PDF417.mobi SDK for iOS

PDF417.mobi SDK for iOS enables you to perform scans of various barcodes in your app. You can integrate the SDK into your app simply by following the instructions below and your app will be able to scan and process data from the following barcode standards:

• PDF417 barcode
• QR code
• Code 128
• Code 39
• EAN 13
• EAN 8
• UPC A
• UPC E
• ITF

Using PDF417.mobi in your app requires a valid license key. You can obtain a free trial license key by registering to Microblink dashboard. After registering, you will be able to generate a license key for your app. The license key is bound to bundle identifier of your app, so please make sure you enter the correct bundle identifier when asked.

For more information on how to integrate PDF417.mobi SDK into your app read the instructions below. Make sure you read the latest Release notes for the most recent changes and improvements.

Table of contents

• Requirements
• Quick Start
• Advanced PDF417.mobi integration instructions
  • Built-in overlay view controllers and overlay subviews
    • Using MBBBarcodeOverlayViewController
    • Custom overlay view controller
  • Direct processing API
    • Using Direct API for NSString recognition (parsing)
• MBBRecognizer and available recognizers
• List of available recognizers
  • Frame Grabber Recognizer
  • Success Frame Grabber Recognizer
  • PDF417 recognizer
  • Barcode recognizer
• Localization
• Troubleshooting
  • Integration problems
  • SDK problems
    • Licencing problems
    • Other problems
  • Frequently asked questions and known problems
• Additional info

Requirements

SDK package contains Pdf417Mobi framework and one or more sample apps which demonstrate framework integration. The framework can be deployed in iOS 9.0 or later.

SDK performs significantly better when the images obtained from the camera are focused. Because of that, the SDK can have lower performance on iPad 2 and iPod Touch 4th gen devices, which don’t have camera with autofocus.

Quick Start

Getting started with PDF417.mobi SDK

This Quick Start guide will get you up and performing OCR scanning as quickly as possible. All steps described in this guide are required for the integration.

This guide closely follows the pdf417-sample app in the Samples folder of this repository. We highly recommend you try to run the sample app. The sample app should compile and run on your device, and in the iOS Simulator.

The source code of the sample app can be used as the reference during the integration.

1. Initial integration steps

Using CocoaPods

brew install git-lfs
git lfs install

• Be sure to restart your console after installing Git LFS

• Note: if you already did try adding SDK using cocoapods and it’s not working, first install the git-lfs and then clear you cocoapods cache. This should be sufficient to force cocoapods to clone PDF417.mobi SDK, if it still doesn’t work, try deinitializing your pods and installing them again.

• Project dependencies to be managed by CocoaPods are specified in a file called Podfile. Create this file in the same directory as your Xcode project (.xcodeproj) file.

• If you don’t have podfile initialized run the following in your project directory.

  pod init
  

• Copy and paste the following lines into the TextEdit window:

platform :ios, '9.0'
target 'Your-App-Name' do
    pod 'PPpdf417', '~> 8.0.1'
end

• Install the dependencies in your project:

$ pod install

• From now on, be sure to always open the generated Xcode workspace (.xcworkspace) instead of the project file when building your project:

open <YourProjectName>.xcworkspace

Integration without CocoaPods

-Download latest release (Download .zip or .tar.gz file starting with PDF417.mobi. DO NOT download Source Code as GitHub does not fully support Git LFS)

OR

Clone this git repository:

brew install git-lfs
git lfs install

• Be sure to restart your console after installing Git LFS

• To clone, run the following shell command:

git clone git@github.com:PDF417.mobi/pdf417-ios.git

• Copy Pdf417Mobi.xcframework to your project folder.

• In your Xcode project, open the Project navigator. Drag the Pdf417Mobi.xcframework file to your project, ideally in the Frameworks group, together with other frameworks you’re using. When asked, choose “Create groups”, instead of the “Create folder references” option.

• Include the additional frameworks and libraries into your project in the “Linked frameworks and libraries” section of your target settings.

  • libc++.tbd
  • libiconv.tbd
  • libz.tbd

2. Referencing header file

In files in which you want to use scanning functionality place import directive.

