Restricted Circulation Number (RCN)

If you have products where the price depends on the weight of each item, and either the price or the weight are encoded in the GTIN, you are dealing with Restricted Circulation Numbers, or RCN, another subset of GTIN:

>>> print(biip.parse("2011122912346"))
ParseResult(
    value='2011122912346',
    gtin=Rcn(
        value='2011122912346',
        format=GtinFormat.GTIN_13,
        prefix=GS1Prefix(
            value='201',
            usage='Used to issue GS1 Restricted Circulation Numbers within a geographic region (MO defined)'
        ),
        company_prefix=None,
        item_reference=None,
        payload='201112291234',
        check_digit=6
    ),
    upc_error="Failed to parse '2011122912346' as UPC: Expected 6, 7, 8, or 12 digits, got 13.",
    sscc_error="Failed to parse '2011122912346' as SSCC: Expected 18 digits, got 13.",
    gs1_message_error="Failed to match '122912346' with GS1 AI (12) pattern
'^12(\\d{2}(?:0\\d|1[0-2])(?:[0-2]\\d|3[01]))$'."
)

In the example above, the number is detected to be an RCN, and an instance of Rcn, a subclass of Gtin, which may contain a few additional fields, is returned.

The rules for how to encode weight or price into an RCN varies between geographical regions. The national GS1 Member Organizations (MO) specify the rules for their region. Biip already supports a few of these rulesets, and you can easily add more if detailed documentation on the market's rules is available.

Because of the market variations, you must specify your geographical region for Biip to be able to extract price or weight from the RCN:

>>> from biip.rcn import RcnRegion
>>> config = biip.ParseConfig(rcn_region=RcnRegion.GREAT_BRITAIN)
>>> print(biip.parse("2011122912346", config=config))
ParseResult(
    value='2011122912346',
    gtin=Rcn(
        value='2011122912346',
        format=GtinFormat.GTIN_13,
        prefix=GS1Prefix(
            value='201',
            usage='Used to issue GS1 Restricted Circulation Numbers within a geographic region (MO defined)'
        ),
        company_prefix=None,
        item_reference='11122',
        payload='201112291234',
        check_digit=6,
        usage=RcnUsage.GEOGRAPHICAL,
        region=RcnRegion.GREAT_BRITAIN,
        price=Decimal('12.34'),
        money=Money('12.34', 'GBP')
    ),
    upc_error="Failed to parse '2011122912346' as UPC: Expected 6, 7, 8, or 12 digits, got 13.",
    sscc_error="Failed to parse '2011122912346' as SSCC: Expected 18 digits, got 13.",
    gs1_message_error="Failed to match '122912346' with GS1 AI (12) pattern
'^12(\\d{2}(?:0\\d|1[0-2])(?:[0-2]\\d|3[01]))$'."
)

The price and money fields contain the same data. The difference is that while price is a simple Decimal type, money also carries currency information. The money field is only set if the optional dependency py-moneyed is installed.

Learn more

To learn more about RCN, see the biip.rcn reference documentation.