Section:

Deployment options for WebViewer

There are three main options for deploying WebViewer.

Client only

Using the client only mode allows you to view, edit, and manipulate PDF and Office documents directly in the client without a conversion step on a server. WebViewer takes advantage of the latest browser technologies (like WebAssembly) to render and manipulate documents completely on the client side.

Since no work is being done on a server, this allows you to easily scale up the number of concurrent users without paying for more servers. The trade off is that performance is dependent on a user's local machine and a limited set of filetypes can be viewed.

Recommended for

Not recommended for

  • Scaling WebViewer to multiple users without additional servers
  • Viewing most common document formats
  • Rendering more large and/or complex documents
  • Supporting lower-powered browsers/devices

This option is recommended if you are looking to process documents directly in a modern browser and/or rendering PDF, PNG, JPG, or Office documents.

Apryse Docs Image

Please check out our usage guide to get started!

Full API

The full API is also available on the client side and includes all of the native API functions. This API can be used to process documents outside of the viewer as seen in these samples.

To enable this API when using the viewer pass in the fullAPI option to the WebViewer constructor. For example:

JavaScript

1WebViewer({
2  licenseKey: 'Insert commercial license key here after purchase',
3  initialDoc: 'YOUR_FILE.pdf',
4  fullAPI: true
5}, viewerElement);

The reason this option needs to be specified is because the scripts required to be downloaded for the full API are ~2-3 times larger than what is required for the viewer only. If you only want to view PDF documents and won't take advantage of the other Apryse functions then you shouldn't pass the fullAPI option.

See more information about the full API for WebViewer.

WebViewer Server (Docker container)

WebViewer Server is an optional, easy drop-in backend for WebViewer that offers responsive viewing and compatibility across all client platforms (including mobile), along with scaling performance that approaches purely client-side solutions. It works hand-in-hand with WebViewer on the client, initially serving images then transitioning to client-side rendering. You can quickly get it set up and running in seconds with our Docker Compose script.

See the WebViewer Server guide for more information.

Recommended for

Not recommended for

  • Adding quick, easy support for various browsers/devices
  • Rendering large and/or complex files
  • Viewing a wider variety of file formats
  • Deploying with limited hardware resources
  • Managing additional servers/networks

This option is recommended if you are targeting Internet Explorer or mobile devices, or if you need to support more file formats than client only supports.

Apryse Docs Image

Custom server

You can also choose to configure your own server and not use our packaged backend. This offers flexibility and control, allowing you to preprocess documents prior to loading them in WebViewer. You create a server that converts your documents into a web optimized XPS file, called XOD, and provide them to WebViewer. By converting a wide range of document formats to XOD, WebViewer is able to deliver consistent results in viewing different document types.

See custom server guide for more information.

Recommended for

Not recommended for

  • Customizing document processing flows
  • Introducing additional formats with third party libraries
  • Managing additional custom code
  • Working with limited file format knowledge

This approach offers similar benefits to WebViewer Server in terms of performance and file format support, with more flexibility in terms of document processing on the server side.

Comparison

Browsers

Note that although client only mode runs in Internet Explorer and mobile devices it is generally only recommended for modern browsers and more powerful devices.

Client only

WebViewer Server

Custom server

Chrome

✓

✓

✓

Firefox

✓

✓

✓

Safari

✓

✓

✓

Edge

✓

✓

✓

Internet Explorer

*10+

9+

9+

Android Chrome

59+

✓

✓

Mobile Safari

11+

✓

✓

*IE's JavaScript engine is slow compared to more modern browsers and this can impact the performance of client only rendering

File formats

PDF

Format

Client only

WebViewer Server

Custom Server

PDF (1.x to 2.0)

