Redlaser and Zxing issue won't scan

I am working on a phone app and U would like to use Zxing for my project. However, I know that alot of people are crazy about Redlaser so I had decided to try it out. When I went to the mall I had noticed that the scanner does not even read the UPC for Stores like Forever 21, H&M or Tilly's! This is a huge problem for me because these are very popular stores in Southern California! I tried it at hot topic, but at least there it would read the barcode and return zero results, but at these other stores it was nothing. If Redlaser can开发者_如何学Go not even read the barcode at those stores, then I will make the assumption that Zxing definitely will not even attempt to read it either. Is there anyway to fix this? I know one issue is that those stores are not in the google shopping Api database, but if I added them to my datafeeds database Api would they still be unreadable? I'm really hoping for a soliton.

---

You're mixing up two things here: scanning and providing additional information. Both RedLaser and ZXing should be able to scan all UPC and EAN barcodes and come up with the scanned number. When it comes to providing additional information, neither the RedLaser SDK (as opposed to the RedLaser app) nor the ZXing library provide any additional information. That's up to you to implement.

If you weren't even able to scan the product's barcode in a store, it could also mean that the company uses a non-standard barcode format with company private barcode numbers. Even if you could scan these barcodes, it's very unlikely that there is any any service to get additional information for these private numbers. It also indicates that these products are probably sold by single company only. But most products today have a EAN/UPC/GS1 barcode with a unique barcode number.

Update:

If the product has a UPC/EAN barcode, you can scan it and get an (almost) unique product number. This is the kind of barcode all cash desk support. And the UPC/EAN/GS1 number is the product number support by almost all providers of product information.

If it's a Code 39, Code 128, ITF barcode (or few additional formats depending on the barcode scanner library), you can scan it as well and get a number or string. However, it's interpretation might differnt from shop to shop.

If it's yet another barcode symbology, you cannot even scan it with the barcode library.

Furthermore, many products have several barcodes with different purposes: one might indeed be a sort of product number but the other ones might be something that of no use for you even if you could decode it (such as the serial number of an electronic device).

---

I am guessing that you are not looking at a UPC/EAN product code, but most likely a Code 39 barcode that encodes some store-specific identifier.

ZXing definitely reads Code 39. Try it with Barcode Scanner. RedLaser might not since it is focused on UPC/EAN, though it's based on the same library.

But, even though you can read the contents, I doubt you will be able to do much with it. It is likely a number that doesn't mean anything outside the store's systems.