Android QR Code Scanner Tutorial using Zxing Library

December 15, 2016 by Belal Khan 41 Comments

Hey guys in this tutorial we will learn creating Android QR Code Scanner. So if you need something like a Barcode or QR Code Scanner in your android application, then you are at the right place. So lets start creating our Android QR Code Scanner.

Contents

1 What is a QR Code?
2 Generating a QR Code
3 Creating Android QR Code Scanner

What is a QR Code?

You may already seen QR Code many times. Whatsapp web also uses QR Code for login. QR Code stands for Quick Response Code. QR Code is actually a 2 dimensional bar code. A QR Code consist of black squares over a white background, and it can store some data, which can be read by camera or other imaging devices. Below you can see a sample QR Code.

Sample QR Code

Generating a QR Code

To scan a QR Code the first thing needed is itself a QR Code. So for this tutorial we will generate a Simple QR Code consisting of Name and Address. Below is the QR Code I already generated a free service.

Sample QR Code

To generate your own QR Code you can go to th is link. I have given JSON string as QR Data you can see in the below screenshot.

Creating Android QR Code Scanner

The following project will work for Barcode as well.

Creating a new Project

As always create a new Android Studio project.
I just created AndroidQRCodeScanner.

Android QR Code Scanner

Adding Zxing Library

For reading QR Code we will be using Zxing Library.
So once your project is loaded go to your app level build.gradle file and add the following dependency.

dependencies {
    compile fileTree(dir: 'libs', include: ['*.jar'])
    androidTestCompile('com.android.support.test.espresso:espresso-core:2.2.2', {
        exclude group: 'com.android.support', module: 'support-annotations'
    })
    compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:25.0.1'
    testCompile 'junit:junit:4.12'

    //add this dependency
    compile 'com.journeyapps:zxing-android-embedded:3.4.0'
}

dependencies {

compile fileTree(dir: 'libs', include: ['*.jar'])

androidTestCompile('com.android.support.test.espresso:espresso-core:2.2.2', {

exclude group: 'com.android.support', module: 'support-annotations'

})

compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:25.0.1'

testCompile 'junit:junit:4.12'

//add this dependency

compile 'com.journeyapps:zxing-android-embedded:3.4.0'

}

Now sync your project with gradle.

Creating User Interface

We have two values (Name, Address) in the QR Code that we generated. So I designed the following layout that will display Name and Address. We also have a button in the layout that will open up camera for scanning the QR Code.

Android QR Code Scanner

For designing the above layout you can use the following xml code.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:id="@+id/activity_main"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:paddingBottom="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
    android:paddingLeft="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
    android:paddingRight="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
    android:paddingTop="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
    tools:context="net.simplifiedcoding.androidqrcodescanner.MainActivity">

    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_centerVertical="true"
        android:orientation="vertical">

        <TextView
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:text="Name" />

        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/textViewName"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:text="xyz"
            android:textAppearance="@style/Base.TextAppearance.AppCompat.Large" />

        <TextView
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:text="Address" />

        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/textViewAddress"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:text="xyz"
            android:textAppearance="@style/Base.TextAppearance.AppCompat.Large" />


    </LinearLayout>

    <Button
        android:id="@+id/buttonScan"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
        android:text="Scan QR Code" />

</RelativeLayout>

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"

xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"

android:id="@+id/activity_main"

android:layout_width="match_parent"

android:layout_height="match_parent"

android:paddingBottom="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"

android:paddingLeft="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"

android:paddingRight="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"

android:paddingTop="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"

tools:context="net.simplifiedcoding.androidqrcodescanner.MainActivity">

<LinearLayout

android:layout_width="match_parent"

android:layout_height="wrap_content"

android:layout_centerVertical="true"

android:orientation="vertical">

<TextView

android:layout_width="match_parent"

android:layout_height="wrap_content"

android:text="Name" />

<TextView

android:id="@+id/textViewName"

android:layout_width="match_parent"

android:layout_height="wrap_content"

android:text="xyz"

android:textAppearance="@style/Base.TextAppearance.AppCompat.Large" />

<TextView

android:layout_width="match_parent"

android:layout_height="wrap_content"

android:text="Address" />

<TextView

android:id="@+id/textViewAddress"

android:layout_width="match_parent"

android:layout_height="wrap_content"

android:text="xyz"

android:textAppearance="@style/Base.TextAppearance.AppCompat.Large" />

</LinearLayout>

<Button

android:id="@+id/buttonScan"

android:layout_width="match_parent"

android:layout_height="wrap_content"

android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"

android:text="Scan QR Code" />

</RelativeLayout>

Building Android QR Code Scanner

Defining View Objects

Now come inside MainActivity.java and first define the view objects.

