Read Australia Post Barcodes

Overview

Australia Post is a 4-state postal symbology used in the Australian Post. Input messages in this barcode standard include specific 2-digit format control code (FCC) fields and 8-digit sorting code (SC) fields. FCC fields indicate one of three available barcode types with fixed lengths of 37, 52, or 67 bars. Depending on the FCC, barcodes may include a customer information (CI) field that identifies one of the encoding types supporting numerical or alphanumeric symbols. Customer information can occupy 16 bars in 52-length barcodes or 31 bars in 67-length ones. The Australia Post standard also includes a checksum and Reed-Solomon data recovery information.
Learn more about this symbology here.

Given the option to add customer information in barcode input data, barcode recognition for Australia Post barcodes has specific considerations. In Aspose.BarCode for JavaScript via C++, the AustraliaPostSettings class can be used to customize recognition settings for this barcode standard based on requirements. The main properties of AustraliaPostSettings are detailed below.

Decode Customer Information in Standard Formats

The Australia Post symbology supports encoding additional customer information in three formats, but automatic recognition of the format used is not possible. In Aspose.BarCode for JavaScript via C++, the required decoding format can be set using the CustomerInformationInterpretingType property, which accepts the following values:

Australia Post Encoding Table Supported Symbols
CTable Numerical digits, English letters, space, and #
NTable Numerical digits only
Other 0, 1, 2, and 3 corresponding to H, A, D, and T states

CTable

The following code snippet demonstrates how to set the decoding format to CTable for the barcode image shown below.

How to get BarCodeInstance

// Generate Australia Post barcode with C Table encoding
var gen = new BarCodeInstance.BarcodeGenerator("AustraliaPost", "6201234567ASPOSE");
gen.Parameters.Barcode.XDimension = "4px";
gen.Parameters.Barcode.BarHeight = "50px";
gen.Parameters.Barcode.AustralianPost.AustralianPostEncodingTable = BarCodeInstance.CustomerInformationInterpretingType.CTable;
document.getElementById("img").src = gen.GenerateBarCodeImage(); // Display the barcode image

// Read barcode image
var reader = new BarCodeInstance.BarCodeReader(gen.GenerateBarCodeImage(), "AustraliaPost");
reader.BarcodeSettings.AustraliaPost.CustomerInformationInterpretingType = BarCodeInstance.CustomerInformationInterpretingType.CTable;
reader.ReadBarCodes();
for (var i = 0; i < reader.FoundCount; i++) {
    var result = reader.FoundBarCodes(i);
    console.log(`CodeType: ${result.CodeType}`);
    console.log(`CodeText: ${result.CodeText}`);
}

gen.delete();
reader.delete();

NTable

The following code sample shows how to apply the decoding format with the NTable option while reading the barcode image provided below.

How to get BarCodeInstance

//create barcode
using (BarcodeGenerator gen = new BarcodeGenerator(EncodeTypes.AustraliaPost, "620123456701234"))
{
    gen.Parameters.Barcode.XDimension = "4px";
    gen.Parameters.Barcode.BarHeight = "50px";
    gen.Parameters.Barcode.AustralianPost.AustralianPostEncodingTable = CustomerInformationInterpretingType.NTable;
    gen.Save($"{path}AustraliaPostNTable.png", BarCodeImageFormat.Png);
}

//read barcode image
Console.WriteLine("ReadAustraliaPostNTable:");
using (BarCodeReader read = new BarCodeReader($"{path}AustraliaPostNTable.png", DecodeType.AustraliaPost))
{
    read.BarcodeSettings.AustraliaPost.CustomerInformationInterpretingType = CustomerInformationInterpretingType.NTable;
    foreach (BarCodeResult result in read.ReadBarCodes())
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"CodeType:{result.CodeType}");
        Console.WriteLine($"CodeText:{result.CodeText}");
    }
}

Other

The following code snippet demonstrates how to set the Other decoding format for the barcode image given below.

How to get BarCodeInstance

//create barcode
using (BarcodeGenerator gen = new BarcodeGenerator(EncodeTypes.AustraliaPost, "6201234567321032103210"))
{
    gen.Parameters.Barcode.XDimension = "4px";
    gen.Parameters.Barcode.BarHeight = "50px";
    gen.Parameters.Barcode.AustralianPost.AustralianPostEncodingTable = CustomerInformationInterpretingType.Other;
    gen.Save($"{path}AustraliaPostOther.png", BarCodeImageFormat.Png);
}

//read barcode image
Console.WriteLine("ReadAustraliaPostOther:");
using (BarCodeReader read = new BarCodeReader($"{path}AustraliaPostOther.png", DecodeType.AustraliaPost))
{
    read.BarcodeSettings.AustraliaPost.CustomerInformationInterpretingType = CustomerInformationInterpretingType.Other;
    foreach (BarCodeResult result in read.ReadBarCodes())
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"CodeType:{result.CodeType}");
        Console.WriteLine($"CodeText:{result.CodeText}");
    }
}

Remove Filling Patterns

The Australia Post standard imposes using fixed size for each subtype. When barcode decoding is performed in the CTable format, the data filling empty space in the input message is decoded as symbol “z”. To avoid such a result, it is necessary to set the IgnoreEndingFillingPatternsForCTable property to True.

