Scanning and parsing Drivers License & Registration in Filemaker Go (pdf417)

[CKonash]

Hello, 

I am a firefighter and have made a few files for local fire departments around me.  We regularly respond to incidents on the highway and collecting data from motor vehicle accidents can be hectic.   We normally manually type all the data from a drivers license and registration but there has to be a better way. 

I have found a bunch of online blog posts for scanning  Drivers License data(PDF417) and vehicle information (VIN) using the URL to open an external app and call the data back but I'm not to sure how to implement any external apps or internal filemaker calculations that would be something I would be able to figure out.   Plus it would be another challenging step to get all the ipads out in the field on the fire trucks to download another app.   If we have to I can make it happen but it would be a headache.  

I'm wondering if there is any available information or code for performing a Drivers License Scan using the ios camera and parsing out the data into the proper fields?  Also is there any standards for vehicle registrations across the US states?  Would that same scan be something that could collect all the vehicle info via a registration or Inspection barcode and parse it out into the necessary fields?

Any help that anyone can offer would be amazing. 

 

Thanks

Chris Konash

[siroos12]

Hi Chris 

 

A few years back, I made a solution for a car dealer to scan car VIN number and drivers license before they let cars go out for test driving. 

 

There are apps on Apple store which support interacting with FileMaker using url requests. By following online instructions, it would take you s few hours to set it up. 

Barcode scanners just scan the text of the Barcode, it is up to you to parse them based on different standards. So you might find a way to retrieve the standard of the code for each state and pars their code accordingly. 

Although it might be a bit slow to open a third party app, scan the code and post it back to fmgo, it is still way faster than typing the information. 

 

I would suggest buying ring Barcode scanner which are very tiny and handy and pair them with ipads via Bluetooth (if you can rise budget for it, about 80 bucks each on amazon) 

Best of luck, 

Edited November 18, 2017 by siroos12

[Agnes Riley]

We sell barcode scanners that work with FileMaker out of the box. 

Using the camera for scanning is cumbersome and is more prone to errors than a hardware scanner.

Check out the store at store.zerobluetech.com and let me know if you have any questions.