UPS Compression Encoding is Supported

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UPS Compression Encoding is Supported

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IDAutomation Maxicode barcode products are based on the AIM ANSI/AIM BC10-ISS specification for Maxicode. Compressed Maxicode is a text compression technique used by UPS as a method of encoding greater amounts of shipping data in a Maxicode symbol.

Users integrating compressed Maxicode with IDAutomation products will need to obtain the compression specifications (or appropriate DLLs from UPS) to convert the data into the compressed format and pass this string directly to the component. A list of Maxicode components is provided here. The compressed Maxicode data string contains hidden characters such as returns, line feeds and possibly other low-level ASCII characters, which may be lost if the data is sent to the component in a web application. The best solution in many cases is to convert all characters except 0 to 9 and A to Z (and a to z) to their tilde equivalents. Read more about using the tilde in the Maxicode Barcode FAQ.

The string below is an example of a compressed Maxicode that will image properly in web applications using the Java ServletOnline Barcode Creator or the ASP Barcode Server for IIS. All characters except 0 to 9 and A to Z (and a to z) should be converted to their tilde equivalents after compression.

~091~041~062~03001~02996145070000~029840~029328~0291Z00005170
~029UPSN~029A790T3~03007~041EX8BEUTP~042~036W~036GHFX~041V
~0462MOPKGS~041~046XIQ~013UY~041F0~034A~028S~013~030~004

Once the data is properly encoded in the compressed format, the UPS barcode scanners and software will do the translating of the compressed data when reading the symbol. To further clarify: IDAutomation barcode products take the input data as-is and encode it directly in the barcode. Without the UPS encoded barcode scanners and software, generic market scanners will interpret the encoded data exactly as it appears in the barcode and renders it back to the application as such.