Install StepVane and Build Your First Barcode App
Walk from a fresh Studio to a first working app: install steps, a two-field app, publish, pair a phone, scan, and see the record in Studio.
What you will learn
- How StepVane is installed and what you see on first launch
- Create an app with the New app wizard and add Item and Quantity fields
- Publish the app and pair a phone with the Pairing code and Server address
- Scan on the phone and see the record arrive in Records
Transcript
In this guide you will install StepVane, build your first app, and pair a phone with it. The installer itself is not shown, but we describe each step. Then everything else is recorded in the real Studio.
StepVane has two parts. Studio is where you build apps, on a Windows PC. Capture is the app on the handheld. To install Studio, download the Windows installer from the StepVane download page and run it. It installs for the current Windows user, so it needs no administrator rights, and it adds a StepVane shortcut to the Desktop and the Start menu. Launch StepVane, and Studio opens straight away on the Apps page, with no sign up and no password. This page is what you see. The Windows PC that runs Studio is also the server, so your phones will connect to it over your own network.
Near the top, the Starter apps are ready-made examples. For your first app, press New app. Type the name workers will see on the phone, for example Dock Scanner, and press Next. Step two asks what the phone does. You can tick Receiving, Picking or Count, or leave Blank ticked. Press Create blank app.
Studio opens in Build. The app starts with one session, called Main, and one page. Under Add a field, click Barcode or Scan, and give the field the label Item. Then add a Number field, and label it Quantity. The phone preview on the right shows what the worker will see.
A phone can only run a published app. Open Publish on the left. The Checklist lists anything that needs fixing before you publish, and here it says Nothing to fix. Press Publish 1.0.0. Studio confirms that version 1.0.0 is published, and every paired phone will download it the next time it syncs.
Now the phone. Open Devices. No device is paired yet. Under Get the Capture app, Studio explains how to install Capture on the handheld: the Android app comes as an A P K file from your administrator, and Studio offers a download link and a Q R code when the app is included. In this build it is not included, so Studio gives the address of the browser version of Capture instead, and that is what we use here.
Press Show pairing code. Studio shows a Q R code, a Pairing code, and the Server address. They work once, and expire after ten minutes. Studio also warns that a phone cannot reach the address localhost. On your own PC it shows the address of the PC on your network instead. On a real handheld, open Capture, tap Scan Q R code, and point the camera at the screen. A phone with no camera uses Pair with address instead: it types the name of the device, the Server address, and the Pairing code, and taps Pair device.
The phone opens the app it downloaded, with the Item and Quantity fields you just built. And in Studio, the Devices list on the left now shows Dock handheld 1, paired with Dock Scanner.
Now capture something. In the Item field, scan a barcode with the scanner, or the camera, or type it. Here we type the item number one zero one one, and press Enter. Type a Quantity of twelve, and tap Save and continue. The record is saved on the phone and uploads on its own.
Back in Studio, open Records. The row has arrived: the item, the quantity, the device that captured it, and the time. From here you can search, filter, correct a record, or download it as a C S V or Excel file.
That is the whole path. Install StepVane, build an app, publish it, pair a phone, and scan. Next, add more fields, buttons and workflows, and send the records on to your database or your spreadsheets.
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