Find Barcode (Extractor Type)
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This article was migrated from an older version and has not been updated for the current version of Grooper. This tag will be removed upon article review and update. |
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This article is about the current version of Grooper. Note that some content may still need to be updated. | ||
| 2025 | 2023 | 2.80 |
Find Barcode is an Extractor Type that searches for and returns barcode values previously stored in a folder Batch Folder or contract Batch Page's layout data. Note: Find Barcode differs slightly from Read Barcode. Read Barcode performs barcode recognition when the extractor executes. Find Barcode can only look up barcode data stored in the document or page's layout data. Find Barcode runs quicker than Read Barcode, but barcode values must have previously been collected in the Batch Process by the Image Processing or Recognize activities.
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You may download the ZIP(s) below and upload it into your own Grooper environment (version 2023). The first contains one or more Batches of sample documents. The second contains one or more Projects with resources used in examples throughout this article. |
About
Find Barcode is an Extractor Type in Grooper. It is used to read barcode information obtained from an IP Profile (such as one executed by the Image Processing activity or the Recognize activity) and return its encoded value.
There are almost 30 different types of barcode symbologies (the way data is formatted in barcodes) Grooper can read.
Find Barcode vs Read Barcode
Find Barcode differs slightly from Read Barcode. Read Barcode reads a barcode at the time of extraction. Find Barcode reads Layout Data obtained from an IP Profile (via the Barcode Detection or Barcode Removal command). For Find Barcode to work, you must get barcode information ahead of time using Barcode Detection or Barcode Removal IP commands. Read Barcode detects the barcode and reads the result at the same time, during data extraction.
Why choose one over the other? It mostly depends on workflow and computing resources (or just simply personal preference). You may want to get barcode data ahead of time, freeing up computing resources during data extraction. In that case, Find Barcode would be more suited to your needs. If compute during extract is not an issue, Read Barcode may be better for you.
Use Cases
Barcodes are used in a variety of ways. The most common usage is for product labeling, which can be used to track items in inventory or for accounting purposes. In a healthcare setting, barcodes may be used for patient identification to access patient data, such as medical history or allergy information, or to create SOAP Notes or manage medication. They also may be used to separate and index documents.
Grooper supports the following barcode symbologies:
| Symbology | Description |
| AustraliaPost | Australia Post 4-state barcode. |
| Codabar | Codabar is a linear barcode symbology developed in 1972 by Pitney Bowes Corp It and its variants are also known as Codeabar, Ames Code, NW-7, Monarch, Code 2 of 7, Rationalized Codabar, ANSI/AIM BC3-1995 or USD-4. |
| Code11 | Code 11 is a barcode symbology developed by Intermec in 1977. It is used primarily in telecommunications. The symbol can encode any length string consisting of the digits 0-9 and the dash character "-". One or two modulo-11 check digit(s) can be included. |
| Code128 | Code 128 is a high-density barcode symbology used for alphanumeric or numeric-only barcodes. It can encode all 128 characters of ASCII and, by use of an extension character (FNC4), the Latin-1 characters defined in ISO/IEC 8859-1. |
| Code32 | Also known as Italian Pharmacode, IMH, Codice 32 Pharmacode, Codice Farmaceutico Italiano, Radix 32 Barcode. |
| Code39 | Code 39 is a commonly used variable length alphanumeric barcode symbology. Also known as Alpha39, Code 3 of 9, Code 3/9, Type 39, USS Code 39, or USD-3. |
| Code93 | Code 93 is a barcode symbology designed in 1982 by Intermec to provide a higher density and data security enhancement to Code 39. It is an alphanumeric, variable length symbology. Code 93 is used primarily by Canada Post to encode supplementary delivery information. Every symbol includes two check characters. |
| Datamatrix | A Data Matrix code is a two-dimensional matrix barcode consisting of black and white "cells" or modules arranged in either a square or rectangular pattern. The information to be encoded can be text or numeric data. Usual data size is from a few bytes up to 1556 bytes |
| Ean13 | An EAN-13 barcode (originally European Article Number, but now renamed International Article Number even though the abbreviation EAN has been retained) is a 13 digit (12 data and 1 check) barcoding standard which is a superset of the original 12-digit Universal Product Code (UPC) system developed in 1970 by George J. Laurer. The EAN-13 barcode is defined by the standards organization GS1. |
| Ean8 | An EAN-8 is a barcode and is derived from the longer European Article Number (EAN-13) code. It was introduced for use on small packages where an EAN-13 barcode would be too large. |
