Intelligent Mail Encoder Software

Encoder Design and Support

General Functions

The Intelligent Mail barcode encoder is designed to be integrated with any mailing application. It consists of a standardized API which allows any application to easily provide the information needed to generate the correct barcode for any given mail piece.

The Intelligent Mail barcode is designed to carry a payload of 31 digits, divided into an 11-digit routing code and a 20-digit tracking code. An Intelligent Mail barcode that encodes 31 digits would have the same length as, and only 35% taller than, an 11-digit POSTNET Code.

The USPS® document "Introducing 4-state Customer Barcode - An Alternative for Confirm® PLANET Code" provides additional information with regard to the adoption of Intelligent Mail barcode by the Postal Service. Detailed specifications of 4-State Customer Barcode, its encoding algorithms, and its placement within an address block can be found in Document USPS-B-3200, "4-State Customer Barcode Specifications".

Due to the diverse application environments used by USPS® customers and the large base of customers, a wide variety of language and platform support is provided, as described below.

Encoder Platforms Supported

The Intelligent Mail barcode Encoder is supported across most of the popular server operating systems and hardware platforms. There is also a version available for the Windows Office environment.

Support is included for the most commonly used programming languages in each operating system environment.

The following table shows the operating system and language combinations supported by the Intelligent Mail barcode Encoder software:

Table 1. Operating Systems and Languages: Requirements
Operating System C
Java
COBOL
PL/I
Assembler
MS Access
MS Excel
Visual Basic
RPG
z/OS, OS/390 and MVS x x x x x



z/VSE x
x x x



IBM i x x x




x
AIX x x






z/Linux on z/Series (RHEL and SLES) x x






Linux on Power
(32-bit and 64-bit) 		x x






Linux for Intel
(32-bit and 64-bit) 		x x






HP-UX on PA-Risc x x






HP-UX on Itanium x x






Oracle Solaris
(32-bit and 64-bit) 		x x






Programmer version for Windows
(32-bit and 64-bit) 		x x






MS Office version for Windows (32 and 64 bit)




x x

MS Windows Visual Basic






x
Mac OS X x x






Mac OS Desktop




x x

Current levels of all operating systems listed above are supported.

Note: Demo programs are provided for Windows to call the encoder from C# and C++.

Note: Mac OS Desktop support includes Microsoft Word, Excel, Apple iWorks Pages and Numbers.

Extensive testing and optimization of the encoder software has been completed for each supported platform.