Looking for system to sell 1000's of ticket's via website with barcodes and scanners

I currently sell 100's of tickets a week through

www.nottinghamstudent.co.uk/store

However there needs to be an efficiency increase, as when people get to the door of the nightclub it can get a bit hectic.

I need a system whereby when someone purchases a ticket online the system sends them an email with a bar code which they print out.

They bring the printed out barcode to the nightclub and it gets scanned on the door with a barcode reader.

Any ideas how to go about this? Or rough indications of prices? Or actual quote if you could sort this for me.

Thanks
Jamie

 

From http://uk2.php.net/gd

<?php

function UPCAbarcode($code) {
  $lw = 2; $hi = 100;
  $Lencode = array('0001101','0011001','0010011','0111101','0100011',
                   '0110001','0101111','0111011','0110111','0001011');
  $Rencode = array('1110010','1100110','1101100','1000010','1011100',
                   '1001110','1010000','1000100','1001000','1110100');
  $ends = '101'; $center = '01010';
  /* UPC-A Must be 11 digits, we compute the checksum. */
  if ( strlen($code) != 11 ) { die("UPC-A Must be 11 digits."); }
  /* Compute the EAN-13 Checksum digit */
  $ncode = '0'.$code;
  $even = 0; $odd = 0;
  for ($x=0;$x<12;$x++) {
   if ($x % 2) { $odd += $ncode[$x]; } else { $even += $ncode[$x]; }
  }
  $code.=(10 - (($odd * 3 + $even) % 10)) % 10;
  /* Create the bar encoding using a binary string */
  $bars=$ends;
  $bars.=$Lencode[$code[0]];
  for($x=1;$x<6;$x++) {
   $bars.=$Lencode[$code[$x]];
  }
  $bars.=$center;
  for($x=6;$x<12;$x++) {
   $bars.=$Rencode[$code[$x]];
  }
  $bars.=$ends;
  /* Generate the Barcode Image */
  $img = ImageCreate($lw*95+30,$hi+30);
  $fg = ImageColorAllocate($img, 0, 0, 0);
  $bg = ImageColorAllocate($img, 255, 255, 255);
  ImageFilledRectangle($img, 0, 0, $lw*95+30, $hi+30, $bg);
  $shift=10;
  for ($x=0;$x<strlen($bars);$x++) {
   if (($x<10) || ($x>=45 && $x<50) || ($x >=85)) { $sh=10; } else { $sh=0; }
   if ($bars[$x] == '1') { $color = $fg; } else { $color = $bg; }
   ImageFilledRectangle($img, ($x*$lw)+15,5,($x+1)*$lw+14,$hi+5+$sh,$color);
  }
  /* Add the Human Readable Label */
  ImageString($img,4,5,$hi-5,$code[0],$fg);
  for ($x=0;$x<5;$x++) {
   ImageString($img,5,$lw*(13+$x*6)+15,$hi+5,$code[$x+1],$fg);
   ImageString($img,5,$lw*(53+$x*6)+15,$hi+5,$code[$x+6],$fg);
  }
  ImageString($img,4,$lw*95+17,$hi-5,$code[11],$fg);
  /* Output the Header and Content. */
  header("Content-Type: image/png");
  ImagePNG($img);
}

UPCAbarcode('12345678901');

?>

PHP:

Barcode Specs:

http://barcodeisland.com/upca.phtml

Then you'll just have to store the code belonging to that customer in the database and then get the barcode reader to have access to that database. Not sure how that last hardware part would work but it seems like sending unique barcodes is easy enough.

PS Just tried it and it generates a nice looking image you can email easily. Just paste the script as a new file, amend the last line to take some unique customer/order id and you;re all set.

 

Interesting idea, but isn't there an inherent problem with having consumer printers print barcodes? Especially with lower-end inkjet printers, they don't print the sharpest lines. Or maybe I'm just really behind the times on printers