How to Handle Errors and Debug Barcode Operations in C#

using IronBarCode;
using IronBarCode.Exceptions;

// Success path: valid file present on disk
string filePath = "scanned-invoice.png";
// Failure path: file does not exist → caught by FileNotFoundException below
// string filePath = "warehouse-labels.pdf";

try
{
    BarcodeResults results = BarcodeReader.Read(filePath);
    foreach (BarcodeResult result in results)
    {
        // Print the detected symbology and decoded value for each barcode found
        Console.WriteLine($"[{result.BarcodeType}] {result.Value}");
    }
}
catch (IronBarCodePdfPasswordException ex)
{
    // PDF is encrypted — supply the password via PdfBarcodeReaderOptions before retrying
    Console.Error.WriteLine($"PDF requires password: {filePath} — {ex.Message}");
}
catch (IronBarCodeFileException ex)
{
    // File is present but corrupted, locked, or in an unsupported format
    Console.Error.WriteLine($"Cannot read file: {filePath} — {ex.Message}");
}
catch (FileNotFoundException ex)
{
    // Missing files throw FileNotFoundException, not IronBarCodeFileException
    Console.Error.WriteLine($"File not found: {filePath} — {ex.Message}");
}
catch (IronBarCodeNativeException ex) when (ex.Message.Contains("DLL"))
{
    // The when filter routes only missing-DLL errors here; other native exceptions
    // fall through to the IronBarCodeException block below
    Console.Error.WriteLine($"Missing native dependency: {ex.Message}");
}
catch (IronBarCodeException ex)
{
    // Base catch for any IronBarcode-specific error not matched by the blocks above
    Console.Error.WriteLine($"IronBarcode error: {ex.GetType().Name} — {ex.Message}");
}

using IronBarCode;

string filePath = "scanned-invoice.png";

// Configure the reader to narrow the search to specific symbologies and use
// a thorough scan pass — narrows false positives and improves decode accuracy
var options = new BarcodeReaderOptions
{
    ExpectBarcodeTypes = BarcodeEncoding.Code128 | BarcodeEncoding.QRCode, // limit scan to known formats
    Speed = ReadingSpeed.Detailed,      // slower but more thorough — use ExtremeDetail for damaged images
    ExpectMultipleBarcodes = true       // scan the full image rather than stopping at the first match
};

BarcodeResults results = BarcodeReader.Read(filePath, options);

// An empty result is not an exception — it means no barcode matched the configured options
if (results == null || results.Count == 0)
{
    // Log the configured options alongside the warning so the cause is immediately actionable
    Console.Error.WriteLine($"[WARN] No barcodes found in: {filePath}");
    Console.Error.WriteLine($"  ExpectedTypes: {options.ExpectBarcodeTypes}");
    Console.Error.WriteLine($"  Speed: {options.Speed}");
    Console.Error.WriteLine($"  Action: Retry with ReadingSpeed.ExtremeDetail or broaden ExpectBarcodeTypes");
}
else
{
    foreach (BarcodeResult result in results)
    {
        // Points contains the four corner coordinates of the barcode in the image;
        // use the first corner as a representative position indicator
        string pos = result.Points.Length > 0 ? $"{result.Points[0].X:F0},{result.Points[0].Y:F0}" : "N/A";
        Console.WriteLine($"[{result.BarcodeType}] {result.Value} "
            + $"(Page: {result.PageNumber}, Position: {pos})");
    }
}

using IronBarCode;

// Enable IronBarcode's built-in logging — set BEFORE any read/write calls
// LoggingModes.All writes both debug output and file-level diagnostics
IronSoftware.Logger.LoggingMode = IronSoftware.Logger.LoggingModes.All;
IronSoftware.Logger.LogFilePath = "ironbarcode-debug.log"; // path is relative to the working directory

// All subsequent operations will write internal processing steps to the log file:
// image pre-processing stages, format detection attempts, and native interop calls
var options = new BarcodeReaderOptions
{
    Speed = ReadingSpeed.Detailed,
    ExpectBarcodeTypes = BarcodeEncoding.All  // scan for every supported symbology
};

BarcodeResults results = BarcodeReader.Read("problem-scan.tiff", options);
Console.WriteLine($"Read complete. Results: {results.Count}. See ironbarcode-debug.log for details.");

using IronBarCode;
using System.Diagnostics;

