threadcount-community/docs/manual/apps/scanning-and-browsers.md

title, section, order, summary, role, keywords

title	section	order	summary	role	keywords
Scanning and browsers	apps	3	USB scanners, the barcode formats ThreadCount reads, which browsers can scan with the camera, the Android scanner, and what happens with a code it doesn't know.	Admin or Issuer	scan, scanner, barcode, usb, camera, chrome, edge, safari, firefox, iphone, ean, upc, code 128, unknown barcode, bind, label, print

ThreadCount reads a barcode in one of three ways: a USB scanner typing into a box, the camera in a supported browser, or the scanner built into the Android counter app. All three give the same result, and wherever you can scan, you can also type the code.

USB scanners

A USB scanner that types the code and then presses Enter works with any browser. These desktop boxes accept one:

Screen	Box
Stock › Count	Scan barcode to count +1, then Enter
Counter	Scan barcode, then Enter, under 2 · Scan items
Stock › On hand › Scan to add	Scan with a USB scanner, or type the code and press Enter
A garment's Scan sizes	The prompt names the size to scan next

Scan to add and Scan sizes bind codes to the catalogue; the Scan to add button is shown to Admins only. Click into the box first. See Keyboard and scanner.

Formats it reads

Camera scanning, in the browser and in the Android app, reads these formats only:

• EAN-13 and EAN-8
• UPC-A and UPC-E
• Code 128, Code 39 and Code 93

ITF and Codabar are left out because they carry no check digit, so a partial read can pass as a different valid code. No 2D codes are read.

A USB scanner or a typed code isn't limited to that list, because the box just receives characters. In Scan to add, a 13-, 12-, 8- or 14-digit code has its check digit tested. If it fails, you see check digit doesn't match — the scan may have mis-read.

Camera scanning in a browser

In a browser, the camera reads barcodes with the browser's built-in barcode detector.

Browser	Camera scanning
Chrome	Yes
Edge	Yes
Safari on iPhone or iPad	No
Firefox	No

Where the camera opens but the browser can't read barcodes, the screen says Live reading isn't supported here — type the code instead. Where the browser has no camera access at all, it says This browser has no camera access — type the code instead.

On an iPhone, type the code or use a USB scanner.

The Android scanner

Inside the ThreadCount Android app, the phone's own scanner reads the code instead of the browser's detector. If the app can't load that scanner, it uses the browser detector instead.

When counting a shelf, scanning stays on until you press Stop scanning. The same code seen again within 0.9 seconds is taken as the same garment still in view, not a second one. Beep and buzz on a scan in More › Settings turns the sound and vibration on or off for that phone.

The ThreadCount Staff app has no scanner.

Codes ThreadCount doesn't know

A code is known once it is bound to one size of one garment. What happens with an unknown code depends on the screen:

• Counting a shelf: isn't a garment ThreadCount knows. Bind it to a size first. A known code from another shelf names that shelf instead.
• Issuing: isn't a garment ThreadCount knows. Nothing is added.
• Returns: the code has to match something the person is holding.
• Search: the code is put in the search box.
• Scan to add: you can start a new product from the code, or attach it to a size you already have.

With Settings › Data product lookup turned on, Scan to add first asks a public barcode database for a product name. With it off, nothing leaves the server.

A code can be on one size only. Binding a code that is already on another garment is refused unless you choose to move it. See Barcodes.

Printing ThreadCount barcodes

For garments that arrived without a barcode, Generate barcodes on the garment's page under Stock gives each size without a code one of ThreadCount's own. These are EAN-13 codes starting 29, a prefix set aside for use inside one business, with a real check digit. A size that already has a supplier's code keeps it.

Print labels prints an A4 sheet of 6 labels at a time, one per garment on hand, for each size that has a code. A 13-digit code with a valid check digit prints as EAN-13, and any other code prints as Code 128.

Reprint a label in the counter app prints 1 to 24 copies of one size's label. It only lists sizes with a barcode bound to them. It prints from a phone browser. Inside the Android app the button reads Print it on the desktop, because that app can't print.

Careful A garment without a readable barcode drops out of every scanned count. Reprint worn labels before the next stocktake.