Swift

import Pdf417Mobi

Objective-C

#import <Pdf417Mobi/Pdf417Mobi.h>

3. Initiating the scanning process

To initiate the scanning process, first decide where in your app you want to add scanning functionality. Usually, users of the scanning library have a button which, when tapped, starts the scanning process. Initialization code is then placed in touch handler for that button. Here we’re listing the initialization code as it looks in a touch handler method.

Swift

class ViewController: UIViewController, MBBDocumentOverlayViewControllerDelegate  {

    var pdf417Recognizer: MBBPdf417Recognizer?
    var barcodeRecognizer: MBBBarcodeRecognizer?

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        MBBMicroblinkSDK.share().setLicenseResource("license", withExtension: "txt", inSubdirectory: "", for: Bundle.main, errorCallback: nil)
    }

    @IBAction func didTapScan(_ sender: AnyObject) {

        /** Create barcode recognizer */
        self.barcodeRecognizer = MBBBarcodeRecognizer()
        self.barcodeRecognizer?.scanQrCode = true

        self.pdf417Recognizer = MBBPdf417Recognizer()

        /** Create barcode settings */
        let settings : MBBBarcodeOverlaySettings = MBBBarcodeOverlaySettings()

        /** Crate recognizer collection */
        let recognizerList = [self.barcodeRecognizer!, self.pdf417Recognizer!]
        let recognizerCollection : MBBRecognizerCollection = MBBRecognizerCollection(recognizers: recognizerList)

        /** Create your overlay view controller */
        let barcodeOverlayViewController : MBBBarcodeOverlayViewController = MBBBarcodeOverlayViewController(settings: settings, recognizerCollection: recognizerCollection, delegate: self)

        /** Create recognizer view controller with wanted overlay view controller */
        let recognizerRunneViewController : UIViewController = MBBViewControllerFactory.recognizerRunnerViewController(withOverlayViewController: barcodeOverlayViewController)

        /** Present the recognizer runner view controller. You can use other presentation methods as well (instead of presentViewController) */
        self.present(recognizerRunneViewController, animated: true, completion: nil)
    }
}

Objective-C

@interface ViewController () <MBBDocumentOverlayViewControllerDelegate>

@property (nonatomic, strong) MBBPdf417Recognizer *pdf417Recognizer;
@property (nonatomic, strong) MBBBarcodeRecognizer *barcodeRecognizer;

@end

@implementation ViewController

- (void)viewDidLoad {
    [super viewDidLoad];
    [MBBMicroblinkSDK.sharedInstance setLicenseResource:@"blinkid-license" withExtension:@"txt" inSubdirectory:@"" for:Bundle.main errorCallback: nil];
}


- (IBAction)didTapScan:(id)sender {

    /** Create barcode recognizer */
    self.barcodeRecognizer = [MBBBarcodeRecognizer new];
    self.barcodeRecognizer.scanQrCode = true;

    self.pdf417Recognizer = [MBBPdf417Recognizer new];

    /** Create barcode settings */
    MBBBarcodeOverlaySettings *settings = [MBBBarcodeOverlaySettings new];

    /** Crate recognizer collection */
    NSArray *recognizerList = @[self.barcodeRecognizer!, self.pdf417Recognizer!];
    MBBRecognizerCollection *recognizerCollection = [[MBBRecognizerCollection alloc] initWithRecognizers:recognizerList];

    /** Create your overlay view controller */
    MBBBarcodeOverlayViewController *barcodeOverlayViewController = [[MBBBarcodeOverlayViewController alloc] initWithSettings:settings recognizerCollection:recognizerCollection delegate:self];

    /** Create recognizer view controller with wanted overlay view controller */
    UIViewController *recognizerRunneViewController = [MBBViewControllerFactory recognizerRunnerViewControllerWithOverlayViewController:barcodeOverlayViewController];

    /** Present the recognizer runner view controller. You can use other presentation methods as well (instead of presentViewController) */
    [self. present:recognizerRunneViewController animated:true completion:nil];
}

@end

4. License key

A valid license key is required to initalize scanning. You can generate a free trial license key, after you register, at Microblink developer dashboard.

