My New Job

[Keroscene]

My New Job

So I took a job populating and maintaining an inventory database for a heating and cooling busniess. There's alot of data entry and alot of downtime while i wait for new data to populate the database. I think the arcade here at paranormalis is going to get a good workout. I don't know if I want to drop construction for this, but so far I'm kind of liking it. So do all I.T. jobs give you alot of free time or did I just get lucky?

 

[Num7]

Re: My New Job

Depending the data you have to input, that's quite possible you'll have to wait until newer data gets available. Be carefull, they might replace you by barcode scanners. I always have a lot of tasks to do, today I'm programming in an ERP environnement with a client.

Do you have any special projects ahead, or are you only on data input ?

 

[Keroscene]

Re: My New Job

I just ordered a label maker, scanner and the tapes to go with them from new egg for doing a barcode system. I guess they want to use their own product codes so I will need to generate my own barcodes instead of using a upc system.

Right now it just product data entry. When the barcode maker comes I'll probably be pretty busy doing that. I'm using Inflow Invenotry for the software so there isn't really any programming, just data input.. After I get the products in the database I'll start on putting customer information in. You have any recommendations for invenotry systems?

 

[Num7]

Re: My New Job

Hey, which kind of bar code are you gonna do, Code128 ? As far as I know, these are more standard and compact than 3 of 9, a lot. I had a hard time finding a program that could encode data in 128 correctly, you must pay for most of them. If you ever need it, I made a DLL containing a function converting a string to its 128 equivalent. As you may know, DLL can be used everywhere when registered, from Excel to Crystal Report and more. Any application that contains function calls or VBA can call it. All you need from them is the code 128 font, which is findable pretty easily on the net.

 

[Keroscene]

Re: My New Job

I haven't really decided on one. I need one that I can make relatively short in size and work with the scanner I got. Each product has between 5-10 numbers. It's not a laser scanner, so if they are too big or small the scanner won't pick them up. I need them to be readable on stickers as small as 1/2" x 2". I didn't know at the time they were going to end up being that small or else I would have went with a laser scanner. I have a barcode label printer, it will do Code 39, Code 128, EAN8, EAN13, EAN128, UPC-A, UPC-E, I-2/5(ITF), CODABAR by default. I can put whatever I want into the software for it, but I would like to use one of the default ones.

The buisness at this point has maybe 1000 products at the most. It's not a point of sale like a retail store would be though, and I really don't necessarily need a barcode system that's best for that, just one that will work with dimensions of the stickers they needs to be put on. I also need a few small lines of text on it. Any suggestions for which style would be best for my situation?

The scanner is USB style and functions like a keyboard wedge with the inventory software. I haven't ran into any problems on the test barcodes I've used yet, but it would be better not to. What kind of problems could I have with them not encoding the data correctly? How much data should I put into the barcodes? I was thinking about just doing product numbers seeing how it works like a keyboard wedge, but should I put the item number and product description all in there? I was just worried doing that might have conflicts with the software. It looks like I can only do one entry in header information at a time. There's the product code and the description which in the program is seperate entries. What are the pros and cons of doing a prodcut description in the barcode?

I don't know a whole lot about this btw( if you haven't already noticed?)


http://www.inflowinventory.com/KnowledgeBase/questions/27/Creating+a+Sales+Order

 

[Num7]

Re: My New Job

Cool, if you got a real label printer, you probably won't need any DLL, the software/printer will just encode the bar codes on the fly and print them. Typically, we just use bar codes product codes/numbers like they do at Walt-Mart. Keep in mind that your USB bar code scanner is made to avoid people from typing stuff: they scan it instead, that's why you don't need to put the product description and such in bar code on the label. All you need is to scan the product code in your inventory software, or perhaps in Excel, or even notepad for test purposes.

While the minimum readable length tends to be 2 or 3 characters, I must admit I never tested the max readable length of those bar codes, but I know that code 39 takes a lot of space, a lot more than 128, that's one of the reasons why I prefer code 128. Besides, most companies use code 128. Just check the boxes the stuff you received came in. I bet the bar codes are in 128 format on these boxes.

 

[Keroscene]

Re: My New Job

Hey I was wondering if you could give me a tip on inserting barcodes into my excel spreadsheets. I've tried researching it for the last few hours and can't seem to find a faster way than what I'm doing now. What I'm doing now is creating a barcode on an online barcode generator, saving it as an image, then inserting the image into the excel file. Is that the fastest way for me to do this or is there a faster, easier way?

These excel files are being printed and if I could insert a barcode into them without using the barcode printer I bought that would be awesome. I'd like to save the printer tape for the products on the shelves.

I uploaded an image so you can take a look at it. I've put "barcode" into the area I would like to see them. If you can give me any tips on a faster process I would be most grateful. Thanks Numenorean.

 

[Num7]

Re: My New Job

Send me a PM with your email address, I'll send you what I'm using:

The DLL, an Excel worksheet with a macro, and the code 128 font. That way, you won't have images barcodes in your Excel sheet, you'll have the true bar code.

 

[Keroscene]

Re: My New Job

Awesome man. Thanks alot, I really appreciate it. I sent you my email address in a PM.

 

[Keroscene]

Re: My New Job

I got it working, awesome and thanks. But it doesn't function exactly like I need and I don't know how to edit the code to get the desired effect. What would I need to edit for it to run the macro on column A2 and and output the barcode to A5 (for example)? Can I do a simple edit that will place the the barcode down three columns from the product code? Right now it wants to generate from column A to B and I don't understand the macro code so I'm not sure what to change to get the desired effect. Any ideas? Thanks again Num this has already been a ton of help.