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    //View Objects
    private Button buttonScan;
    private TextView textViewName, textViewAddress;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

        //View objects
        buttonScan = (Button) findViewById(R.id.buttonScan);
        textViewName = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.textViewName);
        textViewAddress = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.textViewAddress);
    }
}

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

//View Objects

private Button buttonScan;

private TextView textViewName, textViewAddress;

@Override

protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {

super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

//View objects

buttonScan = (Button) findViewById(R.id.buttonScan);

textViewName = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.textViewName);

textViewAddress = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.textViewAddress);

}

Now we will attach OnClickListener to button.

Attaching OnClickListener

Now we will attach OnClickListener to our button.

//implementing onclicklistener
public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity implements View.OnClickListener {

    //View Objects
    private Button buttonScan;
    private TextView textViewName, textViewAddress;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

        //View objects
        buttonScan = (Button) findViewById(R.id.buttonScan);
        textViewName = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.textViewName);
        textViewAddress = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.textViewAddress);
        
        //attaching onclick listener
        buttonScan.setOnClickListener(this);
    }

    @Override
    public void onClick(View view) {

    }
}

//implementing onclicklistener

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity implements View.OnClickListener {

//View Objects

private Button buttonScan;

private TextView textViewName, textViewAddress;

@Override

protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {

super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

//View objects

buttonScan = (Button) findViewById(R.id.buttonScan);

textViewName = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.textViewName);

textViewAddress = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.textViewAddress);

//attaching onclick listener

buttonScan.setOnClickListener(this);

}

@Override

public void onClick(View view) {

}

Android QR Code Scanner

Now its time to scan the QR Code.
For scanning modify the code of MainActivity.java as below.

package net.simplifiedcoding.androidqrcodescanner;

import android.content.Intent;
import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.Button;
import android.widget.TextView;
import android.widget.Toast;

import com.google.zxing.integration.android.IntentIntegrator;
import com.google.zxing.integration.android.IntentResult;

import org.json.JSONException;
import org.json.JSONObject;

//implementing onclicklistener
public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity implements View.OnClickListener {

    //View Objects
    private Button buttonScan;
    private TextView textViewName, textViewAddress;

    //qr code scanner object
    private IntentIntegrator qrScan;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

        //View objects
        buttonScan = (Button) findViewById(R.id.buttonScan);
        textViewName = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.textViewName);
        textViewAddress = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.textViewAddress);

        //intializing scan object
        qrScan = new IntentIntegrator(this);

        //attaching onclick listener
        buttonScan.setOnClickListener(this);
    }

    //Getting the scan results
    @Override
    protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
        IntentResult result = IntentIntegrator.parseActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, data);
        if (result != null) {
            //if qrcode has nothing in it
            if (result.getContents() == null) {
                Toast.makeText(this, "Result Not Found", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
            } else {
                //if qr contains data
                try {
                    //converting the data to json
                    JSONObject obj = new JSONObject(result.getContents());
                    //setting values to textviews
                    textViewName.setText(obj.getString("name"));
                    textViewAddress.setText(obj.getString("address"));
                } catch (JSONException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                    //if control comes here
                    //that means the encoded format not matches
                    //in this case you can display whatever data is available on the qrcode
                    //to a toast
                    Toast.makeText(this, result.getContents(), Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
                }
            }
        } else {
            super.onActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, data);
        }
    }
    @Override
    public void onClick(View view) {
        //initiating the qr code scan
        qrScan.initiateScan();
    }
}

package net.simplifiedcoding.androidqrcodescanner;

import android.content.Intent;

import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;

import android.os.Bundle;

import android.view.View;

import android.widget.Button;

import android.widget.TextView;

import android.widget.Toast;

import com.google.zxing.integration.android.IntentIntegrator;

import com.google.zxing.integration.android.IntentResult;

import org.json.JSONException;

import org.json.JSONObject;

//implementing onclicklistener

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity implements View.OnClickListener {

//View Objects

private Button buttonScan;

private TextView textViewName, textViewAddress;

//qr code scanner object

private IntentIntegrator qrScan;

@Override

protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {

super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

//View objects

buttonScan = (Button) findViewById(R.id.buttonScan);

textViewName = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.textViewName);

textViewAddress = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.textViewAddress);

//intializing scan object

qrScan = new IntentIntegrator(this);

//attaching onclick listener

buttonScan.setOnClickListener(this);

