FAQ: TBarCode/SAPwin - SAP Barcode DLL

TEC-IT offers four different solutions for bar code generation in SAP. Each solution has its special advantages and characteristics.

TBarCode/Direct

If your company mainly uses PostScript^® compatible printers, then TBarCode/Direct is the best solution. No middleware, central installation, all printers (with PostScript).

TBarCode/SAPwin

This Barcode DLL is recommended for Microsoft^® Windows environments in which you can print centrally via a print server with SAPsprint (spooling software of SAP) or on the SAPGUI client directly. Any printer using Windows drivers can be connected.

TBarCode/X

TBarCode/X is an all-round barcode software solution for UNIX^®, Linux^® and Mac OS X^® environments. TBarCode/X can be installed into the spool system of a print server (or on the SAP server itself). Suitable for PCL and PostScript^® printers.

TBarCode/Embedded

If you plan the purchase of a network spool server, the combination of an SEH Print Spool Appliance and TBarCode/Embedded is the appropriate solution. Suitable for PCL and PostScript^® printers.

You must use at least one of the Spool Transfer Programs SAPsprint or SAPlpd - or the SAPGUI (Windows) Client.

Using SAPsprint

• Install TBarCode/SAPwin in the SAPsprint installation folder.

Using SAPGUI

• Using Windows Client (local printing), install TBarCode/SAPwin on the SAPGUI directory (method G) or into the SAPGUI SAPlpd directory.

Configuring SAP

• Copy the device type SWIN to ZSWIN.
• In SPAD, add a new printer or modify an existing printer (e.g. your local printer), use ZSWIN as device type. The host spool method can be G (GUI), F (Frontend/SAPlpd) or S (Server/SAPsprint).
• Print the test document SAPSCRIPT-BARCODETEST available on client 00. You should see bar codes on the print-out by then.

More Information:

• Printing through SAPGUI: Defining an Output Device for Front-End Printing
• Printing through SAPsprint: Setting Up Remote Printing for Microsoft Windows PCs

For detailed TBarCode/SAPwin installation instructions read the TBarCode/SAPwin Manual.

Here are the steps to insert a Data Matrix bar code into your SAP system.

Precautions

• Make sure you have a copy of a SAPWIN based device type (e.g. copy device type SWIN to ZSWIN – see our manual 6 Create a Device Type Copy).
• Assign this device type to a printer – see manual 7 Assign the Device Type to a Printer.
• You can test your TBarCode/SAPwin installation by printing the SAPSCRIPT- BARCODETEST (client 00) - see our manual 9 Test Barcode Printing.. If this SAPscript document does not exist you can request it from our support.

Add Data Matrix System Bar Code

• Use Transaction SE73 – System Bar codes (see manual 12.2.1 New System Barcode). Add a new system bar code (name space Z... e.g. name = ZDATMAT) with traditional bar code technology.

Define Data Matrix Printer Barcode

• Enter Transaction SE73 – Printer bar codes. Follow the steps in the manual section "8 Define Printer Barcodes".
• Select ZDATMAT and add a new prefix for it (e.g. SBP90), as for the suffix you can use the existing suffix SBS01.

• Edit the prefix (SBP90) and enter the control sequence: bC=DMX,M=508,D=

  Make sure that the prefix Variant is set to 5, you can change that in transaction SPAD. The Printcontrol must be marked Extended (see manual 21.4.4 Wrong Variant of Print-Control Prefix.)

Add Data Matrix Character Format (Style)

There are multiple ways to insert a barcode into your form (see manual 11 Using Barcodes in SAP). If you decided to use a bar code character format (preferred way), you have to add ZDATMAT as new available character format to your style.

• Edit the style you have assigned to your form and add ZDATMAT as new barcode character format.
• Use transaction SE72 for editing SAPscript styles.
• Use transaction SmartStyles for editing SmartForm styles (see manual 11.2.2)

More Printcontrols

• DP Premium Address 22x22 Data Matrix

  bC=DMX,M=423,DMB=1,DMS=7,E=1,D=

• GS1 Data Matrix

  bC=DMX,M=508,DMF=1,D=

The following issues may be caused by parallel job processing (multi-threading) in SAPsprint.

Wrong Printing Order

Fix: Turn off print job based multi-threading with the following command line:

sapsprint -oi ProcessingMode 1

* This parameter is supported in SAPsprint 1015.

For problems with printing sequence caused by multi-threading read SAP Note 1054561.

No Bar Codes after Heavy Traffic

Some users are printing at the same time large print jobs via SAPsprint. After the end of a such a print job containing bar codes, the bar codes on subsequent print jobs are missing.

• This may be caused by multi-threading. See previous solution Wrong Printing Order

Some bar codes are licensed, some bar codes have demo text

• Use the latest version of TBarCode/SAPwin
• Check if you have multiple versions of the barcode.dll and/or barcode.ini file in your system. You should use only one version. Make sure that the license key is the same in all barcode.ini files.
• This may be caused by multi-threading. See previous solution Wrong Printing Order....

