Inventory barcode scanning – assign box/ placement

Hi Max,

The barcode scanner in Tap Forms can be used for two purposes.

1) to search for records.
2) to enter data into a field in a record.

There’s no functionality to automate the user interface like that so that when you scan one barcode, Tap Forms then asks you to scan the next. You would have to just tap on the different fields and then display the barcode scanner yourself to scan the barcodes into the fields.

You can do it, but it just wouldn’t be automated like you’re asking for.

Thanks,

Brendan

An earlier iteration of my approach was to use ScanKey, a barcode scanning iOS keyboard, to scan input and process them. It’s a little clunky in that it jumps to it’s own app to do the scan, I remember needing to tap a button on it before it jumps back to the calling app. It has an OCR feature which is neat as well for when the barcode scanner misbehaved. It was annoying because you had to change the keyboard to activate it and changing the keyboard back, at least with my keyboard setup, was a little weird and it didn’t work properly.

First party support for barcode scanning in scripts would be neat though.

It’ll require a bit of customisation, I use this with shipping records to mark them delivered and confirmed (unconfirmed shipment delivery would be sync from automated systems). This is the one that grabs from the clipboard, looks for a candidate matching record and then updates it’s state:

var clipboard = Utils.copyTextFromClipboard();

if (clipboard)
{
	clipboard = clipboard.split("\n")[0];
}

var tracking_number_id = 'fld-c487390743c947969cbe661cff596855';
var received_date_id = 'fld-e3e3539ee04f4cc7971c7098c572104d';
var confirmed_id = 'fld-2adb9ba8cdd048bbbb614d46b415ada5';
var alternate_tracking_numbers_id = 'fld-cf8718051bea4cc2aba0069ae76f32b7';
var alternate_tracking_number_id = 'fld-7342203d8f36415191bf8419fb6f70dc';

function findRecord()
{
	var targetRecord = null;
	MainLoop:
	for(candidateRecord of form.getRecords())
	{
		if (clipboard == candidateRecord.getFieldValue(tracking_number_id))
		{
			targetRecord = candidateRecord;
			break MainLoop;
		}
		
		
		for (alternateRecord of candidateRecord.getFieldValue(alternate_tracking_numbers_id))
		{
			if (clipboard == alternateRecord.getFieldValue(alternate_tracking_number_id))
			{
				targetRecord = candidateRecord;
				break MainLoop;
			}
		}
	}
	
	if (targetRecord)
	{
		targetRecord.setFieldValue(received_date_id, new Date());
		targetRecord.setFieldValue(confirmed_id, true);
		document.saveAllChanges();
		form.selectRecord(targetRecord);
		return "Updated existing record for " + clipboard;
	}
	else
	{
		return "Unable to find matching record for " + clipboard;
	}
}

findRecord();

This is a similar form script that uses the Prompter to ask for input and then creates a record:

// Order: Shipment Field ID
var shipments_id = 'fld-db2fcdb4d79c466ea09671c47d2ae645';

// Order: Ship Date 
var ship_date_id = 'fld-6ab700ccc11d418fbd27d8899d00c7a9';
var ship_date = record.getFieldValue(ship_date_id);

// Shipments: Record Field ID's
var tracking_number_id = 'fld-c487390743c947969cbe661cff596855';
var carrier_id = 'fld-0950c430cb0c41f79c51d43a544b366b';
var shipping_date_id = 'fld-1aa32f17e059424fb4e24bf894b34fdf';

var callbackFunction = function() {
	if (tracking_number && carrier)
	{
		var data = {
			[tracking_number_id]: tracking_number,
			[carrier_id]: carrier,
		};
		
		if (ship_date)
		{
			data[shipping_date_id] = ship_date;
		}
		else
		{
			data[shipping_date_id] = new Date();
		}
		
		console.log(JSON.stringify(data));
		
		var shipmentRecord = record.addNewRecordToField(shipments_id);
		shipmentRecord.setFieldValues(data);
		document.saveAllChanges();		
	}
};

let prompter = Prompter.new();
prompter.addParameter('Tracking Number', 'tracking_number', 'text')
	.addParameter('Carrier', 'carrier', 'picklist', 'Carrier - Shipments')
	.show('Message prompt', callbackFunction);

The Prompter stuff uses a callback mechanism which means it’s not blocking so it takes a little bit of work to turn that into a continuous loop but it would be possible to do.

Creating a checkin/checkout flow is certainly possible though, not the most elegant but definitely possible.