful.
Hi all,
Would you also need the barcode value and related information, such as the page index? If any of you could share some sample data, it would be greatly appreciated, as it would help us with development and testing. Feel free to drop me a direct message.
Erik