You can include the license key in your app by passing a string or a file with license key. Note that you need to set the license key before intializing scanning. Ideally in AppDelegate or viewDidLoad before initializing any recognizers.

License key as string

You can pass the license key as a string, the following way:

Swift

MBBMicroblinkSDK.shared().setLicenseKey("LICENSE-KEY")

Objective-C

[[MBBMicroblinkSDK sharedInstance] setLicenseKey:@"LICENSE-KEY"];

License key as file

Or you can include the license key, with the code below. Please make sure that the file that contains the license key is included in your project and is copied during Copy Bundle Resources build phase.

Swift

MBBMicroblinkSDK.shared().setLicenseResource("license-key-file", withExtension: "txt", inSubdirectory: "directory-to-license-key", for: Bundle.main, errorCallback: nil)

Objective-C

[[MBBMicroblinkSDK sharedInstance] setLicenseResource:@"license-key-file" withExtension:@"txt" inSubdirectory:@"" forBundle:[NSBundle mainBundle, errorCallback: nil]];

If the licence is invalid or expired then the methods above will throw an exception.

5. Registering for scanning events

In the previous step, you instantiated MBBBarcodeOverlayViewController object with a delegate object. This object gets notified on certain events in scanning lifecycle. In this example we set it to self. The protocol which the delegate has to implement is MBBBarcodeOverlayViewControllerDelegate protocol. It is necessary to conform to that protocol. We will discuss more about protocols in Advanced integration section. You can use the following default implementation of the protocol to get you started.

Swift

func documentOverlayViewControllerDidFinishScanning(_ documentOverlayViewController: MBBDocumentOverlayViewController, state: MBBRecognizerResultState) {

    // this is done on background thread
    // check for valid state
    if state == .valid {

        // first, pause scanning until we process all the results
        documentOverlayViewController.recognizerRunnerViewController?.pauseScanning()

        DispatchQueue.main.async(execute: {() -> Void in
            // All UI interaction needs to be done on main thread
        })
    }
}

func documentOverlayViewControllerDidTapClose(_ documentOverlayViewController: MBBDocumentOverlayViewController) {
    // Your action on cancel
}

Objective-C

- (void)documentOverlayViewControllerDidFinishScanning:(MBBDocumentOverlayViewController *)documentOverlayViewController state:(MBBRecognizerResultState)state {

    // this is done on background thread
    // check for valid state
    if (state == MBBRecognizerResultStateValid) {

        // first, pause scanning until we process all the results
        [documentOverlayViewController.recognizerRunnerViewController pauseScanning];

        dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
            // All UI interaction needs to be done on main thread
        });
    }
}

- (void)documentOverlayViewControllerDidTapClose:(MBBDocumentOverlayViewController *)documentOverlayViewController {
    // Your action on cancel
}

Advanced PDF417.mobi integration instructions

This section covers more advanced details of PDF417.mobi integration.

1. First part will cover the possible customizations when using UI provided by the SDK.
2. Second part will describe how to embed MBBRecognizerRunnerViewController's delegates into your UIViewController with the goal of creating a custom UI for scanning, while still using camera management capabilites of the SDK.
3. Third part will describe how to use the MBBRecognizerRunner (Direct API) for recognition directly from UIImage without the need of camera or to recognize camera frames that are obtained by custom camera management.
4. Fourth part will describe recognizer concept and available recognizers.

Built-in overlay view controllers and overlay subviews

Within PDF417.mobi SDK there are several built-in overlay view controllers and scanning subview overlays that you can use to perform scanning.

Using MBBBarcodeOverlayViewController

MBBBarcodeOverlayViewController is overlay view controller best suited for performing scanning of various barcodes. It has MBBBarcodeOverlayViewControllerDelegate delegate which can be used out-of-the-box to perform scanning using the default UI. Here is an example how to use and initialize MBBBarcodeOverlayViewController:

Swift

/** Create your overlay view controller */
let barcodeOverlayViewController : MBBBarcodeOverlayViewController = MBBBarcodeOverlayViewController(settings: barcodeSettings, recognizerCollection: recognizerCollection, delegate: self)

/** Create recognizer view controller with wanted overlay view controller */
let recognizerRunneViewController : UIViewController = MBBViewControllerFactory.recognizerRunnerViewController(withOverlayViewController: barcodeOverlayViewController)

