Document Collaboration Showcase Demo Code Sample

Requirements

These packages are required to use these features in production. Trial keys have unlimited access to all features

Web SDKLive demo

Easily integrate real-time document collaboration into your application with synchronized user permissions, annotations, comments, and status updates.

This demo allows you to:

• Add users and their permissions to edit documents. In this sample: "Ruby" and "Cedrick".

• Display two viewers that load a document from the same URL.

• Add edits on one document and view the same on the other document:

  • Annotations

  • Shapes

  • Comments

  • Status icons

Implementation steps To add real-time document collaboration with WebViewer:

Step 1: Choose your preferred web stack. Step 2: Add the ES6 JavaScript sample code provided in this guide.

Once you generate your license key, it will automatically be included in your sample code below.

index.js

// ES6 Compliant Syntax
// GitHub Copilot v1.0, Claude Sonnet 4, October 28, 2025
// File: index.js

import WebViewer, { Core } from '@pdftron/webviewer';

// Document Collaboration Demo
// This code demonstrates how to embed real-time document collaboration in WebViewer, supporting user permissions and syncing of annotation data.

const viewers = [
    { elementId: 'leftPanel' },
    { elementId: 'rightPanel' },
];

// Example users for each viewer
// Ruby is using the left viewer, Cedrick is using the right viewer
const userList = {
    Ruby: { permissions: 'user', canView: true, hidden: [] },
    Cedrick: { permissions: 'user', canView: true, hidden: [] },
};

// This will store WebViewer instances for each user
let userInstances = {
    Ruby: null,
    Cedrick: null,
};

// URL and history management
const searchParams = new URLSearchParams(window.location.search);
const history = window.history || window.parent.history || window.top.history;

// License key for WebViewer and PDF worker
const licenseKey = 'YOUR_WEBVIEWER_LICENSE_KEY';

// Normally, the webviewer automatically creates and manages the PDF worker internally
// Since multiple WebViewer instances are being created, 
// implicitly create the worker and share it across all instances to save resources
let workerTransportPromise = null;

// Initialize webviewer function
const initializeWebViewer = (viewerElement, viewerUser) => {
    return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
        // This code initializes the WebViewer with the basic settings
        WebViewer({
            path: '/lib',
            licenseKey: licenseKey,
            useDownloader: false
        }, viewerElement).then((instance) => {
            // Enable the measurement toolbar so it appears with all the other tools, and disable Cloudy rectangular tool
            const cloudyTools = [
                instance.Core.Tools.ToolNames.CLOUDY_RECTANGULAR_AREA_MEASUREMENT,
                instance.Core.Tools.ToolNames.CLOUDY_RECTANGULAR_AREA_MEASUREMENT2,
                instance.Core.Tools.ToolNames.CLOUDY_RECTANGULAR_AREA_MEASUREMENT3,
                instance.Core.Tools.ToolNames.CLOUDY_RECTANGULAR_AREA_MEASUREMENT4,
            ];
            instance.UI.enableFeatures([instance.UI.Feature.Measurement, instance.UI.Feature.Initials]);
            instance.UI.disableTools(cloudyTools);

            // Set default toolbar group to Annotate
            instance.UI.setToolbarGroup('toolbarGroup-Annotate');

            // Set default tool on mobile devices to Pan.
            if (UIElements.isMobileDevice()) {
                instance.UI.setToolMode(instance.Core.Tools.ToolNames.PAN);
            }

            instance.Core.documentViewer.addEventListener('documentUnloaded', () => {
                if (searchParams.has('file')) {
                    searchParams.delete('file');
                    history.replaceState(null, '', '?' + searchParams.toString());
                }
            });

            instance.Core.annotationManager.enableAnnotationNumbering();
            instance.UI.NotesPanel.enableAttachmentPreview();

            // Add the demo-specific functionality
            customizeUI(instance, viewerUser).then(resolve).catch(reject);
        }).catch(reject);
    });
};

const customizeUI = async (instance, viewerUser) => {
    // Store the instance for this user
    userInstances[viewerUser] = instance;

    // Since multiple WebViewer instances are being created,
    // Share the PDF worker across all instances to save resources
    instance.Core.setWorkerTransportPromise(workerTransportPromise);

    // Customize UI elements to show only relevant tools
    instance.UI.disableElements([
        'freeHandToolButton',
        'freeHandHighlightToolButton',
        'toolbarGroup-Insert',
        'toolbarGroup-Measure',
        'toolbarGroup-Edit',
        'toolbarGroup-Forms',
        'toolbarGroup-FillAndSign',
        'toolbarGroup-EditText',
    ]);
    instance.UI.setActiveRibbonItem('ribbonGroup-Annotate');

