A European Article Number (EAN) is a barcoding standard which is a superset of the original 12-digit Universal Product Code (UPC) system developed in North America. The EAN-13 barcode is defined by the standards organisation GS1. It is also called a Japanese Article Number (JAN) in Japan. UPC, EAN, and JAN numbers are collectively called Global Trade Item Numbers (GTIN), though they can be expressed in different types of barcodes.

The EAN-13 barcodes are used worldwide for marking retail goods. The less commonly used EAN-8 barcodes are used also for marking retail goods; however, they are usually reserved for smaller items, for example confectionery.

Sample of an EAN-13 Barcode

The value to encode by EAN-13 has the following structure:

• 2 or 3 digits for Number System or Country Code
• 5 or 4 digits for Manufacturer (Company) Code or prefix
• 5 digits for Product Code
• 1 digit for checksum

Each country has a numbering authority which assigns manufacturer codes to companies within its jurisdiction.

Add-On or Supplement code

The Add-On Symbols were designed to encode information supplementary to that in the main bar code symbol on periodicals and paperback books. The Add-On can be composed of 2 or 5 digits only.

Sample of an EAN-13 Five-Digit Add-On Barcode

Sample of an EAN-13 Five-Digit Add-On Barcode

The following code illustrates how to create a barcode in a Java class

1            Barcode barcode = new Barcode(); 
2            barcode.setData("123456789"); 
3            barcode.setType(Barcode.CODE39); 
4            barcode.createBarcodeImage("c:/code39.gif"); 

• Create a Barcode object (line 1)
• set Barcode object properties (line 2 - 3)
• save into gif file (line 4)

There are two ways to create barcode images in your Java web applications.

1. This is the simplest way to stream barcode image using our provided barcode servlet classes.
   
   And it will not save barcode images in your server side.
   
   
   • Under demo package, copy barcode folder to your java servlet container like tomcat.
     
     
   • To test your installation, goto http://YourDomain:Port/barcode/barcode?Data=123456789&Type=CODE39
     
     
   • To create barcode image in your JSP page, you can pass the url to IMG tag src value. For example, <img src="http://YourDomain:Port/barcode/barcode?Data=123456789&Type=CODE39" />
     
     
2. The second method is similar with the way to generate barcode in Java applications.
   
   
   • Create a barcode image in server side

     1            Barcode barcode = new Barcode(); 
     2            barcode.setData("123456789"); 
     3            barcode.setType(Barcode.CODE39); 
     4            barcode.createBarcodeImage("C:/Tools/Tomcat 5.5/webapps/YourWebApp/bimages/code39.gif"); 
     
     
     

   • In your JSP page, you can using IMG tag to display generated image, like <img src="http://YourDomain:Port/YourWebApp/bimages/code39.gif" />

The following jasper xml content illustrates how to insert a barcode into JasperReports

<import value="com.barcodelib.barcode.BarcodeFactory"/> 

Import class BarcodeFactory to report.

<image scaleImage="Clip" hAlign="Center"> 
    <reportElement x="50" y="110" width="515" height="120"/> 
    <graphicElement/> 
    <imageExpression class="net.sf.jasperreports.engine.JRRenderable">
     <![CDATA[new com.barcodelib.barcode.BarcodeJasperRenderer(BarcodeFactory.createLinear(13, "0470821632"))]]></imageExpression> 
</image>

Please go to class BarcodeFactory in Java doc for all methods to create linear barcode.

Developers also can extend BarcodeFactory class to meet their own requirements. Complete BarcodeFactory.java Source Code