Important information about SimulScan:
The most important SimulScan capabilities, including multi-barcode scanning and OCR A/B capture for travel documentation, are being migrated to the internal scanning framework that runs on all Zebra devices. Once complete, capabilities formerly available only through SimulScan will be accessible through DataWedge and Android intent APIs. Therefore, Zebra strongly recommends that partners develop a migration plan to DataWedge for all applications that currently use SimulScan.
Key migration dates:
- Dec. 31, 2019 - Final day to buy SimulScan licenses
- Dec. 31, 2020 - End of support for licensed SimulScan API features
- Device end-of-life - End of support for non-licensed SimulScan API features
- For more information, refer to the full alert:
See Full Alert
Overview
SimulScan can be used in three ways:
- With DataWedge, which is covered below
- Through the SimulScan APIs from within a custom Android app
- By using the SimulScan Demo App, which exposes all features except the ability to save acquired data
To activate SimulScan, simply select it as an Input Plug-in from within DataWedge, an app that comes with every Zebra device. The exact process is detailed below, beginning with a short introduction to SimulScan concepts. For more information, see the About SimulScan page.
About Templates
Templates are central to the power of SimulScan; they are used in all modes to:
- Define regions of a form from which to capture data
- Control SimulScan's ability to decode and parse data
- Determine how acquired data is consumed by an application
At least one Template must be present and selected within SimulScan before the tool can be used; a number of generic Templates are included.
For use cases in which generic or pre-built templates are unsuitable, custom Templates can be easily creating using the cloud-based Template Builder tool. See the Template Builder guide for more information about Templates.
Use With DataWedge
SimulScan includes a number of generic Templates to cover common scanning scenarios when SimulScan is selected as the DataWedge Input Plug-in. For more advanced use-cases, custom Templates can be created Using Template Builder or downloaded from Zebra's library of Pre-built Templates. Downloaded Templates can be modified as needed using Template Builder.
Note: The names of all Templates included with SimulScan are preceded by the word "Default" plus a hyphen.
Create a Template
If using Templates already present on the device, skip to the "Activate SimulScan" section.
- Log in to the Template Builder web site.
- Select the Template type to create.
- Upload an image of the Document to be scanned (.bmp, .jpg, .png or PDF; 5MB max.).
- Identify regions of the Document and the data types (barcodes, text, etc.) of each.
- Validate Template to confirm that created fields are captured as intended.
- Save, Release and Deploy the completed Template(s), which can be downloaded to the development host (local PC).
- Copy Template(s) to
/enterprise/device/settings/datawedge/templateson the device. - Activate the Template from within DataWedge (see below) or other scanning app.
Related Links:
- Template Builder guide - access to online tools and details
- Tutorials - visual aids for making Templates
Activate SimulScan
When the desired Templates are stored on the device, activate SimulScan by setting it as the Input source when configuring an Input Plug-in (see below) in DataWedge. See the SimulScan Input section of the DataWedge documentation for full details.
1. Open DataWedge and the Profile that will use SimulScan.
2. Select "Input Plug-in," scrolling as necessary.
3. Select SimulScan as the Input Source. A screen appears similar to the image below:
SimulScan options within DataWedge
4. Tap and select the desired options as needed:
Device Selection - permits selection of the device camera or the default scanning device set by the system (recommended).
Template selection - sets a SimulScan Template for the Profile being configured. Custom Templates installed in the /enterprise/device/settings/datawedge/templates directory on the device will appear along with the templates included with SimulScan (listed above). Note: Files and folders within the /enterprise directory are invisible to Android File Browser by default; they can be made visible by manually inputting the path.
Region separator - used to configure a separator character for SimulScan text-region data. When multiple text regions exist, the region separator will be inserted between the data strings from each region on the acquisition form. Region separators can be used with the Keystrokes Output Action key character setting (see below) to dispatch data acquired in SimulScan regions to specific fields of an app.
Region Separator possible values:
- None (default)
- Tab
- Line feed
- Carriage return
SimulScan Capture Notes:
- Text captured through SimulScan is concatenated into a single string, and processing is performed on that string.
- If the Barcode Input Plug-in is enabled in a Profile, enabling SimulScan in that Profile will cause the Barcode Input Plug-in to be disabled.
- Barcode, OCR and OMR regions are considered text regions. When using keystroke output and IP output, only text-region data will be dispatched to the foreground application or the remote server.
- Picture-region data can be retrieved only through the Intent Output Plug-in.
SimulScan is now ready to use.
Related guides: