The trick is to find the right Javascript library which provides the type of barcode you want to generate, or you could always write your own.
At a highlevel, the steps you need to do are:
1. Upload a JS Library (someJSLib.js) to your Static Resources in Salesforce.
2. Reference the JS Library in your Visualforce page by using the <apex:includeScript> tag.
3. Execute the Javascript functions to generate the barcode content and display in your page.
For this example, I am using a Barcode 39 Javascript library provided by http://www.codeproject.com/KB/HTML/Code-39-Barcode.aspx.
1. First I upload the JS Library to my Static Resources:
2. After I have uploaded the library, I embed the JS file in my VF Page using the <apex:includeScript> tag:
<apex:includeScript value="{!$Resource.BarcodeScript}"/>
3. I execute javascript in the Visualforce page to generate the barcode (Full VF Page Code):
<apex:page standardController="Position__c">
<apex:includeScript value="{!$Resource.BarcodeScript}"/>
<apex:detail relatedList="false"></apex:detail>
<br/>
<br/>
<div id="inputdata">{!Position__c.Name}</div>
<div id="externalbox" style="width:5in"></div>
<script type="text/javascript">
/* <![CDATA[ */
function get_object(id) {
alert('Executed');
var object = null;
if (document.layers) {
object = document.layers[id];
} else if (document.all) {
object = document.all[id];
} else if (document.getElementById) {
object = document.getElementById(id);
}
return object;
}
get_object("inputdata").innerHTML=DrawCode39Barcode(get_object("inputdata").innerHTML,1);
/* ]]> */
</script>
</apex:page>
4. When I view this page it will take the Name field from my Position__c object and encode it in the Barcode:
That's all it takes!
The only challenging part really is finding JS Libraries that are opensource and support your barcode format.
Here are some websites that have JS Libraries available:
EAN-13: http://www.parkscomputing.com/barcode.html
Barcode 39: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/HTML/Code-39-Barcode.aspx
Barcode 39: http://www.atalasoft.com/cs/blogs/loufranco/archive/2008/04/25/writing-code-39-barcodes-with-javascript.aspx
