Generate MaxiCode Barcodes in JavaScript

Generate MaxiCode Barcodes Online: You can test the quality of Aspose.BarCode generation for MaxiCode barcodes and view the results online.

Overview

MaxiCode is a 2D matrix barcode format that can encode both text and byte data. It uses Reed-Solomon error correction, with strict specifications for data capacity and barcode size as defined by the MaxiCode standard. The barcode features a round bullseye finder pattern consisting of three concentric circles, six orientation patterns, and 33 rows with 29 or 30 hexagonal modules.

The data capacity for encoding depends on the characteristics of the input and can hold a maximum of 60 bytes or up to 140 numerical (90 alphanumeric) digits. Although initially developed for postal services, MaxiCode is intended for industrial use and is not typically recommended for general business applications.

If you need further assistance, please contact Aspose Technical Support. You can ask questions at the Aspose.Barcode Forum or reach out to Aspose Paid Support Helpdesk.

MaxiCode Mode Settings

In Aspose.BarCode for JavaScript via C++, developers can configure different generation modes for creating MaxiCode barcodes using the MaxiCodeMode property of the MaxiCodeParameters class. Supported data modes include:

Modes 2 and 3 - Specialized industrial standards for the transportation industry, designed to store shipping information along with additional data.
Modes 4 and 5 - Capable of storing arbitrary text or byte data, differing only in the number of codewords used for error correction and potential data capacity.
Mode 6 - Similar to Mode 4, but specifically used for setting up hardware readers.

For more details and code samples for complex data modes, visit here.

MaxiCode Modes 2 and 3

MaxiCode Modes 2 and 3 require the input data to be formatted in predefined structures:

Format 1: “[)>(rs)01(gs)(Postal Code)(gs)(Country Code)(gs)(Service Category)(gs)(Secondary Message)(eot)”
Format 2: “(Postal Code 9 digits)(gs)(Country Code)(gs)(Service Category)(gs)(Secondary Message)(eot)”

Special characters used:

Group separator Unicode character (gs): \u001d
Record separator Unicode character (rs): \u001e
End-of-transmission Unicode character (eot): \u0004

The sample MaxiCode barcodes below were created using Formats 1 and 2 of MaxiCode Mode 2.

Mode 2	Format 1	Format 2

The following code snippet demonstrates how to work with MaxiCode modes.

How to get BarCodeInstance

// [)>(RS)01(GS)(Postal Code)(GS)(Country Code)(GS)(Service Category)(GS)(Secondary Message)(EOT)
var gs = "\u001d";
var rs = "\u001e";
var eot = "\u0004";
var codetext = `[)>${rs}01${gs}B1050${gs}056${gs}001${gs}ADDITIONAL DATA${eot}`;

var gen = new BarCodeInstance.BarcodeGenerator("MaxiCode", codetext);
// Set MaxiCode mode to 2
gen.Parameters.Barcode.MaxiCode.MaxiCodeMode = BarCodeInstance.MaxiCodeMode.Mode2;

gen.Parameters.Barcode.XDimension = "15px";
gen.Parameters.Barcode.CodeTextParameters.TwoDDisplayText = "MaxiCode Mode 2";
document.getElementById("img1").src = gen.GenerateBarCodeImage(); // Display barcode image


// (Postal Code 9 digits)(GS)(Country Code)(GS)(Service Category)(GS)(Secondary Message)(EOT)
codetext = `123456789${gs}056${gs}001${gs}ADDITIONAL DATA${eot}`;
gen = new BarCodeInstance.BarcodeGenerator("MaxiCode", codetext);
// Set MaxiCode mode to 2
gen.Parameters.Barcode.MaxiCode.MaxiCodeMode = BarCodeInstance.MaxiCodeMode.Mode2;

gen.Parameters.Barcode.XDimension = "15px";
gen.Parameters.Barcode.CodeTextParameters.TwoDDisplayText = "MaxiCode Mode 2";
document.getElementById("img2").src = gen.GenerateBarCodeImage(); // Display barcode image

gen.delete();

MaxiCode Modes 4, 5, and 6

MaxiCode barcodes generated in these modes can store the arbitrary text data or byte streams. The code sample given below shows how to use the MaxiCode Mode 4.

