Make a QR Code generator (with data store function) with Python

Make a QR Code generator (with data store function) with Python

Some features of this Python App:

1. Read any csv files and save each row as a small single dataset into the QR Code

2. Generate these QR Code images with data saved in

3. QR Code images should be readable by a QR Code scanner (e.g. a mobile device.)

Dependencies to install (Some of them you might not happen to use):

Django==2.2.1
image==1.5.27
numpy==1.16.3
pandas==0.24.2
Pillow==6.0.0
PyQRCode==1.2.1
python-dateutil==2.8.0
pytz==2019.1
qrcode==6.1
six==1.12.0
sqlparse==0.3.0
xlrd==1.2.0

Before you start, make sure to install all the dependencies.

1. Make a simple SVG format QR Code with pyqrcode

It’s very straightforward to make a simple QR Code with Python module pyqrcode.

Let’s first start with import the module:

import pyqrcode

Let’s store a sample text data into the QR Code and generate this QR Code.

# Declare a variable called 'text'
text = "hey, there!"

Now we can embed this text data into a QR Code

# Pass the variable "text" into the parenthesis as the parameter:
image = pyqrcode.create(text)

Let’s now generate the QR Code image in SVG format with the sample text data saved in:

# scale represents the size of the image so that you can tweak this parameter until
# you have the ideal size for the image.

image.svg("QR.svg", scale="5")

Above code will generate a QR Code named as “QR.svg” in your current working directory. Any QR Code scanner, e.g. a smart phone, can scan this qr code and read the info “hey, there!”

2. Read data from a CSV file and write data into the QR Code

Let’s first take a look at the data of sample Data.csv file (in this case, we need a flagship Python data analysis library called pandas):

import pandas as pd
df = pd.read_csv("Data.csv")
df.head() # Read only first 5 rows into the pandas DataFrame

The idea is that our Python app can read each row as a single data record from this csv file and write this data record into one QR Code generation run.

We can iterate each row from this dataframe and save them into a new Python string. In order to do this, we can use the df.iterrows() method from Pandas.

# Call the iterrows() method from a df obejct.
# In this case, we also do tuple unpacking.
# because df.iterrows() render a tuple where the first indexed-element is the df row index
# and the second-indexed element is the special Pandas series obeject (excel-wise: a column)

for index, values in df.iterrows(): # Although, in this case we won't use 'index' variable

        # values is a pandas series and can be indexed like a Python dictionary.
        brand = values["Brand"]
        name = values["Name"]
        category = values["Category"]
        barcode = values["Barcode"]

        # Use Python f-String to embed the variables into a Python string.
        data = f'''

        Name: {name} \n
        Barcode: {barcode} \n
        Category: {category} \n
        Brand: {brand} \n
        '''

        # Write this text data into the QR Code.
        image = pyqrcode.create(data)

        # Finally name the generated QR codes with the 'name' and 'barcode' variables for being
        # unique.
        image.svg(f"{name}_{barcode}.svg", scale="5")

        # Print the text data for debugging purposes.
        print(data)

Let’s make this code more modular and wrap up everything shown in section 2 and make a new function:

import pyqrcode

import pandas as pd

def createQRCode():


    df = pd.read_csv("Data.csv")

    for index, values in df.iterrows():

        brand = values["Brand"]
        name = values["Name"]
        category = values["Category"]
        barcode = values["Barcode"]

        data = f'''

        Name: {name} \n
        Barcode: {barcode} \n
        Category: {category} \n
        Brand: {brand}
        '''
        image = pyqrcode.create(data)
        image.svg(f"{name}_{barcode}.svg", scale="5")
        print(data)

Run the function to generate the QR Codes from the CSV File.

createQRCode()