Covid NZ QR Code Generator

Background

The official NZ COVID QR codes were available only to businesses that apply for them. This is all well and good, but what if you want to make your own, like the one at the top of this README? Well, now you can!

The NZ COVID Tracing app will not scan any QR code, it must be formatted in a specific way. Firstly, the QR code must contain a json string containing the following fields. Note that the app doesn't appear to verify any of these inputs. Some of the fields don't appear to do anything, but they will affect how the QR code looks.

Field	Meaning
gin	This is the global identifier number. This is something that businesses have to apply for. Anything can be entered for this and it will show up in the app
ver	Might be a revision number. Right now, it is c19:1 (COVID19:??). This is basically meaningless
typ	The type of scan. Every QR code I've seen has this set to entry
opn	The place name which shows up on the poster and when you scan the code. This would typically be a business's name
adr	The address. This also shows on the poster and can be viewed in the in-app diary

Running the code

A QR code can be generated by running the gen_qr_code.py script. This requires some libraries to run, which can be done with:

python3 -m venv .
. bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

After that is done, you can run it with:

python gen_qr_code.py

The code will prompt you for a few inputs:

• global location number: either enter your own value or press enter to accept the default
• place name: enter the name of the place, using \n to represent a new line
• address: enter the address of the place, using \n to represent a new line
• generate a poster: enter y (or simply press enter) to generate a poster, otherwise enter n to just save the code
• title: either enter the title for the poster or press enter to use the place name (with line breaks replaced with , )
• subtitle: either enter the subtitle for the poster or press enter to use the address (with line breaks replaced with , )

Scanning the QR code

It's no fun to generate a poster if you can't scan it, especially now that the NZ COVID Tracer app has been removed from app stores. Regular QR code scanners won't cut it either, as they won't actually decode the data stored in the code.

If you're running Android, you're in luck. The original COVID tracer app can be downloaded from here or here.

If you're running iOS, get an Android.

How it works

Coming soon...