Get Started With SparkScan

In this guide you will learn step by step how to add SparkScan to your application.

Roughly, the steps are:

  1. Create a new Data Capture Context instance.

  2. Configure the Spark Scan Mode.

  3. Create the SparkScanView with the desired settings and bind it to the application’s lifecycle.

  4. Register the listener to be informed when new barcodes are scanned and update your data whenever this event occurs.

Note

If you’re looking to integrate SparkScan into a Compose view hierarchy, there are additional steps you need to follow:

  1. Create an AndroidView to wrap the SparkScanView instance, initialized as described in the rest of this section.

  2. Monitor the view lifecycle so you can call the view lifecycle methods in SparkScanView when necessary. This can be done using a combination of DisposableEffect and the onRelease callback of AndroidView.

1. Create a New Data Capture Context Instance

The first step to add capture capabilities to your application is to create a new Data Capture Context. The context expects a valid Scandit Data Capture SDK license key during construction.

DataCaptureContext dataCaptureContext = DataCaptureContext.forLicenseKey("-- ENTER YOUR SCANDIT LICENSE KEY HERE --");

2. Configure the SparkScan Mode

The SparkScan Mode is configured through SparkScanSettings and allows you to register one or more listeners that are informed whenever a new barcode is scanned.

For this tutorial, we will set up SparkScan for scanning EAN13 codes. Change this to the correct symbologies for your use case (for example, Code 128, Code 39…).

SparkScanSettings settings = new SparkScanSettings();
HashSet<Symbology> symbologies = new HashSet<>();
symbologies.add(Symbology.EAN13_UPCA);
settings.enableSymbologies(symbologies);

Next, create a SparkScan instance with the settings initialized in the previous step:

SparkScan sparkScan = new SparkScan(settings);

3. Setup the Spark Scan View

The SparkScan built-in user interface includes the camera preview and scanning UI elements. These guide the user through the scanning process.

The SparkScanView appearance can be customized through SparkScanViewSettings.

SparkScanViewSettings viewSettings = new SparkScanViewSettings();
// setup the desired appearance settings by updating the fields in the object above

By adding a SparkScanView, the scanning interface (camera preview and scanning UI elements) will be added automatically to your application.

Add a SparkScanView to your view hierarchy:

Construct a new SparkScan view. The SparkScan view is automatically added to the provided parentView (preferably an instance of SparkScanCoordinatorLayout):

SparkScanView sparkScanView = SparkScanView.newInstance(parentView, dataCaptureContext, sparkScan, viewSettings);

Additionally, make sure to call sparkScanView.onPause() and sparkScanView.onResume() in your Fragment/Activity onPause and onResume callbacks. You have to call these for the correct functioning of the SparkScanView.

@Override
protected void onPause() {
    sparkScanView.onPause();
    super.onPause();
}

@Override
protected void onResume() {
    sparkScanView.onResume();
    super.onResume();
}

4. Register the Listener to Be Informed When a New Barcode Is Scanned

To keep track of the barcodes that have been scanned, implement the SparkScanListener interface and register the listener to the SparkScan mode.

// Register self as a listener to monitor the spark scan session.
sparkScan.addListener(this);

SparkScanListener.onBarcodeScanned() is called when a new barcode has been scanned. This result can be retrieved from the first object in the provided barcodes list: SparkScanSession.newlyRecognizedBarcodes. Please note that this list only contains one barcode entry.

@Override
public void onBarcodeScanned(
    @NonNull SparkScan sparkScan, @NonNull SparkScanSession session, @Nullable FrameData data
) {
    // Gather the recognized barcode
    Barcode barcode = session.getNewlyRecognizedBarcodes().get(0);

    // This method is invoked from a recognition internal thread.
    // Run the specified action in the UI thread to update the internal barcode list.
    runOnUiThread(() -> {
        // Update the internal list and the UI with the barcode retrieved above
        this.latestBarcode = barcode
    });
  }

5. Scan Some Barcodes

Now that you’re up and running, go find some barcodes to scan. Don’t feel like getting up from your desk? Here’s a handy pdf of barcodes you can print out.