Open a document

There are a few ways to open a document such as from a URL, a blob, arrayBuffer, the filesystem, or base64 data. Additionally, there are loading options to help WebViewer determine the type of the file being loaded.

URL Blob ArrayBuffer Filesystem Base64 data

Opening a document in WebViewer from URL

If you have a URL for a document, you can open it by including initialDoc as a constructor option or by using the loadDocument API.

Constructor optionAPI option

Use the initialDoc constructor option to provide the document when mounting WebViewer.

Use loadDocument to load documents with additional loading options after mounting WebViewer.

If you are loading from an extensionless URL, please ensure the extension or filename options are set.

Opening a document in WebViewer from Blob

If your document is already in Blob format you can pass the Blob object directly to loadDocument function.

JavaScript (SDK v8.0+)JavaScript (SDK v6.0+)

1WebViewer(...)
2  .then(instance => {
3    // `myBlob` is your blob data which can come
4    // from sources such as a server or the filesystem
5    instance.UI.loadDocument(myBlob, { filename: 'myfile.pdf' });
6
7    const { documentViewer } = instance.Core;
8    documentViewer.addEventListener('documentLoaded', () => {
9      // perform document operations
10    });
11  });

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• UI.loadDocument

1WebViewer(...)
2  .then(instance => {
3    // `myBlob` is your blob data which can come
4    // from sources such as a server or the filesystem
5    instance.loadDocument(myBlob, { filename: 'myfile.pdf' });
6
7    const { docViewer } = instance;
8    docViewer.on('documentLoaded', () => {
9      // perform document operations
10    });
11  });

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• WebViewerInstance.loadDocument

If you are loading from a blob, please ensure the extension or filename options are set while loading.

Opening a document from ArrayBuffer

If your document is already in ArrayBuffer format you can convert the ArrayBuffer object to a Blob and then pass resulting Blob directly to loadDocument function.

JavaScript (SDK v8.0+)JavaScript (SDK v6.0+)

1WebViewer(...)
2  .then(instance => {
3
4    // `arrayBuffer` is your buffer data which can come
5    // from sources such as a server or the filesystem
6    const arr = new Uint8Array(arrayBuffer);
7    const blob = new Blob([arr], { type: 'application/pdf' });
8    instance.UI.loadDocument(blob, { filename: 'myfile.pdf' });
9
10    const { documentViewer } = instance.Core;
11    documentViewer.addEventListener('documentLoaded', () => {
12      // perform document operations
13    });
14  });

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• UI.loadDocument

1WebViewer(...)
2  .then(instance => {
3
4    // `arrayBuffer` is your buffer data which can come
5    // from sources such as a server or the filesystem
6    const arr = new Uint8Array(arrayBuffer);
7    const blob = new Blob([arr], { type: 'application/pdf' });
8    instance.UI.loadDocument(blob, { filename: 'myfile.pdf' });
9
10    const { docViewer } = instance.Core;
11    docViewer.on('documentLoaded', () => {
12      // perform document operations
13    });
14  });

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• WebViewerInstance.loadDocument

If you are loading from an array buffer, please ensure the extension or filename options are set while loading.

Opening a document in WebViewer from file system

Enable File Browser Option

If you wish to allow users to open files from their local file system, you can enable this feature with:

Feature optionConstructor option

You can enable the file picker with Features at any point in time.

1WebViewer(...)
2  .then(instance => {
3    const { Feature } = instance.UI;
4    instance.UI.enableFeatures([UI.Feature.FilePicker]);
5  });

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• UI.enableFeatures
• Feature

You can also specify this via the WebViewer constructor at the very beginning.

1WebViewer({
2  ...
3  enableFilePicker: true,
4}).then(instance => {
5    // ...
6  });

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• WebViewer Options

And this option will be available to users in the top-right of the WebViewer UI:

With a File Object

If you have the File object, from a file picker for example, you can pass the object directly to the loadDocument function. File objects are similar to Blobs and should load fine.

JavaScript (SDK v8.0+)JavaScript (SDK v6.0+)

1<label for="file_upload">Choose A file</label>
2<input type="file" id="file_upload" name="file_upload" accept=".pdf">
3
4<div id='viewer' style='width: 1024px; height: 600px;'></div>
5
6<script>
7  const input = document.getElementById('file_upload');
8
9  WebViewer(...)
10    .then(instance => {
11      input.addEventListener('change', () => {
12
13        // Get the file from the input
14        const file = input.files[0];
15        instance.UI.loadDocument(file, { filename: file.name });
16      });
17
18      const { documentViewer } = instance.Core;
19      documentViewer.addEventListener('documentLoaded', () => {
20        // perform document operations
21      });
22    });
23</script>

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• UI.loadDocument

1<label for="file_upload">Choose A file</label>
2<input type="file" id="file_upload" name="file_upload" accept=".pdf">
3
4<div id='viewer' style='width: 1024px; height: 600px;'></div>
5
6<script>
7  const input = document.getElementById('file_upload');
8
9  WebViewer(...)
10    .then(instance => {
11      input.addEventListener('change', () => {
12
13        // Get the file from the input
14        const file = input.files[0];
15        instance.loadDocument(file, { filename: file.name });
16      });
17
18      const { docViewer } = instance;
19      docViewer.on('documentLoaded', () => {
20        // perform document operations
21      });
22    });
23</script>

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• WebViewerInstance.loadDocument

Opening a document in WebViewer from base64 data

If you have the file data as a base64 string, the best way to load the document in WebViewer is to first convert it to a Blob and then load it as described for Blobs. Below is some example code showing how to convert base64 to a Blob.

