There are two ways of adding customization to PDF.js Express Web Viewer, the first way is by accessing the PDF.js Express instance within your app and the second is by using a config file, which is a stand-alone JavaScript file executed inside PDF.js Express's iframe.
What option should I choose
We'll start with a simple example Web App and show where you can make your customizations.
<!-- index.html -->
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, user-scalable=no">
<script src="/lib/webviewer.min.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<div id="viewer"></div>
<script src="app.js"></script>
</body>
</html>
App level customization
Listen to events on the viewer element and call functions on the varructed PDF.js Express instance. Generally this is the recommended way to customize PDF.js Express within your app.
The only time where this will not work is if you are hosting the PDF.js Express lib folder on a different server from the rest of your app. This causes the iframe to not be accessible directly from your app because it's on a different origin.
// app.js
// Instantiate PDF.js Express
WebViewer({
path: 'lib',
licenseKey: 'Insert commercial license key here after purchase',
initialDoc: '/files/webviewer-demo-annotated.pdf'
}, document.getElementById('viewer'))
.then(instance => {
const {
documentViewer,
annotationManager,
Annotations
} = instance.Core;
instance.UI.disableElements(['searchButton']);
instance.UI.setTheme('dark');
documentViewer.setMargin(20);
documentViewer.on('documentLoaded', () => {
// Add customization here
// Draw rectangle annotation on first page
const rectangle = new Annotations.RectangleAnnotation();
rectangle.PageNumber = 1;
rectangle.X = 100;
rectangle.Y = 100;
rectangle.Width = 250;
rectangle.Height = 250;
rectangle.Author = annotationManager.getCurrentUser();
annotationManager.addAnnotation(rectangle);
annotationManager.drawAnnotations(rectangle.PageNumber);
});
documentViewer.on('fitModeUpdated', fitMode => {
console.log('fit mode changed');
});
});
Config file
You can organize your custom code in a separate JavaScript file that is executed in the context of the iframe. In this way, you have direct access to the iframe window and document, and you can use PDF.js Express's global methods directly. More details about config files can be found here.
Config files are recommended when you are hosting the PDF.js Express lib folder on a separate server from your application. Since the config file is executed directly in the iframe there are no cross origin issues.
// app.js
// Instantiate PDF.js Express
WebViewer({
path: 'https://myotherserver.com/webviewer/lib',
licenseKey: 'Insert commercial license key here after purchase'
initialDoc: '/files/webviewer-demo-annotated.pdf',
config: 'config.js' // path/to/your/config.js
}, document.getElementById('viewer'));
// config.js executed inside the iframe
instance.UI.addEventListener(instance.UI.Events.VIEWER_LOADED, () => {
// documentViewer is a global inside the config file
const annotManager = documentViewer.getAnnotationManager();
// Add customization here
documentViewer.setMargin(20);
documentViewer.on('fitModeUpdated', fitMode => {
console.log('fit mode changed');
});
instance.UI.disableElement('searchButton');
instance.UI.setTheme('dark');
});
instance.UI.addEventListener(instance.UI.Events.DOCUMENT_LOADED, () => {
const annotManager = documentViewer.getAnnotationManager();
// Add customization here
// Draw rectangle annotation on first page
// "Annotations" can be directly accessed since we're inside the iframe
const rectangle = new instance.Core.Annotations.RectangleAnnotation();
rectangle.PageNumber = 1;
rectangle.X = 100;
rectangle.Y = 100;
rectangle.Width = 250;
rectangle.Height = 250;
rectangle.Author = annotManager.getCurrentUser();
annotManager.addAnnotation(rectangle);
annotManager.drawAnnotations(rectangle.PageNumber);
});
