Phonograph Product Release
Published on 11 June 2018
This month’s release is named Phonograph. The phonograph, invented by Thomas Edison, was the first device that allowed a person to record and playback sound. A fitting name for a release that includes a new feature leveraging another breakthrough invention—the barcode. Originally based on morse code, a barcode is a visual representation of data that is machine readable.
Smartsheet is excited to announce a mobile barcode scanner. Capable of reading a variety of one-dimensional and two-dimensional (QR codes!) barcodes, the mobile barcode scanner can input your barcode data directly into a cell in a sheet or into the search bar. The mobile barcode scanner works on all iOS and Android devices.
For Vincent Che, Software Development Engineer, the mobile barcode scanner for Android is one of his first major feature releases at Smartsheet. Congratulations!
“I think it’s great that we’re leveraging existing technologies to make our customers’ mobile Smartsheet experience even more powerful.”
Vincent’s experience using Google’s Mobile Vision API for hobby projects in the past made implementing the barcode scanning relatively straightforward. The challenging work was turning that functionality into a usable feature.
“We added an auto-capture feature (can be toggled) to make our customers’ lives simpler. Basically, it captures the barcode as soon as the camera sees it—emphasizing speed and ease of use.”
Paul Schmidt, Senior iOS Developer, brought this feature to life on the iPhone.
“This was something I’ve been wanting to do since I started," Paul said. "Coincidentally, the feature surfaced with the product team at the same time I was planning to do it as a Hack the Sheet project.” Hack the Sheet is Smartsheet’s internal hackathon.
Using Apple’s well-supported, native barcode scanner, Paul was able to get something up and running very quickly.
“What took time was the UX decoration around the scanning functionality," Paul said. "Things like adding a small target while dimming out the rest of the window, and making sure it lines up when you rotate your device. That was actually the hard part, just getting a barcode to scan was quite easy.”
This month’s exceptional artwork was created by JT McHorse, Senior Front End Developer, on our Web Marketing team. After discovering his love of drawing in elementary school, JT has been drawing and painting ever since.
This particular piece took 3 to 4 weeks to complete.
“I typically paint with acrylic and watercolor—usually black, ink wash type stuff. I don’t do a lot of color most of the time.” You can see more of JT’s artwork on Deviant Art or Pinterest.
