Decode QR codes (and other 1D/2D barcode formats)

QRcode generation is well served in the Ruby community, but decoding seems to be stuck in the Java world. This is an attempt to bridge the gap by wrapping the ZXing library with JRuby. ZXing conveniently decodes a plethora of barcodes. Their site has a complete list.

gem install zxing

• JRuby (tested with 1.5.6), OR

• MRI (1.8.7 and 1.9.2) with jruby-jars gem

require 'zxing'

# Pass a path to a file, and it will return the characters encoded within
# the barcode image.  For example, if a QRCode image has the text "QRcode
# string" embedded:
ZXing.decode '/Users/ecin/qrcode.png' #=> "QRcode string"

# ZXing#decode_all returns an array of encoded values.  For example if an
# image has a barcode encoded with the value "test123" and another barcode
# encoded with the value "test456":
ZXing.decode_all 'image_with_multiple_barcodes.png' #=> ["test456", "test123"]

# You can also decode a URL...
ZXing.decode 'http://2d-code.co.uk/images/bbc-logo-in-qr-code.gif'

# or an instance of File
ZXing.decode File.new('qrcode.png')

# or anything that returns a URL or file path when #path is called on it.
class Image
  attr_reader :path
  def initialize(path); @path = path end
end

# ZXing#decode returns nil if it can't decode the image.
ZXing.decode 'image_without_a_code.png' #=> nil

# ZXing#decode! will raise an error if it can't decode the image.
ZXing.decode! 'image_without_a_code.png' #=> raises ZXing::UndecodableError

A Decodable module is included (pun intended) to ease using the library with objects that return the URL or file path to decode when #path or #to_s is called.

require 'zxing/decodable'

class File
  include Decodable
end

file = File.open('qrcode.png')
file.decode