/** Present the recognizer runner view controller. You can use other presentation methods as well (instead of presentViewController) */
self.present(recognizerRunneViewController, animated: true, completion: nil)

Objective-C

MBBBarcodeOverlayViewController *overlayVC = [[MBBBarcodeOverlayViewController alloc] initWithSettings:settings recognizerCollection: recognizerCollection delegate:self];
UIViewController<MBBRecognizerRunnerViewController>* recognizerRunnerViewController = [MBBViewControllerFactory recognizerRunnerViewControllerWithOverlayViewController:overlayVC];

/** Present the recognizer runner view controller. You can use other presentation methods as well (instead of presentViewController) */
[self presentViewController:recognizerRunnerViewController animated:YES completion:nil];

As you can see, when initializing MBBBarcodeOverlayViewController, we are sending delegate property as self. To get results, we need to conform to MBBBarcodeOverlayViewControllerDelegate protocol.

Custom overlay view controller

Please check our Samples for custom implementation of overlay view controller.

Overlay View Controller is an abstract class for all overlay views.

It’s responsibility is to provide meaningful and useful interface for the user to interact with.

Typical actions which need to be allowed to the user are:

• intuitive and meaniningful way to guide the user through scanning process. This is usually done by presenting a “viewfinder” in which the user need to place the scanned object
• a way to cancel the scanning, typically with a “cancel” or “back” button
• a way to power on and off the light (i.e. “torch”) button

PDF417.mobi SDK always provides it’s own default implementation of the Overlay View Controller for every specific use. Your implementation should closely mimic the default implementation as it’s the result of thorough testing with end users. Also, it closely matches the underlying scanning technology.

For example, the scanning technology usually gives results very fast after the user places the device’s camera in the expected way above the scanned object. This means a progress bar for the scan is not particularly useful to the user. The majority of time the user spends on positioning the device’s camera correctly. That’s just an example which demonstrates careful decision making behind default camera overlay view.

1. Subclassing

To use your custom overlay with Microblink’s camera view, you must first subclass MBBCustomOverlayViewController and implement the overlay behaviour conforming wanted protocols.

2. Protocols

There are five MBBRecognizerRunnerViewController protocols and one overlay protocol MBBOverlayViewControllerInterface.

Five RecognizerRunnerView protocols are:

• MBBScanningRecognizerRunnerViewControllerDelegate
• MBBDetectionRecognizerRunnerViewControllerDelegate
• MBBOcrRecognizerRunnerViewControllerDelegate
• MBBDebugRecognizerRunnerViewControllerDelegate
• MBBRecognizerRunnerViewControllerDelegate

In viewDidLoad, other protocol conformation can be done and it’s done on recognizerRunnerViewController property of MBBOverlayViewController, for example:

Swift and Objective-C

self.scanningRecognizerRunnerViewControllerDelegate = self;

3. Initialization

In Quick Start guide it is shown how to use a default overlay view controller. You can now swap default view controller with your implementation of CustomOverlayViewController

Swift

let recognizerRunnerViewController : UIViewController = MBBViewControllerFactory.recognizerRunnerViewController(withOverlayViewController: CustomOverlayViewController)

Objective-C

UIViewController<MBBRecognizerRunnerViewController>* recognizerRunnerViewController = [MBBViewControllerFactory recognizerRunnerViewControllerWithOverlayViewController:CustomOverlayViewController];

Direct processing API

This guide will in short present you how to process UIImage objects with PDF417.mobi SDK, without starting the camera video capture.

With this feature you can solve various use cases like: - recognizing text on images in Camera roll - taking full resolution photo and sending it to processing - scanning barcodes on images in e-mail etc.

DirectAPI-sample demo app here will present UIImagePickerController for taking full resolution photos, and then process it with PDF417.mobi SDK to get scanning results using Direct processing API.

Direct processing API is handled with MBBRecognizerRunner. That is a class that handles processing of images. It also has protocols as MBBRecognizerRunnerViewController. Developer can choose which protocol to conform:

• MBBScanningRecognizerRunnerDelegate
• MBBDetectionRecognizerRunnerDelegate
• MBBDebugRecognizerRunnerDelegate
• MBBOcrRecognizerRunnerDelegate

In example, we are conforming to MBBScanningRecognizerRunnerDelegate protocol.

