Getting Started Developing

Just Need a JAR?

If you just need a pre-built JAR file, you can always find compiled resources from the Maven release repository, including recent snapshot/nightly builds.

Download

Download the latest distribution, version 2.3.0 or later. Or, retrieve the latest source code from Github.

The code is organized into several subdirectories, corresponding to modules, like core/ and javase/. Within each Java-based module, there is a pom.xml file for use with Apache Maven.

Configure

A few configuration steps are needed, depending on which modules you want to build. From the directory where you unpacked or checked out the source code:

android/

android update project --path android

or

echo "sdk.dir=/change/this/path/to/android-sdk" > android/local.properties

The Android SDK must be installed of course. Run the tool called android and ensure that platform support for the latest Android release is installed. At the time of this writing, that's platform level 19 / Android 4.4.

Build

android/

1. Build core/ below, first
2. Run ant debug from android/ to build the Barcode Scanner application as bin/Barcode Scanner-debug.apk.

android-integration/

From android-integration/, run mvn -Dgpg.skip=true install to produce compiled libraries like android-integration-x.y.z.jar in the target/ directory.

core/

From core/, run mvn -DskipTests -Dgpg.skip=true install to product compiled libraries like core-x.y.z.jar in the target/ directory.

To run tests, first download the test images in core/src/test/resources. These are available separately. Then run mvn test.

javase/

From javase/, run mvn -Dgpg.skip=true install to product compiled libraries like javase-x.y.z.jar in the target/ directory.

zxingorg/

From zxingorg/, run mvn -Dgpg.skip=true package to product compiled libraries like w.war in the target/ directory.

Run

Most components are libraries and are not run directly.

android/

1. Build android/
2. Connect your device via USB
3. If you already have the standard version of Barcode Scanner installed, uninstall it
4. Make sure your device is set to allow apps from untrusted sources
5. Run ant installd to install the debug build

javase/

After building, simply run this class with java from the top-level directory:

java -cp javase/target/javase-x.y.z.jar:core/target/core-x.y.z.jar com.google.zxing.client.j2se.CommandLineRunner [URL | FILE]

Path syntax is different on Windows. Here and elsewhere you will need to use ';' rather than ':' to separate classpath elements, and likely need to use the '' path separator.

Maven

core/, javase/, android-integration and zxingorg can be used directly in a Maven-based project without any download or installation. Instead, add as dependencies from groupID com.google.zxing artifactIDs core, javase, android-integration or zxingorg:

<dependencies>
  ...
  <dependency>
    <groupId>com.google.zxing</groupId>
    <artifactId>core</artifactId>
    <version>2.3.0</version>
  </dependency>
</dependencies>