How to get BarCodeInstance

var gen = new BarCodeInstance.BarcodeGenerator("MaxiCode", "Åspóse.Barcóde©");
gen.Parameters.Barcode.XDimension = "15px";
// Set MaxiCode encode mode to 4
gen.Parameters.Barcode.MaxiCode.MaxiCodeMode = BarCodeInstance.MaxiCodeMode.Mode4;
document.getElementById("img").src = gen.GenerateBarCodeImage(); // Display barcode image

gen.delete();

Encoding Mode Settings

The barcode library supports various encoding modes for generating MaxiCode barcodes. You can select the required mode by setting the MaxiCodeEncodeMode property of the MaxiCodeParameters class. The available modes are defined in the MaxiCodeEncodeMode enumeration. A brief overview of each mode is provided below:

Auto: The default mode, where the CodeText is encoded with the maximum possible data compactness.
Binary: Encodes binary data with maximum data compactness.
ECI: The Extended Channel Interpretation (ECI) mode, which specifies that the encoded data should be interpreted according to the ECI protocol defined by the AIM ECI Specifications.
Extended: Provides more flexible encoding options, allowing manual specification of the encoding for parts of the CodeText.

Encoding Mode Auto

In Auto mode, the CodeText is encoded to achieve maximum data compactness. Unicode characters are re-encoded based on the encoding specified in the ECIEncoding property, and an ECI identifier is included. If an unsupported character is encountered based on the selected ECI encoding, an exception will be raised. By default, the ECIEncoding property is set to ECIEncodings.UTF8 (ECI ID: “\000026”). The following code snippet demonstrates how to generate a MaxiCode barcode in Auto mode.

How to get BarCodeInstance

var gen = new BarCodeInstance.BarcodeGenerator("MaxiCode", "犬Right狗");
document.getElementById("img").src = gen.GenerateBarCodeImage(); // Display barcode image

gen.delete();

Encoding Mode Binary

The Binary mode serves to encode byte streams. If a Unicode character is encountered, an exception is thrown. The code sample below explains how to work with this encoding mode.

How to get BarCodeInstance

var encodedArr = new Uint8Array([0xFF, 0xFE, 0xFD, 0xFC, 0xFB, 0xFA, 0xF9]);
var gen = new BarCodeInstance.BarcodeGenerator("MaxiCode");
var b64encoded = btoa(String.fromCharCode.apply(null, encodedArr));
gen.SetCodeTextBase64(b64encoded);

// Set MaxiCode encode mode to Binary
gen.Parameters.Barcode.MaxiCode.MaxiCodeEncodeMode = BarCodeInstance.MaxiCodeEncodeMode.Binary;
document.getElementById("img").src = gen.GenerateBarCodeImage(); // Display barcode image

gen.delete();

Encoding Mode ECI

The Extended Channel Interpretation (ECI) mode indicates that the encoded data should be interpreted according to the ECI protocol defined by the AIM ECI Specifications. When using ECI mode, the entire CodeText is re-encoded based on the encoding specified in the ECIEncoding property, with an ECI identifier added. If the selected ECI encoding cannot support a character, an exception is triggered. By default, the ECIEncoding property is set to ECIEncodings.UTF8 (ECI ID: “\000026”).

The following code sample shows how to utilize the ECI mode.

