SSRS SaaS Returns a Blank Barcode with Specific Data

Question

I am using your SSRS Barcode Generator SaaS, and I have an issue where some data is returning a blank area where the barcode should be with certain data that includes < and > characters. What could be causing this?

debrac · Accepted Answer

When using the SSRS Barcode Generator SaaS, the characters < and > are reserved characters in HTML, and in certain situations, in combination with other alphanumeric data, they will be seen as an attempt at HTML and therefore not generate a barcode. In SSRS, you will see that the return on the barcode is blank space instead of a barcode, but if you enter the URL with the data into a browser, you will see an error message. Here is an example of what you would see when the URL is entered into a browser.

This URL with this data returns a barcode correctly: <1234>
https://www.bcgen.com/ssrs/demo-dm.aspx?D=<1234>

The same URL with slightly different data throws an error:
https://www.bcgen.com/ssrs/demo-dm.aspx?D=

The solution here is to replace the HTML reserved characters with the ASCII equivalent from the ASCII Chart | ISO 1252 Latin-1 Char Set, and in this case, the < is represented for Data Matrix by ~d060 and the > is represented by ~d062, so the data string would appear like this:
https://www.bcgen.com/ssrs/demo-dm.aspx?D=~d060B1234~d062

Data Matrix, Aztec, Dot Code, and QR use ~d### for the format of the ASCII character
PDF417, Code 128, and MaxiCode use ~### for the format of the ASCII character
ApplyTilde also needs to be activated in the encoding tool to use the ASCII equivalents. Apply Tilde is defaulted as "on" in the SSRS SaaS generator.


debrac Best Answer When using the SSRS Barcode Generator SaaS, the characters < and > are reserved characters in HTML, and in certain situations, in combination with other alphanumeric data, they will be seen as an attempt at HTML and therefore not generate a barcode. In SSRS, you will see that the return on the barcode is blank space instead of a barcode, but if you enter the URL with the data into a browser, you will see an error message. Here is an example of what you would see when the URL is entered into a browser. This URL with this data returns a barcode correctly: <1234> https://www.bcgen.com/ssrs/demo-dm.aspx?D=<1234> The same URL with slightly different data throws an error: <B1234> https://www.bcgen.com/ssrs/demo-dm.aspx?D=<B1234> The solution here is to replace the HTML reserved characters with the ASCII equivalent from the ASCII Chart \| ISO 1252 Latin-1 Char Set, and in this case, the < is represented for Data Matrix by ~d060 and the > is represented by ~d062, so the data string would appear like this: https://www.bcgen.com/ssrs/demo-dm.aspx?D=~d060B1234~d062 Data Matrix, Aztec, Dot Code, and QR use ~d### for the format of the ASCII character PDF417, Code 128, and MaxiCode use ~### for the format of the ASCII character ApplyTilde also needs to be activated in the encoding tool to use the ASCII equivalents. Apply Tilde is defaulted as "on" in the SSRS SaaS generator. Posted 2 day(s) ago (0) (0) Report Abuse