Generating QR Codes

Generating QR Codes

Once you have a Driftscape deeplink, you can encode the URL into a QR Code to print and post as you see fit. For example, you can display it in your visitor center, make stickers for POIs and businesses (you can make POI deeplinks to our new Automated Business Listing POIs as well), create an indoor tour with QR codes displayed beside exhibits, or include them on outdoor plaques for POIs and tour stops.

As long as your deeplink conforms to the format listed above, these deeplinks will work outside of the Driftscape app and inside the app from AR Mode.

There are a variety of services to create QR Codes, but some we recommend are:

• https://www.qrcode-monkey.com/

  • This is a paid service owned by https://bitly.com/

  • Their free version allows you to create non-dynamic QR codes, and include a logo image.

  • We don’t recommend using dynamic links with such services, since this will redirect to the deeplink, and may not work properly in some cases on mobile devices.

  • All the same, you can use dynamic deeplinks through a service like this to obtain tracking data for URL clicks. We do not guarantee the indirect dynamic deeplink will work with all providers.

• https://www.websiteplanet.com/webtools/free-qr-code-generator/

• Another free QR code generator, that has some good features.

• https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/efqrcode/id1242337058

  • This app, EFQRCode,  is available for iOS mobile and Mac OS.

  • This is truly a free app, that allows a lot of configurability on the QR Code generation, including error correction (choose at least M), icon inclusion, and watermarks.

  • While somewhat technical, this app works well and avoids ‘upsell’ since they do not provide or support dynamic URL links.

Some general rules when creating QR Codes:

• Use the short form abbreviations to shorten the deeplink URL as much as possible, since a larger URL will result in a much denser QR Code that may be hard for our apps to correctly analyze and open.

• Make sure the printed QR Code is at least 3” x 3” (10cm x 10cm), so that readers and the Driftscape AR mode can scan it properly. We recommend no smaller than 3.5” x 3.5”.

• Test your QR Code in both the Android and iOS apps, from AR Mode. You will have to hold the device parallel to the code, and probably as close as 14” to 16” (35 to 40 cm).

• Test the deeplink from an email client (or social media channel), on a mobile device and desktop browser. Confirm that Driftscape for Web behaves as expected.

QR Code generator spreadsheet

To avoid the hassles of creating your own deeplinks manually, we have created a special spreadsheet that simplifies the process for you:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Ivqr2KggdWBhqEI30u4vsKbnQq8902bNoTRfvLClPgo/edit#gid=0

Simply open this Google sheet in a browser, then from the File menu choose ‘Make a copy’ to create an editable version in your own Google account for further editing. Do not download as Excel, as some functions used in this spreadsheet may not work properly.

In the spreadsheet, first sample row, we see:

• This will open the map view in the mobile app, focus on the the tour, and open the callout for it:

• The actual generated deeplink URL is shown in column G of the spreadsheet:

https://driftscape.app.link/yHwwr9ciZtb?a=m&i=211652&t=This%20is%20a%20test%3A%20of%20a%20Toast%20Message%21

• Notice that the (optional) toast message in this case is URL encoded, to avoid problems using the URL in email, social media, and other channels.

• And, in Column F, we see a note that says that this deeplink is not fully supported in Driftscape for Web.

• The POI id is “211652”. We got this from the CMS:

• We could have used the POI UUID from the CMS, but that would make the URL longer:

• And finally, we can use the online QR code generator with this deeplink:

• The website we used is (free): https://www.qrcode-monkey.com/

• And the generated QR code is:

In the third row of the spreadsheet, we see this sample deeplink:

• This will open the actual tour detail page:

• And, the deeplink shown in Column G is:

https://driftscape.app.link/yHwwr9ciZtb?a=f&i=211652

• We can see in Column F that this deeplink is fully supported in Driftscape for Web.

• Here is the generated QR code for this deeplink: