About Active Focus Manager (AFM) for Windows

Overview

Active Focus Manager (AFM) keeps track of which window has active focus on the computer and configures the scanner to send data to meet this window's input needs.

For example, if Notepad is configured as an application to be targeted in AFM, when Notepad gets the Operating System's focus, it will be the application receiving scanned data. AFM will make this determination and configure the scanner appropriately.

AFM uses a configuration file called AppSettings.xml which includes the configurations of the applications to be targeted by AFM. In addition, for each application, a set of attributes can be specified based on the customer's requirements.

Supported Windows Operating Systems

Active Focus Manager (AFM) for Windows support the following Windows versions.

  • Windows 11 64bit
  • Windows 10 32bit
  • Windows 10 64bit

Supported Devices

For the compatible devices list, please visit following page.

https://www.zebra.com/us/en/support-downloads/software/developer-tools/scanner-sdk-for-windows.html

Version History

Version 1.0.10.0 - 07/2024

  1. Enhanced the bootup process by no longer displaying the console window (black window displaying a command prompt) when AFM is launched.
  2. Added support to enable / disable a scanner solely based on which application / active focused screen is active.

Version 1.0.9.0 - 01/2024

  1. Added support to enable a scanner's Advanced Data Formatting (ADF) rule set(s) from the AFM configuration file (AppSettings.xml) based on the active focus screen. Note the ADF rule set must already be programmed to the scanner for AFM to enable / disable it.
  2. Added support to enable a scanner's Multicode Data Formatting (MDF) group(s) from the AFM configuration file based on the active focus screen. Note the MDF group(s) must already be programmed to the scanner for AFM to enable / disable it.
  3. Added support to enable a scanner's Unique Device Identifier (UDI) rule from the AFM configuration file based on the active focus screen. Note the UDI rule must already be programmed to the scanner for AFM to enable / disable it.
  4. Added support to enable a scanner's Driver's License (DL) parsing rule from the AFM configuration file based on the active focus screen. Note the DL Parsing rule must already be programmed to the scanner for AFM to enable / disable it.
  5. AFM source code now supports both Visual Studio 2022 and .NET 8.

Version 1.0.7.0 - 07/2023

  1. Added support to configure Driver Data Formatting (DDF) in CoreScanner from the AFM configuration file (AppSettings.xml) based on the active focus screen.
  2. Implemented a new logging module for AFM to track application execution flows and error logging details.
  3. Added support to install and launch AFM based on admin/user privileges.
  4. Added support to configure AFM to launch at Windows start up using command line.