Dynamic QR Code – generator

Description

This plugin is a dynamic QR code generator

A dynamic QR code?
Yes, the core idea is that information associated with the QR code is handled by the plugin and not encoded inside the QR code itself: that’s, in short, the essence of dynamic QR codes.

In other words, Dynamic QR Code permits to change the information encoded in a QR code without having to modify the QR code itself.
Furthermore, the QR code scans are tracked and available for statistical analysis.

Let’s be plain with few simple examples:

SCENARIO: you want to store in a QR code the web page of the pharmacy in duty.
PROBLEM: the pharmacy changes at every shift, and you can’t (or don’t want to) rebuild and reprint the QR code every time.
SOLUTION: Dynamic QR Code lets you change the pharmacy web page URL without modifying the QR code.

SCENARIO: you want people will be redirected to your current promotion web page after scanning the QR codes that you distributed to your resellers.
PROBLEM: the page URL changes quite often for some reason (e.g. you want to promote different products without having to modify the very same web page continuously) but you don’t want to waist your time in rebuilding, reprinting and resending QR codes to your resellers.
SOLUTION: Dynamic QR Code lets you change the redirect URL to your current promotion page without modifying the QR code.

SCENARIO: you want to track the scans of your QR code to analyze data and get statistical information.
PROBLEM: there’s no easy way to track the activity of people who scan static QR codes.
SOLUTION: Dynamic QR Code automatically tracks the scans and let you download the data for statistical analysis.

SCENARIO: you want your customers to scan a QR code to view the menu of your restaurant.
PROBLEM: the menu changes every day of the week, so 7 different QR codes would be necessary to cover the week.
SOLUTION: Dynamic QR Code generates a single QR code that redirects your customers depending on the day of the week.

Kinds of scenario for dynamic QR codes

• You need a QR code with a link that can be modified without having to change the QR code.
• You need to know how many times your QR code has been scanned.
• You need a QR code that redirects users to different URLs depending on the date or on the day of the week.
• You need a web page that can be viewed only by scanning a QR code.
• You need a QR code that can be scanned a limited number of times.

Examples:

• You want to track when customers open your products: print on them a dynamic QR code for something appealing for the customers (e.g. a giveaway lottery, a discount coupon, etc.) and get the statistics.
• You want to provide additional product information through videos that can change from time to time: use a dynamic QR code that redirects to the current video.
• You want to measure your customers’ engagement in your physical stores: with dynamic QR codes you can track the users’ activity.
• You want to measure your marketing campaigns in the physical world: dynamic QR codes make you be able to perform it.
• You want to give information on your weekly program: use a dynamic QR code to show the program of the current day.
• You want to display a prize voucher only to people that enter in your shop(s) and scan a QR code.

See the online manual for details.

GETTING STARTED

From the Dynamic QR Code plugin console, create a new QR-Code item:

• enter a short description (something useful to you)
• enter a unique key, i.e. a sequence of characters that has never been used for another QR-Code
• set the redirect URL:
  • selecting a page/article of the WP website
  • entering a custom URL
• save the new QR-Code

Then use the QR-URL generated by the plugin to create the image of your QR code, or just download the image generated in the plugin page.

» Check the online manual for details «

Note
If you need to create QR-Codes with the same key, you have to activate the ‘Disable unique keys’ check box in the Settings page: in this case, identical keys will generate identical qr code images and the redirect URL will be chosen randomly or on the base of the conditions set in the QR-Code.

RANDOM REDIRECT
If you want users randomly redirected to a URL chosen among some:

• activate the ‘Disable unique keys’ check box in the Settings page
• create two or more QR-Codes with the same key and different URLs

Users will be redirected to a URL randomly drawn among the available ones (i.e. among the URLs of the valid QR-Codes with the same key of the scanned one).

Please note that the drawn procedure of URLs uses a pseudo-random generation of numbers. Therefore, do not use this feature to create true lotteries or gambling games.

DATE DEPENDENT REDIRECT
If you want users redirected to different URLs depending on the date:

• activate the ‘Disable unique keys’ check box in the Settings page
• create two or more QR-Codes with
  • the same key
  • different date interval of validity
  • different URL

The URL users will be redirected to will depend on which QR-Code will be valid at the scan date.

