How to pass a Maxicode string with the field separators as non-printable characters

OL Connect Enterprise Designer
1

Hi There,

I’m creating a UPS label with a Maxicode in it. This Maxicode has to be UPS certified and so far, I have everything correct, except for making the field separators non-pritable, so that they can be decoded when scanned. The following string needs to be displayed when decoded showing hidden separators:

[)>01<RS>96J3X2Y3<GS>124<GS>020<GS>1Z12345665<GS>UPSN<GS>PCODE<GS>106<GS><GS>3/5<GS>008<GS>N<GS><GS>CITYNAME<GS>PR<RS><EOT>

The following is what currently shows up:

[)>0196J3X2Y31240201Z12345665UPSNPCODE1063/52NCITYNAMEPR<CR>

When I pass the first string through as HTML it creates the Maxicode but hides the separators from scanning so that the second is all that shows up. The <GS> needs to be non-printable. Inputing as text string displays no maxicode. Which means it doesn’t like something in it. As the Maxicode is largely proprietary to UPS, I wonder why my string is not correct. I have tried just passing GS through but then they become part of the actual string.

After, doing much research, II need to pass an ASCII Group Separator through. When I insert this into the string instead of <GS>, the maxicode previews fine but it fails to print. I have tried using UTF-8 and US-ASCII (along with default of Windows 1252) but they don’t seem to work. I have tried inserting Quotes in the prefix and suffix of the barcode to enclose the non-printable characters but still doesn’t work.

Has anyone tried or encountered this with Maxicodes before? I need the Group Separator to be non-printable when picked up by a scanner. Let me know if I can provide more information.

Thanks,

2

Hello TSled,

This is a little too technical for the forum, and might require intervention from our R&D team for a resolution. As such, I’d ask that you open a technical support ticket so that we can gather all the necessary information and escalate as necessary.

You can reach them either by phone (1-866-348-5863) or by submitting the issue online (http://planetpress.objectiflune.com/en/resources/support)

Regards,
~Evie

3

TSLed, try inserting your group separator in your string as

4

Thanks pacel!

I got results back from the tester late Friday with success. You are on the right track. This is what I did for RS, GS and EOT:

RS = %#030;

GS = %#29;

EOT = %#04;

It’s a little weird because the RS had to have the 030 instead of just 30, whereas the others were only 2 digits. So in case anyone has to create a scannable maxicode for the shipping industry, use the above the HTML versions of the Record Separators, Group Separators and End of Transmission and pass through as HTML.

Hope this helps those who follow as it became quite a pain staking learning process lol!

And thanks for the tip too Evie, I had opened up a support ticket before I turned to this avenue. It’s pretty hard to explain when the Maxicode is being generated and all looks good.

Cheers