Scanning orders for a particular pose
Applies to: DataPost, PackBuilder, NeoPack/Professional
A previous article, "Combining an order and pose barcode", describes how an order can be placed for a particular pose by scanning a single barcode. It is highly recommended the reader becomes familiar with this article before proceding.
A typical workflow
While the combined order and pose barcode has merit, the situation may arise where several orders are offered for several poses giving rise to an awkwardly large number of combined order-pose barcodes. Offering 8 packages for a subject who has three poses for example would mean 24 different barcodes. In these situations a more realistic workflow would be:
- Select the subject
- Scan the desired pose for the subject
- Scan orders for that pose
- Scan a different pose for the subject
- Scan orders for that pose
- Repeat as needed
Let us look at each of these steps in turn
Select the subject
Use any of the methods to find the desired subject. A typical method is to scan a "Find Subject" barcode
Selecting the pose for which orders are to be scanned
Having found the subject it is now necessary to select the desired pose for the subject and let the software know that subsequent scans for this pose will be order barcodes/
Before continuing, it is important to summarize the combined order-pose barcode. In general terms the combined barcode may be described thus:
For example the following barcode will order a package whose key is abc with item design xyz for pose number 1
We can consider the layout key to be position 1 of the barcode, the item design key to be position 2 of the barcode and, most importantly, pose number is in position 3. With these definitions in mind we can move on to describe a general barcode that will select a pose for a given subject.
Consider the components of this barcode
- /%O lets the software know you will be scanning order barcodes subsequently to this barcode.
- The $ symbol makes this barcode "sticky". In other words there is no need to re-scan this barcode in between each order barcode - all subsequent orders will be assigned to this pose until another pose barcode is scanned. This holds true even if another subject is scanned. Substitute the $ symbol with a + symbol to turn off the "sticky" feature.
- The sequence P3 is "position 3" as described above and pose is the variable pose number or pose label.
The following barcode therefore selects pose 2.
Scanning the orders
Once the desired pose has been scanned order barcodes may now be scanned in the usual way.
Ordering in Version 4Order barcodes
Assigning the poses
Note the barcode does not assign the poses to the subject's image - they merely enter an order for a pose. The pose will need to be assigned by either:
Printing the pose barcode using the @pose tag
It is possible to have the correct pose number (or label) automatically to the barcode. This is useful when printing proof sheets for example. With each image the pose barcode could be printed with the correct pose number (or label) for that image. See Multi pose proof sheets