Just a quick post after going through "Knack cook book" about how generate a simple numeric bar code. Here is how I generate automatically complexe/alphanumeric barcodes without touching CSS just playing with fields:
1.I have in my DB a field for Article number :
in the example : 1A2B2C3DZZZ854
2. Find out a free barcode online generator.
in the following example http://www.barcodesinc.com/generator/index.php
I guess the following will also be possible with other services.
3. Set the wished format in the bar code generator.
Enter the code value and set the typeof barcode .
in this example, I set the type of barcode as 128B and "draw value text" and height 55 width 250 in the advanced options.
4. Click on the generated barcode and check the URL
it will display the png file url with the following structure : http://www.barcodesinc.com/generator/image.php?code=1A2B2C3DZZZ854&style=196&type=C128B&width=250&height=55&xres=1&font=3
5. Create a short text field "Barcode url 1" with default value :
http://www.barcodesinc.com/generator/image.php?code=
6. Create 1 short text field "Barcode url 2" with default value :
&style=196&type=C128B&width=232&height=55&xres=1&font=3
7. Create a text combo field "Barcode url"
"Barcode url 1" "Article code" "Barcode url 2"
8. Create an image field "Barcode"
option "load images from an external url"
and create a conditional rule : set "to a record value" : "Barcode url"
Using this trick, your data base will generate automatically a complex bar code on every form submission.
Enjoy.