BarcodeAPI

BarcodeAPI

I built my own API that can read barcodes from PDF and image files. https://barcodeapi.net.

Signing up

The sign up process is very straight forward and only asks for the bare minimum to get you started.

Logging On

It’s just a normal login form with a password recovery feature.

API Documentation

There are a lot of API documentation template engines available, but nothing really suited my needs plus the task of ‘styling’ the output to suit your website seemed tricky for many of them. In the end I created my own that covers everything I wanted.

• API name and method of calling
• Header names, type and description
• Parameter names, type and description
• Additional Parameter Notes
• Example Output(s) - normal and error in XML and JSON
• Notes on the output
• Sample Code in a couple of languages

Tutorials

A section that shows some nifty techniques to work with PDF files plus a more indepth look at how to use my API.

Pricing

I’m very upfront about pricing and how much it is going to cost. There is a free tier which is suitable for developers that want to try out my API or for users that only need up to 100 API calls per month. Paid options have more bandwidth, additional API’s and the ability create and manage keys.

Management Screen

Manage your account. From updating your contact details and address to viewing your invoices. This section allows you to manage everything about your account including upgrading if you want.

Payment

Prior to making any sort of payment, I show a draft invoice so you can see exactly what you are paying for and how much it is going to cost. The difference between this screen and an actual invoice is that this screen adds a couple of buttons; Cancel or Confirm Payment (or words to that effect depending on whether you are upgrading, renewing or signing up for the first time).

I use Stripe to accept credit card payments. It is a very good system, and their API and webhooks are easy to incorporate into your own application.

You can upgrade your account at anytime, and you only pay the pro-rata amount left on your contract.

Reporting

Every API call is logged, and I’ve built a beautiful UI for the user to interact with and investigate the API calls they’ve made. They can see everything from the API call, parameters, file information and the actual response. If there are errors, you’ll get a report of those too - whether it is insufficient privileges or missing parameters.

API key management

If you have paid for the Enterprise Tier then you get full control over your API keys. You can create new API keys, name them, assign privileges and deactivate them if you want. The reporting page can also group your API calls to their respective keys.