Zebra TC21 - Barcode Scanning

[George_M]

Hi there,

We are looking at using Zebra TC21 handheld devices to run our Power Apps on.

They have a built in barcode scanner (SE4710) which is activated by pressing a physical button on the side of the device. We are struggling to implement this with the barcode scanner feature available in Power Apps (it uses the camera on the back of the device).

Has anybody managed to get this working?

Thanks

George

[sohilbhalla]

Hi, I too am working on the barcode scanner app with zebra scanner. The external scanner will work as a input device and a textbox can be used inside the powerapps to capture the text stream ( scanned value ). Let me know if this clarifies your doubt, I am happy to connect one to one to discuss further on this. I also have couple of things which we can discuss and solve together.

[wuzz8]

I have the same issue. Have you solved it?

[sohilbhalla]

Yes I was able to resolve this. In my app I have screen which has a barcode scanner control that can be used for non zebra devices and also have support for the zebra scanner as well.

The way I achieved this with creating a new profile in Data wedge for zebra scanner applicable to only powerapps. The profile has a all default settings but I configured the profile to include a Tab event before the scanned value and after the scanned value.

<TabEvent><ScannedValue><TabEvent>

Now in my powerapps screen I added a TextBox with tab index as 1 and make sure that all other controls in the  screen as tab index -1 ( we can use it because anyways tab indexes does not matter on mobile phone that much). The TextBox is hidden behind a rectangle and set the onChange property of the textbox as 

UpdateContext({scannedValue : Self.Text});

Reset(Self);

Now when user use the zebra scanner on the powerapps screen, it will insert the tab event which will set the focus on the textbox in the background, put the scanned value in it and focuses out which the last tab event, which will fire the onChange event of the textbox. You will receive the scanned value in your local variable. This way the default keyboard also does not open up as it focuses out very fast.

Let me know if this clarifies your doubts or you want me to share more details.

Thank you

[George_M]

Hi sohilbhalla,

Thank you for the detailed response. I'm unable to find where I add the Tabevent in the Data wedge app. Are you able to provide more information on this?

Thank you

[sohilbhalla]

Hello,

Inside the datawedge profile -> Advanced data formatting -> Rules -> Tap Rule0 -> Actions -> Add Actions -> Send char -> set the character code as 09

mark this as first action and then Send remaining

Also check basic data formatting as (Send data and Send TAB key enabled)

[George_M]

Thank you for your help so far. Unfortunately I'm still having issues getting this to work. Is there anything else that I need to do?

[sohilbhalla]

Hi, yes also there is one more setting, set key event delay as 500ms

 

[George_M]

Thank you for all of your help. I have managed to get it to work, but keyboard still pops up and stays there.

[sohilbhalla]

Do you have Tab key enabled in basic data formatting ? Send TAB key option