    // Load the default document
    await instance.UI.loadDocument('https://apryse.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/public/files/samples/WebviewerDemoDoc.pdf');

    return new Promise((resolve) => {
        // Set up the mentions user data using the userList defined above
        // This allows users to mention each other in comments using @username
        const userData = Object.keys(userList).map((user) => ({
            value: user,
            email: `${user.toLowerCase()}@apryse.com`,
        }));
        instance.UI.mentions.setUserData(userData);

        // Set the current user for the annotation manager
        const { annotationManager } = instance.Core;
        annotationManager.setCurrentUser(viewerUser);
        annotationManager.disableReadOnlyMode();
        annotationManager.demoteUserFromAdmin();

        const allAnnots = annotationManager.getAnnotationsList();
        annotationManager.showAnnotations(allAnnots);

        // Configure annotation change listener to store export xfdf strings for each user
        annotationManager.addEventListener('annotationChanged', (annotations, action) => {
            if (action === 'add' || action === 'modify' || action === 'delete') {
                annotationManager.exportAnnotationCommand().then((xfdfString) => {
                    syncAnnotations(xfdfString, viewerUser);
                });
            }
        });

        // Default annotation tool: Highlight text
        instance.UI.setToolMode(instance.Core.Tools.ToolNames.HIGHLIGHT);

        resolve();
    });
};

// Function to sync annotations across all user instances except the one who made the change
const syncAnnotations = (xfdfString, viewerUser) => {
    Object.keys(userInstances).forEach((user) => {
        if (user === viewerUser) return; // Skip syncing to self
        else {
            const instance = userInstances[user];
            instance.Core.annotationManager.importAnnotationCommand(xfdfString).then(() => {
                instance.Core.documentViewer.refreshAll();
                instance.Core.documentViewer.updateView();
            });
        }
    });
};

// Cleanup function for when the demo is closed or page is unloaded
const cleanup = (instance) => {
    if (typeof instance !== 'undefined' && instance.UI) {
        if (instance.Core.documentViewer.getDocument()) {
            // Insert any other cleanup code here
        }
        console.log('Cleaning up document-collaboration demo');
    }
};

// Register cleanup for page unload
window.addEventListener('beforeunload', () => cleanup(instance));
window.addEventListener('unload', () => cleanup(instance));

// Helper function to load the ui-elements.js script
function loadUIElementsScript() {
    return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
        if (window.UIElements) {
            console.log('UIElements already loaded');
            resolve();
            return;
        }

        const script = document.createElement('script');
        script.src = '/showcase-demos/document-collaboration/ui-elements.js';
        script.onload = function () {
            console.log('✅ UIElements script loaded successfully');
            resolve();
        };
        script.onerror = function () {
            console.error('Failed to load UIElements script');
            reject(new Error('Failed to load ui-elements.js'));
        };
        document.head.appendChild(script);
    });
}

// Initialize both viewers side by side
const initializeViewers = async () => {
    try {
        const viewerElement = document.getElementById('viewer');

        // Create left and right panels for two viewers
        const leftPanel = document.createElement('div');
        leftPanel.id = viewers[0].elementId;
        viewerElement.appendChild(leftPanel);

        const rightPanel = document.createElement('div');
        rightPanel.id = viewers[1].elementId;
        viewerElement.appendChild(rightPanel);

        // Set worker path
        Core.setWorkerPath('./lib/core');

        // Get backend type and wait for worker transport to initialize
        const pdftype = await Core.getDefaultBackendType();
        Core.preloadPDFWorker(pdftype);
        workerTransportPromise = Core.initPDFWorkerTransports(pdftype, {}, licenseKey);

        // Initialize both WebViewer instances
        await Promise.all([
            initializeWebViewer(leftPanel, Object.keys(userList)[0]), // Ruby
            initializeWebViewer(rightPanel, Object.keys(userList)[1]) // Cedrick
        ]);
    } catch (error) {
        console.error('❌ Error initializing viewers:', error);
    }
};

// Load UIElements script first, then initialize WebViewer
loadUIElementsScript().then(() => {
    initializeViewers();
}).catch((error) => {
    console.error('Failed to load UIElements:', error);
});

index.css

index.css

/* Styles for the document collaboration demo */

/* Left panel styles */
#leftPanel {
  width: 50%;
  height: 100%;
  float: left;
}

/* Right panel styles */
#rightPanel {
  width: 50%;
  height: 100%;
  float: right;
}

/* Viewer container styles */
#viewer {
  display: flex;
  gap: 10px;
}