MaxiCode Special-Function Parameters

Offset	Type	Name	Range	Meaning	BCD1 Range
5	BITS			Control flags
	bit 0	EBCDIC	B'0' B'1'	EBCDIC-to-ASCII translation: Do not translate Convert data from EBCDIC to ASCII	Not supported in BCD1
	bit 1	Escape sequence handling	B'0' B'1'	Escape-sequence handling: Process escape sequences Ignore all escape sequences	Not supported in BCD1
	bits 2 - 7		B'000000'	Reserved
6	CODE	Symbol Mode	X'02' X'03' X'04' X'05' X'06'	Mode 2 Mode 3 Mode 4 Mode 5 Mode 6	Not supported in BCD1
7	UBIN	Sequence indicator	X'00' - X'08'	Structured append sequence indicator	Not supported in BCD1
8	UBIN	Total symbols	X'00' or X'02' - X'08'	Total number of structured-append symbols	Not supported in BCD1
9	BITS			Special-function flags
	bit 0	Zipper	B'0' B'1'	No zipper pattern Vertical zipper pattern on right	Not supported in BCD1
	bit 1 - 7		B'0000000'	Reserved

Byte 5

Control flags.

These flags control how the bar code data (bytes n+1 to end) is processed by the BCOCA receiver.

Bit 0

EBCDIC-to-ASCII translation.

If this flag is B'0', the data is assumed to begin in the default character encodation and no translation is done.

If this flag is B'1', the BCOCA receiver converts each byte of the bar code data from EBCDIC code page 500 into ASCII code page 819 before this data is used to build the bar code symbol.

Bit 1

Escape-sequence handling.

If this flag is B'0', each X'5C' (backslash) within the bar code data is treated as an escape character according to the MaxiCode symbology specification.

If this flag is B'1', each X'5C' within the bar code data is treated as a normal data character and therefore all escape sequences are ignored. In this case, no ECI code page switching can occur within the data.

Note: If the EBCDIC-to-ASCII translation flag is also set to B'1', all EBCDIC backslash characters (X'E0') are first converted into X'5C' before the escape-sequence handling flag is applied.

Bits 2 - 7

Reserved.

Byte 6

Symbol mode.

Mode 2

Structured Carrier Message - numeric postal code.

This mode is designed for use in the transport industry, encoding the postal code, country code, and service class with the postal code that is numeric. The bar code data must be structured as described in B.2.1 and B.3.1 of the AIM International Symbology Specification - MaxiCode. The postal code, country code, and service class are placed in the primary message portion of the MaxiCode symbol and the rest of the bar code data is placed in the secondary message portion of the MaxiCode symbol. The first part of the bar code data includes in order the postal code, country code, and service class, which are separated by the [GS] character (X'1D'). This information can be preceded by the character sequence "[)>RS01GSyy", where RS and GS are single characters and yy are two decimal digits that represent a year. This character sequence is represented in hex bytes X'5B293E1E30311Dxxxx', where each xx is a value X'30' - X'39'. This sequence indicates that the message conforms to particular open system standards. This first portion of the bar code data must be encoded by using the MaxiCode default character set (ECI 000003 = ISO 8859-1). This first portion of the bar code data must not contain the backslash escape character to change the ECI character set. The postal code must be 1 - 9 decimal digits with each digit that is represented by the byte values from X'30' - X'39'. The country code must be 1 - 3 decimal digits with each digit a byte value X'30' - X'39'. The service code must also be 1 - 3 decimal digits, again with each digit a byte value X'30' - X'39'. The primary message portion of the MaxiCode symbol uses Enhanced Error Correction (EEC) and the secondary message portion of the MaxiCode symbol uses Standard Error Correction (SEC).

When the postal code portion of the Structured Carrier Message is numeric, mode 2 must be used.

Mode 3

Structured Carrier Message - alphanumeric postal code.

This mode is designed for use in the transport industry, encoding the postal code, country code, and service class with the postal code that is alphanumeric. The bar code data must be structured as described in B.2.1 and B.3.1 of the AIM International Symbology Specification - MaxiCode. The postal code, country code, and service class are placed in the primary message portion of the MaxiCode symbol and the rest of the bar code data is placed in the secondary message portion of the MaxiCode symbol. The first part of the bar code data includes in order the postal code, country code, and service class,which are separated by the [GS] character (X'1D'). This information can be preceded by the character sequence "[)>RS01GSyy", where RS and GS are single characters and yy are two decimal digits that represent a year. This character sequence is represented in hex bytes X'5B293E1E30311Dxxxx', where each xx is a value from X'30' - X'39'. This sequence indicates that the message conforms to particular open system standards. This first portion of the bar code data must be encoded by using the MaxiCode default character set (ECI 000003 = ISO 8859-1). This first portion of the bar code data must not contain the backslash escape character to change the ECI character set. The postal code must be 1 -6 alphanumeric characters with each character one of the printable characters in MaxiCode Code Set A. Postal codes fewer than 6 characters are padded with trailing spaces; postal codes longer than 6 characters are truncated. These characters include the letters A to Z (X'41' - X'5A'), the space character (X'20'), the special characters (X'22' - X'2F'), the decimal digits (X'30' - X'39'), and the colon (X'3A'). The country code must be 1 -3 decimal digits with each digit a byte value X'30' - X'39'. The service code must also be 1 - 3 decimal digits, again with each digit a byte value X'30' - X'39'. The primary message portion of the MaxiCode symbol uses Enhanced Error Correction (EEC) and the secondary message portion of the MaxiCode symbol uses Standard Error Correction (SEC).

