The barcode scanner market is a walled garden hostile to flexibility. Vendors enforce their proprietary SDKs or applications, documentation is often limited or missing, sometimes it is even required to sign a contract before getting software access to purchased devices. This locks the user inside a single ecosystem, as switching to a different option would mean rewriting software specific to the device.

enioka Scan is an open-source Android library enabling users to choose the device vendors that really fit their criteria at any given time. It exposes a single API compatible with all supported scanning devices, working on top of a vendor-specific SDKs made open-source whenever possible. The library handles per-device specifics, so the user can focus on the functional aspects of their application. It is also designed to be easily extended with more support for devices not yet compatible.

In this presentation, we will go over the causes of vendor lock-in in the context of barcode scanning devices. After a quick history of the project, we will have an overview of how the library works and how it manages to handle devices from different vendors. Finally, we will explain how you can contribute to this project, and why your help matters.