[Woo POS][Barcodes] i2 Use GameController framework for detecting scanner input #15877

staskus · 2025-07-07T14:36:43Z

Description

This PR implements GameController-based barcode scanning for POS to solve language-dependent input issues. The current HID approach causes barcode parsing problems when iPad keyboard language differs from the scanner's keyboard setting (e.g., barcode "1234" might be read as "&é"'" due to iOS keyboard configuration mismatch).

The business logic aims to be exactly the same as the current keyboard text input + HIDBarcodeParser setup.

The implementation adds:

GameController framework integration to treat barcode scanning output as US/English, regardless of the iOS software keyboard
Feature flag pointOfSaleBarcodeScanningi2
GameControllerBarcodeObserver to observe the external keyboard connection and output
Updated BarcodeScannerContainer that switches between HID and GameController based on feature flag
Character mapping including digits, letters (with proper case handling), punctuation, and symbols with shift variants
Copy HIDBarcodeParser logic for GameControllerBarcodeParser

Testing steps

Testing GameController Implementation (Feature Flag Enabled)

Navigate to POS and ensure barcode scanning is available
Test basic scanning:
- Scan numeric barcodes (e.g., "123456789")
- Scan alphanumeric barcodes with mixed case (e.g., "ABC123def")
- Scan barcodes with punctuation (e.g., "PROD-123.45")
- Scan QR codes behind the text or URLs with shift key modified symbols
Test language independence:
- Change iPad keyboard language to French/German/etc.
- Scan the same barcodes and verify they parse correctly
Test edge cases:
- Very fast scanning (multiple barcodes quickly)
- Slow typing with external (should timeout appropriately)
- Scanner disconnection/reconnection
- Start the new order with scanning

Testing information

Tested with iPad Air running iOS 26 using Inateck scanner and various 1D and 2D barcodes.

Testing session

Game.Controller.Scanning.MP4

I have considered if this change warrants user-facing release notes and have added them to RELEASE-NOTES.txt if necessary.

dangermattic · 2025-07-07T14:37:21Z

	2 Warnings
⚠️	This PR is larger than 300 lines of changes. Please consider splitting it into smaller PRs for easier and faster reviews.
⚠️	This PR is assigned to the milestone 22.8. This milestone is due in less than 2 days. Please make sure to get it merged by then or assign it to a milestone with a later deadline.

Generated by 🚫 Danger

wpmobilebot · 2025-07-07T14:45:58Z

📲 You can test the changes from this Pull Request in WooCommerce iOS Prototype by scanning the QR code below to install the corresponding build.

	App Name	WooCommerce iOS Prototype
	Build Number	`pr15877-99f3fb6`
	Version	`22.7`
	Bundle ID	`com.automattic.alpha.woocommerce`
	Commit	`99f3fb6`
	Installation URL	29ekb3n48dr1o

Automatticians: You can use our internal self-serve MC tool to give yourself access to those builds if needed.

Introduces `GameControllerBarcodeParser`, a new mechanism for processing input from physical barcode scanners that connect as game controllers. This approach offers a more reliable, language-independent method of barcode scanning by interpreting raw `GCKeyCode` values directly from the hardware. This bypasses the iOS keyboard layout system, which can interfere with HID-based scanning on international keyboards. The new parser's logic has been aligned with the existing `HIDBarcodeParser` to ensure identical behavior and maintain consistency across scanning methods. This includes mirroring the specific, nuanced timeout handling. A test suite, `GameControllerBarcodeParserTests`, has been added to validate all aspects of the parser's functionality and to lock in the behavioral parity with its HID counterpart.

Shift press and un-press events are reported by keyChangedHandler. We need to use those to determine whether the shift key needs to be applied to the next character.

…deScannerContainer

staskus · 2025-07-08T10:27:29Z

WooCommerce/Classes/POS/Presentation/Barcode Scanning/BarcodeScannerContainer.swift

+    func makeUIViewController(context: Context) -> UIViewController {
+        let featureFlagService = ServiceLocator.featureFlagService
+
+        if featureFlagService.isFeatureFlagEnabled(.pointOfSaleBarcodeScanningi2) {


I wondered if we should keep this for now or replace it entirely.

We could remove BarcodeScannerHostingController, HIDBarcodeParser, and possibly most if not all the BarcodeScannerContainer code.

GameControllerBarcodeObserver theoretically allows us to observe all the input within the aggregate model, although we would lose the ability to control in which screens we want to receive the input.

No, I think we should keep the container. We already have the need to ignore scans in some screens (search, email receipt, everything in between building a cart and payment success.

The need for granular control is likely to increase over time – for example, any time we add a text field we need to think about it, and any control will be based on view state, what's focused. Quantity selectors, customer detail entry, configuring bookings or subscription purchases – there's lots of places we may end up having more complex text field management.

joshheald

Works really well. I've left a few small comments/questions in line, but all good.

The only thing I've noticed is a possibly increased tendency to miss the first character of a scan after the scanner's been asleep. It's hard to judge, but have you seen the same thing? If not, let's not worry about it – I don't have anything conclusive, and whenever I try to make it happen, it doesn't!

