Australia Post 4-state barcode

This is a minimalistic library written in golang that generates the 4-state barcode used by Australia Post

Live Demo

Click here to try the 4-state barcode generation online

Why

The main reason I've written this library is because couldn't find anything that would satisfy the following criterias:

• a small binary that can be run from a lambda function.
• simple to understand code with the minimum functionality and configuration options
• generates barcode as SVG file

4-state-barcode library does only one thing — generates a 4 state barcode as SVG file.

Additionally, it allows to pass an optional text and change a few configuration options. The guidelines how to generate 4 state barcode required by Australia Post are taken from customer-barcode-technical-specifications-aug2012.pdf file.

Usage

The library can used in 3 different ways.

As code

$ go get -u github.com/b-b3rn4rd/australia-post-barcode

package main

import (
    "os"
    "github.com/b-b3rn4rd/4-state-barcode/src/australiapost"
)

func main()  {
    file, _ := os.Create("barcode.svg")
    generator := australiapost.NewFourStateBarcode("5956439111ABA 9", file, "hello world")
        
    err := generator.Generate()
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    } 
}

There are several optional configuration functions available:

• OptionPadding(padding int) Option
• OptionLogger(logger Logger) Option
• OptionRatio(ratio int) Option
• OptionFontSize(fontSize int) Option
• OptionBackgroundColor(color string) Option
• OptionFontColor(color string) Option
• OptionalEncoder(encoder Encoder) Option
• OptionBarWidth(width int) Option

The following example generates barcode's content into a variable

package main

import (
    "os"
    "bytes"
    "fmt"
    "github.com/b-b3rn4rd/4-state-barcode/src/australiapost"
)

func main()  {
    b := bytes.Buffer{}
    
    generator := australiapost.NewFourStateBarcode("5956439111ABA 9", &b, "hello world", 
    	australiapost.OptionPadding(10),
        australiapost.OptionBackgroundColor("blue"),
        australiapost.OptionFontSize(12),
    )
        
    err := generator.Generate()
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }
    
    s := b.String()
    
    fmt.Println(s)
}

As CLI

Download the latest release and run a suitable executable file

$ 4-state-barcode --help
Australia Post 4 state barcode generator
Generates a SVG image containing barcode with an optional additional text
Example: 
4-state-barcode -b "5956439111ABA 9" -f barcode.svg

Usage:
  4-state-barcode [flags]

Flags:
  -b, --barcode string    Barcode value
  -f, --filename string   Output filename
  -h, --help              help for 4-state-barcode
  -t, --text string       Optional barcode text
      --version           version for 4-state-barcode

Using Docker Image

$ docker run \
    -v /tmp/barcode:/tmp/barcode \
    -it \
    --rm bernard/4-state-barcode:latest \
    --barcode "6256439111HELLO" \
    --filename /tmp/barcode/barcode.svg

$ cat /tmp/barcode/barcode.svg
  <?xml version="1.0"?>
  <!-- Generated by SVGo -->
  .....

Barcode generation using HTTP server

The lambda directory contains AWS CloudFormation and Lambda function's handler to generate 4-state barcodes using HTTP protocol.

AWS Provisioning

In order to deploy the required infrastructure ensure that you have the correct credentials assumed and run the provided Makefile.

$ S3_BUCKET_NAME=<EXISTING_S3_BUCKET_NAME> make deploy

API calls example

The following HTTP request will generate barcode with barcode value of 5956439111ABA 9 and optional text Hello World and save it as svg file. Notice that by default API endpoint base64 encodes barcode content, hence we are using base64 --decode before saving the response.

$ curl -s "https://<API_ENDPOINT_ID>.execute-api.<AWS_REGION>.amazonaws.com/prod?barcode=5956439111ABA%209&text=Hello%20World" | base64 --decode > barcode.svg