}

//Getting the scan results

@Override

protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {

IntentResult result = IntentIntegrator.parseActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, data);

if (result != null) {

//if qrcode has nothing in it

if (result.getContents() == null) {

Toast.makeText(this, "Result Not Found", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();

} else {

//if qr contains data

try {

//converting the data to json

JSONObject obj = new JSONObject(result.getContents());

//setting values to textviews

textViewName.setText(obj.getString("name"));

textViewAddress.setText(obj.getString("address"));

} catch (JSONException e) {

e.printStackTrace();

//if control comes here

//that means the encoded format not matches

//in this case you can display whatever data is available on the qrcode

//to a toast

Toast.makeText(this, result.getContents(), Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();

}

} else {

super.onActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, data);

}

@Override

public void onClick(View view) {

//initiating the qr code scan

qrScan.initiateScan();

}

Now you can try running your application.

Android QR Code Scanner

Bingo! Our Android QR Code Scanner is working absolutely fine.

So thats all for this Android QR Code Scanner Tutorial friends. Feel free to leave out your comments if having any confusions or queries. Thank You 🙂

About Belal Khan

I am Belal Khan, I am currently pursuing my MCA. In this blog I write tutorials and articles related to coding, app development, android etc.

Comments

Manas Das says

December 16, 2016 at 5:12 am

Thank you so much.

Reply
Youcef says

December 20, 2016 at 12:34 pm

Thank you mate

Reply
Jerry says

December 21, 2016 at 9:05 am

Great tutorial! Can you kindly show me how to open the qr code within a fragment and with the camera not at full screen but only the middle part of the fragment is the camera

Reply
Rozer says

December 23, 2016 at 9:20 am

Very Nice 🙂
Appreciated.

Reply
sivaiah says

December 30, 2016 at 8:18 am

sir please make the scanner view with square shape and delete the red horizontal line in between the scanner view.

I need this requirement sir.please post it…

Reply
- Sandip says
  
  January 27, 2017 at 6:45 am
  
  https://github.com/journeyapps/zxing-android-embedded#usage-with-intentintegrator. Go to this link which is the Github page for used library. Read about use from Fragment and Customize options. I hope you will find your answer.
  
  Reply
sivaiah says

December 30, 2016 at 8:20 am

Atlease post the code how to remove the red horizontal line on top of Scanner view.

Reply
amit pandya says

February 21, 2017 at 6:28 am

awesome man!!!
you ROCK <3. its working fine. just i wanted to send this result data in an edittext instead of showing result in a toast.

anyone!!! plz help me in this.

Reply
Areej says

February 25, 2017 at 5:15 pm

what if I wanted to retrieve data from SQL database, the QR code contains an ID number that is unique in the database and I want to retrieve that specific record by scanning the ID .. can you help me, please?

Reply
- aman says
  
  May 10, 2017 at 5:57 am
  
  Did u get any soln for ur query?
  I m stuck with same thing.
  If u have any idea pleaselet me know asap
  
  Reply
Burhanudinr says

March 19, 2017 at 3:08 am

Thank you sir! Appreciated 😀

From Bandung, West Java, Indonesia.

Reply
Amit Kumar says

March 29, 2017 at 8:04 am

Hi Sir,
I am Getting Error
Error:Execution failed for task ‘:app:transformClassesWithDexForDebug’.
> com.android.ide.common.process.ProcessException: org.gradle.process.internal.ExecException: Process ‘command ‘C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.7.0_79\bin\java.exe” finished with non-zero exit value 1

Reply
Narendra Kumar says

March 30, 2017 at 10:05 am

Excellent..!!!! Working as a charm

Reply
Marcelo Casanovas says

April 21, 2017 at 3:12 pm

Thanks so much, but i have a trouble , the scan time its so slow, do you have any solutions?

Reply
Gulnaz Naseer says

May 16, 2017 at 11:14 am

i want to fetch textview scan result and match with my localhost data how i can do this kindly give me code i have no idea

Reply
raghu datta says

June 20, 2017 at 9:09 pm

Hi, Wonderful explanation.Can u write a post for multiple QR scanning.And get result to array??

Reply
- raghu datta says
  
  June 20, 2017 at 9:19 pm
  
  Please inbox me at [email protected]
  
  Reply
patrick says

June 23, 2017 at 1:54 pm

Thank you so much. it works for me.

Reply
Snehal Shirsat says

July 17, 2017 at 10:03 am

Hi can you help me, to scan QR code using front camera?

