Welcome to PDFTron. This guide will show you how to get started with a free trial of the WebViewer SDK with a basic TypeScript project using the declaration file using it to display a simple WebViewer element on a local server. Your free trial includes unlimited trial usage and support from solution engineers.

PDFTron now has a working beta TypeScript declaration file that you can use with your projects to reap the benefits of static type checking and autocomplete to improve the speed of your development process.

Get the TypeScript sample source code here

Prerequisites

• Node.js and NPM

Initial setup

1. Clone the webviewer-typescript-sample repository:

   git clone https://github.com/PDFTron/webviewer-typescript-sample.git

2. Enter the directory and run npm install:

   cd webviewer-typescript-sample
   npm install

   This will automatically download and extract the PDFTron WebViewer Package and other dependencies.

3. Use the following command to watch for changes in .ts files present in the src folder. If you make changes, it will automatically recompile the index.ts file again to produce a matching index.js file which the browser will use.

   npm run watch

   You may get some errors regarding 'object' and 'Promise' types but they can be safely ignored. The watch command will occupy a process.

You are now ready to run the sample or use more WebViewer APIs.

Sample overview

After initial setup, the webviewer-typescript-sample directory should be laid out like this:

webviewer-typescript-sample
├── LICENSE
├── package.json
├── package-lock.json
├── README.md
├── tsconfig.json
├── node_modules
│   ├── ...
├── public  
│   ├── lib
│   │    ├── ...
│   └── index.html
└── src
    ├── index.ts
    └── index.js

Notable files and directories include:

src/index.ts is also where the WebViewer API calls are placed (inside methods of the App class).

Run the sample

1. Run the application by executing the following in a new shell service provider window (while the previous one is still running):

   npm start

   Your app should look like this:

   

   Note: If your browser does not open automatically to open the WebViewer, navigate to localhost:3000 to see the project.

Use more WebViewer APIs

To call more WebViewer APIs, open index.ts in your favorite text editor and add the API calls to the callback for the WebViewer instantiation:

WebViewer({
    path: '../public/lib', // path to the PDFTron 'lib' folder on your server
    licenseKey: 'Insert commercial license key here after purchase',
    initialDoc: 'https://pdftron.s3.amazonaws.com/downloads/pl/webviewer-demo.pdf',
    // initialDoc: '/path/to/my/file.pdf',  // You can also use documents on your server
  }, document.getElementById('viewer'))
  .then(function(instance) {
    const { Core, UI } = instance;
    const { documentViewer, annotationManager, Annotations, Tools } = Core;
  });

For example, if you want to change the theme of the WebViewer to dark mode, you would add the following with the help of autocomplete and type intellisense in your IDE:

instance.UI.setTheme('dark');

Execute npm start if it isn't already running, and the theme of the viewer will change. Refresh your browser page if the server is already running to see your changes.

Next step

Guides Samples API docs