Read data from Bar Code Scanner in .net (C#) windows application!

Look at the scanner jack.

If it looks like this:

, then it's a keyboard wedge scanner. It acts like a keyboard: just types your barcode into an edit field.

If it looks like this:

, it's a serial port scanner.

You need to create an instance of System.IO.Ports.SerialPort and use it to communicate with the scanner.

If it looks like this:

_{(source: datapro.net)}

, it's a USB scanner. From programmer's point of view, it can be either a keyboard wedge or a serial port scanner. You need to look at the manual, find out which is it and use one of the approaches above.

P.S. It will be easier if you post your scanner's model here, really.

I now use the Wasp USB WCS3905 barcode scanners attached to several of my winform (and 1 console) applications although have not noticed differences with other brands of USB scanner.

The way I always test when a new one comes along is to fire up notepad and scan a load of codes off everything that comes to hand; books, DVD, asset tags, but most importantly the stock I need to track. This will allow you visualise how the data is captured.

In my experience they all act like a user typing each character succesively on a keyboard followed by an "Enter" keypress.

For each character (NOTE: not complete bar-code) scanned in a textbox control then at least following events fire:
KeyDown
KeyPress
TextChanged
KeyUp

The Enter keystroke at the end of a scan can be used to push a form's AcceptButton

It should probably be noted that I've only used these on UK-English & US-English configured windows systems.

G-

Most modern bar code scanners act just like keyboards.

I've previously written code in C# for scanning tickets - no special tricks necessary, just make sure the input focus is in a suitable text box and scan the code!