Get started with the Apryse Server SDK Node.js PDF library integration

You'll get started with our samples to see the output you can create when you integrate the Apryse Server SDK into your Node.js projects. You'll also create a project and integrate the Server SDK into your Node.js projects, using the macOS platform.

Before you start:

• Install Visual Studio Code (or your preferred application) to write, edit, and debug source code.
• Install Node.js and npm on macOS to use as your runtime environment and package manager. We recommend using the latest Active LTS version of Node.js.
• Get your Apryse trial key.

In this section, you can download and run the OfficeToPDFTest PDFNet sample module, which demonstrates the SDK's document-conversion capabilities. Upon successful completion, you can convert a DOCX document to a PDF file while leveraging the MS Office-to-PDF conversion API. You can use this module as a reference implementation when integrating similar document-conversion functionality into your own applications. By running the sample, you can quickly:

• Verify the capabilities.
• Understand how to interact with the MS Office to Conversion PDF API.
• Use it as a reference for integrating similar functionality into your own application.

1. Open your macOS terminal and enter the following and press Enter to install the Apryse Node.js PDF library for macOS (for these steps we're installing to this location, but you can install the library to your project directory):

1npm i @pdftron/pdfnet-node

The packages are added:

Install the Node.js PDF library.

2. Enter the following and press Enter to install the pdfnet-node-samples (they are not included in the pdfnet-node package above and must be downloaded separately):

1npm i @pdftron/pdfnet-node-samples

The samples are installed:

Install the pdfnet-node-samples.

At the terminal, type exit and press Enter.

Before running the sample, you need to add your license key to the LicenseKey.cs file.

3. Navigate to: home/node_modules/@pdftron/pdfnet-node-samples/LicenseKey.js, right-click and select Open With > Visual Studio Code to open.

Open the LicenseKey.js file.

4. Scroll down to the line containing const LicenseKey = ‘YOUR_PDFTRON_LICENSE_KEY’; and replace the words in quotes with the copy of your trial license key you generated when you completed the Prerequisites instructions above. Do not change any other information in this file. Save your changes and close the file.

Add your license key.

5. Navigate to: home/node_modules/@pdftron/pdfnet-node-samples/OfficeToPDFTest, right-click, and select New Terminal at Folder. The macOS terminal opens.

Open the OfficeToPDFTest sample.

6. From the project directory, in the terminal, enter the following and press Enter to run the sample:

1node OfficeToPDFTest.js

The sample runs:

Run the OfficeToPDFTest sample.

When you run the node OfficeToPDFTest.js command, the sample code loads an Office document, converts the Office document to PDF, saves the resulting PDF, and outputs status messages to the console. For more details, you can look at additional OfficeToPDF sample code and the Convert MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) to PDF overview.

Once the sample has finished running, you will see Done in the terminal.

7. In the terminal, type exit, press Enter, and close the terminal window.

8. Navigate to: home/node_modules/@pdftron/pdfnet-node-samples/TestFiles/Output. You will see three output PDF files (Fishermen.pdf, the_rime_of_the_ancient_mariner.pdf, and the factsheet_Arabic.pdf):

Navigate to the Output folder.

9. Open the PDF files to see the converted output. You have successfully run the OfficeToPDFTest conversion sample!

Open the PDF files to view the converted output.

This section provides steps to create a simple Node.js project that uses the Apryse SDK and the PDFNet library to programmatically generate a blank PDF document. With these steps, you can learn how to set up your environment, import the required libraries, and run a script that produces a valid PDF file—all without manual intervention. This example provides a practical foundation for more advanced document‑generation workflows.

1. Navigate to the Documents folder and create a New Folder.
2. Enter the folder name, NewApryseProject.
3. Right-click on the NewApryseProject folder and select NewTerminal at Folder.
4. From the project directory, in the terminal, enter the following and press Enter to initialize a new Node.js project and create a package.json file with default values.

1npm init -y

A new package.json file is created:

Create a new Node.js project.

5. In the terminal, type exit, press Enter, and close the window.

1. Open Visual Studio Code, select File >Open Folder.. . Navigate to Documents > NewApryseProject and click Open.

Open Node.js folder.

2. From the File menu, select NewTextFile and name it index.js.

3. Copy the following code and paste it into the index.js file to create a blank PDF page.

1console.log("Hello World from Node.js!");
2
3const { PDFNet } = require('@pdftron/pdfnet-node'); // you may need to set up NODE_PATH environment variable to make this work.
4
5const main = async () => {
6  const doc = await PDFNet.PDFDoc.create();
7  const page = await doc.pageCreate();
8  doc.pagePushBack(page);
9  doc.save('blank.pdf', PDFNet.SDFDoc.SaveOptions.e_linearized);
10};
11
12// add your own license key as the second parameter, e.g. in place of 'YOUR_LICENSE_KEY.
13PDFNet.runWithCleanup(main, 'YOUR_LICENSE_KEY')
14  .catch((error)=> {
15    console.log('Error: ' + JSON.stringify(error));
16  })
17  .then(()=> {
18    PDFNet.shutdown();
19  });

Keep in mind the following about the code above:

• The system logs a startup message.
• The program imports the Node.js SDK.
• The script defines an async main function that builds the PDF.
• The PDFNet engine runs with cleanup and license initialization.
• The program logs any errors.
• The script releases PDFNet resources and shuts down the engine.

4. Scroll down to the line containing PDFNet.runWithCleanup(main, ‘YOUR_PDFTRON_LICENSE_KEY’) and replace the words in quotes with the copy of your trial license key.

Add your trial license key.

5. Save your changes and close the file.

6. You have successfully added the Apryse Server SDK to your Node.js project!

1. Navigate to the Documents folder. Select the NewApryseProject folder, right-click and select NewTerminal at Folder.
2. From the project directory, in the terminal, enter the following, then press Enter:

1node index.js

The sample code executes, creates a blank PDF page, and displays the message, “Hello World!”

The sample code runs.

3. Exit out of the terminal and navigate to the Documents > NewApryseProject folder.

4. Open the blank.pdf which you created by integrating the Apryse Server SDK!

Now that you have successfully run an OfficeToPDFTest sample and integrated the Apryse Server SDK Node.js PDF Library into your application, you can try out 50+ samples depending on your needs.

Try out additional samples.

5. To try additional samples, go to section 1. Run a sample > step5 above and choose another sample to run.