DAY OF THE WEEK DEPENDENT REDIRECT
If you want users redirected to different URLs depending on the day of the week:

• activate the ‘Disable unique keys’ check box in the Settings page
• create 7 QR-Codes with
  • the same key
  • different redirect URLs
• assign each QR-Code to a different day of the week

EXCEPTION DATE FOR A DAY OF THE WEEK DEPENDENT REDIRECT
Let’s say you want your users redirected on Easter differently respect on the usual URL for Sunday:

• activate the ‘Disable unique keys’ check box in the Settings page
• create a QR-Code that redirects to URL1 and assign it to Sunday (this will be the usual redirect)
• then create another QR-Code with
  • the same key
  • redirect set to URL2 (i.e. different from URL1)
  • activation date set on the date of Easter
  • priority checkbox activated

Users will be redirected to URL1 on every Sunday but on Easter, when they’ll be redirected to URL2.

» Check the online manual for more scenarios «

My FastAPP
If you wish to use your QR-Code with My FastAPP in order to track the single users’ scans, follow these instructions.

Dynamic vs Static QR code

STATIC QR CODE

• encoded information cannot be modified
• scans track procedures are all but straightforward

DYNAMIC QR CODE

• embedded information can be changed
• scans can be easily tracked

Statistics

QR code scans are logged and available for statistical analysis.

Enabling the My FastAPP options (from the Settings menu item), it’s possible to distinguish the activity of the various users by the User Key values.

Screenshots

FAQ

Is this plugin a QR code generator ?

Yes, Dynamic QR Code generates the image of your QR code.
Nevertheless, you can use an equivalent image created by any third party tool.

Is this plugin a free QR code generator ?

Yes, Dynamic QR Code is free.

How many dynamic QR codes can I generate ?

As many as you wish (and your WP site handles).

What is a dynamic QR code ?

Shortly, it’s a simple QR code with a redirection URL encoded in it.
That means that the information (the data read scanning the QR code) is located outside the QR code.
With Dynamic QR Code this information is memorized in your WordPress website, with the huge advantage that you can change it whenever you wish.

What is a static QR code ?

A QR code is defined static when the information associated with it is embedded in its code. Most QR codes are static.

Do dynamic QR codes expire ?

A static QR code can expire because the information you encoded in it may no longer be valid, so you need to rebuild and reprint it.
A dynamic QR code can expire in the same way, but (and that’s the huge difference) it can be brought back to life simply updating the information stored online.

Can I use a QR code image generated by another tool?

Yes, as long as you encode in the image the correct QR-URL.

Reviews

Good plugin with proper tracking and options

bartjan93 January 15, 2024

Works well loads of options to set validity (date, amount of scans etc) and to configure alternative actions in case the validity limits get reached. A good (visual) dashboard with statistics of QR per selected time period would be nice.

Almost there!

awjensen March 14, 2023 1 reply

This would be a fabulous plugin with some minor tweaks to the log screen. It needs to display the QR code description and provide count by QR code. I would even pay!

Great Solution for a simple QR code link tracker

jayquest216 February 25, 2023

It’s free and it works as expected. Bravo to the devs! I would prefer a bit more data in the scan log such as browser/OS and location, but I am very pleased with how it is working right away!

Excelent. Love it

cjnrluay9 January 3, 2023

All other options for dynamic QR codes were either paid or non existing. This was the only plugin I found that does all this directly in our Wordpress backend, and I do not have to deal with other sites and subscriptions. Very happy. I would even pay for it some reasonable yearly fee , if it helps to drive development and add new features. But already as it is, it is perfect.

Very easy for a website manager to use!

MarjoriesDaughter December 1, 2022

Today, I worked with a client to review and install this plugin. My client is very computer literate, but not a developer. It was easy for her to setup for the use they wanted with a few hints. It always makes me look good when I find a high quality plugin!

Excellent plugin

EvD November 16, 2022

This is a great QR plugin. Easy to use and customer support is excellent!

Contributors & Developers

Changelog

0.9.3

• Excluded the metabox nonce verification if an article has the type property different from ‘post’ or ‘page’
• Added a settings option to append a random key-value querystring to the redirect URL (cache problem)
• Fixed the ‘create new’ button link in the QR-Code edit page

0.9.2

• Added colors setting for QR code images
• Enabled the modification of length of the code embedded in the enhanced images
• Fixed a datetime issue when server and database have different timezones

0.9.1

• Added a device operating system condition
• Added a device browser accepted language(s) condition
• Added a sizeable white border to qr code image(s)

0.9.0

• Added time limits (they can combine with date limits)
• Added content hiding to users that do not scan a qr code
• Added a shortcode to display automatically a qr code image in a post/page
• Minor fixes and changes