Oh, BTW it would be good to merge trunk first, and check the feature flag by hand, once you've decided about keeping the feature flag. I added one with the same name, further down, so we could get a mess.

joshheald · 2025-07-09T06:21:30Z

WooCommerce/Classes/POS/Presentation/Barcode Scanning/BarcodeScannerContainer.swift

+        let featureFlagService = ServiceLocator.featureFlagService
+
+        if featureFlagService.isFeatureFlagEnabled(.pointOfSaleBarcodeScanningi2) {
+            return GameControllerBarcodeScannerHostingController(
+                configuration: configuration,
+                onScan: onScan
+            )
+        } else {
+            return BarcodeScannerHostingController(
+                configuration: configuration,
+                onScan: onScan
+            )
+        }


Suggested change

let featureFlagService = ServiceLocator.featureFlagService

if featureFlagService.isFeatureFlagEnabled(.pointOfSaleBarcodeScanningi2) {

return GameControllerBarcodeScannerHostingController(

configuration: configuration,

onScan: onScan

)

} else {

return BarcodeScannerHostingController(

configuration: configuration,

onScan: onScan

)

}

return GameControllerBarcodeScannerHostingController(

configuration: configuration,

onScan: onScan

)

I don't actually think this needs to be feature flagged, we can just ship it – we're changing the app to match Android i1 after all.

It is helpful for testing the PR though. If you want to keep the flag, perhaps rename it to something other than i2, so we can ship this before the rest of i2.

Yes, it was helpful for testing. I didn't want to remove it right away. However, we could simply replace one with another without any feature flagging.

joshheald · 2025-07-09T06:26:20Z

WooCommerce/Classes/POS/Presentation/Barcode Scanning/GameControllerBarcodeParser.swift

+            // This prevents a double-trigger-pull on a Star scanner from adding an error row –
+            // Star use this as a shortcut to switch to the software keyboard. They send keycode 174 0xAE, which is
+            // undefined and reserved in UIKeyboardHIDUsage. The scanner doesn't send a character with the code.
+            // There seems to be no reason to handle empty input when considering scans.
+            return false
+        }
+
+        guard character.isNotEmpty else {
+            // This prevents a double-trigger-pull on a Star scanner from adding an error row –
+            // Star use this as a shortcut to switch to the software keyboard. They send keycode 174 0xAE, which is
+            // undefined and reserved in UIKeyboardHIDUsage. The scanner doesn't send a character with the code.
+            // There seems to be no reason to handle empty input when considering scans.
+            return false


Do we need this comment block to be repeated? Perhaps it could all be in a single guard.

No, we don't. I'll clean it up.

joshheald · 2025-07-09T06:28:45Z

WooCommerce/Classes/POS/Presentation/Barcode Scanning/GameControllerBarcodeParser.swift

+        case .period: return isShiftPressed ? ">" : "."
+        case .slash: return isShiftPressed ? "?" : "/"
+        case .graveAccentAndTilde: return isShiftPressed ? "~" : "`"
+        case .returnOrEnter: return "\r"


Should \n be in this list?

Since it's returnOrEnter, I think they are both treated the same way with GameController framework.

staskus · 2025-07-09T06:49:13Z

The only thing I've noticed is a possibly increased tendency to miss the first character of a scan after the scanner's been asleep.

@joshheald, interesting. I will test on my side a few times and see from the implementation point of view if there's any good reason for this to happen.

…oller-framework-for

staskus · 2025-07-09T17:52:34Z

@joshheald, thanks for testing again!

I haven't been able to reproduce the first value missing issue myself. I rotated a dozen rounds of my scanner, going to sleep and disconnecting, and then scanning different types of barcodes. All of them succeeded. Let's keep observing it.

I removed the feature flag and left GameController as the only way to get the scanned items while also keeping the container to only track scanning within certain views.

staskus added this to the 22.8 milestone Jul 7, 2025

staskus added type: task An internally driven task. feature: POS labels Jul 7, 2025

staskus added 5 commits July 8, 2025 10:32

Create GameControllerBarcodeObserver for observing keyboard input

93977eb

Create pointOfSaleBarcodeScanningi2 feature flag

dc4f86e

Track isShiftPressed state

0244aae

Shift press and un-press events are reported by keyChangedHandler. We need to use those to determine whether the shift key needs to be applied to the next character.

Support both TextInput and GameController based scanning in the Barco…

d8e1b48

…deScannerContainer

staskus force-pushed the woomob-755-woo-posbarcodes-i2-use-gamecontroller-framework-for branch from a1dd2e5 to d8e1b48 Compare July 8, 2025 10:20

staskus changed the title ~~Woomob 755 woo posbarcodes i2 use gamecontroller framework for~~ [Woo POS][Barcodes] i2 Use GameController framework for detecting scanner input Jul 8, 2025

Comment cleanup

7ac693c

staskus requested a review from joshheald July 8, 2025 10:33

staskus marked this pull request as ready for review July 8, 2025 10:33

joshheald self-assigned this Jul 9, 2025

staskus commented Jul 9, 2025

View reviewed changes

joshheald approved these changes Jul 9, 2025

View reviewed changes

staskus added 2 commits July 9, 2025 15:03

Merge branch 'trunk' into woomob-755-woo-posbarcodes-i2-use-gamecontr…

fa0d62b

…oller-framework-for

Cleanup GameController barcode parser implementation

99f3fb6

staskus enabled auto-merge July 9, 2025 17:53

staskus merged commit 8d5bf6b into trunk Jul 9, 2025
13 checks passed

staskus deleted the woomob-755-woo-posbarcodes-i2-use-gamecontroller-framework-for branch July 9, 2025 18:10

staskus mentioned this pull request Aug 5, 2025

[WooPOS] [Barcodes] Support Barcode Scanning when VoiceOver is enabled #15978

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[Woo POS][Barcodes] i2 Use GameController framework for detecting scanner input #15877

[Woo POS][Barcodes] i2 Use GameController framework for detecting scanner input #15877

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staskus commented Jul 7, 2025 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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Description

Testing steps

Testing GameController Implementation (Feature Flag Enabled)

Testing information

Testing session

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staskus commented Jul 9, 2025

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