PDF417 Barcode ActiveX Control & DLL Tutorial

Our PDF417 Bar Code ActiveX Controls are easy to use "drag and drop" automation tools that will work in any Windows application that supports ActiveX control technology including Microsoft Access, MS Office, Word, Excel, Visual Basic, Visual FoxPro, C++ and Internet Explorer web pages. This control does not require barcode fonts because it generates a Windows Metafile Image. Our advanced control also works as a barcode DLL that can print, return or save a WMF image.

• Using the Metafile Image Generator

• Installing the Control on your system

• Installing the Control in your application

  • Microsoft Word

  • Access

  • Excel

  • FrontPage

  • Visual Basic

  • Visual C++

  • Visual FoxPro

• Setting the properties of the control

• Control characters and use of tilde

• Notes for programmers

  • Distribution with your application

  • Additional Functions

  • Using the DLL

  • VB Example

• Technical Support

• Order and License Link

[Order Now | Tech Support | Programmer Notes]

Our ActiveX Controls are easy to use "drag and drop" automation tools that will work in any Windows application that supports ActiveX control technology. Using our controls is a simple 3 step process.

Step 1 - install and register the control

You must install and register the control in Windows before applications will be able to "see" it. We have provided an installation utility that performs both of these tasks for you. After installing the ActiveX control package you purchased or downloaded, the control is installed and registered on that PC.

Step 2 - install the control in your application

After you have installed the control on your PC, you may use it in any application that can use ActiveX controls. For applications that are not listed here, search your application's help file for information on how to use ActiveX controls. Below are a few examples of implementing our controls in Microsoft Word, Excel, Access, FrontPage and Visual Basic. 

MS Word Installation

In Microsoft Word, choose View - Toolbars - Control Toolbox. You will then see a tool box. On the tool box, choose the more controls button that looks like this:

Then, select the barcode control from the list of available ActiveX Controls. After selecting it, the control will appear in the document. After this, you may size the control as necessary. To change the properties of the control such as barcode height and symbology type, right click on the control and choose properties. When you are finished, you may exit design mode by choosing the design mode button that looks like this:

You must be in design mode to edit the properties of the control. If you have problems editing the properties of the control, press the design mode button to enable it.

MS Access Installation

In a Microsoft Access report in design mode, choose insert - ActiveX control. After this you may size the control as necessary. To change the properties of the control such as barcode height and symbology type, right click on the control and choose properties. To bind the control to a data source, enter the table and field or formula in the control source field. The proper barcode will show up after the report is saved.

MS Excel Installation

In Microsoft Excel, choose View - Toolbars - Control Toolbox. You will then see a tool box. On the tool box, choose the more controls button that looks like this:

Then, select the barcode control from the list of available ActiveX Controls. After selecting it, click and drag an area for the control to appear in the spreadsheet. After this you may size the control as necessary. To change the properties of the control such as barcode height and symbology type, right click on the control and choose properties. When you are finished, you may exit design mode by choosing the design mode button that looks like this:

You must be in design mode to edit the properties of the control. If you have problems editing the properties of the control, press the design mode button to enable it.

To link a cell to the data you want encoded in the barcode, enter the cell in the "LinkedCell" property of the control.

MS FrontPage Installation

In Microsoft FrontPage, choose Insert - Advanced - ActiveX Control. The control will then appear in the web page. The control must be installed on every PC that access the web page that displays the ActiveX control and the control will only work with Internet Explorer.

Microsoft Visual Basic 6

In Visual Basic, choose Project - Components from the menu. Select the barcode control. Then choose View - Toolbox. The control should appear in the toolbox for you to add to your project. Refer to the Visual Basic example provided with the installation for more information.

Microsoft Visual FoxPro

In a form, select the "OLE Container" from the standard toolbox. After the "Insert Object" dialog box opens, select an ActiveX Control that begins with "IDAutomation". The characteristics can then be modified in the properties window. To print bar codes on reports or labels, a field must be used to store the barcode and it must be setup as an OLE Control with data type general. Download our VFP bar code example for an implementation example that was created in VFP 6.0.

Visual C++

Choose the resource tab in Visual C++ to view the dialogs. To add a control to the dialog, right click on the dialog form to the right and choose "Insert ActiveX Control". Select the correct barcode control from the list. The control should then appear in the dialog. Download our C++ project example (it is in a zip file) for an implementation example.

Step 3 - adjust the properties of the control

After you insert the control in your application as described in step 2, you may adjust the properties of the control. To do this, usually you must right click on the control and choose Properties.

This section explains the main configuration parameters of the control:

NOTE: Many of the barcode sizing parameters are calculated in CM (centimeters). To convert inches to CM, multiply the value in inches by 2.54. To convert mils to CM, multiply the mils value by .0254.

