The purpose of this project is to provide a barcode scanner utilizing the Google ML Kit Vision library for the Cordova framework on iOS and Android. The MLKit library is incredibly performant and fast in comparison to any other barcode reader that I have used that are free.

If your cordova-android version is below 9.0.0, you have to install cordova-plugin-androidx first before installing this plugin. Execute this command in your terminal:

npx cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-androidx

Run this command in your project root:

npx cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-mlkit-barcode-scanner

• Android
• iOS/iPadOS

ℹ️ Note that this API does not recognize barcodes in these forms:

• 1D Barcodes with only one character
• Barcodes in ITF format with fewer than six characters
• Barcodes encoded with FNC2, FNC3 or FNC4
• QR codes generated in the ECI mode

To use the plugin simply call cordova.plugins.mlkit.barcodeScanner.scan(options, sucessCallback, failureCallback). See the sample below.

cordova.plugins.mlkit.barcodeScanner.scan(
  options,
  (result) => {
    // Do something with the data
    alert(result);
  },
  (error) => {
    // Error handling
  },
);

The default options are shown below. All values are optional.

Note that the detectorSize value must be between 0 and 1, because it determines how many percent of the screen should be covered by the detector. If the value is greater than 1 the detector will not be visible on the screen.

const defaultOptions = {
  barcodeFormats: {
    Code128: true,
    Code39: true,
    Code93: true,
    CodaBar: true,
    DataMatrix: true,
    EAN13: true,
    EAN8: true,
    ITF: true,
    QRCode: true,
    UPCA: true,
    UPCE: true,
    PDF417: true,
    Aztec: true,
  },
  beepOnSuccess: false,
  vibrateOnSuccess: false,
  detectorSize: 0.6,
  rotateCamera: false,
};

result: {
  text: string;
  format: string;
  type: string;
}

On some devices the camera may be upside down.

Here is a list of devices with this problem:

• Zebra MC330K (Manufacturer: Zebra Technologies, Model: MC33)

Current Solution: if your device has this problem, you can call the plugin with the option rotateCamera set to true. This will rotate the camera stream by 180 degrees.

This project uses npm scripts for building:

# lint the project using eslint
npm run lint

# removes the generated folders
npm run clean

# build the project
# (includes clean and lint)
npm run build

# publish the project
# (includes build)
npm publish

A VS Code task for build is also included.

Install cordova:

npm i -g cordova

Go to test app:

cd test/scan-test-app

Install node modules:

npm i

Prepare Cordova:

cordova prepare && cordova plugin add ../../ --link --force

Build and run the project Android:

cordova build android && cordova run android

and iOS:

cordova build ios && cordova run ios

⚠️ Before incrementing the version in package.json, remember to increment the version in plugin.xml by hand.

This project is intended to be used with Visual Studio Code and the recommended extensions can be found in .vscode/extensions.json. When you open this repository for the first time in Visual Studio Code you should get a prompt asking you to install the recommended extensions.