Barcode showing TEC-IT Logo

Simon1 · 08-10-2021 08:41 AM

We use the tec-it url to create barcode images in apps
e.g. https://barcode.tec-it.com/barcode.ashx?data=1133950

We’re getting a few instances of the barcode not showing and the TEC-IT logo showing instead

this logo shows on multiple devices, syncing doesn’t sort it.

When I click the link from the google sheet where the data is the link creates the barcode image.

Does anyone know what may be happening?

Thanks

Koichi_Tsuji

if Bar code is not MUST, why dont you use QR code instead?

Free and reliable service to get QR is here.

https://quickchart.io/documentation/#qr

If this is not a question and answer you are looking for, I aplogize.

Simon1

Thanks. I might look at this if we can’t sort this error.
It may also be useful in future, so good to know about.
We may generate too many for the free service (1 per second) as we have multiple apps generating barcodes all the time. I can’t quite work it out

Simon1

I tried this. It works well, but I forgot that it needs to be a barcode as they are scanning onto a computer with a barcode scanner that doesn’t recognise QR codes.
But it’s useful to know about for future uses.
Thanks

Marc_Dillon

Do you have the links in a Virtual Column?

I’ve seen this before, and I believe what causes it is that the tec-it server is receiving too many requests in too short of a time. If you have the links in Virtual Columns, that means your app is trying to re-load all of your images at once upon every sync. I’d advise you to keep the links in real columns so that they load far less often, and only one at a time. Even better is if you can download each image to your GDrive and directly reference the file.

Simon1

The links in the app in the image are a real column.
That app is synced after each barcode is created, so does that mean it requests every barcode each time it is synced, or does Appsheet store the image?

Some other apps use virtual columns for the barcodes.
These only show in the detail or form view.
Is that the point it requests the barcode? It seems to be as they load when the view is opened.

The barcodes are created when they select the order.
Is there a way to download them to GDrive at that point? And then I guess I’d need to change the reference from the tec-it link which creates the image, to the GDrive location.

Thanks for your help

Marc_Dillon

I was on the wrong track a little on my last post. The real vs virtual simply affects the creation of the URL value that is stored in the column. I’m not sure when the request to tec-it happens to load the images. But it is either:

When the app first loads.
When the user navigates to the view.

Appsheet will also try to cache the image at some points, which is why the tec-it image might stick around for a bit.

Then there is this option to play with:

Your example screenshot above is neither a Detail or Form though.

I’ve used a Google Apps Script to download the images and store them on GDrive, as well as update a cell in the sheet to reflect the new relative path.

Simon1

Store for offline use is turned off in the app.
But maybe appsheet is still caching the images, which would make sense why the logo sticks around.
Maybe I’ll make the app in the screenshot store images, then it won’t request them every time it’s synced (if it does now)

The virtual columns are in detail or form views.
The screenshot is from the app that has the links in a real column.

It seems to have been working ok today, maybe they were getting lots of requests from somewhere else that affected our requests.
I’ll keep an eye on it to see what happens.

Thanks for your help

Simon1

I’ve found an alternative barcode generator

So I’ll test this and see how stable it is.