How to view document in Android with DocumentActivity

This section will show you how to open a document in a DocumentActivity. This is an AppCompatActivity which contains a PdfViewCtrlTabHostFragment2 and packages all the standard features used during document viewing. You can learn more in our document viewer overview .

1. The AndroidManifest.xml file needs to be updated to request permissions to allow DocumentActivity to function properly. You also need to add some attributes to the <application> tag as well as a new <activity> tag to define the DocumentActivity.

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
   <!-- Include existing attributes in manifest -->
   <manifest>
       <!-- Required permissions are added here -->
       <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET"/>
       <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECORD_AUDIO" />
   
       <!-- Add multidex support and enable largeHeap. 
            Also enable usesCleartextTraffic in application attributes if you are  
            working with HTTP files. If you are only working with HTTPS files, this is not required. -->
       <!-- Include existing attributes in application -->
       <application 
           android:name="androidx.multidex.MultiDexApplication"
           android:largeHeap="true"
           android:usesCleartextTraffic="false">
   
           <!-- Add license key in meta-data tag here. This should be inside the application tag. -->
           <!-- This is from the Integration stage-->
           <meta-data
               android:name="pdftron_license_key"
               android:value="${pdftronLicenseKey}"  />
   
           <!-- Document viewer activity declaration-->
           <activity 
               android:name="com.pdftron.pdf.controls.DocumentActivity"
               android:configChanges="keyboardHidden|orientation|screenSize|screenLayout|smallestScreenSize"
               android:windowSoftInputMode="adjustPan"
               android:theme="@style/PDFTronAppTheme"/>
       </application>
   </manifest>

   Storage Permission

   Please follow the latest Android best practices and guidelines.

   Read more: detailed description of permission requirements .

   If your app is targeting Android SDK version 28 or higher, you will need to add the android:usesCleartextTraffic="true" attribute in your application tag to open HTTP files in the viewer. If you are only working with HTTPS files, this is not required.

2. Import the following in your MainActivity.java file.

   import android.net.Uri;
   import java.io.File;
   import com.pdftron.pdf.config.ViewerConfig;
   import com.pdftron.pdf.controls.DocumentActivity;

3. Inside the onCreate method for your MainActivity class, add the following lines to open a demo pdf from URL.

   ViewerConfig config = new ViewerConfig.Builder().openUrlCachePath(this.getCacheDir().getAbsolutePath()).build();
   final Uri fileLink = Uri.parse("https://pdftron.s3.amazonaws.com/downloads/pl/PDFTRON_mobile_about.pdf");
   DocumentActivity.openDocument(this, fileLink, config);

   You can open documents using DocumentActivity in many ways.

Your app should look something like this:

You can explore the features of the viewer and also many customization options .

DocumentActivity can open documents from various resources including internal storage, URIs, web servers and the application's res folder.

You can open files from the these sources using the code below:

import android.net.Uri;
import java.io.File;
import com.pdftron.pdf.config.ViewerConfig;
import com.pdftron.pdf.controls.DocumentActivity;

// Set the cache location using the config to store the cache file
ViewerConfig config = new ViewerConfig.Builder().openUrlCachePath(this.getCacheDir().getAbsolutePath()).build();

// from internal storage
final Uri uri = Uri.fromFile(new File("myLocalFilePath"));
// from content uri
final Uri uri = Uri.parse("myContentUri");
// from http/https
final Uri uri = Uri.parse("myFileLink");
// from assets
final Uri uri = Uri.parse("file:///android_asset/my_file.pdf");

// intent builder
Intent intent = DocumentActivity.IntentBuilder.fromActivityClass(this, DocumentActivity.class)
        .withUri(uri)
        .usingConfig(config)
        .usingTheme(R.style.PDFTronAppTheme)
        .build();
startActivity(intent);

Customize