JavaScript (SDK v8.0+)JavaScript (SDK v6.0+)

1function base64ToBlob(base64) {
2  const binaryString = window.atob(base64);
3  const len = binaryString.length;
4  const bytes = new Uint8Array(len);
5  for (let i = 0; i < len; ++i) {
6    bytes[i] = binaryString.charCodeAt(i);
7  }
8
9  return new Blob([bytes], { type: 'application/pdf' });
10};
11
12WebViewer(...)
13  .then(instance => {
14    // `myBase64String` is your base64 data which can come
15    // from sources such as a server or the filesystem
16    instance.UI.loadDocument(base64ToBlob(myBase64String), { filename: 'myfile.pdf' });
17
18    const { documentViewer } = instance.Core;
19    documentViewer.addEventListener('documentLoaded', () => {
20      // perform document operations
21    });
22  });

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• UI.loadDocument

1function base64ToBlob(base64) {
2  const binaryString = window.atob(base64);
3  const len = binaryString.length;
4  const bytes = new Uint8Array(len);
5  for (let i = 0; i < len; ++i) {
6    bytes[i] = binaryString.charCodeAt(i);
7  }
8
9  return new Blob([bytes], { type: 'application/pdf' });
10};
11
12WebViewer(...)
13  .then(instance => {
14    // `myBase64String` is your base64 data which can come
15    // from sources such as a server or the filesystem
16    instance.loadDocument(base64ToBlob(myBase64String), { filename: 'myfile.pdf' });
17
18    const { docViewer } = instance;
19    docViewer.on('documentLoaded', () => {
20      // perform document operations
21    });
22  });

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• WebViewerInstance.loadDocument

See more WebViewer events such as documentLoaded to understand when to execute API operations.

WebViewer provides various options to load a document. Whether you are loading a document through the initialDoc option in the constructor or calling loadDocument after mounting, you can always provide options to load your document.

When loading a document using a URL, WebViewer will use the URL to determine what type of file it is. For example http://myserver.com/myfile.docx ends with .docx so WebViewer will assume it's a docx file. However, what happens if you are loading from a blob or extensionless URL? That's where the extension option comes in.

You can use the extension option to explicitly tell WebViewer what type of file it is. For example, extension: 'docx' or extension: 'png'. By default WebViewer will assume it's a PDF file but that might not be correct.

Via WebViewer Constructor

1WebViewer({
2  path: '../../../lib',
3  initialDoc: 'http://<documentserver>/FileDownload?docId=foo',
4  extension: 'docx',
5  ...
6}, document.getElementById('viewer'))
7  .then(instance => {
8    // ...
9  });

Via API

1WebViewer(...)
2  .then(instance => {
3    instance.UI.loadDocument('http://<documentserver>/FileDownload?docId=foo', {
4      extension: 'docx'
5    });
6
7    //...
8  });

1WebViewer(...)
2  .then(instance => {
3    instance.loadDocument('http://<documentserver>/FileDownload?docId=foo', {
4      extension: 'docx'
5    });
6
7    //...
8  });

The filename option is used to indicate the name of the file when you press the download button in the viewer. However, the option can also be used as a way of indicating the type of file you are opening when the URL does not end with a file extension. Note that the extension property has precedence over filename for determining the document type.

Via WebViewer Constructor

1WebViewer({
2  path: '../../../lib',
3  initialDoc: 'http://<documentserver>/FileDownload?docId=foo',
4  filename: 'report.docx',
5  ...
6}, document.getElementById('viewer'))
7  .then(instance => {
8    // ...
9  });

Via API

1WebViewer(...)
2  .then(instance => {
3    instance.UI.loadDocument('http://<documentserver>/FileDownload?docId=foo', {
4      filename: 'report.docx'
5    });
6
7    //...
8  });

1WebViewer(...)
2  .then(instance => {
3    instance.loadDocument('http://<documentserver>/FileDownload?docId=foo', {
4      filename: 'report.docx'
5    });
6
7    //...
8  });

If your document server requires additional options in the HTTP request, you can use the second argument in loadDocument function to pass them. This is especially useful when you need the Authorization header in the request with your auth key.

1WebViewer(...)
2  .then(instance => {
3    instance.UI.loadDocument('https://myserver.com/myfile.pdf', {
4      customHeaders: {
5        Authorization: 'Basic YWxhZGRpbjpvcGVuc2VzYW1l'
6      }
7    });
8  });

1WebViewer(...)
2  .then(instance => {
3    instance.loadDocument('https://myserver.com/myfile.pdf', {
4      customHeaders: {
5        Authorization: 'Basic YWxhZGRpbjpvcGVuc2VzYW1l'
6      }
7    });
8  });

For password-protected documents, it can be provided during the loadDocument call via the options argument. It can either take the password string or a function that will eventually provide a password via a callback provided as a parameter.

1WebViewer(...)
2  .then(instance => {
3    instance.UI.loadDocument('https://myserver.com/myfile.pdf', {
4      password: 'asdf'
5    });
6  });

1WebViewer(...)
2  .then(instance => {
3    instance.loadDocument('https://myserver.com/myfile.pdf', {
4      password: 'asdf'
5    });
6  });

An Apryse custom security handler easily encrypts and secures documents with our algorithm to allow opening the document only in WebViewer (or PDFNet).

For these types of documents, it is necessary to provide the integer custom handler ID along with the password.

1WebViewer(...)
2  .then(instance => {
3    instance.UI.loadDocument('https://myserver.com/myfile.pdf', {
4      password: 'asdf',
5      customHandlerId: 42
6    });
7  });

If you run into any issues loading a document, please visit our FAQ for loading errors.