BarCode WbeService
The Article is come form codeproject website
Web address - http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cpp/wsbarcode.aspx
Introduction
Some days ago, I was asked to find a solution to create a barcode to be printed on documents produced by a web application. After trying to find some components that produced barcodes, I soon realized that their price was very high when dealing with an unlimited number of clients licences. I needed an alphanumeric barcode representation and the preferred barcode representation was Code39.
In order to expose this service to the maximum of clients while delivering a standardized solution, I thought of writing a web service that would generate the barcode dynamically and return it streamlined as an image.
This article describes the solution that I’ve implemented.
The Barcode Generation
Instead of writing a code39 barcode generator that mimics the algorithm for that barcode representation, my idea was to use one of the freely available barcode fonts to produce the barcode (http://www.squaregear.net/fonts/free3of9.shtml).
So my approach was simple:
- Load the Barcode Font
- Create an image object
- Draw a string into that image using a code39 barcode font
- Return that image serialized.
Using the Code39 Font...
The way to use a font in windows is simple, all you have to do is install it (by copying it to the c:/WINDOWS/Fonts - under XP) and just use it.
Unfortunately, the ASP.NET graphic context does not allow you to use any font (free3of9.ttf for example) because .NET GDI only uses/enumerates OpenType fonts. So what you have to do is create a temporary font object.
This method is very straighforward, as you can see in the code sample below:
// Create a private font collection
objectPrivateFontCollection pfc=new PrivateFontCollection();
// Load in the temporary barcode font
pfc.AddFontFile("c://barcodefont//free3of9.ttf");
// Select the font family to use
FontFamily family=new FontFamily("Free 3 of 9",pfc);
// Create the font object with size 30
Font c39Font=new Font(family,30);
With this easy way, you get a font object mapped to the barcode font so that you can create the barcode.
Creating the Barcode Image Container
The image creation is very simple. .NET classes allow you to generate images on the fly. So, in order to create a image large enough to accommodate the barcode, first you need to determine the size that will be occupied by the code string drawing, using the barcode font.
You can do it using the MeasureString method:
// Create a temporary bitmap...
Bitmap tmpBitmap = new Bitmap(1,1,PixelFormat.Format32bppArgb);
objGraphics = Graphics.FromImage(tmpBitmap);
// measure the barcode size...
SizeF barCodeSize=objGraphics.MeasureString(barCodeString,c39Font);
The returned type barCodeSize has the width, and the height that will be occupied by the code string drawing.
Draw the Barcode
So now we need to draw the barcode. We will use the code39 barcode font object instantiated earlier.
Assuming the the barcode variable holds the barcode string, the required code is:
// Draw the barcode
objGraphics.DrawString(barCode, Code39Font, new solidBrush(Color.Black),0,0);
Please note that usualy the code39 barcodes are represented concatenating the char (*) at the beginning and end of the barcode string…meaning that code 123456 has to be written as *123456*. But I will leave that to your experience.
Serialize/Deserialize the Image
In order to return the image from the web service method, you now have to serialize the image, meaning that your web method has to return an array of bytes.
This way, you have to create a stream from the bitmap image, and return it as an array of bytes. Once again, the .NET framework makes it easy for us do perform that task:
// Create stream....
MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream();
// save the image to the stream
objBitmap.Save(ms ,ImageFormat.Png);
//return an array of bytes....
return ms.GetBuffer();
On the other end (the client side) when you are consuming the web service, you need to be able to deserialize the array of bytes back to the image:
Byte[] imgBarcode;
// Call the webservice to create the barcode...
// Create a stream....
MemoryStream memStream = new MemoryStream(imgBarcode);
// Recreate the image from the stream
Bitmap bmp=new Bitmap(memStream);
A final note about the sample code attached…
After creating the barcode web app that will be your webservice, you need to configure the web.config file in order to specify where your barcode font is located. Search for the following section and make your changes accordingly.
<appSettings>
<add key="BarCodeFontFile" value="c:/temp/font/FREE3OF9.TTF" />
<add key="BarCodeFontFamily" value="Free 3 of 9" />
</appSettings>
--the below is I changed the program to vb.net code.
-web service class: BarCode39.vb
Imports Microsoft.VisualBasic
Imports System
Imports System.Drawing
Imports System.Drawing.Imaging
Imports System.Drawing.Text
Imports System.IO
Imports System.Text.RegularExpressions
Namespace Barcodes
Public Class BarCode39
Private Const lint_ItemSepHeight = 3
Private lint_TitleSize As SizeF = SizeF.Empty
Private lint_BarCodeSize As SizeF = SizeF.Empty
Private lint_CodeStringSize As SizeF = SizeF.Empty
Private lstg_TitleString As String
Private lfnt_TitleFont As Font
Sub New()
lfnt_TitleFont = New Font("Arial", 10)
lfnt_CodeStringFont = New Font("Arial", 10)
End Sub
Public Property Title() As String
Get
Return lstg_TitleString
End Get
Set(ByVal value As String)
lstg_TitleString = value
End Set
End Property
Public Property TitleFont() As Font
Get
Return lfnt_TitleFont
End Get
Set(ByVal value As Font)
lfnt_TitleFont = value
End Set
End Property
Private lbool_ShowCodeString As Boolean
Private lfnt_CodeStringFont As Font
Public Property ShowCodeString() As Boolean
Get
Return lbool_ShowCodeString
End Get
Set(ByVal value As Boolean)
lbool_ShowCodeString = value
End Set
End Property
Public Property CodeStringFont() As Font
Get
Return lfnt_CodeStringFont
End Get
Set(ByVal value As Font)
lfnt_CodeStringFont = value
End Set
End Property
Private lfnt_C39Font As Font
Private lint_C39FontSize As Decimal = 12
Private lstg_C39FontFileName As String
Private lstg_C39FontFamilyName As String
Public Property FontFileName() As String
Get
Return lstg_C39FontFileName
End Get
Set(ByVal value As String)
lstg_C39FontFileName = value
End Set
End Property
Public Property FontFamilyName()
Get
Return lstg_C39FontFamilyName
End Get
Set(ByVal value)
lstg_C39FontFamilyName = value
End Set
End Property
Public Property FontSize() As Decimal
Get
Return lint_C39FontSize
End Get
Set(ByVal value As Decimal)
lint_C39FontSize = value
End Set
End Property
Private ReadOnly Property Code39Font() As Font
Get
If lfnt_C39Font Is Nothing Then
Dim pfc As PrivateFontCollection = New PrivateFontCollection
pfc.AddFontFile(lstg_C39FontFileName)
Dim family As FontFamily = New FontFamily(lstg_C39FontFamilyName, pfc)
lfnt_C39Font = New Font(family, lint_C39FontSize)
End If
Return lfnt_C39Font
End Get