To initiate the scanning process, first decide where in your app you want to add scanning functionality. Usually, users of the scanning library have a button which, when tapped, starts the scanning process. Initialization code is then placed in touch handler for that button. Here we’re listing the initialization code as it looks in a touch handler method.

Swift

func setupRecognizerRunner() {
    var recognizers = [MBBRecognizer]()
    pdf417Recognizer = MBBPdf417Recognizer()
    recognizers.append(pdf417Recognizer!)
    let recognizerCollection = MBBRecognizerCollection(recognizers: recognizers)
    recognizerRunner = MBBRecognizerRunner(recognizerCollection: recognizerCollection)
    recognizerRunner?.scanningRecognizerRunnerDelegate = self
}

func processImageRunner(_ originalImage: UIImage) {
    var image: MBBImage? = nil
    if let anImage = originalImage {
        image = MBBImage(uiImage: anImage)
    }
    image?.cameraFrame = true
    image?.orientation = MBBProcessingOrientation.left
    let _serialQueue = DispatchQueue(label: "com.microblink.DirectAPI-sample-swift")
    _serialQueue.async(execute: {() -> Void in
        self.recognizerRunner?.processImage(image!)
    })
}

func recognizerRunner(_ recognizerRunner: MBBRecognizerRunner, didFinishScanningWith state: MBBRecognizerResultState) {
    if blinkInputRecognizer.result.resultState == MBBRecognizerResultStateValid {
        // Handle result
    }
}

Objective-C

- (void)setupRecognizerRunner {
    NSMutableArray<MBBRecognizer *> *recognizers = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init];

    self.pdf417Recognizer = [[MBBPdf417Recognizer alloc] init];

    [recognizers addObject: self.pdf417Recognizer];

    MBBRecognizerCollection *recognizerCollection = [[MBBRecognizerCollection alloc] initWithRecognizers:recognizers];

    self.recognizerRunner = [[MBBRecognizerRunner alloc] initWithRecognizerCollection:recognizerCollection];
    self.recognizerRunner.scanningRecognizerRunnerDelegate = self;
}

- (void)processImageRunner:(UIImage *)originalImage {
    MBBImage *image = [MBBImage imageWithUIImage:originalImage];
    image.cameraFrame = YES;
    image.orientation = MBBProcessingOrientationLeft;
    dispatch_queue_t _serialQueue = dispatch_queue_create("com.microblink.DirectAPI-sample", DISPATCH_QUEUE_SERIAL);
    dispatch_async(_serialQueue, ^{
        [self.recognizerRunner processImage:image];
    });
}

- (void)recognizerRunner:(nonnull MBBRecognizerRunner *)recognizerRunner didFinishScanningWithState:(MBBRecognizerResultState)state {
    if (self.blinkInputRecognizer.result.resultState == MBBRecognizerResultStateValid) {
        // Handle result
    }
}

Now you’ve seen how to implement the Direct processing API.

In essence, this API consists of two steps:

• Initialization of the scanner.
• Call of - (void)processImage:(MBBImage *)image; method for each UIImage or CMSampleBufferRef you have.

Using Direct API for NSString recognition (parsing)

Some recognizers support recognition from NSString. They can be used through Direct API to parse given NSString and return data just like when they are used on an input image. When recognition is performed on NSString, there is no need for the OCR. Input NSString is used in the same way as the OCR output is used when image is being recognized. Recognition from String can be performed in the same way as recognition from image. The only difference is that user should call - (void)processString:(NSString *)string; on MBBRecognizerRunner.

MBBRecognizer and available recognizers

The MBBRecognizer concept

The MBBRecognizer is the basic unit of processing within the SDK. Its main purpose is to process the image and extract meaningful information from it. As you will see later, the SDK has lots of different MBBRecognizer objects that have various purposes.

