Show HN: Strich – Barcode scanning for web apps

• qr-scanner

  11 2,255 0.0 TypeScript

  Lightweight Javascript QR Code Scanner

  

Hey, the BarcodeDetector API has been around for some time, just crucially not on iOS. I didn't know about the polyfills though!

If you're looking to only scan QR codes, https://github.com/nimiq/qr-scanner is a library I can recommend and which I've used in a previous project.

One thing the BarcodeDetector API does not give you is a UI for your barcode scanning. Basically it's your job to acquire an image and pass it to the API. With STRICH, you just provide an HTML element and the scanner will live in there, including controls for camera selection and flashlight (only on Android, unfortunately).

• jsQR

  2 3,561 0.0 TypeScript

  A pure javascript QR code reading library. This library takes in raw images and will locate, extract and parse any QR code found within.

I used https://github.com/cozmo/jsQR in production for years. Never had any problems, before all smartphones had built in QR readers, most of our users would use it primarily to interact with our product. Works for iOS and Android. To my knowledge does not use ZXing and is Apache Licensed.

• SurveyJS

  surveyjs.io sponsored

  Open-Source JSON Form Builder to Create Dynamic Forms Right in Your App. With SurveyJS form UI libraries, you can build and style forms in a fully-integrated drag & drop form builder, render them in your JS app, and store form submission data in any backend, inc. PHP, ASP.NET Core, and Node.js.

  

• html5-qrcode

  16 4,495 3.1 TypeScript

  A cross platform HTML5 QR code reader. See end to end implementation at: https://scanapp.org

I've been working on a web application that has a bar code code scanning component and I will say that while the apparent performance of this library is impressive, I am not a fan of this pricing model, and that alone pushes me to use alternative libraries [1]. As an aside, the library I'm thinking has zero issues with scanning any of the examples in your OSS comparison [2] using the demo implementation [3] (it scans bar codes despite the name being "html5-qrcode").

For a library like this, the only really appealing pricing model is a flat fee that buys unlimited use of the version I buy in perpetuity (even if that fee is several thousand dollars). I'm not, however, going to pay monthly forever for code that (1) you wrote once and is now static, (2) that you aren't hosting, and (3) that I need to integrate into my application myself. If I need support I will happily pay you a support fee. Moreover, I cannot take on the liability of my app's bar code scanner ceasing working because you decide to close your doors and then the license won't reactivate.

[1]: https://github.com/mebjas/html5-qrcode

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