CocoaPods Integration for iOS

Prerequisites

• Xcode
• CocoaPods

Setup

1. Create a new Xcode Project. Call it pdfhello. For the purposes of this guide, select a single view application.

2. Create a new Podfile by running the following in the project directory pdfhello/:

   pod init

Integrating PDFTron SDK for your iOS application

This guide will use the latest versions of PDFNet.xcframework and Tools.xcframework. To do this, modify your PodFile to include the PDFNet pod:

target 'pdfhello' do
    use_frameworks!
    pod 'PDFNet', podspec: 'https://www.pdftron.com/downloads/ios/cocoapods/xcframeworks/pdfnet/latest.podspec'
end

Then run pod install in your project directory. You should be able to use PDFNet and Tools after this process.

You can find out more about other integration options for PDFTron SDK with CocoaPods here.

Add Required Permissions

PDFTron uses a select number AppStore permissions to allow certain functionality such as adding image stamps and detecting the Apple Pencil. Your app's plist must include the following keys (with whatever description is appropriate for your app), or it will be rejected from the AppStore.

<key>NSCameraUsageDescription</key>
<string>This will allow you to use the image from your camera.</string>
<key>NSPhotoLibraryAddUsageDescription</key>
<string>This will allow you to add images to your photo library.</string>
<key>NSPhotoLibraryUsageDescription</key>
<string>This will allow you to create signatures and annotations from images in your photo library.</string>
<key>NSBluetoothAlwaysUsageDescription</key>
<string>This will allow us to detect if an Apple Pencil is paired, enabling palm rejection and the ability to scroll with one finger while annotating.</string>
<key>NSBluetoothPeripheralUsageDescription</key>
<string>This will allow us detect if an Apple Pencil is paired, enabling palm rejection and the ability to scroll with one finger while annotating.</string>

Initialize PDFTron

Initialize PDFTron before you use any PDFTron related classes or methods. This only needs to be done once.

The best practice to do this is to use the optional application:willFinishLaunchingWithOptions: method in the AppDelegate class found in either the AppDelegate.swift or AppDelegate.m file in the left pane depending on your choice of language:

// In AppDelegate.swift
import UIKit
import PDFNet
@UIApplicationMain
class AppDelegate: UIResponder, UIApplicationDelegate {
    var window: UIWindow?
    //... Any methods already here
    func application(_ application: UIApplication, willFinishLaunchingWithOptions launchOptions:[UIApplication.LaunchOptionsKey: Any]?) -> Bool {
        PTPDFNet.initialize("Insert Commercial License Key Here After Purchase")
        return true
    }
}

While you are trialing PDFTron, you can pass any string to the initialize method. A string that is not a license key will enable demo mode, where all pages are lightly watermarked.

You can now use PDFTron SDK to view, annotate and edit documents .

More Integration Options

You have 4 options to explore while adding PDFTron SDK using CocoaPods for iOS:

The method used above in this guide, Option 1, is the standard way to install PDFTron SDK using CocoaPods.

Click on the option number to go to the PodFile code.

Option 1

For the latest release of bothPDFNet.xcframework and Tools.xcframework, add the following to your Podfile:

target '<Your-Target-Name>' do
  use_frameworks!
  pod 'PDFNet', podspec: 'https://www.pdftron.com/downloads/ios/cocoapods/xcframeworks/pdfnet/latest.podspec'
end

Then, run pod install.

Option 2

For a specific release of bothPDFNet.xcframework and Tools.xcframework, add the following to your Podfile:

target '<Your-Target-Name>' do
  use_frameworks!
  pod 'PDFNet', podspec: 'https://www.pdftron.com/downloads/ios/cocoapods/xcframeworks/pdfnet/9.0.2.77879.podspec'
end

Then, run pod install.

Option 3

For the latest release of PDFNet.xcframeworkonly (for if you are using a customized version of Tools.xcframework), add the following to your Podfile:

target '<Your-Target-Name>' do
  use_frameworks!
  pod 'PDFNet', podspec: 'https://www.pdftron.com/downloads/ios/cocoapods/xcframeworks/pdfnet-no-tools/latest.podspec'
end

Then, run pod install.

Option 4

For a specific release of PDFNet.xcframeworkonly (for if you are using a customized version of Tools.xcframework), add the following to your Podfile:

target '<Your-Target-Name>' do
  use_frameworks!
  pod 'PDFNet', podspec: 'https://www.pdftron.com/downloads/ios/cocoapods/xcframeworks/pdfnet-no-tools/9.0.2.77879.podspec'
end

Then, run pod install.

Note: CocoaPods distributes the dynamic framework only. If you wish to use the static framework, you will have to integrate it manually.

Next step

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