Barcodes with iOS: Bringing together the digital and physical worlds

Summary

Barcodes with iOS is the first and only book that comprehensively addresses barcode technology for the iOS developer. It offers an introduction to commonly used formats, such as ISBN and UPC codes, and provides real-world examples that teach you how to integrate code scanning and generation into your apps. This book consolidates information about applicable Apple frameworks in one place so you can quickly add native barcode support to your existing enterprise apps or start building new apps that help bring together the physical and digital worlds.

About the Technology

Barcodes are a universal way to track and share information, appearing on everything from cereal boxes to shop windows. Starting with iOS 7, Apple has added native features for building apps that scan, display, and print barcodes, eliminating the need for third-party libraries.

About the Book

Barcodes with iOS teaches you how to effectively use barcodes in your iOS apps. You'll master Apple's new barcode frameworks while you explore real-world examples that integrate code scanning and generation and metadata retrieval into your apps. Along the way, you'll pick up numerous best practices for bringing together the physical and digital worlds.

This book is written for readers with a working knowledge of Objective-C and iOS app development.

What's Inside

• Learn about all barcode formats supported by iOS
• Native barcode scanning with AV Foundation
• Using Core Image and BarCodeKit to produce a wide range of barcodes
• Printing to sheets and labels with AirPrint
• Retrieving metadata for products with NSURLSession and NSURLProtocol
• Harnessing context information from Core Location and iBeacons

About the Author

Oliver Drobnik is an independent consultant specializing in custom iOS and Mac development.

Table of Contents

1. Barcodes, iOS, and you 1
2. Media capture with AV Foundation 18
3. Scanning barcodes 48
4. Passbook, Apple's digital wallet 70
5. Generating barcodes 97
6. Getting metadata for barcodes 133
7. Putting barcodes in context 172

Appendices

1. History of the UPC 205
2. GTIN prefix ranges 212
3. GS1-128 application identifiers 217

Oliver Drobnik is a full time iOS and Mac developer. He runs a software development company and maintains several well-known Open Source projects. You'll find him on cocoanetics.com or as @Cocoanetics on Twitter.