Integrate Android PDF Library into Cordova

This guide will help you integrate a free trial of the Apryse Native Plugin for Android applications using Cordova. Your free trial includes unlimited trial usage and support from solution engineers.

Note: There are other approaches that can be used to integrate Apryse technology with Cordova. Please see this FAQ page to find out more about the relative strengths of each approach.

Get the Apryse Cordova source code

• Node.js and npm

• Cordova CLI

• Android Studio (The Eclipse IDE is not supported)

If you don't already have a Cordova codebase, start one. If you do, then make sure Android is added as a platform and skip to integration.

1. Create a new Cordova project called pdfhello

   cordova create pdfhello com.example.pdf pdfhello
   
    cd pdfhello

2. Add Android as a platform to build the Cordova application for.

   cordova platform add android

1. Add the pdftron-cordova plugin in your project directory.

   cordova plugin add https://github.com:PDFTron/pdftron-cordova.git

2. Navigate to pdfhello/platforms/android and add the following line in the gradle.properties file:

   android.useAndroidX=true
    android.enableJetifier=true
    PDFTRON_LICENSE_KEY=INSERT_COMMERCIAL_LICENSE_KEY_HERE_AFTER_PURCHASE

   Key can be left empty for a trial

3. Navigate to pdfhello/platforms/android/app/main/ and open AndroidManifest.xml with your favorite text editor.

   Change the activity theme to CustomAppTheme:

   -<activity android:name="MainActivity" android:theme="@android:style/Theme.DeviceDefault.NoActionBar">
   +<activity android:name="MainActivity" android:theme="@style/CustomAppTheme">

4. Navigate to pdfhello/platforms/android/app/main/com/example/pdf/ and open MainActivity.java with your favorite text editor. Change the base class for the main activity from CordovaActivity to CordovaAppCompatActivity:

   -public class MainActivity extends CordovaActivity {
   +public class MainActivity extends CordovaAppCompatActivity {

5. After the changes, you will need to call the following to build and run the project:

   First, in pdfhello directory call:

   cordova build android

   Then import the pdfhello/platforms/android folder into Android Studio, and run the project from Android Studio using the play button. You will see a message that says No Java files found that extend CordovaActivity. This message is okay to ignore because we're using CordovaAppCompatActivity.

   Note: When the project is first imported, Android Studio will complain about the minSdk. To resolve this, click Move minSdkVersion to build files and sync project in the error window.

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