Using Barcode Scanner for buying books in India

isbn.net.in is the easiest way to get book prices from all e-stores in India. Given an ISBN code it gives prices from almost all e-stores in India, Very useful. But if you want to check book prices on the go (specially in a physical book store), then it's not an easy. It's tedious to get ISBN from the book and then enter it on mobile. What if we combine everything into simple android app I thought. ISBN.net.in has JSON API anyway. But wait yet another android app? How many apps will I install?

I have Barcode Scanner installed already. It can read barcodes off the book and pass that to any url. There you go. All I need to do was attach the read ISBN code to URL.

//example
http://isbn.net.in/0142000280
//custom search url 
http://isbn.net.in/%s

1. Once you install the barcode scanner
2. Go to settings
3. Scroll down to custom search url and add
http://isbn.net.in/%s
4. Come back and scan the code from any book
5. Once it reads the code, click on custom search button
6. Voila!

Thanks to Swaroop for isbn.net.in and cost on kindle would be great :)

2 Responses

  1. Swaroop says:

    Great tip!

    Cost on kindle is not easy, let me see if I can give it a shot in the near future :)

  2. Veera says:

    This is a useful tip. I have the barcode scanner installed in my mobile and used it in my previous project. But never knew this options exists there.