Barcoding for the Web

From...

May 29, 2000
Web posted at: 11:01 a.m. EDT (1501 GMT)

by Mark Gibbs

(IDG) -- Bar coding is big business. And for many businesses, bar coding is needed as a support for documents and services, so the extension of bar codes to the Web is a logical one.

E-Barz and e-Barz Pro from Unibar are general bar coding programs that have been extended to include bar codes in HTML documents so they can be viewed or printed locally.

The software can create bar codes using all of the major symbols, and it lets the user control all aspects of bar code layout, including density, resolution and checksums.

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The basic version generates bar codes in the 3 of 9 (Code 39), Extended 3 of 9 and Interleaved 2 of 5 symbologies. The Pro version adds Codabar, Code 128, EAN-8, EAN-13, EAN 128, Postnet, Plessey, UCC/EAN 128, UPC-E, UPC A, UPC VERS D, UPC-2 CHAR, UPC-5 CHAR and PDF417.

The software runs on a huge range of operating systems, including DEC Alpha, DG-UX, HP-UX, IBM AIX, Linux, NCR Unix, SCO, Solaris, Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows NT. It can be run from the command line, from an application or from a Common Gateway Interface (CGI) program.

For Windows 95 and 98, the product is not expensive, costing just $49 for e-Barz and $79 for e-Barz Pro. E-Barz for Web Servers starts at $895 for an annual server license, including maintenance and support on NT or Linux. Unix pricing begins at $1,495. Note that this information comes from a press release, and Unibar unfortunately makes it as hard as possible to get the pricing through the obvious route: its online price list. You have to fill out an order form, and then they get back to you. And the order form is hideous. Yuck.

Worse still, Unibar fails to include the Web server product on the online price list. While I'm at it, the Web site is ugly and badly architected - I would suggest that it hardly expresses Unibar's brand values.

Unibar also misses a great opportunity to be a source of expertise about bar coding. For example, it offers you options to generate different types of bar codes, but it doesn't tell you which can be used for what characters, and it tells you nothing about how and when each symbology should be used.

Here's a thought: Could Unibar offer its product as a service provided by the Web site for other Web servers, in a true application service provider model? The idea is intriguing, as it might well be easier to simply buy a service from Unibar than to acquire its software and implement it on your own Web server.

I have no idea whether that idea has - as they say down Sand Hill Road - legs, without developing a better understanding of the market. But I'd bet there is in fact an opportunity there. This is the kind of thinking you should be doing for your business, because your niche may be waiting for you. Or for your competition.

So, Unibar: Good product, good price, lousy Web site, lots of opportunity.

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