Reply
Nilesh says

July 19, 2017 at 6:18 am

whai is name in object and direct go in catch block to scan

Reply
nikita says

July 28, 2017 at 6:39 pm

Awesome and helpful article

Reply
Fuad says

September 6, 2017 at 2:48 am

Thank you Belal, but it’s only work in landscape orientation is’n it?

Reply
Karthi says

September 22, 2017 at 6:46 am

How to change the orientation to potrait?

Reply
- Siva7170 says
  
  November 16, 2017 at 5:28 am
  
  just paste this code into your android manifest.
  
  Reply
Emre ERBAKILI says

November 4, 2017 at 10:05 am

the camera and app turns off after detecting qr code. It started to happen after upgrading the android studio version. 🙁

Reply
gis says

December 27, 2017 at 1:32 pm

I am having an error on this part of the code:

“import com.google.zxing.integration.android.IntentIntegrator;
import com.google.zxing.integration.android.IntentResult;”

the ‘integration’ part. Can someone please help me? Pleeeaasseee T.T

Reply
kethu says

January 4, 2018 at 1:16 am

In mobile this sample is not working.Please help me.its not scaning QR code/bar code.

Reply
giri says

January 22, 2018 at 5:02 am

hi bro,
How to change the orientation for the scanner

Reply
hari says

February 5, 2018 at 5:33 am

hi i am invoke the coding is working perfectly so next how to open flash light for barcoding scanner in adroid please help me its very urgent guyes

Reply
Gourav says

February 20, 2018 at 6:11 pm

How can i change the orientation to portrait mode?
what code to paste?
ScreenOrientation= “Portrait”
is not working in manifest file

Reply
- Naveen says
  
  December 11, 2018 at 6:16 am
  
  How can I do this in Portrait Mode ?
  Have you got any idea scanning in Portrait mode ?
  Please help me on this.
  
  Reply
MohammadAli says

March 5, 2018 at 5:35 am

this work good.

but when i scan other QR then always print in TOAST so any other way to scan all QR and get data in TextView ?

Reply
AndroidFirstTimer says

April 7, 2018 at 7:31 pm

Hi…the code is running perfectly fine when on the main activity, I was wondering how will I be able to call this activity from another activity on button click. I have tried using Intent but it does not seem to work and the app crashes, do you know why this is happening and how to solve it?

Reply
jeph says

May 28, 2018 at 10:51 am

hello. i love your work. it works on me. thumbs up. i was wondering if the qr code scanning can fetch data from mysql . instead of displaying data, i want to scan the qr code and when it (QR CODE = QR CODE) something like this. it display all the data from mysql (SELECT * FROM data WHERE QRCODE = QRCODE – php file) when scanned. and it will display in listview . thanks. i hope you read this. and i hope you will help me. thank you very much. its for thesis thing. we are making an mobile pos system using qr code scanning. thank you very much

Reply
MA says

July 18, 2018 at 10:08 am

Hi guys, do you have a working apk file for this, kindly send me download link. Many Thanks.

Reply
pramodkumar says

July 21, 2018 at 8:09 pm

excellent explanation sir… thanks

Reply
John Philip de Torres says

August 2, 2018 at 4:05 pm

I try to edit the code given above. how to display the URL of website on the app using qr code scanner?

Reply
Jasen says

August 13, 2018 at 5:45 pm

Can you give direction on how to take the data we get from scanning, and save it to a mysql database?

Reply
Rakesh Jha says

September 29, 2018 at 1:52 pm

what if I wanted to retrieve data from SQL database, the QR code contains an ID number that is unique in the database and I want to retrieve that specific record by scanning the ID .. can you help me, please?

Reply
Rajani says

October 7, 2018 at 5:04 am

please help me as soon as possible …..

Reply
Mohammed says

December 9, 2018 at 10:39 am

It is working for Bar Code but not for QR Code..

Reply

Android QR Code Scanner Tutorial using Zxing Library

What is a QR Code?

Generating a QR Code

Creating Android QR Code Scanner

Creating a new Project

Adding Zxing Library

Creating User Interface

Building Android QR Code Scanner

Defining View Objects

Attaching OnClickListener

Android QR Code Scanner

Related

About Belal Khan

Comments

Leave a Reply to John Philip de Torres Cancel reply

About Simplified Coding

Quick Links

What is a QR Code?

Generating a QR Code

Creating Android QR Code Scanner

Creating a new Project

Adding Zxing Library

Creating User Interface

Building Android QR Code Scanner

Defining View Objects

Attaching OnClickListener

Android QR Code Scanner

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About Belal Khan

Comments

Leave a Reply to John Philip de Torres Cancel reply

About Simplified Coding

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