Are you looking for a simple app to scan package barcodes for your POD’s? Today we are going to learn how to create your own barcode scanning app using the powerful set of tools provided by Zoho. If you’re not familiar with Zoho, they provide an integrated suite of products to run your business, from CRM’s to marketing and custom app templates.

Step 1 – Sign up with Zoho

If you’re not already registered as a Zoho user, go ahead and sign up here. We’re going to start off with a free account: Zoho Creator.

Step 2 – Setup the Scanning App

Once registered, you can add the starter app to build your scanning app.

If you’d like access to our starter app in Zoho, fill out our request form.

You can get started by going to your Zoho Creator dashboard and clicking on “New Application”. From there, search for “Logistics Management” and click on “Install this Application”.

After a few moments, your new application will be installed!

Step 3 – Setup Barcode Scanning for your BOL’s

Here is the secret sauce to creating your barcode scanning app on top of the state-of-the-art solution provided by Zoho.

The following is the full list of scanning formats supported:

• AZTEC (Only in iOS)
• CODE_39
• CODE_93
• CODE_128
• CODE39MOD43 (Only in iOS)
• CODABAR (Only in Android)
• DATA MATRIX
• EAN_8
• EAN_13
• ITF_14
• INTERLEAVED 2 of 5 (Only in iOS)
• PDF_417
• QR CODE
• UPC_A (Only in Android)
• UPC_E
• RSS_14 (Only in Android)
• RSS_EXPANDED​ (Only in Android)

Within the app, click on “Edit this application” and then under the upper left-hand dropdown, select the Booking form (if you are following along with the Logistics app).

Select “Open Form Builder” to begin customizing your form including other fields you’d like to include with the scanned BOL fields such as Shipper and Consignee details.

In our case, the commodity or parcel details are contained in a subform which allows users to add multiple parcel rows as needed for the shipment. We will click on the “Shipment Details” field and then in the details, the “Booking Commodity Subform” link. From here, it will open the edit mode for the Booking Commodity Subform where we can select the specific fields we would like to capture via barcode scanning.

Once a field is selected, in the right-hand edit panel, check the “Barcode” option under the User Input (for mobile) section.

From here, you have a few further options:

1. Get input before the form is displayed – You can capture the scanned data before the rest of your form is shown to the user
2. Disable manual input – If you would like only scanning to be the input method and not allow manual entry into the field
3. Default camera – “Primary” or “Secondary” which refers to the primary or secondary camera on the user’s device which will be set as the default
4. Allow to switch camera – Allows a user to switch between Primary and Secondary cameras
5. Enable photo gallery – Allows a user to choose an image from their device’s photo gallery rather than using their camera to take a live picture
6. Set Preview Duration – Number of second for a scanned image preview to display before automatically exiting
7. Submit form after capturing – Allows the form to be automatically submitted and saved with the scanned data after the capture is complete instead of allowing user to continuing editing the rest of the form.

Step 4 – Deploy Your App

Zoho Creator allows you to quickly create and deploy web apps with ease.

Even further, it allows you to create native iOS and Android apps out of your web apps that your users can download!

There are two different variations of the native apps that need to be understood:

1. Use Zoho’s existing app to deploy your apps
   1. If you’d like to immediately make your app available to your users, you can simply have your users download the Zoho Creator App from their respective App Store.
   2. Your users who are defined in the Creator App Settings, will see the app displayed when they download and login to the Zoho Creator app.
2. Generate your own app and deploy in the App Store
   1. This is the method you can use if you are familiar with deploying your own apps in the App Store.
   2. We are not going to cover the details of this process in this guide, but you would need to follow iOS and Android guidelines for submitting apps to the app stores.

Once your app is accessed via a mobile device through the app, you users can click the icon displayed next to the field which supports barcode scanning to auto-populate with the scanned data.

Create as many fields as necessary to capture truck details, trailer details, parcels and more! Automate the process of capturing data to speed up and digitize your operations!

If you are using the starter app, disable all of the pages that you do not need so your users only have access to those that are necessary.

What Else Can You Do?

With Zoho, you have many options for integrating your business operations. Here are just a few we’ve implemented:

1. Build a full TMS to handle dispatching, settlements, billing, driver tracking and routing by customizing the out-of-the-box Zoho Creator modules.
2. Integrate with other systems to populate orders, drivers, trucks and routing maps.
3. Send email notifications when statuses change on your records.
4. Create charts and dashboards to quickly access your KPI’s.
5. Setup Zoho CRM for lead, sales and marketing.
6. Implement Zoho PageSense to see what your visitors do when they land on your website, including charts and heat maps.
7. Send out email marketing and track your response rates using Zoho MarketingHub and Zoho CRM.
8. See all of your analytics together and build dashboards using Zoho Analytics.

Need help? We are always available, send us a message!