[ios] How can I scan barcodes on iOS?

If you are developing for iOS >10.2 with Swift 4 then you can try my solution. I mixed up this and this tutorial and came up with a ViewController which scans a QR Code and print() it out. I also have a Switch in my UI to toggle the camera light, might be helpful as well. For now I only tested it on a iPhone SE, please let me know if it doesn't work on newer iPhones.

Here you go:

import UIKit
import AVFoundation

class QRCodeScanner: UIViewController, AVCaptureMetadataOutputObjectsDelegate {

    let captureSession: AVCaptureSession = AVCaptureSession()
    var videoPreviewLayer: AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer?
    let qrCodeFrameView: UIView = UIView()
    var captureDevice: AVCaptureDevice?

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        // Get the back-facing camera for capturing videos
        let deviceDiscoverySession = AVCaptureDevice.DiscoverySession(deviceTypes: [.builtInWideAngleCamera, .builtInDualCamera], mediaType: AVMediaType.video, position: .back)

        captureDevice = deviceDiscoverySession.devices.first
        if captureDevice == nil {
            print("Failed to get the camera device")
            return
        }

        do {
            // Get an instance of the AVCaptureDeviceInput class using the previous device object.
            let input = try AVCaptureDeviceInput(device: captureDevice!)

            // Set the input device on the capture session.
            captureSession.addInput(input)

            // Initialize a AVCaptureMetadataOutput object and set it as the output device to the capture session.
            let captureMetadataOutput = AVCaptureMetadataOutput()
            captureSession.addOutput(captureMetadataOutput)

            // Set delegate and use the default dispatch queue to execute the call back
            captureMetadataOutput.setMetadataObjectsDelegate(self, queue: DispatchQueue.main)
            captureMetadataOutput.metadataObjectTypes = [AVMetadataObject.ObjectType.qr]

            // Initialize the video preview layer and add it as a sublayer to the viewPreview view's layer.

            videoPreviewLayer = AVCaptureVideoPreviewLayer(session: captureSession)

            if let videoPreviewLayer = videoPreviewLayer {
                videoPreviewLayer.videoGravity = AVLayerVideoGravity.resizeAspectFill
                videoPreviewLayer.frame = view.layer.bounds
                view.layer.addSublayer(videoPreviewLayer)

                // Start video capture.
                captureSession.startRunning()

                if let hasFlash = captureDevice?.hasFlash, let hasTorch = captureDevice?.hasTorch {
                    if hasFlash && hasTorch {
                        view.bringSubview(toFront: bottomBar)
                        try captureDevice?.lockForConfiguration()
                    }
                }
            }

            // QR Code Overlay
            qrCodeFrameView.layer.borderColor = UIColor.green.cgColor
            qrCodeFrameView.layer.borderWidth = 2
            view.addSubview(qrCodeFrameView)
            view.bringSubview(toFront: qrCodeFrameView)

        } catch {
            // If any error occurs, simply print it out and don't continue any more.
            print("Error: \(error)")
            return
        }
    }

    // MARK: Buttons and Switch

    @IBAction func switchFlashChanged(_ sender: UISwitch) {
        do {
            if sender.isOn {
                captureDevice?.torchMode = .on
            } else {
                captureDevice?.torchMode = .off
            }
        }
    }

    // MARK: AVCaptureMetadataOutputObjectsDelegate

    func metadataOutput(_ output: AVCaptureMetadataOutput, didOutput metadataObjects: [AVMetadataObject], from connection: AVCaptureConnection) {

        // Check if the metadataObjects array is not nil and it contains at least one object.
        if metadataObjects.count == 0 {
            qrCodeFrameView.frame = CGRect.zero
            return
        }

        // Get the metadata object.
        let metadataObj = metadataObjects[0] as! AVMetadataMachineReadableCodeObject

        if metadataObj.type == AVMetadataObject.ObjectType.qr {
            // If the found metadata is equal to the QR code metadata then update the status label's text and set the bounds
            let barCodeObject = videoPreviewLayer?.transformedMetadataObject(for: metadataObj)
            qrCodeFrameView.frame = barCodeObject!.bounds

            print("QR Code: \(metadataObj.stringValue)")
        }
    }
}