How is this a replacement for @capacitor-community/barcode-scanner?

[daviesdoclc]

How is this a replacement for @capacitor-community/barcode-scanner which has been deprecated? It has no permissions API. And it has only one function. There is no stop scanning api. Very strange that this seems so crippled. What is the right Capacitor barcode scanner to be using nowadays?

[mirko77]

@daviesdoclc I understand your frustration.

Since the Outsystem takeover, updates across the Ionic/Capacitor have become more sporadic.

Ionic/Capacitor updates are still happening, but mostly for compatibility patches rather than new features.

Some formerly active plugins (e.g., barcode scanner, file system access) are now unmaintained or community-only.

In the long run, we are planning to migrate to either React Native or Flutter.

[robkorv]

How is this a replacement for @capacitor-community/barcode-scanner which has been deprecated? It has no permissions API. And it has only one function. There is no stop scanning api. Very strange that this seems so crippled. What is the right Capacitor barcode scanner to be using nowadays?

The api is indeed very limited. I would say it's simplified. Allot of the handling is now done internally. You either get a scanresult or an error. When the user cancels the scan, you also get an error. Building the scan screen yourself is also not necessary anymore.

This is basically all you need to use this package:

import {
  CapacitorBarcodeScanner,
  CapacitorBarcodeScannerTypeHint,
} from "@capacitor/barcode-scanner";

const useBarcodeScanner = () => {
  const startScan = async () => {
    try {
      const scannerResult = await CapacitorBarcodeScanner.scanBarcode({
        hint: CapacitorBarcodeScannerTypeHint.QR_CODE,
      });

      if (scannerResult.ScanResult) {
        return scannerResult.ScanResult;
      } else {
        throw new Error("scanBarcode did not return a ScanResult");
      }
    } catch (e) {
      if (e instanceof Error) {
        if (e.message.includes("cancelled")) {
          return;
        }
        throw e;
      }
      throw new Error(
        "something went wrong during scanBarcode: " + JSON.stringify(e)
      );
    }
  };
  return { startScan };
};

export default useBarcodeScanner;