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DISCONTINUED PRODUCT. PLEASE REFER TO OUR NEW .NET BARCODE LIBRARY AND CONTROL.
Manual - Forms Control Datamatrix
IntroductionThe Windows Forms Control Datamatrix creates the 2D barcode symbology Datamatrix ECC 200. Datamatrix is a 2D or area barcode that can encode up to 2,000 bytes of data in a very small footprint. Scanning 2D barcodes like Datamatrix requires a dedicated 2D barcode scanner. Regular CCD or laser scanners or barcode wands can not read this code.
Features
- 100% managed code
- Can be used on a form or as a DLL (i.e. not using screen estate)
- Full design-time support for all properties
- Data bindable
- Supports compaction modes C40, Text, ASCII, Base 256; support for Extended ASCII and non-printable control characters
- Automatic mode selection for smallest symbol outline
- Easy to use - create and display a barcode with only three lines of code
- Sample projects in C# and VB .net (incl. pre-compiled read-to-run binaries)
- Control-internal bitpattern routines are accessible from the client for owner drawn barcodes.
- Small footprint, only 60 kB, only a single file
Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Studio Express 2005 or any other .net 2.0 compatible environment. Controls as shipped are compiled against the .net 2.0 framework and will not work in .net 1.1 or older. However, the source code of the component is included at no extra cost so that you can compile the control against the .net 1.1 framework. See the online store for more info.
Demo / Purchasing
A demo is available; it puts the text DEMO before the encoded data, see the download area. Please see the online store for licensing options and pricing.
Installation and Setup
Double-click the setup.exe file in the ZIP archive you downloaded and follow the instructions on your screen. This manual will assume that the control, samples and documentation were installed to the default location, C:\Program Files\Wolf Software\Forms Control Datamatrix.
After installation, you will want to add the control to the Visual Studio toolbox. In VS select menu Tools > Choose Toolbox Items:
Click the Browse... button and navigate to the installation folder:
Select the file WolfSoftware.Forms-Control-Datamatrix.dll and click Open. The control will be listed in the toolbox (Initially the control will be placed at the end of the list; simply drag it to where you want or right click and have the list sorted alphabetically.):
To verify that everything is working, create a simple project and drag the control to the main form:
First Steps
To get a feeling for the control, select it and hit F4 to open the controls' properties. The properties of interest are grouped under the Barcode tag:
For a start change the dataToEncode property and hit Enter. As you can see the barcode is instantly updated. Play around with the properties to see what they do; see the reference section for a detailed description.
Where to go from here
We've provided two ready-to-compile sample projects, one in C#, the other one in VB .net. You find the samples in the folders C# Sample and VB Sample, respectively, in the installation folder. For your convenience, we also provide pre-compiled, ready-to-run binaries of the samples, you find those in the bin\Debug folders of the respective sample.
Both projects have exactly the same functionality; the end result looks like this:
We provide a walkthrough for both samples:
C# Sample Project
VB .net Sample Project
Make sure to also see the reference section of the manual.