Integrate iOS PDF library with Cordova

This project is no longer in development. If you are looking for cross-platform solution, check out React Native or Flutter. If you are looking to add to your current Cordova/Ionic project, check out the WebViewer sample.

This guide will help you integrate a free trial of the Apryse Native Plugin for iOS 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.

Prerequisites

• Node.js and npm
• Cordova CLI
• Xcode
• Apryse iOS SDK

Download the SDK

Download

Shell

Take note of the location of your `PDFNet.dmg` download.

No trial license key required.

The trial of Apryse Mobile SDK does not require a trial key. A commercial license key is required for use in a production environment. Please contact sales to purchase a commercial key or if you need any other license key assistance.

Keep your license keys confidential.

License keys are uniquely generated. Please make sure that it is not publicly available (e.g. in your public GitHub).

Setup

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

1. Create a new Cordova project called pdfhello

Shell

cordova create pdfhello com.example.pdf pdfhello

 cd pdfhello

1. Add iOS as a platform to build the Cordova application for.

Shell

cordova platform add ios

Integrate Apryse Native Plugin into your Cordova Application

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

Shell

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

1. From your PDFNet.dmg download, copy the /Lib/ folder into pdfhello/platforms/ios/pdfhello/
2. Open the project in Xcode. You can do this by double-clicking the pdfhello/platforms/ios/pdfhello.xcodeproj file.
3. Select the project in the left pane and go to the General tab. Scroll down to find the Embedded Binaries section. Here, add Lib/Tools/Tools.framework and Lib/Framework-dynamic.PDFNet.framework from the Lib/ folder you copied into your project. You can do this by dragging them in from Finder or by clicking the + sign to browse your files.

1. Go to the Build Phases tab and click on the + button to add a New Run Script Phase. Copy and paste the following into the shell command:This will ensure invalid slices are striped from the framework before being submitted to the app store (a longstanding Xcode bug).

Bash

bash "$BUILD_PRODUCTS_DIR/$FRAMEWORKS_FOLDER_PATH/PDFNet.framework/strip-framework.sh"

Next step

View a document