Siebel Field Service Guide > Barcodes >

About Barcodes

A barcode is a series of vertical bars that is printed or stamped on parts, containers, labels, or other media. These bars represent information that an electronic barcode reader can interpret. A barcode type is a classification that uses a series of varying-width bars and spaces to represent characters. Some barcode types can encode only numbers, while other barcode types can encode numbers, letters, and special computer control characters. For more information about the supported barcode types, see Siebel System Requirements and Supported Platforms on Oracle Technology Network.

NOTE:  For Siebel CRM product releases 8.1.1.9 and later and for 8.2.2.2 and later, the system requirements and supported platform certifications are available from the Certification tab on My Oracle Support. For information about the Certification application, see article 1492194.1 (Article ID) on My Oracle Support.

Barcode hardware includes a barcode reader, which is sometimes called a barcode scanner. A barcode reader is an electronic device that detects the pattern of bars and spaces for a barcode, decodes those patterns into characters, and transmits those characters to Siebel Field Service. It appears as though the data associated with the barcode is typed into Siebel Field Service.

Input from Barcode Readers

Control character sequences before and after the barcode information notify Siebel Field Service that input is from a barcode reader. These sequences include the following characters:

• Ctrl - \

  This prefix indicates the start of barcode reader input.

• Ctrl - /

  This suffix indicates the end of barcode reader input.

You can enter these sequences as keyboard shortcuts. To change the shortcut definitions, edit the values for the Start Key Code and End Key Code user properties in the HTML Barcoding Tool Bar business service.

In Siebel Field Service, you can use any programmable barcode reader that you can configure to send the prefix and suffix before and after the barcode input. To program the scanning preamble into a barcode reader, see the user manual or product reference guide for the barcode reader.

Data from Barcode Readers

Siebel Field Service accepts data from a barcode reader into individual, active fields. The following data is often available in barcode format: