[Koha-devel] EAN-13 barcode support

[Dobrica Pavlinusic]

I need to develop EAN-13 barcode support in next two weeks to migrate
one university library from custom software.

First step should be creation of RFC document, but I didn't receive
confirmation e-mail from wiki, so I can't add it there directly. I tried
with this and gmail.com e-mail address, so I would be greatful if
somebody could help me with that.

Basically, library now uses EAN-13[1] barcode which is zero-padded primary key
in old system istead of ISBN or ISSN. Since books allready have barcodes
on them, we can't change it.

To make things more insteresting, at least one barcode reader reports it
as UPC-A[2] without first leading zero, since EAN-13 has backwards
compatibility with it.

So, my first question is should I store barcodes padded with zeros in
Koha? It seems that itemBarcodeInputFilter syspref and small change to
barcodedecode in C4/Circulation.pm will support both solutions, and it
seems to be that 13-digit EAN-13 with padded zeros is cleaner solution.

Next, I would need to implement plugin which generates new barcodes in
same format (with check digit). This would involve change to autoBarcode
syspref in cataloguing/value_builder/barcode.pl and new C4/Barcode/EAN13.pm
to support next barcode while ignoring last checksum digit.

Finally, we need to print them. PDF::Reuse::Barcode allready supports
EAN13, so it seems that small change to C4/Labels/Label.pm would be sufficiant.

Am I missing something important other than tests? :-)


1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EAN-13
2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UPC-A

[Wojciech Zatorski]

Post by Dobrica Pavlinusic
I need to develop EAN-13 barcode support in next two weeks to migrate
one university library from custom software.
First step should be creation of RFC document, but I didn't receive
confirmation e-mail from wiki, so I can't add it there directly. I tried
with this and gmail.com e-mail address, so I would be greatful if
somebody could help me with that.
Basically, library now uses EAN-13[1] barcode which is zero-padded primary key
in old system istead of ISBN or ISSN. Since books allready have barcodes
on them, we can't change it.
To make things more insteresting, at least one barcode reader reports it
as UPC-A[2] without first leading zero, since EAN-13 has backwards
compatibility with it.
So, my first question is should I store barcodes padded with zeros in
Koha? It seems that itemBarcodeInputFilter syspref and small change to
barcodedecode in C4/Circulation.pm will support both solutions, and it
seems to be that 13-digit EAN-13 with padded zeros is cleaner solution.
Next, I would need to implement plugin which generates new barcodes in
same format (with check digit). This would involve change to autoBarcode
syspref in cataloguing/value_builder/barcode.pl and new C4/Barcode/EAN13.pm
to support next barcode while ignoring last checksum digit.
Finally, we need to print them. PDF::Reuse::Barcode allready supports
EAN13, so it seems that small change to C4/Labels/Label.pm would be sufficiant.
Am I missing something important other than tests? :-)
1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EAN-13
2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UPC-A

By the way... we are using EAN13 in Koha 2.2.x without problems:)
All 13-digits are saved in barcode field, to print barcodes we are using
php class;)

[Dobrica Pavlinusic]

Post by Wojciech Zatorski

Post by Dobrica Pavlinusic
So, my first question is should I store barcodes padded with zeros in
Koha? It seems that itemBarcodeInputFilter syspref and small change to
barcodedecode in C4/Circulation.pm will support both solutions, and it
seems to be that 13-digit EAN-13 with padded zeros is cleaner solution.

By the way... we are using EAN13 in Koha 2.2.x without problems:)
All 13-digits are saved in barcode field, to print barcodes we are
using php class;)

Ok, so I will store all 13 digits so you can have clean upgrade path :-)

[Dobrica Pavlinusic]

I have made some progress this week.

Changes are available at:

http://git.rot13.org/?p=koha.git;a=log;h=refs/heads/koha-6448-EAN-13_barcode

Curretly, they are split into several patches. Should I merge all the
changes together before attaching it to related bug

http://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=6448

or attach them one-by-one?

Should I open separate bugs for itemBarcodeInputFilter, autoBarcode and label support?

Post by Dobrica Pavlinusic
First step should be creation of RFC document, but I didn't receive
confirmation e-mail from wiki, so I can't add it there directly. I tried
with this and gmail.com e-mail address, so I would be greatful if
somebody could help me with that.

I still haven't received any wiki confirmation, so I'm spamming devel
list. I hope you don't mind :-)

[MJ Ray]

Post by Dobrica Pavlinusic
Curretly, they are split into several patches. Should I merge all the
changes together before attaching it to related bug
http://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=6448
or attach them one-by-one?

I think either is fine, but maybe the RMs have an opinion?

Post by Dobrica Pavlinusic
Should I open separate bugs for itemBarcodeInputFilter, autoBarcode and label support?

I don't think I would, if the fixes are related.

Post by Dobrica Pavlinusic

Post by Dobrica Pavlinusic
First step should be creation of RFC document, but I didn't receive
confirmation e-mail from wiki, so I can't add it there directly. I tried
with this and gmail.com e-mail address, so I would be greatful if
somebody could help me with that.

I still haven't received any wiki confirmation, so I'm spamming devel
list. I hope you don't mind :-)

No, that's fine. The wiki is currently crippled by
http://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=6326
and we're a bit limited in who can fix it.

Hope that helps,

[Chris Nighswonger]

Hi Dobrica,

The scaling foo really follows no logic that I've be able to figure
out yet. It is definitely not a "one size fits all" situation. Right
now it is optimized for longer barcodes. Feel free to improve upon it
if you are able.

I was wondering what units are used for $bar_length, and I haven't
figured it out.

IIRC all at that level are points. I'm pretty sure that I refactored
the entire creator code to use points as its base unit.

However, without scaling, barcodes are correct size (at least for
EAN-13/UPC-a which have "standard" size), so it's not a show-stoppper.

I suspect this is true for the average user, which is why it has not
been high on my list to work on (sorry everyone).

If I can help by answering questions, please feel free to ask. My time
right now is tight, so I can't do much more.

Kind Regards,
Chris