Thread: Getting report values into a PDF417 barcode

Hello everyone,

I am almost complete with a shipping label project, and I've hit a snag I can't get around.

What I have is a report, which pulls in multiple fields from multiple tables. The report has 8 or so barcodes on it, which are generated by putting the field in the control source. Easy. The barcodes are from Tec-It ActiveX controls.

I have one barcode, a 2D (PDF417) barcode, that needs to effectively contain/display the info from all the other barcodes on the label, in a specific order and format.

Unlike the other barcodes, the PDF417 refuses to display anything when putting an expression in the control source such as

=ITEMID+QTY+PO
=me.label2+me.tbarcode3+me.text12
=[me.label2]+[me.tbarcode3]+[me.text12]

etc. I apologize if my expression/coding is wrong, but I've tried a number of things.

I looked into somehow assigning a variable with all the values from the form, so I could put the variable in the control source to see if that would work, but not so far...and I'm sure I'm not doing it right because I haven't done much in Access with variables.

If you could point me in a direction that would be helpful, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you,
Adam

What is a '2D (PDF417)' barcode?

You want to concatenate the numeric barcode values into one long string or you want to add them?

Can't use the Me qualifier in ControlSource, it is strictly a VBA alias for form or report name.

To concatenate:
=[ITEMID] & [QTY] & [PO]
=[Label2].Caption & [tbarcode3] & [text12]

To add (one of the terms must be from a true number, not a text string)
=[ITEMID]+[QTY]+[PO]
=[Label2].Caption + [tbarcode3] + [text12]

To add (if all are text strings, use Val() function on one)
=[ITEMID]+Val([QTY])+[PO]
=[Label2].Caption + Val([tbarcode3]) + [text12]

If none of this works, then there is something about barcodes displaying on reports. I seem to remember encountering something like that in another thread I was helping someone with.

I found these two sites. The first one has a section (4.2) about Access with a downloadable module.
http://mdn.morovia.com/manuals/PDF41...oft-Office.php

The other site has a general tutorial on PDF417 barcode:
http://www.idautomation.com/barcode-faq/2d/pdf417/#tabs

Thank you for the responses.

I do not need to actually add them together, just when the barcode is scanned by a code scanner that it will display all the info from all the barcodes in a string. So, as an example, if barcode one's value is 1, and barcode 2's value is 2, and barcode 3's value is 3, it should scan and display "1 2 3" essentially.

Which is why I used the first example, =[itemid] & [qty] & etc etc, but this does not make the barcode display, it just says "no barcode data" on the report. What makes it tougher is I don't have a PDF417 barcode scanner here with me to even test with...

I'll keep playing a bit more and let you know!

Still don't know what 2D barcode is.

I don't understand. How would scan of one barcode get other barcodes? Either the numbers are represented by the bars or they aren't. I thought you were trying to create barcodes for printing labels.

You can scan each barcode individually into 3 textboxes then another textbox can have expression that concatenates the 3 textboxes. But what purpose would that serve?