// ECI mode, Latin/Greek alphabet encoding. ECI ID: "\000009"
var str = "ΑΒΓΔΕ";
var gen = new BarCodeInstance.BarcodeGenerator("MaxiCode", str);

// Set MaxiCode encode mode to ECI
gen.Parameters.Barcode.MaxiCode.MaxiCodeEncodeMode = BarCodeInstance.MaxiCodeEncodeMode.ECI;
gen.Parameters.Barcode.MaxiCode.ECIEncoding = BarCodeInstance.ECIEncodings.ISO_8859_7;

document.getElementById("img").src = gen.GenerateBarCodeImage(); // Display barcode image

gen.delete();

Encoding Mode Extended

In Extended mode, the data passed to the CodeText property can include control words in addition to the main input data. These control words provide extended control over the data encoding process, enabling the storage of textual sequences with different encodings within a single barcode. To create MaxiCode barcodes in this format, it is recommended to use the MaxiCodeExtCodetextBuilder class.

How to get BarCodeInstance

// Create codetext
var textBuilder = new BarCodeInstance.MaxiCodeExtCodetextBuilder();
textBuilder.AddECICodetext(BarCodeInstance.ECIEncodings.Win1251, "Will");
textBuilder.AddECICodetext(BarCodeInstance.ECIEncodings.UTF8, "犬Right狗");
textBuilder.AddECICodetext(BarCodeInstance.ECIEncodings.UTF16BE, "犬Power狗");
textBuilder.AddPlainCodetext("Plain text");

// Generate codetext
var codetext = textBuilder.GetExtendedCodetext();

// Generate barcode
var gen = new BarCodeInstance.BarcodeGenerator("MaxiCode", codetext);
gen.Parameters.Barcode.XDimension = "15px";
// Set encode mode to Extended
gen.Parameters.Barcode.MaxiCode.MaxiCodeEncodeMode = BarCodeInstance.MaxiCodeEncodeMode.Extended;
gen.Parameters.Barcode.CodeTextParameters.TwoDDisplayText = "Extended mode";

document.getElementById("img").src = gen.GenerateBarCodeImage(); // Display barcode image

gen.delete();

Aspect Ratio

Aspect Ratio is the ratio between the width and height of a barcode. In Aspose.BarCode for JavaScript via C++, developers can use the AspectRatio property of the MaxiCodeParameters class to adjust the barcode’s proportions based on the X and Y coordinates. This property is a relative coefficient to the XDimension parameter. For optimal generation, MaxiCode barcodes should have an AspectRatio value of 1. Below is an example of a MaxiCode barcode generated with an Aspect Ratio of 0.5.

The following code snippet demonstrates how to configure the Aspect Ratio for MaxiCode barcode generation.

How to get BarCodeInstance

var gen = new BarCodeInstance.BarcodeGenerator("MaxiCode", "Åspóse.Barcóde©");
gen.Parameters.Barcode.XDimension = "15px";
// Set aspect ratio to 0.5
gen.Parameters.Barcode.MaxiCode.AspectRatio = 0.5;

document.getElementById("img").src = gen.GenerateBarCodeImage(); // Display barcode image

gen.delete();

Structured Append

The structured append mode is a special generation mode that enables the combination of up to eight MaxiCode barcodes. To use this mode, the following properties must be initialized:

MaxiCodeStructuredAppendModeBarcodesCount – specifies the number of MaxiCode barcodes to be generated (between 2 and 8).
MaxiCodeStructuredAppendModeBarcodeId – sets the position of the barcode in the sequence.

How to get BarCodeInstance

var gen = new BarCodeInstance.BarcodeGenerator("MaxiCode", "Åspóse.Barcóde©");
gen.Parameters.Barcode.XDimension = "15px";
// Set MaxiCode structured append mode with barcode ID
gen.Parameters.Barcode.MaxiCode.MaxiCodeStructuredAppendModeBarcodeId = 3;
gen.Parameters.Barcode.MaxiCode.MaxiCodeStructuredAppendModeBarcodeId = 5;

document.getElementById("img").src = gen.GenerateBarCodeImage(); // Display barcode image

gen.delete();

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