Each MBBRecognizer has a MBBRecognizerResult object, which contains the data that was extracted from the image. The MBBRecognizerResult object is a member of corresponding MBBRecognizer object its lifetime is bound to the lifetime of its parent MBBRecognizer object. If you need your MBBRecognizerResult object to outlive its parent MBBRecognizer object, you must make a copy of it by calling its method copy.

While MBBRecognizer object works, it changes its internal state and its result. The MBBRecognizer object’s MBBRecognizerResult always starts in Empty state. When corresponding MBBRecognizer object performs the recognition of given image, its MBBRecognizerResult can either stay in Empty state (in case MBBRecognizerfailed to perform recognition), move to Uncertain state (in case MBBRecognizer performed the recognition, but not all mandatory information was extracted) or move to Valid state (in case MBBRecognizer performed recognition and all mandatory information was successfully extracted from the image).

As soon as one MBBRecognizer object’s MBBRecognizerResult within MBBRecognizerCollection given to MBBRecognizerRunner or MBBRecognizerRunnerViewController changes to Valid state, the onScanningFinished callback will be invoked on same thread that performs the background processing and you will have the opportunity to inspect each of your MBBRecognizer objects’ MBBRecognizerResult to see which one has moved to Valid state.

As soon as onScanningFinished method ends, the MBBRecognizerRunnerViewController will continue processing new camera frames with same MBBRecognizer objects, unless paused. Continuation of processing or reset recognition will modify or reset all MBBRecognizer objects’s MBBRecognizerResult. When using built-in activities, as soon as onScanningFinished is invoked, built-in activity pauses the MBBRecognizerRunnerViewController and starts finishing the activity, while saving the MBBRecognizerCollection with active MBBRecognizer.

MBBRecognizerCollection concept

The MBBRecognizerCollection is is wrapper around MBBRecognizer objects that has array of MBBRecognizer objects that can be used to give MBBRecognizer objects to MBBRecognizerRunner or MBBRecognizerRunnerViewController for processing.

The MBBRecognizerCollection is always constructed with array [[MBBRecognizerCollection alloc] initWithRecognizers:recognizers] of MBBRecognizer objects that need to be prepared for recognition (i.e. their properties must be tweaked already).

The MBBRecognizerCollection manages a chain of MBBRecognizer objects within the recognition process. When a new image arrives, it is processed by the first MBBRecognizer in chain, then by the second and so on, iterating until a MBBRecognizer object’s MBBRecognizerResult changes its state to Valid or all of the MBBRecognizer objects in chain were invoked (none getting a Valid result state).

You cannot change the order of the MBBRecognizer objects within the chain - no matter the order in which you give MBBRecognizer objects to MBBRecognizerCollection, they are internally ordered in a way that provides best possible performance and accuracy. Also, in order for SDK to be able to order MBBRecognizer objects in recognition chain in a best way possible, it is not allowed to have multiple instances of MBBRecognizer objects of the same type within the chain. Attempting to do so will crash your application.

List of available recognizers

This section will give a list of all MBBRecognizer objects that are available within PDF417.mobi SDK, their purpose and recommendations how they should be used to get best performance and user experience.

Frame Grabber Recognizer

The MBBFrameGrabberRecognizer is the simplest recognizer in SDK, as it does not perform any processing on the given image, instead it just returns that image back to its onFrameAvailable. Its result never changes state from empty.

This recognizer is best for easy capturing of camera frames with MBBRecognizerRunnerViewController. Note that MBBImage sent to onFrameAvailable are temporary and their internal buffers all valid only until the onFrameAvailable method is executing - as soon as method ends, all internal buffers of MBBImage object are disposed. If you need to store MBBImage object for later use, you must create a copy of it by calling copy.

Success Frame Grabber Recognizer

The MBBSuccessFrameGrabberRecognizer is a special MBBecognizer that wraps some other MBBRecognizer and impersonates it while processing the image. However, when the MBBRecognizer being impersonated changes its MBBRecognizerResult into Valid state, the MBBSuccessFrameGrabberRecognizer captures the image and saves it into its own MBBSuccessFrameGrabberRecognizerResult object.

