Support zxing URI scheme [feature request]

[dlenski]

The no-longer-maintained ZXing Barcode Scanner app (com.google.zxing.client.android) supports a URI scheme that allows web apps to scan barcodes and retrieve the results…

As documented at https://github.com/zxing/zxing/wiki/Scanning-From-Web-Pages, these URIs look like the following:

• http://zxing.appspot.com/scan?ret=http%3A%2F%2Ffoo.com%2Fproducts%2F%7BCODE%7D%2Fdescription&SCAN_FORMATS=UPC_A,EAN_13
• zxing://scan?same_params

Basically, when one of these links is opened, an Android mobile browser will redirect to the app, scan a barcode, and then redirect back to the return UI specified, filling in query parameters like {RAWCODE} (the raw text of the barcoe) and {FORMAT} (e.g. QR).

I have used this facility in a couple of web apps I've written myself. (I'm also a contributor to the core ZXing library, and the maintainer of a Python wrapper for it.)

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tl;dr It would be really great if this much more modern barcode scanning app would handle the ZXing URI schemes, since this would allow web apps that rely on this mechanism to continue working.

[dlenski]

Here are where the intent filters for the ZXing URI schemes are defined in the ZXing Barcode Scanner app: https://github.com/zxing/zxing/blob/master/android/AndroidManifest.xml#L61-L88

And most of the implementation is in…

• parse the ret and SCAN_FORMATS parameters: https://github.com/zxing/zxing/blob/99e9b34f5afc21fdaeead283d5ed0bc1314cbec1/android/src/com/google/zxing/client/android/CaptureActivity.java#L237-L249
• substitute the placeholders into the ret URI: https://github.com/zxing/zxing/blob/99e9b34f5afc21fdaeead283d5ed0bc1314cbec1/android/src/com/google/zxing/client/android/ScanFromWebPageManager.java