• DataToEncode - this is the data that is to be encoded in the barcode. If you connect the control to a control source, then the source will override this field.
• BackColor - the background color of the barcode.
• ForeColor - the color of the foreground text and bars in the barcode.
• LeftMarginCM - the space of the left margin in CM.
• NarrowBarCM - width in centimeters of the narrow bars. This is also called the X dimension. The default is 0.03 CM which is about .012" or 12 mils. You may need to increase this value if your scanner cannot read barcodes with small X dimensions. If you have a high quality laser or CCD scanner, you may decrease this value to obtain a higher density barcode.
• Orientation - indicates the orientation of the barcode. Valid values are 0 (normal), 90 (vertical),180 (inverted) and 270 (inverted vertical).
• TopMarginCM - the top margin in CM. There is a required top margin area in the DEMO version.
• XtoYRatio - the X multiple height of individual cells; default=3, usually 2 to 4 times the NarrowBarCM (X).
• PDFColumns - The number of data columns in the PDF417 barcode. The default is 5 and the maximum is 30.
• ErrorCorrectionLevel - The Reed Solomon error correction level placed in the symbol. More error correction creates a larger symbol that can withstand more damage. Default = 2.
• PDFMode - Binary mode encodes bytes of data and text mode encodes all characters on the US keyboard plus returns and tabs. The default is binary mode.
• PDFRows - We recommend leaving this setting at 0, the default. The number of rows can be set by this, if this is done, the PDFColumns should be set to 0.
• Truncated - A truncated PDF417 symbol is more area efficient than normal PDF417. By selecting this option, the right hand side of the PDF417 is removed or truncated. This option should only be used in clean environments since it is less immune to damage.
• ApplyTilde - if set to "true", you can use the format ~ddd if you want to specify the ASCII code of the character to be encoded. Default is off. For example, if you enter the following text in the Data field: ~029AB you will actually be encoding     GSAB   Where GS is a delimiter ASCII 29 character. This can be used in a single string to encode GS and RS characters (GS = ASCII 29 and RS = ASCII 30). Other commonly used ASCII codes are ~009 for a tab and ~013 which is a return function. These are useful when encoding multiple fields in a single symbol. ASCII chart.

Using the Metafile Image Generator

Our Metafile Image Generator is provided as a tool you can use to copy barcodes into any Windows application that supports WMF images. VB source code is also provided with this application for programmers that wish to customize or automate bar-code generation. To create a barcode with this application, you will need to do the following:

1. Choose the "Image Generator" icon from the group of icons created with the installation process. If you receive an error message such as "A required file, MSVBVM60.DLL was not found" or "Class not registered, MSSTDFM.DLL needs to be installed on your machine" when running the image generator application, you need to install the Visual Basic 6 runtime files. Because these files already exist on most PCs, we do not distribute them with the installation package. You may install these runtime files by downloading and installing our VB6 Runtime Files package.
2. Highlight the text that is in the "Data To Encode" box and enter the data you wish to encode in a barcode.
3. Change the symbology properties if necessary. These options are explained in the setting the properties of the control section of this manual.
4. Choose the Copy button to copy the image to the clipboard, then in your application choose Edit - Paste. To save the image to a file, enter the full path and filename in the "File Name and Path"  box and choose the Save button.

To obtain technical support for this application, please visit our ActiveX Control Technical Support Site.

Technical support

To obtain technical support for our controls, please visit our ActiveX Control Technical Support Site.

Notes for programmers

Distribution with your application - distribution of our products outside your organization requires a Corporate Distribution License.

After installation, the file to distribute will be in the system directory and begins with "IDAutomation". You only need to distribute the single DLL file, IDAutomationPDF417.dll. When distributing the control manually, it is necessary to copy it to the "System" directory of the destination PC and then type "REGSVR32 IDAutomationPDF417.dll" at the prompt. This process can be automated with installation utilities. When distributing the control with your application, make sure you choose the option to register it. Below is a sample of a SETUP.LST file used by the Visual Basic package and deployment wizard. NOTE: Distribution of our products outside your organization requires a Corporate Distribution License.

[Setup1 Files]
File1=@IDAutomationLinear.dll,$(WinSysPath),$(DLLSelfRegister),$(Shared),5/19/01 1:30:04 PM,94208,1.0.0.6

Our ActiveX Controls are packaged by the Setup Generator Pro application. In the Setup Generator Pro application, we choose the "Register as OCX or DLL" option for the DLL file. This is an easy to use, yet powerful application that does not have any runtime requirements like the Visual Basic package and deployment wizard does, and it costs less than $100. We recommend using this setup application if you intend to distribute the control to other PCs and you do not already have a setup application. Click here to order a copy of this setup application.

Additional Functions and DLL Use

In addition to the functions that are obvious in the properties of the control, we have added other functions to our control so it may be used as a DLL:

• FixedResolutionCM int - used to set the pixels per CM and is only useful when you know the resolution of the output and are generating graphic images. The default setting is "0" which is an automatic selection. The internal value is 1000 in automatic mode which is the standard for WMF files. 1000 pixels per CM is also referred to as himetric.
• SetPixelsXY intX, intY - sets the pixels of the output WMF file.
• GetYPixels int returnvalue - returns the Y dimension pixels of the image after it is created.
• GetXPixels int returnvalue - returns the X dimension pixels of the image after it is created.
• SaveEnhWMF path - saves a WMF file with resolution information.
• SaveBarCode path - saves a WMF file without any resolution information.
• GetEnhWMF  - returns the WMF file with resolution information.
• Picture  - returns the WMF file without resolution information; often used for printing.

DLL Usage Example:

BarCode1.FixedResolutionCM = 118       'for 300 dpi image 300/2.54=118
BarCode1.SetPixelsXY 600, 400          'set the size of the image
BarCode1.DataToEncode="12345678901"
BarCode1.SaveEnhWMF "C:\barcode.wmf"
BarCode1.GetXPixels XPixels            'XPixels should = 600
                                       'Send the image to the clipboard...
Clipboard.SetData BarCode1.GetEnhWMF, vbCFMetafile
        'Print the barcode directly to the printer, start at position x=2048,y=1024
Printer.PaintPicture BarCode1.Picture, 2048, 1024

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