// Lightweight wrapper that adds structured JSON observability to every read call.
// Call this in place of BarcodeReader.Read wherever elapsed-time and status logging is needed.
BarcodeResults ReadWithDiagnostics(string filePath, BarcodeReaderOptions options)
{
    var sw = Stopwatch.StartNew(); // start timing before the read so setup overhead is included
    try
    {
        BarcodeResults results = BarcodeReader.Read(filePath, options);
        sw.Stop();
        // Emit a structured success entry to stdout — pipe to Fluentd, Datadog, or CloudWatch
        Console.WriteLine($"{{\"file\":\"{filePath}\",\"status\":\"ok\","
            + $"\"count\":{results.Count},\"elapsed_ms\":{sw.ElapsedMilliseconds}}}");
        return results;
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        sw.Stop();
        // Emit a structured error entry to stderr with exception type, message, and elapsed time
        Console.Error.WriteLine($"{{\"file\":\"{filePath}\",\"status\":\"error\","
            + $"\"exception\":\"{ex.GetType().Name}\",\"message\":\"{ex.Message}\","
            + $"\"elapsed_ms\":{sw.ElapsedMilliseconds}}}");
        throw; // rethrow so the caller's catch blocks still handle the exception normally
    }
}

using IronBarCode;
using IronBarCode.Exceptions;
using System.Diagnostics;

// Enable built-in logging for the entire batch run so internal processing steps
// are captured in the log file alongside the per-file console output
IronSoftware.Logger.LoggingMode = IronSoftware.Logger.LoggingModes.All;
IronSoftware.Logger.LogFilePath = "batch-run.log";

// Collect all files in the directory — SearchOption.TopDirectoryOnly skips subdirectories
string[] files = Directory.GetFiles("scans/", "*.*", SearchOption.TopDirectoryOnly);

var options = new BarcodeReaderOptions
{
    Speed = ReadingSpeed.Balanced,                                    // balances throughput vs accuracy
    ExpectBarcodeTypes = BarcodeEncoding.Code128 | BarcodeEncoding.QRCode, // limit to known formats
    ExpectMultipleBarcodes = true                                     // scan each file fully
};

// Three outcome counters: success (decoded), empty (read OK but no barcode found), fail (exception)
int successCount = 0;
int failCount = 0;
int emptyCount = 0;
var errors = new List<(string File, string Error)>(); // per-file error context for root cause analysis
var sw = Stopwatch.StartNew();

foreach (string file in files)
{
    try
    {
        BarcodeResults results = BarcodeReader.Read(file, options);

        // Empty result is not an exception — the file was read but contained no matching barcode
        if (results == null || results.Count == 0)
        {
            emptyCount++;
            errors.Add((file, "No barcodes detected")); // record so caller can adjust options
            continue;
        }

        foreach (BarcodeResult result in results)
        {
            Console.WriteLine($"{Path.GetFileName(file)} | {result.BarcodeType} | {result.Value}");
        }
        successCount++;
    }
    catch (IronBarCodePdfPasswordException)
    {
        // PDF is password-protected — supply password via PdfBarcodeReaderOptions to recover
        failCount++;
        errors.Add((file, "Password-protected PDF"));
    }
    catch (IronBarCodeFileException ex)
    {
        // File is corrupted, locked, or in an unsupported image format
        failCount++;
        errors.Add((file, $"File error: {ex.Message}"));
    }
    catch (FileNotFoundException ex)
    {
        // File was in the directory listing but deleted before the read completed (race condition)
        failCount++;
        errors.Add((file, $"File not found: {ex.Message}"));
    }
    catch (IronBarCodeException ex)
    {
        // Catch-all for any other IronBarcode-specific errors not handled above
        failCount++;
        errors.Add((file, $"{ex.GetType().Name}: {ex.Message}"));
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        // Unexpected non-IronBarcode error — log the full type for investigation
        failCount++;
        errors.Add((file, $"Unexpected: {ex.GetType().Name}: {ex.Message}"));
    }
}

sw.Stop();

// Summary report — parse failCount > 0 in CI/CD to set a non-zero exit code
Console.WriteLine("\n--- Batch Summary ---");
Console.WriteLine($"Total files:    {files.Length}");
Console.WriteLine($"Success:        {successCount}");
Console.WriteLine($"Empty reads:    {emptyCount}");
Console.WriteLine($"Failures:       {failCount}");
Console.WriteLine($"Elapsed:        {sw.Elapsed.TotalSeconds:F1}s");

if (errors.Any())
{
    Console.WriteLine("\n--- Error Details ---");
    foreach (var (errorFile, errorMsg) in errors)
    {
        Console.Error.WriteLine($"  {Path.GetFileName(errorFile)}: {errorMsg}");
    }
}