| I2of5 | Interleaved 2 of 5 (ITF, from Interleaved Two of Five) is a continuous two-width barcode symbology encoding digits. It is used commercially on 135 film, for ITF-14 barcodes, and on cartons of some products, while the products inside are labeled with UPC or EAN. |
| IntelligentMail | The Intelligent Mail Barcode (IM barcode) is a 65-bar code for use on mail in the United States. The term “Intelligent Mail” refers to services offered by the United States Postal Service for domestic mail delivery. The IM barcode is intended to provide greater information and functionality than its predecessors POSTNET and PLANET. An Intelligent Mail barcode has also been referred to as a One Code Solution and a 4-State Customer Barcode, abbreviated 4CB, 4-CB or USPS4CB. |
| Itf14 | ITF-14 (Interleaved Two of Five) is the GS1 implementation of an Interleaved 2 of 5 bar code to encode a Global Trade Item Number. ITF-14 symbols are generally used on packaging levels of a product, such as a case box of 24 cans of soup. The ITF-14 will always encode 14 digits. |
| MicroQr | Micro QR code is a smaller version of the QR code standard for applications where symbol size is limited. |
| Patch | Detects Patch 1, Patch 2, Patch 3, Patch 4, Patch 6, and Patch T patch code scanner sheets. The detected patch code symbology is returned as the barcode value. |
| Pdf417 | PDF417 is a 2D (stacked linear) barcode symbology used in a variety of applications, primarily transport, identification cards, and inventory management. PDF417 is one of the formats (along with Data Matrix) that can be used to print postage accepted by the United States Postal Service. PDF417 is also selected by the airline industry's Bar Coded Boarding Pass standard (BCBP) as the 2D bar code symbolism for paper boarding passes. PDF417 is the standard selected by the Department of Homeland Security as the machine readable zone technology for RealID compliant driver licenses and state issued identification cards. It is also used on FedEx on package labels. |
| Planet | The Postal Alpha Numeric Encoding Technique (PLANET) barcode was used by the United States Postal Service to identify and track pieces of mail during delivery - the Post Office's "CONFIRM" services. It was fully superseded by Intelligent Mail Barcode by January 28, 2013. |
| Postnet | POSTNET (Postal Numeric Encoding Technique) is a barcode symbology used by the United States Postal Service to assist in directing mail. |
| Plus2 | 2-digit supplementals associated with EAN and UPC symbology barcodes. |
| Plus5 | 5-digit supplementals associated with EAN and UPC symbology barcodes. |
| Qr | QR code (abbreviated from Quick Response Code) is the trademark for a type of matrix barcode (or two-dimensional barcode) first designed for the automotive industry in Japan. The QR Code system became popular outside the automotive industry due to its fast readability and greater storage capacity compared to standard UPC barcodes. Applications include product tracking, item identification, time tracking, document management, and general marketing. |
| Rm4scc | Royal Mail 4-State Customer Code is a barcode symbology used by the Royal Mail for its Cleanmail service. |
| Rss14 | RSS 14 barcode (Reduce Space Symbology) encodes the full 14-digit EAN.UCC item identification in a symbol that can be omnidirectionally scanned by suitably configured point-of-sale laser scanners. RSS-14 alternate formats are read as well as the regular format. The alternate formats are truncated, stacked, and stacked omnidirectional. It is recommended that the alignment of truncated and stacked symbols be close to horizontal or vertical. |
| RssLimited | RSS Limited encodes a 14-digit EAN.UCC item identification with indicator digits of 0 or 1 in a small symbol which will not be scanned at POS. It is recommended that symbols whose height is near to the specified minimum be aligned close to horizontal or vertical. |
| Telepen | Telepen is a name of a barcode symbology designed in 1972 in the UK to express all 128 ASCII characters. |
| Upca | UPC-A. The Universal Product Code (UPC) is a barcode symbology widely used in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and in other countries for tracking trade items in stores. The most common form, UPC-A, consists of 12 numerical digits, which are uniquely assigned to each trade item. |
| Upce | UPC-E. This symbology differs from UPC-A in that it only uses a 6-digit code. To allow the use of UPC barcodes on smaller packages where a full 12-digit barcode may not fit, a 'zero-suppressed' version of UPC was developed called UPC-E, in which the number system digit and all trailing zeros in the manufacturer code and all leading zeros in the product code are suppressed. Encodations are a compressed form of UPC A. The DataString property holds the full uncompressed UPC A encodation for this symbology. |
| Aztec | Aztec is public domain 2D barcode symbology, formally defined by the ISO/IEC 24778:2008 standard |
How To: Configure the extractor
Before you begin
Critically important, Find Barcode reads the barcode information from the LayoutData.json file saved on the page from an image processing activity. You must first save the barcode’s information to the page’s Layout Data in Grooper. Do this by performing a Barcode Detection or Barcode Removal IP command either during an Image Processing activity or with the Recognize activity.
You will also need to set up Content Model with a Data Model and Data Fields to populate.
Last, you will need to know which barcode symbologies you are using in order to set up the extractor.
Set the Value Extractor to Find Barcode
Know your barcode
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Configure the remaining properties
There are two other properties available. "Page Filter" and "Value Pattern"
The "Page Filter" property restricts the extraction to specific page numbers. If blank, Read Barcode will search all pages for barcodes and return their result. Page numbers may be entered as a comma separate list. Entering "1" would run on the first page. Entering "1, 3, 5" would run on the first, third and fifth page. You may also enter a range of "X to Y" pages. Entering "1 to 5" would run on the first to fifth page. Using negative numbers will start at the end instead of beginning of the document. Entering "-1" would run on the last page, "-1, -3, -5" would run on the last, third from last and fifth from last page, "1, -1" would run on the first and last page, and so on.
The "Value Pattern" property allows you to write a regular expression to validate the barcode's value. Part or all of what it written here must match the value extracted from Read Barcode. For example, the barcode bellow is a Code39 barcode embedded with the phrase "HELLO WORLD"
Since you expect to see alphabetic characters, any result with numerical digits would be a bad result. You could set the Value Pattern to ##[^\d]+## to match anything that is not a digit character. The result would populate the field with no issue.
On the other hand, if you expected to see digits and no alpha characters, you could write a different Value Pattern, such as ##\d+## to match any string of digits. In that case, the field would not populate because it does not match the Value Pattern.
Property Details
| Property | Default Value | Information |
| Symbology | None | This property is required for the extractor to work. Here, you will set which symbology is read and extracted. Find Barcode also differs from Read Barcode in that you can only choose one option here. However, you can choose "All" to search for multiple barcode symbologies.
Since Find Barcode looks at the Layout Data in the LayoutData.json file rather than scanning the image for a physical barcode information, searching for all is not exceptionally more computationally expensive than searching for one. |
| Region of Interest | Defines an optional rectangular area on the page where barcodes are read. Only barcodes fully enclosed in the area drawn will be recognized. The rectangle can be drawn using the "Edit Zone" window. To access this, click on the "Region of Interest" property and press the ellipsis button at the end of the property. | |
| Page Filter | The "Page Filter" property restricts the extraction to specific page numbers. If blank, Read Barcode will search all pages for barcodes and return their result. Page numbers may be entered as a comma separate list. Entering "1" would run on the first page. Entering "1, 3, 5" would run on the first, third and fifth page. You may also enter a range of "X to Y" pages. Entering "1 to 5" would run on the first to fifth page. Using negative numbers will start at the end instead of beginning of the document. Entering "-1" would run on the last page, "-1, -3, -5" would run on the last, third from last and fifth from last page, "1, -1" would run on the first and last page, and so on. | |
| Value Pattern | The "Value Pattern" property allows you to write a regular expression to validate the barcode's returned value. Part or all of what it written here must match the value extracted from Read Barcode. |
Version Differences
Find Barcode was introduced in version 2.80.
Prior to 2.80, barcode data was extracted by setting up "Data Element Profiles" for a Data Field on individual Document Types. Data Element Profiles no longer exist in Grooper. This processes was tedious, required users to manually draw registration zones and had to be set up on each and every Document Type. Find Barcode simplifies the whole process with a simple extractor-based configuration.