Introduction

The dBarcode-1D Developer Kit is built around the dBarcode Active DLL - a Dynamic Link Library which allow barcode images, in the form of Windows Metafiles or bitmaps, to be created within the users own software. Barcode images may be displayed on screen, printed on a printer or passed to the Windows clipboard for incorporation into another Windows application. The DLL can also generate font-based barcodes, which are ASCII characters that when displayed or printed using the supplied font appear as barcode symbols. Font based barcodes are particularly useful for systems which are unable to accommodate pictures.

The DLL may be used via calls from high level languages, such as C, Delphi or Visual Basic, or as an Active-X component placed on a form/report using Active-X enabled systems such as MS Access, Visual Basic or Visual Studio.NET. As a result of this dual-use functionality, this manual is divided into two parts:

Application Program Interface – structure and calls for creating barcode images

Active-X methods and properties

For a list of the barcode types supported see the Barcodes Types table in the API Reference section, and for details of the barcode characteristics see the Barcodes Help file.

The DLL is DLSBAR34.DLL. This is installed into the Windows System (or System32) directory and self-registers when the product is installed using dLSoft’s Setup routine. Alternatively it may be registered by running the command:

REGSVR32 DLSBAR34.DLL

The DLL must be registered before the Active-X methods and properties can be used, and it must be on the path for any application that will call the API functions.

Notes on Barcodes