Using Barcode Products on Windows CE, Windows Mobile and Windows Phone
(Pocket PC)
IDAutomation has been able to use the
Linear Barcode Control for the .NET Compact Framework on a Pocket PC,
and it may be possible to use IDAutomation's
Java Applet or Barcode Class
Libraries with a Java VM to print barcodes from Pocket PC or PALM OS.
ActiveX components will not work on the Pocket PC OS in their present form.
IDAutomation's TrueType barcode fonts have been tested and function properly
on the Pocket PC 2002 and greater operating systems, including Windows CE,
Windows Mobile and Windows Phone. These fonts need to be copied to the \Windows\Fonts
directory of the target device. IDAutomation.com does not produce an installation
utility for this process, so it will be necessary to manually copy these
files from a desktop computer to the \Windows\Fonts directory on the target
device using either Windows Explorer or ActiveSync.
Pocket PC, Windows CE, Windows Mobile and Windows Phone do not support VBA
automation for Microsoft Office products. This means that the font automation
tools will not work in products such as Pocket Excel, Pocket Word, Pocket
Access, etc., directly on the Pocket PC. The font automation tools are necessary
to encode the data into the proper format for the fonts and the scanners
that will read the barcodes. In general, this means that the data contained
in the barcode cannot be dynamically changed while on the Pocket PC. The
data will have to be manipulated on the desktop computer and then the spreadsheet,
document, etc., must be copied to the Pocket PC device.
One exception to the aforementioned rule is the IDAutomation
Code 39 Barcode Font
Advantage Package. Because these fonts do not require specific encoding
or complex check digit calculations, they can be used with ease in the Pocket
PC environment by simply adding the start and stop characters (asterisk)
before and after the data to encode. For example, in Access the following
formula would be used =("*"&[Table.Field1]&"*")
to add the start and stop characters to the data. The fonts can also
be used in a custom application built with a compiler made for the Pocket
PC operating system such as Embedded C++ or Embedded Visual Basic. These
development platforms are specifically designed to develop applications
on the Pocket PC platform, and can be used in conjunction with the TrueType
fonts to produce barcodes for the Pocket PC environment. IDAutomation offers
helper functions for these development environments that can be used in
the application to encode the data and add the start and stop characters
to the data. See the links below to access these functions.
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