The following code sample illustrates how to eliminate filling patters while using the CTable decoding mode for the barcode image demonstrated below.

How to get BarCodeInstance

//create barcode
using (BarcodeGenerator gen = new BarcodeGenerator(EncodeTypes.AustraliaPost, "6201234567END"))
{
    gen.Parameters.Barcode.XDimension = "4px";
    gen.Parameters.Barcode.BarHeight = "50px";
    gen.Parameters.Barcode.AustralianPost.AustralianPostEncodingTable = CustomerInformationInterpretingType.CTable;
    gen.Save($"{path}AustraliaPostCTableIgnoreEnding.png", BarCodeImageFormat.Png);
}

Console.WriteLine("ReadAustraliaPostCTableIgnoreEnding:");
//read barcode image with IgnoreEndingFillingPatternsForCTable set to true
Console.WriteLine("IgnoreEndingFillingPatternsForCTable: true");
using (BarCodeReader read = new BarCodeReader($"{path}AustraliaPostCTableIgnoreEnding.png", DecodeType.AustraliaPost))
{
    read.BarcodeSettings.AustraliaPost.CustomerInformationInterpretingType = CustomerInformationInterpretingType.CTable;
    read.BarcodeSettings.AustraliaPost.IgnoreEndingFillingPatternsForCTable = true;
    foreach (BarCodeResult result in read.ReadBarCodes())
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"CodeType:{result.CodeType}");
        Console.WriteLine($"CodeText:{result.CodeText}");
    }
}

//read barcode image with IgnoreEndingFillingPatternsForCTable set to false
Console.WriteLine("IgnoreEndingFillingPatternsForCTable: false");
using (BarCodeReader read = new BarCodeReader($"{path}AustraliaPostCTableIgnoreEnding.png", DecodeType.AustraliaPost))
{
    read.BarcodeSettings.AustraliaPost.CustomerInformationInterpretingType = CustomerInformationInterpretingType.CTable;
    read.BarcodeSettings.AustraliaPost.IgnoreEndingFillingPatternsForCTable = false;
    foreach (BarCodeResult result in read.ReadBarCodes())
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"CodeType:{result.CodeType}");
        Console.WriteLine($"CodeText:{result.CodeText}");
    }
}

Decode Customer Information in Custom Format

Aspose.BarCode for JavaScript via C++ allows developers to decode customer information in their own format. For this purpose, the library provides a special interface called CustomerInformationDecoder. In such a way, decoding of barcode data is performed using this interface; the properties CustomerInformationInterpretingType and IgnoreEndingFillingPatternsForCTable are ignored.

The following code snippet explains how to decode customer information inputted in the NTable format while reading the sample Australia Post barcode shown below.

How to get BarCodeInstance

class NTableDecoder : AustraliaPostCustomerInformationDecoder
{
    string[] N_Table = { "00", "01", "02", "10", "11", "12", "20", "21", "22", "30" };
    public string Decode(string customerInformationField)
    {
        StringBuilder bd = new StringBuilder();
        for (int i = 0; i < customerInformationField.Length; i += 2)
        {
            if (i + 2 <= customerInformationField.Length)
            {
                string tmp = customerInformationField.Substring(i, 2);
                for (int j = 0; j < N_Table.Length; j++)
                {
                    if (N_Table[j].Equals(tmp))
                    {
                        bd.Append(j);
                        break;
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        return bd.ToString();
    }
}
//create barcode
using (BarcodeGenerator gen = new BarcodeGenerator(EncodeTypes.AustraliaPost, "620123456701234"))
{
    gen.Parameters.Barcode.XDimension = "4px";
    gen.Parameters.Barcode.BarHeight = "50px";
    gen.Parameters.Barcode.AustralianPost.AustralianPostEncodingTable = CustomerInformationInterpretingType.NTable;
    gen.Save($"{path}AustraliaPostCustomerInformationDecoder.png", BarCodeImageFormat.Png);
}

//read barcode image
Console.WriteLine("ReadAustraliaPostCustomerInformationDecoder:");
using (BarCodeReader read = new BarCodeReader($"{path}AustraliaPostCustomerInformationDecoder.png", DecodeType.AustraliaPost))
{
    read.BarcodeSettings.AustraliaPost.CustomerInformationDecoder = new NTableDecoder();
    foreach (BarCodeResult result in read.ReadBarCodes())
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"CodeType:{result.CodeType}");
        Console.WriteLine($"CodeText:{result.CodeText}");
    }
}

Decode FNC Symbols