Since MBBSuccessFrameGrabberRecognizer impersonates its slave MBBRecognizer object, it is not possible to give both concrete MBBRecognizer object and MBBSuccessFrameGrabberRecognizer that wraps it to same MBBRecognizerCollection - doing so will have the same result as if you have given two instances of same MBBRecognizer type to the MBBRecognizerCollection - it will crash your application.

This recognizer is best for use cases when you need to capture the exact image that was being processed by some other MBBRecognizer object at the time its MBBRecognizerResult became Valid. When that happens, MBBSuccessFrameGrabberRecognizer's MBBSuccessFrameGrabberRecognizerResult will also become Valid and will contain described image.

PDF417 recognizer

The MBBPdf417Recognizer is recognizer specialised for scanning PDF417 2D barcodes. This recognizer can recognize only PDF417 2D barcodes - for recognition of other barcodes, please refer to BarcodeRecognizer.

This recognizer can be used in any overlay view controller, but it works best with the MBBBarcodeOverlayViewController, which has UI best suited for barcode scanning.

Barcode recognizer

The MBBBarcodeRecognizer is recognizer specialised for scanning various types of barcodes. This recognizer should be your first choice when scanning barcodes as it supports lots of barcode symbologies, including the PDF417 2D barcodes, thus making PDF417 recognizer possibly redundant, which was kept only for its simplicity.

You can enable multiple barcode symbologies within this recognizer, however keep in mind that enabling more barcode symbologies affect scanning performance - the more barcode symbologies are enabled, the slower the overall recognition performance. Also, keep in mind that some simple barcode symbologies that lack proper redundancy, such as Code 39, can be recognized within more complex barcodes, especially 2D barcodes, like PDF417.

This recognizer can be used in any overlay view controller, but it works best with the MBBBarcodeOverlayViewController, which has UI best suited for barcode scanning.

Localization

The SDK is localized on following languages: Arabic, Chinese simplified, Chinese traditional, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, Filipino, French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Malay, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Thai, Vietnamese.

If you would like us to support additional languages or report incorrect translation, please contact us at help.microblink.com.

If you want to add additional languages yourself or change existing translations, you need to set customLocalizationFileName property on MBBMicroblinkApp object to your strings file name.

For example, let’s say that we want to change text “Scan the front side of a document” to “Scan the front side” in BlinkID sample project. This would be the steps:

• Find the translation key in en.strings file inside Pdf417Mobi.framework
• Add a new file MyTranslations.strings to the project by using “Strings File” template
• With MyTranslations.string open, in File inspector tap “Localize…” button and select English
• Add the translation key “blinkid_generic_message” and the value “Scan the front side” to MyTranslations.strings
• Finally in AppDelegate.swift in method application(_:, didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:) add MBBMicroblinkApp.instance()?.customLocalizationFileName = "MyTranslations"

Troubleshooting

Integration problems

In case of problems with integration of the SDK, first make sure that you have tried integrating it into XCode by following integration instructions.

If you have followed XCode integration instructions and are still having integration problems, please contact us at help.microblink.com.

SDK problems

In case of problems with using the SDK, you should do as follows:

Licencing problems

If you are getting “invalid licence key” error or having other licence-related problems (e.g. some feature is not enabled that should be or there is a watermark on top of camera), first check the console. All licence-related problems are logged to error log so it is easy to determine what went wrong.

When you have determine what is the licence-relate problem or you simply do not understand the log, you should contact us help.microblink.com. When contacting us, please make sure you provide following information:

• exact Bundle ID of your app (from your info.plist file)
• licence that is causing problems
• please stress out that you are reporting problem related to iOS version of PDF417.mobi SDK
• if unsure about the problem, you should also provide excerpt from console containing licence error

Other problems

If you are having problems with scanning certain items, undesired behaviour on specific device(s), crashes inside PDF417.mobi SDK or anything unmentioned, please do as follows:

• Contact us at help.microblink.com describing your problem and provide following information:
  • log file obtained in previous step
  • high resolution scan/photo of the item that you are trying to scan
  • information about device that you are using
  • please stress out that you are reporting problem related to iOS version of PDF417.mobi SDK

Frequently asked questions and known problems

Here is a list of frequently asked questions and solutions for them and also a list of known problems in the SDK and how to work around them.

