Goals:
Please click the [ Mark Complete ] button at the bottom of this page when you’ve achieved the following goals:
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Be able to
- Explain to a customer what the Zebra PWA Scanning App is.
- State 4 general benefits of Progressive Web Apps that apply to the Zebra PWA Scanning App.
- Demonstrate how to set up the Zebra PWA Scanning App on a smartphone.
- Demonstrate how to use the Zebra PWA Scanning App on a smartphone.
What is a Progressive Web App?
A Progressive Web App is sofware that can function directly from a web page, without need for installation as an App.
Advantages of PWAs that improve our Zebra product:
- Suitable for mobile devices without any installation – users don’t need to download or install from repositories like Google Apps or Apple Store.
- Behave like native Apps.
- Cheap to develop, promote, demonstrate and maintain.
- Better integration with hardware.
- Because all of the functionality is in a cached web page, there is reduced load on the server.
- They can run off;line from saved web pages (but of course we need online access to fetch data from barcodesdatabase.org)
Click a hyperlink to jump to that point in the Youtube video:
134 – Zebra PWA (Progressive Web App) Scanning App
This replaces the Zebra Barcode Scanner
PWAs are web pages that function as Apps and thereby bypass the “Stores” like Google App Store and the Apple Store
This is good for FREE Apps – example Windguru
Online PWA based on barcodesdatabase.org
One of the problems with our initial Zebra Barcode Scanner was that it was developed by a freelance Developer, and we have no way to update it. One of the biggest updates we need is the ability to scan our barcodes with their leading “0” and show them as EAN-13. Our new PWA can scan 06 and 07 barcodes and return them as EAN-13s
You can find the new functionality at zebra.barcodesdatabase.org. This sort-of works on a desktop PC, with some webcams only
On a phone you can open this URL, switch between back or front phone camera (if you have both), then press START SCANNING. You should then see a Result page with details drawn from barcodesdatabase.org.
The barcode number at the top is a clickable link, and it functions correctly to show the leading “0” as belonging to EAN-13
The way to get tthe App on your phone varies, example – Android – setting up the clickable icon on your phone – this simply opens the web page to run the PWA on your phone
The app is initially only in English