OSS Note 1069483 -"Error: CreateDCW failed: The operation completed successfully".

This error is caused by a third party print monitor (coming with Windows printer driver installation).

The following options in SAPsprint Version 1018 and later can deal with the CreateDCW error:

• The service restarts automatically once the CreateDCW is one of the first calls to the printer driver. If this fails, you will not be able to print. With the Windows printer driver, the Windows spooler can create the final print job and then use the print monitor to transmit the print job to the printer.CreateDCW problem occurs. You can prevent auto-restart by setting the parameter values to 1.

          Key: IgnoreDCError
          Default: 0
          Other values: 1
  

• The SAPSprint service restarts automatically after a specified number of print jobs. This mainly reduces the occurrence of the CreateDCW problem described in Note 1069483. If the value is set to 0 (default), this service will not restart.

          Key: RestartAfterJobs
          Default: 0
          Other values: any number
  

For printing problems, Microsoft recommends the procedure that is described at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/260142/EN-US/

Or try to update or downgrade the printer driver / printer port software. Not always newer versions give better results - sometimes elder drivers are more stable. A printer with PCL emulation can usually use a standard HP Laserjet 4 PCL-5 driver as well. It is also possible to use a standard Adobe driver for PostScript emulation. Often the so called "universal drivers" create more problems as the printer specific driver.

This behavior is most often caused by the Windows printer driver.

• Get the latest version of TBarCode/SAPwin.
• Change the drawing method in the barcode.ini file:

   [DRAW_MODE]
   UseGDIRect=1
  

  When using SAPlpd, make a restart.

You can also try the following:

• Print bar-codes without human readable text: Set A=0 in the print control Prefix of your printer barcode (edit it with TA SE73).
• Change the printing direction: set direction=1 in the barcode.ini file.
• Such problems may also be caused by multi-threading. See previous solution.

Position may be:

• relative (no X/Y parameters specified in Printcontrol) or
• absolute (X/Y parameters specified in Printcontrol)

Additionally you can change the printing direction to print the barcode from base line upwards - see parameter Direction in the barcode.ini file:

Direction=1

If you print the barcode always to the same position you can specify X and/or Y parameters in the Printcontrol.

• Set the target coordinates with the parameters X=[mm],Y=[mm] in the Printcontrol prefix:

  bC=39,X=100,Y=50,B=50,H=20,D=

  The print control prefix can be modified in transaction SE73 (printer bar codes). Click the prefix, and then the button Maintain PrintControl. After that, a window will be displayed allowing you to change the character sequence.

If the barcode is printed on a relative position (inline) you can use the Shift parameter in the Barcode.ini file to fine-tune the bar codes Y position. The shift parameter was introduced to overwhelm printer driver problems or to make relative positioning compatible with other solutions (e.g. hardware barcode printer extensions).

• In the Barcode.ini you have to set the Direction parameter to 1, after that you can adjust the vertical bar code position via the Shift parameter, wherein a negative value is also allowed.

  [SETTINGS]
  Direction=1
  Shift=1
  

By default the Barcode DLL uses the font settings from SAPsprint or SAPGUI (in most cases equivalent to the font used in previous text output before the bar code). If you want to specify the font of the human readable text to be different you have the following possibilities.

Print Control

The font for a specific bar code type (printer bar code) can be adjusted individually via Print Control parameters.

• FN=Font Name
• FS=Font Size [pt]
• FW=Font weight [N.. normal | B .. Bold]

Example (adjust 10 pt Arial):

bC=39,M=254,H=16,FN=Arial,FS=10,D=

The print control prefix can be modified in transaction SE73 (printer bar codes). Click the prefix, and then the button Maintain PrintControl. After that, a window will be displayed allowing you to change the character sequence.

Barcode.ini

• In the Barcode.ini file you can adjust the bar code font for all bar code types (as a global setting) with the following parameters:

  [SETTINGS]
  DefFontName=Courier New
  DefFontSize=8
  DefFontWeight=bold
  

  Remove the “;” in front of the parameters to activate them.
• If you need a different font for your EAN and UPC bar codes, you can use the separate EAN_UPC parameter group in Barcode.ini:

  [EAN_UPC]
  FontName=Courier New
  FontSize=10
  FontWeight=bold
  

The bar code module width parameter influences the reading quality of the bar code.

Example: 200 dpi printer

If the printer prints with 200 dpi, set the module width so that it corresponds exactly with an integer multiple of the width of one or more printer pixels. For example, use 1 pixel (which is equivalent to 0.127mm in this case) for 200 dpi.

According to most symbology specifications, a module width below 0.19 mm should be avoided. In such a case, at least 2 printer pixels should be set for bar codes to achieve a module width of 0.254 mm.

