This document introduces the basics of using barcodes in XtraReports, describes the main properties required to create barcodes of different types, and error messages one may encounter while working with barcodes.

To learn more about every barcode type, refer to the corresponding topic in this section.
Also, see the Report Controls document, for more information on using report controls.

A barcode control in XtraReports is represented by the XRBarCode class instance. To insert a barcode into a report, simply drag an XRBarCode control item from the DX.11.2: Report Controls Toolbox tab and drop it onto the report.

After a barcode is added to the report, it's necessary to adjust the basic properties of the barcode, and to specify its symbology type, text and appearance.

• There are a lot of standard barcode types supported by the XRBarCode class. To specify the barcode's type you should set the XRBarCode.Symbology property to an appropriate descendant of the BarCodeGeneratorBase class (e.g. CodabarGenerator). Then, the XRBarCode.Symbology property will return an object that corresponds to a particular barcode's symbology type, and contains all the properties required by this type.
• Then, specify properties which are specific to this type of barcode. These properties are represented by the corresponding descendants of the BarCodeGeneratorBase class returned by the barcode's XRBarCode.Symbology property. For instance, for the Industrial 2 of 5 barcode you may need to change the values of its CalcCheckSum and WideNarrowRatio properties.
• Also, a barcode may contain text that is shown within the barcode. This text is specified via the XRControl.Text property of a barcode. Note that whether to show the text or not is specified by the XRBarCode.ShowText property value.
• You may adjust barcode appearance settings. Use the XRBarCode.Module property to specify the width of bars within a barcode, or set the XRBarCode.AutoModule property to true to automatically calculate the bar width according to a barcode's size. Also, use the XRBarCode.PaddingInfo property to specify indent values of barcode bars within the XRBarCode control, and the XRBarCode.BarCodeOrientation property to specify how the barcode's bars and text are rotated.

The image below demonstrates properties required for a barcode object.

Note
Note that you can bind a barcode to data. It's possible to bind either the XRControl.Text or the XRControl.Tag property of a barcode. See the Standard Data Binding document, to learn more on how this is done.

When adjusting a barcode, either at design time or at runtime, some errors may occur due to incorrect parameters specified for a barcode's properties. For instance, the following error may occur:

• If a barcode control is too small to represent the specified barcode type, the following error message will be shown in place of the barcode. You may set the XRBarCode.AutoModule property to true to avoid this error.

  

• If the barcode's text contains any characters that are not allowed by this barcode type, then the following exception will be shown.