Note on ARM Macs

We are supporting ARM64 Device slice through our .xcframework format. We are still in development supporting ARM64 Simulator slice for newly released ARM Macs and we will update our SDK with ARM64 Simulator support as soon as development is done.

In demo everything worked, but after switching to production license I get NSError with MBBMicroblinkSDKRecognizerErrorDomain and MBBRecognizerFailedToInitalize code as soon as I construct specific MBBRecognizer object

Each license key contains information about which features are allowed to use and which are not. This NSError indicates that your production license does not allow using of specific MBBRecognizer object. You should contact support to check if provided licence is OK and that it really contains all features that you have purchased.

I get NSError with MBBMicroblinkSDKRecognizerErrorDomain and MBBRecognizerFailedToInitalize code with trial license key

Whenever you construct any MBBRecognizer object or, a check whether license allows using that object will be performed. If license is not set prior constructing that object, you will get NSError with MBBMicroblinkSDKRecognizerErrorDomain and MBBRecognizerFailedToInitalize code. We recommend setting license as early as possible in your app.

Undefined Symbols on Architecture armv7

Make sure you link your app with iconv and Accelerate frameworks as shown in Quick start. If you are using Cocoapods, please be sure that you’ve installed git-lfs prior to installing pods. If you are still getting this error, go to project folder and execute command git-lfs pull.

Crash on armv7 devices

SDK crashes on armv7 devices if bitcode is enabled. We are working on it.

In my didFinish callback I have the result inside my MBBRecognizer, but when scanning activity finishes, the result is gone

This usually happens when using MBBRecognizerRunnerViewController and forgetting to pause the MBBRecognizerRunnerViewController in your didFinish callback. Then, as soon as didFinish happens, the result is mutated or reset by additional processing that MBBRecognizer performs in the time between end of your didFinish callback and actual finishing of the scanning activity. For more information about statefulness of the MBBRecognizer objects, check this section.

Unsupported architectures when submitting app to App Store

Pdf417Mobi.framework is a dynamic framework which contains slices for all architectures - device and simulator. If you intend to extract .ipa file for ad hoc distribution, you’ll need to preprocess the framework to remove simulator architectures.

Ideal solution is to add a build phase after embed frameworks build phase, which strips unused slices from embedded frameworks.

Build step is based on the one provided here: http://ikennd.ac/blog/2015/02/stripping-unwanted-architectures-from-dynamic-libraries-in-xcode/

APP_PATH="${TARGET_BUILD_DIR}/${WRAPPER_NAME}"

# This script loops through the frameworks embedded in the application and
# removes unused architectures.
find "$APP_PATH" -name '*.framework' -type d | while read -r FRAMEWORK
do
FRAMEWORK_EXECUTABLE_NAME=$(defaults read "$FRAMEWORK/Info.plist" CFBundleExecutable)
FRAMEWORK_EXECUTABLE_PATH="$FRAMEWORK/$FRAMEWORK_EXECUTABLE_NAME"
echo "Executable is $FRAMEWORK_EXECUTABLE_PATH"

EXTRACTED_ARCHS=()

for ARCH in $ARCHS
do
echo "Extracting $ARCH from $FRAMEWORK_EXECUTABLE_NAME"
lipo -extract "$ARCH" "$FRAMEWORK_EXECUTABLE_PATH" -o "$FRAMEWORK_EXECUTABLE_PATH-$ARCH"
EXTRACTED_ARCHS+=("$FRAMEWORK_EXECUTABLE_PATH-$ARCH")
done

echo "Merging extracted architectures: ${ARCHS}"
lipo -o "$FRAMEWORK_EXECUTABLE_PATH-merged" -create "${EXTRACTED_ARCHS[@]}"
rm "${EXTRACTED_ARCHS[@]}"

echo "Replacing original executable with thinned version"
rm "$FRAMEWORK_EXECUTABLE_PATH"
mv "$FRAMEWORK_EXECUTABLE_PATH-merged" "$FRAMEWORK_EXECUTABLE_PATH"

done

Disable logging

Logging can be disabled by calling disableMicroblinkLogging method on MBBLogger instance.

Additional info

Complete API reference can be found here.

For any other questions, feel free to contact us at help.microblink.com.