✓

✓

✓

PDF/A 1,2,3

✓

✓

✓

XFDF

✓

✓

✓

FDF

✓

✓

✓

Office

Requires Office & Templating Add-on

Format

Client only

WebViewer Server

Custom Server

DOC, DOCX, DOCM

✓

✓

✓

DOT, DOTX, DOTM

✓

✓

✓

XLS, XLSX, XLSM

✓

✓

✓

XLSB

✓

✓

XLT

✓

✓

✓

XLTX

✓

✓

XLTM

✓

✓

PPT, PPTX, PPTM

✓

✓

✓

POT

✓

✓

✓

POTX, POTM

✓

✓

PPS

✓

✓

✓

PPSX, PPSM

✓

✓

VSD

✓

VSDX

✓

PUB

✓

Windows + Office*

* Custom Server PUB are only supported via Office Interop (MS Office instance needs to be installed)

CAD

Requires Architecture, Engineering & Construction Add-on

Format

Client only

WebViewer Server

Custom Server

DWG

✓

✓

DWF

✓

✓

DXF

✓

✓

DGN

✓

✓

RVT

✓*

✓*

* RVT is only supported on Windows

Images

Format

Client only

WebViewer Server

Custom Server

JPG

✓

✓

✓

PNG

✓

✓

✓

JFIF

✓

✓

✓

TIF

✓*

✓

✓

* See here for how to view tiff files on the client side

Requires WebViewer Server

Format

Client only

WebViewer Server

Custom Server

SVG

✓

✓

BMP

✓

✓

WMF

✓

EMF

✓

✓

GIF

✓

✓

JP2, JPC

✓

✓

Requires WebViewer Server & Media Add-on

Format

Client only

WebViewer Server

Custom Server

AAI

✓*

✓*

ARW

✓*

✓*

CR2

✓*

✓*

CRW

✓*

✓*

CUR, ICO

✓*

✓*

DCM

✓*

✓*

DCR

✓*

✓*

DDS

✓*

✓*

HEIC, HEIF

✓*

✓*

MRW

✓*

✓*

NEF

✓*

✓*

ORF

✓*

✓*

PICT

✓*

✓*

PFM

✓*

✓*

PSB, PSD

✓*

✓*

RAF

✓*

✓*

* Using the Apryse Advanced imaging module

Video

Requires Media Add-on

Format

Client only

WebViewer Server

Custom Server

MP4

✓

OGG

✓

WEBM

✓

* Video formats are supported via separate WebViewer Video build

Audio

Requires Media Add-on

Format

Client only

WebViewer Server

Custom Server

MP3

✓

WAV

✓

OGG

✓

FLAC

✓

* Audio formats are supported via separate WebViewer Audio build

Other

Requires Convert Add-on

Format

Client only

WebViewer Server

Custom Server

RTF

✓

Windows Only

ODT

✓

Windows Only

ODS

✓

Windows Only

ODP

✓

Windows Only

HTML

✓

✓

MSG

✓

Windows + Office*

EML

✓

✓^

TXT

✓

✓

CSV

✓

✓

XPS

✓

XOD**

✓

XAML

Using .NET

* MSG conversion is only supported on Windows via MS Office installation and Office Interop

^ EML requires conversion using third party tools. See our Github example of EML conversion with third party tools

** XOD is available on all platforms but viewing encrypted XOD is only supported for Web

Features

Client only

WebViewer Server

Custom server

Viewing

✓

✓

✓

Search

✓

✓

✓

UI Customization

✓

✓

✓

Annotate

✓

✓

✓

Forms

✓

✓

✓

e-Signature

✓

✓

✓

Rasterization and Printing

✓

✓

✓

Content Extraction

✓

✓

Document Creation

✓

✓

Page Manipulation

✓

✓

Document Compare

✓

✓

✓

PDF Layers (OCGs)

✓

✓

Color Separation

✓

✓

Digital Signatures

✓

✓

Low-level Document Editing

✓

✓

Bookmarks

✓

✓

✓

Content Replacer

✓

✓

Security

✓

✓

✓

Office to PDF Conversion

✓

✓

✓

CAD Conversion

✓

✓

Redaction

✓

✓

✓

PDF/A Generation

✓

✓

Optimizer

✓

✓

Flattener

✓

✓

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