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Barcode Scanning

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It is possible to use a wireless barcode scanner attached to an iPad to enter data into an Airtable. I need to do an inventory of over 17,000 items and want to scan the barcode of each item into a table. It would be much faster if I could just scan the item - record is created - and it advances to create the next record. Much like you can do with a scanner an Excel. I know I could just use Excel and then import it into a table in my base but I was just curious. Using the camera to scan each barcode would not be and option due to time.

Thanks

Brian

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    1 person likes this
    • T
      Thijs_Van_Damme

    2 replies

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    • Moe
    • Inspiring
    • 368 replies
    • August 23, 2020

    We built a barcode scanner that works with your iPad’s camera. It automatically creates a new record with every barcode scan.

    ScottWorld
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    • ScottWorld
    • Brainy
    • 8805 replies
    • April 6, 2024

    In my personal opinion, the easiest & quickest & most inexpensive way to handle all of this would be to use a combination of:

    (1) Fillout's advanced forms for Airtable and (2) Make's automations & integrations.

    Fillout is an advanced form app for Airtable which offers over 100 advanced form features for Airtable.

    In your case, one of the best features of Fillout is that after a form is submitted, you can set it to AUTOMATICALLY & IMMEDIATELY REDIRECT to the EXACT SAME FORM with your cursor already blinking right in the field for barcode scanning.

    What this means is that you can quickly scan multiple pieces of equipment in a row with no delays at all.

    Check out the 1st screenshot below for how simple your form can be in Fillout. This is just a simple number field in Fillout.

    Note that the most important thing is that you will need to configure your barcode scanner to send the "Return" key after scanning a barcode.

    So, you would just go to Fillout on your desktop or mobile device, and SCAN SCAN SCAN!  😀

    Then, in Make, you would setup an automation that automatically runs whenever a form is submitted in Fillout. Make would then search for the scanned barcode number in Airtable, and then mark it off as inventoried in Airtable.

    Check out the 2nd screenshot below for how the automation could be setup in Make.

    If you’ve never used Make before, I’ve assembled a bunch of Make training resources in this thread.

    p.s. If you have a budget for your project and you’d like to hire an expert Airtable consultant to help you with any of this, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable consulting — ScottWorld

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