quick barcode generation in Rails

gistfile1.rb

# put into your Gemfile

gem 'chunky_png'
gem 'barby', :require => ['barby', 'barby/outputter/chunky_png_outputter']

index.haml

%p
  = image_tag(@barcode_path)
  %br
  %span.barcode_numer&= @obj.barcode_number

your_controller.rb

class YourController < ApplicationController
  def index
    @obj = # some useful object
    # ... more code ...
    @barcode_path = url_for(:action => :barcode, :number => @obj.barcode_number, :type => @obj.barcode_type, :only_path => true)

  def barcode
    case params[:type]
    when "code39"
      gen = Barby::Code39.new(params[:number])
    # supporting more barcode types is similarly trivial
    else
      raise "unknown barcode type"
    end

    send_data gen.to_png(:height => 50), :type => "image/png", :disposition => "inline"
  end
end