title: How to get started reading data from magnetic card with a simple bi-direction swipe magnetic card reader?
body: <p>Let's say I have a USB magnetic card reader </p>
  
  <p>(<a href="http://image.ec21.com/image/szttce09/oimg_GC03950917_CA03950946/Triple_Track_USB_Magnetic_Credit_Card_Reader.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://image.ec21.com/image/szttce09/oimg_GC03950917_CA03950946/Triple_Track_USB_Magnetic_Credit_Card_Reader.jpg</a>)</p>
  
  <p>I am running windows 10 on my machine. All I want to do is read data from the magnetic card and use that data in a java Application. How can I do this ? I heard the java communications api is suitable for what I want. How exactly do I use this api or any other api to read data from the card reader and show that data in my java application.  Assume I have eclipse opened. Now what? Do I import the communications api ? If yes , what do I do next ? If you can give a simple example of how to do this it would be greatly appreciated. </p>