If the module width is too small, the bar code width is also too small. Use the following settings:

        3 x 0.127mms = 0.381mms
        4 x 0.127mms = 0.508mms

Conversion table for millimeters to inch:

        0.127 mms  =  0.005 inch (to small)
        0.19  mms  =  0.007 inch (minimum m.w.)
        0.254 mms  =  0.010 inch (2 printer pixel)
        0.381 mms  =  0.015 inch (3 printer pixel)
        0.508 mms  =  0.020 inch (4 printer pixel)

Set the module width based on the above values to avoid resolution errors. If errors still occur (because of minor rounding errors), try using 0.509 instead of 0.508.

You can also use Barcode Studio with the Quality Watch feature to detect printing tolerances and find out the optimal module width value.

You may encounter bar code quality problems when printing to a thermal transfer printer with 203 dpi

Adjusting the module width to the printer resolution is the standard solution for such problems. But with 203 dpi printers we have one particularity shown by the following example.

Three printer dots at 203 dpi correspond to 0,3753694581 mm. But the module width in the print control can be adjusted to 0.375 mm only (no more fractional digits can be specified). This approach leads to an aberration of 0.000369 mm per bar/space module in the symbol. This sounds like a very small error, but the errors add up and lead to an aberration of one or more printer dots when printing wider bar codes.

Solution

With the OptResolution flag the module width can be reduced to the next full pixel boundaries thus reducing the printing tolerance to a minimum.

• Edit the barcode.ini configuration file and adjust:

  [SETTINGS]
  ...
  DefOptResolution=1
  

• Adjust the module width in the Printcontrol slightly above three Pixels: M=376.

This way the Barcode DLL will calculate a "fallback" module width of 0,3753694581 mm (according to 203 dpi) thus avoiding the aberration mentioned above.

• Use system barcode BC_EANH or a user specific type ZBC_EANH
• Make sure that you configured the EAN-128 bar code format in your print control Prefix as follows:

  C=E128,...
  

• Adjust a placeholder for the FNC1 with the print control parameter %=. Use a placeholder, which is normally not used in AIs - e.g. the exclamation mark %=! or the plus sign %=+
• Then encode the FNC1 using the placeholder (e.g. the exclamation mark):

  21 + serial number + ! + 11 + production date.
  

  If the serial number is 1234 and the production date is 010108, the encoded bar code data should be as follows:

  211234   FNC1   11010108
  

• Check if everything works by scanning the bar code with a reader. You can also send your bar code (image scan or PDF) to TEC-IT Support for validation.

The setup for TBarCode/SAPwin is based on MSI where we have a "quiet" option available. Call the MSI package with the following command line parameters:

Declaration of parameters:

/i  .............................indicates which package is to be installed
INSTALLDIR  .........sets the installation directory
ADDLOCAL  ...........indicates which features are installed (ADDLOCAL=FeatBin   
                                 installs only the Barcode DLL without user manual)
/qn  .........................quiet Installation (No Dialogs)

You can suppress the feedback page during uninstall with the NO_UI property set to 0.

More supported parameters are listed here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc759262.aspx

There is a difference between printing and PDF generation in SAP:

Printing

The barcode is generated during the spooling process to the printer. The print job is routed through SAPGUI, SAPlpd or SAPsprint and these programs call our Barcode DLL for barcode insertion.

PDF from SAP

With PDF it is different - the SAP PDF Generator generates the PDF completely on the server and here we have no possibility to insert the bar code. SAP PDF inserts no barcode, only a text note.

Combination Printing + PDF

The only solution for generating PDF documents with real visible bar codes is a Windows PDF printer software. You print to this printer like a normal printer but the driver of this software generates a PDF instead of a print out.

PDF Printer software is available from several vendors. You should select a tool, which allows server operation and is not dialog based (= generates PDF document names and stores PDF files automatically).

Adjusting a sufficient image output resolution (600 dpi) in the PDF driver is important to get readable barcodes.

Are you using SAPSprint in combination with Windows printer drivers? Please enable SAPSprint debugging as follows (on the command line):

sapsprint -oi LogLevel 5

Normally the processing time is not expended in SAPSprint itself, but in the Windows printer drivers. Some use up a LOT of processing time.

• Does phase 33 take too long?
• Does the printer carry out an emulation and are frames or colors printed?
• There are printers which provide a complete functional emulation of HP LaserJet, but are very slow in executing certain functions.

After installing TBarCode/SAPwin into the SAPsprint directory, the service cannot be restarted. In the Event log the following message is displayed:

The SAPSprint service failed to start due to the following error: The service did not respond to the 
start or control request in a timely fashion. 

Cause:

This issue only occurs with a special SAPsprint version and is due to a SAPsprint program error when loading the Barcode DLL:

• sapsprint.exe Version 1.0.2.6
• sapwin.dll Version 1.0.3.1

Solution:

• Install the latest SAPsprint patch: xSPrint_1_10008892 (7200.1.2.9 or higher).
• Please make sure that you use TBarCode/SAPwin with version 6.0.3 / 9.0.1 (or higher).