PHP ActiveX Requires Chilkat v11.7.0+

QR Code with Non-English Text (UTF-8 and ECI)

See more QR Code Examples

Demonstrates text outside ASCII. QrCode always stores text as UTF-8 bytes, which is what phones expect. A QR code can also say so explicitly with an ECI header: setting encoding.eci to 26 declares the bytes to be UTF-8, for readers that would otherwise assume another character set. The header costs a little space, and a few older readers do not understand it, so it is off by default. PHP ActiveX

<?php

$success = 0;

//  This example requires the Chilkat API to have been previously unlocked.
//  See Global Unlock Sample for sample code.

//  The text is "Gruesse aus Muenchen" written with u-umlaut and sharp s.  It is given here with
//  JSON escapes only so that this source is plain ASCII.  Decode turns the escapes into characters.
$sbText = new COM("Chilkat.StringBuilder");
$sbText->Append('Gr\u00fc\u00dfe aus M\u00fcnchen');
$sbText->Decode('json','utf-8');

$json = new COM("Chilkat.JsonObject");
$json->UpdateSb('payload.text',$sbText);
$json->UpdateString('output.path','qa_output/qr_utf8.png');
$json->UpdateBool('output.overwrite',1);
$json->UpdateString('output.return','none');

$fmt = new COM("Chilkat.Formats");
$jsonOut = new COM("Chilkat.JsonObject");
$success = $fmt->QrCode('generate',$json,$jsonOut);
if ($success == 0) {
    print $fmt->LastErrorText . "\n";
    exit;
}

//  17 characters, three of which take two bytes in UTF-8.
print 'characters: ' . $sbText->Length . "\n";
print 'bytes encoded: ' . $jsonOut->IntOf('symbols[0].payloadBytes') . "\n";
print 'ECI header: ' . $jsonOut->HasMember('symbols[0].selectedEncoding.eci') . "\n";

//  Without an ECI header (qa_output/qr_utf8.png):

//  

//  The same text with an ECI header declaring UTF-8.
$json->UpdateInt('encoding.eci',26);
$json->UpdateString('output.path','qa_output/qr_utf8_eci.png');
$success = $fmt->QrCode('generate',$json,$jsonOut);
if ($success == 0) {
    print $fmt->LastErrorText . "\n";
    exit;
}

print 'with encoding.eci = 26, ECI header: ' . $jsonOut->HasMember('symbols[0].selectedEncoding.eci') . ', value ' . $jsonOut->IntOf('symbols[0].selectedEncoding.eci') . "\n";

//  With the ECI header (qa_output/qr_utf8_eci.png).  Both scan as the same text:

//  

//  Sample output:

//  characters: 17
//  bytes encoded: 20
//  ECI header: False
//  with encoding.eci = 26, ECI header: True, value 26

?>