[Tip] Create a QR code from a website URL

[Paul (Lead Developer)]

With AlomWare Toolbox, you can easily create a QR code from any website URL. You just use the "Image: Assign" step in the format "qr=URL". Here's an action that does it from a screenshot of AlomWare Toolbox's "Automation" tab:

Code Select Expand

(Start)
HOW TO USE: Copy from Start to End, and then paste into an action.
REFERENCE : See an example of pasting at alomware.com/paste.png
0001 Image: Assign "qr=https://www.alomware.com/images/tab-automation.png"
0002 Image: Show at desktop position "numpad5"
(End)
Running this action results in the QR code being displayed in the center of the desktop. Try scanning it with your phone!



Here's an action that you can set to a hotkey that grabs the URL from the active web browser and creates a QR code for it:

Code Select Expand

(Start)
HOW TO USE: Copy from Start to End, and then paste into an action.
REFERENCE : See an example of pasting at alomware.com/paste.png
0001 String: Assign URL from active browser ""
0002 String: Insert text "1,qr="
0003 Image: Assign "string$"
0004 Image: Show at desktop position "numpad5"
(End)
Tip: You're not restricted to just website URLs; you can actually create a QR code for any text (but not "War and Peace"!). Just remember to prefix the text with "qr=" and you're all set.

[GCRedditor136]

How do I use this with any text (like you said)? It seems to only accept websites.

[Paul (Lead Developer)]

Sorry, I forgot to enable that. The next release (v9.0.0.1 tomorrow) will allow text of up to 2048 characters (2 KB) to be converted into a QR code.

[oblivion]

Coincidentally, I have just started (slightly unwillingly!) getting interested in the mechanics or QR codes. It's a work thing, not a Toolbox thing, but I'm trying to find a way to (probably) capture and decode the QR codes on drug and related packages used in eye injections

sorry, anyone who's squeamish but I promise that's the only mention of such a thing

so that the batch number and expiry date of the injected drug can be captured and entered into the clinical system that needs to capture it. And, believe me, hand-typing those batch numbers -- as they're doing now -- does NOT look sustainable if we're interested in minimising errors!

So the very first QR code I try to work with is Weird. the usual "three squares with a blob in the middle" that are there on most QR codes you see ... aren't. It's small -- maybe a centimetre square, my phone can recognise it and decode it (but that's not helpful) and the barcode scanner I point at it can too, but returns a (slightly) different result.

That's probably not relevant either. But reading the handheld scanner manual, I find there's a LOT of different types of QR code. And this particular type -- whose orientation elements seem to just be a pair of lines on adjoining edges -- is what's sparked this comment.

Which is... is there something in the qr= element of Toolbox that automatically determines the most appropriate format of QR code to use, or is it one type only and if you need one of the weirder formats, you're going to need something else?

(I have no idea -- yet -- what makes a format appropriate or inappropriate. I'll probably know more when I get further into this piece of work, and I WILL stress that this is not a problem I'm asking for Toolbox's help with, just something that's sparked my interest relating to a problem that's going in the other direction completely!)

[Paul (Lead Developer)]

AlomWare Toolbox only supports Model 1 and Model 2 QR Codes, as seen here: https://www.qrcode.com/en/codes/

I'll amend the step's description to explicitly state that. It won't be updated to support the other types. The "qr=" prefix just takes the text after with no regard to what type of text it is (website, plain text, phone number, email address, etc). It's up to the scanning app to determine the QR type and act accordingly.