When the postal code portion of the Structured Carrier Message is alphanumeric, mode 3 must be used.

Mode 4

Standard Symbol.

The symbol employs EEC for the Primary Message and SEC for the Secondary Message. The first nine codewords are placed in the Primary Message and the rest of the codewords are placed in the Secondary Message. This mode provides for a total of 93 codewords for data. If the bar code data consists of only characters from MaxiCode Code Set A, the number of codewords matches the number of bar code data characters. However, if the bar code data contains other characters, the number of codewords is greater than the number of bar code data characters due to the overhead of switching to and from the different code sets. The Code Set A consists of the byte values X'0D', X'1C' to X'1E', X'20', X'22' to X'3A', and X'41' to X'5A'.

Mode 5

Full ECC Symbol.

The symbol employs EEC for the Primary Message and EEC for the Secondary Message. The first nine codewords are placed in the Primary Message and the rest of the codewords are placed in the Secondary Message. This mode provides for a total of 77 codewords for data. If the bar code data consists of only characters from MaxiCode Code Set A, the number of codewords matches the number of bar code data characters. However, if the bar code data contains other characters, the number of codewords is greater than the number of bar code data characters due to the overhead of switching to and from the different code sets. The Code Set A consists of the byte values X'0D', X'1C' to X'1E', X'20', X'22' to X'3A', and X'41' to X'5A'.

Mode 6

Reader Program, SEC.

The symbol employs EEC for the Primary Message and SEC for the Secondary Message. The data in the symbol is used to program the bar code reader system. The first nine codewords are placed in the Primary Message and the rest of the codewords are placed in the Secondary Message. This mode provides for a total of 93 codewords for data. If the bar code data consists of only characters from MaxiCode Code Set A, the number of codewords matches the number of bar code data characters. However, if the bar code data contains other characters, the number of codewords is greater than the number of bar code data characters due to the overhead of switching to and from the different code sets. The Code Set A consists of the byte values X'0D', X'1C' to X'1E', X'20', X'22' to X'3A', and X'41' to X'5A'.

Exception condition EC-0F05 exists if an invalid symbol-mode value is specified.

Byte 7

Structured append sequence indicator.

Multiple MaxiCode bar code symbols (called structured appends) can be logically linked together to encode large amounts of data. The logically linked symbols can be presented on the same or on different physical media, and are logically recombined after they are scanned. MaxiCode symbols 2 - 8 can be linked. This parameter specifies where this particular symbol is logically linked (1&–8) in a sequence of symbols.

If X'00' is specified for this parameter, this symbol is not part of a structured append. Exception condition EC-0F01 exists if an invalid sequence indicator value is specified. Exception condition EC-0F02 exists if the sequence indicator is larger than the total number of symbols (byte 8).

Byte 8

Total symbols in a structured append.

This parameter specifies the total number of symbols (2 - 8) that is logically linked in a sequence of symbols.

If X'00' is specified for this parameter, this symbol is not part of a structured append. If this symbol is not part of a structured append, both bytes 6 and 7 must be X'00', or exception condition EC-0F03 exists.

Exception condition EC-0F04 exists if an invalid number of symbols is specified.

Byte 9

Special-function flags.

These flags specify special functions that can be used with a MaxiCode symbol.

Bit 0: Zipper pattern.
If this flag is B'1', a vertical zipper-like test pattern and a contrast block are printed to the right of the symbol. The zipper provides a quick visual check for printing distortions. If the symbol presentation space is rotated, the zipper and contrast block are rotated along with the symbol.

To maintain consistency among printers, the zipper pattern and contrast block must approximate the guideline dimensions that are shown in Figure 1. The zipper pattern and contrast block is made up of several filled rectangles that must be created such that each rectangle is as close to the specified dimensions as possible for the particular printer pel resolution, then the pattern is repeated to yield an evenly spaced zipper pattern and contrast block.
Figure 1. Example of a MaxiCode Bar Code Symbol with Zipper and Contrast Block
Bits 1 - 7: Reserved.