Why I cannot decode QR codes in Javascript?

Question

I am developing angular application and trying to decode image with QR code on client side only and facing with next errors.

I have next flow:

1. User uploads image.
2. I decode qr code from image.

<input type="file" name="file" id="file" accept="image/*"(change)="qrCodeUploaded($event.target.files)"/>

I have tried next libraries:

1. https://github.com/zxing-js/library

  qrCodeUploaded(files: FileList): void {
    const fileReader = new FileReader();
    const codeReader = new BrowserQRCodeReader();
    fileReader.readAsDataURL(files[0]);

    fileReader.onload = (e: any) => {
        var image = document.createElement("img");
        image.src = e.target.result;
        setTimeout(() => codeReader.decodeFromImage(image,  e.target.result).then(res => console.log(res)), 100);
    };
  }

Works for some of qr codes, but issues on mobile. If you will take a photo of QR code with your phone, it will be not decoded. So for mobile you will need to implement video.

2. https://github.com/cozmo/jsQR

  qrCodeUploaded(files: FileList): void {
    const fileReader = new FileReader();
    fileReader.readAsArrayBuffer(files[0]);
    fileReader.onload = (e: any) => {
      console.log(new Uint8ClampedArray(e.target.result));
      console.log(jsQR(new Uint8ClampedArray(e.target.result), 256, 256));
    };
  }

I get next error for any QR images I upload:

core.js:15714 ERROR Error: Malformed data passed to binarizer.
    at Object.binarize (jsQR.js:408)
    at jsQR (jsQR.js:368)

gist link: https://gist.github.com/er-ant/b5c75c822eb085e70035cf333bb0fb55

Please, tell me what I am doing wrong and propose some solution for QR codes decoding. Open for any thoughts :)

Answer 1

For second library I missed that it expects ImageData and I pass Binary Data.

Thus, we have 3 solutions how to convert Binary Data to ImageData:

1. Use createImageBitmap Kaiido solution with some updates, as proposed in comments doesn't work.

qrCodeUploadedHandler(files: FileList): void {
  const file: File = files[0];

  createImageBitmap(files[0])
    .then(bmp  => {
      const canvas = document.createElement('canvas');

      const width: number = bmp.width;
      const height: number = bmp.height;
      canvas.width = bmp.width;
      canvas.height = bmp.height;

      const ctx = canvas.getContext('2d');

      ctx.drawImage(bmp, 0, 0);
      const qrCodeImageFormat = ctx.getImageData(0,0,bmp.width,bmp.height);
      const qrDecoded = jsQR(qrCodeImageFormat.data, qrCodeImageFormat.width, qrCodeImageFormat.height);
    });
}

2. Get ImageData from canvas.

qrCodeUploadedHandler(files: FileList): void {
  const file: File = files[0];
  const fileReader: FileReader = new FileReader();
  fileReader.readAsDataURL(files[0]);

  fileReader.onload = (event: ProgressEvent) => {
    const img: HTMLImageElement = new Image();
    img.onload = () => {
      const canvas: HTMLCanvasElement = document.createElement('canvas');
      const width: number = img.width;
      const height: number = img.height;

      canvas.width = width;
      canvas.height = height;

      const canvasRenderingContext: CanvasRenderingContext2D = canvas.getContext('2d');
      console.log(canvasRenderingContext);

      canvasRenderingContext.drawImage(img, 0, 0);

      const qrCodeImageFormat: ImageData = canvasRenderingContext.getImageData(0, 0, width, height);

      const qrDecoded = jsQR(qrCodeImageFormat.data, qrCodeImageFormat.width, qrCodeImageFormat.height);
      canvas.remove();
    };
    img.onerror = () => console.error('Upload file of image format please.');
    img.src = (<any>event.target).result;
}

3. You can parse images with png.js and jpeg-js libraries for ImageData.