How to Make Python Barcode Extension on Linux

• Download source code

Probably you have read the article – Wrapping C/C++ Methods of Dynamsoft Barcode SDK for Python, which illustrates how to make Python extension on Windows. In this post, I’ll share how to make Python barcode extension on Ubuntu with Dynamsoft Barcode SDK for Linux.

Getting Started

Three Steps to Build Python Extension

Referring to the tutorial – Python Programming/Extending with C, you just need three steps to build a simple Python extension:

1. Create a C source file:
   C++

   #include <Python.h>
   
   static PyObject*
   show(PyObject* self, PyObject* args)
   {
       const char* content;
   
       if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "s", &content))
           return NULL;
   
       printf("%s!\n", content);
   
       Py_RETURN_NONE;
   }
   
   static PyMethodDef Methods[] =
   {
        {"show", show, METH_VARARGS, "Print input"},
        {NULL, NULL, 0, NULL}
   };
   
   PyMODINIT_FUNC
   inithelloworld(void)
   {
        (void) Py_InitModule("helloworld", Methods);
   }

2. Create a Python file:
   Python

   from distutils.core import setup, Extension
   
   module_helloworld = Extension('helloworld', sources = ['helloworld.c'])
   
   setup (name = 'Dynamsoft',
           version = '1.0',
           description = 'First module',
           ext_modules = [module_helloworld])

3. Make the extension with the following command:

   python setup.py build

The module helloworld.so is generated under build/lib.linux-<version>. Change to the subdirectory and create a Python script:

from helloworld import *
show("My first Python module")

Run the script as follows:

$python test.py
My first Python module!

Wrapping C/C++ SDK for Python

Download Dynamsoft Barcode Reader for Linux.

Extract the package:

tar -xzf dbr-4.0.0-pre-alpha.tar.gz

Create a symbolic link for the shared library:

sudo ln -s $(DynamsoftBarcodeReader)/Redist/libDynamsoftBarcodeReaderx64.so 
		/usr/lib/libDynamsoftBarcodeReaderx64.so

Write C code to invoke Barcode APIs:

#include <Python.h>
#include "If_DBR.h"
#include "BarcodeFormat.h"
#include "BarcodeStructs.h"
#include "ErrorCode.h"

// Barcode format
const char * GetFormatStr(__int64 format)
{
    if (format == CODE_39)
        return "CODE_39";
    if (format == CODE_128)
        return "CODE_128";
    if (format == CODE_93)
        return "CODE_93";
    if (format == CODABAR)
        return "CODABAR";
    if (format == ITF)
        return "ITF";
    if (format == UPC_A)
        return "UPC_A";
    if (format == UPC_E)
        return "UPC_E";
    if (format == EAN_13)
        return "EAN_13";
    if (format == EAN_8)
        return "EAN_8";
    if (format == INDUSTRIAL_25)
        return "INDUSTRIAL_25";
    if (format == QR_CODE)
        return "QR_CODE";
    if (format == PDF417)
        return "PDF417";
    if (format == DATAMATRIX)
        return "DATAMATRIX";

    return "UNKNOWN";
}

static PyObject *
initLicense(PyObject *self, PyObject *args)
{
    char *license;
    if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "s", &license)) {
    return NULL;
    }
    printf("License: %s\n", license);
    int ret = DBR_InitLicense(license);
    return Py_BuildValue("i", ret);
}

static PyObject *
decodeFile(PyObject *self, PyObject *args)
{
    char *pFileName;
    if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "s", &pFileName)) {
        return NULL;
    }

    // Dynamsoft Barcode Reader: init
    __int64 llFormat = (OneD | QR_CODE | PDF417 | DATAMATRIX);
    int iMaxCount = 0x7FFFFFFF;
    ReaderOptions ro = {0};
    pBarcodeResultArray pResults = NULL;

    ro.llBarcodeFormat = llFormat;
    ro.iMaxBarcodesNumPerPage = iMaxCount;

    // Decode barcode image
    int ret = DBR_DecodeFile(pFileName, &ro, &pResults);
    printf("DecodeFile ret: %d\n", ret);

    if (ret == DBR_OK) {
        int count = pResults->iBarcodeCount;
        pBarcodeResult* ppBarcodes = pResults->ppBarcodes;
        pBarcodeResult tmp = NULL;

        PyObject* list = PyList_New(count);
        PyObject* result = NULL;
        int i = 0;
        for (; i < count; i++)
        {
            tmp = ppBarcodes[i];
            result = PyString_FromString(tmp->pBarcodeData);
            PyList_SetItem(list, i, Py_BuildValue("iN", (int)tmp->llFormat, result));
        }
        // release memory
        DBR_FreeBarcodeResults(&pResults);
        return list;
    }

    return Py_None;
}

static PyMethodDef Methods[] =
{
     {"initLicense", initLicense, METH_VARARGS, NULL},
     {"decodeFile", decodeFile, METH_VARARGS, NULL},
     {NULL, NULL, 0, NULL}
};

PyMODINIT_FUNC
initdbr(void)
{
     (void) Py_InitModule("dbr", Methods);
}

Create setup.py:

from distutils.core import setup, Extension

module_dbr = Extension('dbr', 
                        sources = ['dbr.c'], 
                        include_dirs=['<Dynamsoft Barcode Reader SDK>/Include'],
                        library_dirs=['<Dynamsoft Barcode Reader SDK>/Redist'],
                        libraries=['DynamsoftBarcodeReaderx64'])

setup (name = 'DynamsoftBarcodeReader',
        version = '1.0',
        description = 'Python barcode extension',
        ext_modules = [module_dbr])

Build the Python barcode extension dbr.so:

python setup.py build

If you want to clean the build files, you can use the following command:

python setup.py clean --all

Install the extension:

sudo python setup.py install

Write a Python script for testing:

import os.path
import sys
from dbr import *

formats = {
	0x3FFL: "OneD",
	0x1L  : "CODE_39",
	0x2L  : "CODE_128",
	0x4L  : "CODE_93",
	0x8L  : "CODABAR",
	0x10L : "ITF",
	0x20L : "EAN_13",
	0x40L : "EAN_8",
	0x80L : "UPC_A",
	0x100L: "UPC_E",
	0x200L: "INDUSTRIAL_25",
	0x2000000L: "PDF417",
	0x8000000L: "DATAMATRIX",
	0x4000000L: "QR_CODE"
}	

if __name__ == "__main__":
	license = open('license.txt', 'r')
	license_content = license.readline().strip()
	ret = initLicense(license_content)
	if (ret != 0):
		print "invalid license"
		sys.exit(0)

	barcode_image = raw_input("Enter the barcode file: ");
	if not os.path.isfile(barcode_image):
		print "It is not a valid file."
	else:

		results = decodeFile(barcode_image);
		print "Total count: " + str(len(results))
		for result in results:
			print "barcode format: " + formats[result[0]]
			print "barcode value: " + result[1] + "\n*************************"

Run the script:

python test.py