Getting started with Standalone PDF Viewer component

3 Apr 20249 minutes to read

This section explains the steps required to create a simple Standalone Angular PDF Viewer and demonstrates the basic usage of the PDF Viewer control in a Angular CLI application.

Setup Angular Environment

You can use the Angular CLI to setup your Angular applications.
To install Angular CLI globally use the following command.

npm install -g @angular/cli@16.0.1

NOTE

Use the command npm install –save @angular/cli@12.0.2 to install the latest Angular CLI version 12.0.2

Create an Angular Application

Start a new Angular application using the Angular CLI command as follows.

ng new my-app
cd my-app

Installing Syncfusion PDF Viewer package

All the available Essential JS 2 packages are published in npmjs.com registry.

To install PDF Viewer component, use the following command.

npm install @syncfusion/ej2-angular-pdfviewer --save

Copy the contents of the ej2-pdfviewer-lib folder from ./node_modules/@syncfusion/ej2-pdfviewer/dist to the src/assets directory using the command:

cp -R ./node_modules/@syncfusion/ej2-pdfviewer/dist/ej2-pdfviewer-lib  src/assets/ej2-pdfviewer-lib

Confirm that there is an ‘ej2-pdfviewer-lib’ directory within your public directory, housing the assets of the PDF Viewer library.
Validate that your server has been configured to utilize the Content-Type: application/wasm MIME type. Additional information can be found in the Troubleshooting section.

Registering PDF Viewer Module

Import PDF Viewer module into Angular application(app.module.ts) from the package @syncfusion/ej2-angular-pdfviewer [src/app/app.module.ts].

import { NgModule } from '@angular/core';
import { BrowserModule } from '@angular/platform-browser';
// import the PdfViewer Module for the PDF Viewer component
import { PdfViewerModule, LinkAnnotationService, BookmarkViewService,
         MagnificationService, ThumbnailViewService, ToolbarService,
         NavigationService, TextSearchService, TextSelectionService,
         PrintService, FormDesignerService, FormFieldsService, 
         AnnotationService, PageOrganizerService } from '@syncfusion/ej2-angular-pdfviewer';
import { AppComponent } from './app.component';

@NgModule({
  //declaration of ej2-angular-pdfviewer module into NgModule
  imports: [BrowserModule, PdfViewerModule],
  declarations: [AppComponent],
  bootstrap: [AppComponent],
   providers: [ LinkAnnotationService, BookmarkViewService, MagnificationService,
               ThumbnailViewService, ToolbarService, NavigationService,
               TextSearchService, TextSelectionService, PrintService,
               AnnotationService, FormDesignerService, FormFieldsService, PageOrganizerService]
})
export class AppModule { }

Adding CSS reference

Add the Angular PDF Viewer component’s styles as given below in src/styles.css file.

@import '../node_modules/@syncfusion/ej2-base/styles/material.css';
@import '../node_modules/@syncfusion/ej2-buttons/styles/material.css';
@import '../node_modules/@syncfusion/ej2-dropdowns/styles/material.css';
@import '../node_modules/@syncfusion/ej2-inputs/styles/material.css';
@import '../node_modules/@syncfusion/ej2-navigations/styles/material.css';
@import '../node_modules/@syncfusion/ej2-popups/styles/material.css';
@import '../node_modules/@syncfusion/ej2-splitbuttons/styles/material.css';
@import '../node_modules/@syncfusion/ej2-pdfviewer/styles/material.css';
@import '../node_modules/@syncfusion/ej2-notifications/styles/material.css';

Adding PDF Viewer component

Add the Angular PDF Viewer by using <ejs-pdfviewer> selector in template section of the src/app/app.component.ts file to render the PDF Viewer component.

import { Component, OnInit } from '@angular/core';
import { PdfViewerModule, LinkAnnotationService, BookmarkViewService,
         MagnificationService, ThumbnailViewService, ToolbarService,
         NavigationService, TextSearchService, TextSelectionService,
         PrintService, FormDesignerService, FormFieldsService, 
         AnnotationService, PageOrganizerService } from '@syncfusion/ej2-angular-pdfviewer';

@Component({
  selector: 'app-root',
  // specifies the template string for the PDF Viewer component
  template: `<div class="content-wrapper">
                <ejs-pdfviewer id="pdfViewer"
                    [documentPath]='document'
                    [resourceUrl]='resource' 
                    style="height:640px;display:block">
                </ejs-pdfviewer>
             </div>`,
  providers: [ LinkAnnotationService, BookmarkViewService, MagnificationService,
               ThumbnailViewService, ToolbarService, NavigationService,
               TextSearchService, TextSelectionService, PrintService,
               AnnotationService, FormDesignerService, FormFieldsService, PageOrganizerService]
})
export class AppComponent implements OnInit {
  public document: string = 'https://cdn.syncfusion.com/content/pdf/pdf-succinctly.pdf';
  public resource: string = "https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/23.1.43/dist/ej2-pdfviewer-lib";
  ngOnInit(): void {
  }
}

Run the application

Use the following command to run the application in browser.

ng serve --open

The output will appear as follows.

app.component.ts
app.module.ts
main.ts
import { Component, OnInit } from '@angular/core';
import { PdfViewerModule, LinkAnnotationService, BookmarkViewService,
         MagnificationService, ThumbnailViewService, ToolbarService,
         NavigationService, TextSearchService, TextSelectionService,
         PrintService, FormDesignerService, FormFieldsService, 
         AnnotationService, PageOrganizerService } from '@syncfusion/ej2-angular-pdfviewer';

@Component({
  selector: 'app-container',
  // specifies the template string for the PDF Viewer component
  template: `<div class="content-wrapper">
  <ejs-pdfviewer 
    id="pdfViewer" 
    [documentPath]='document' 
    [resourceUrl]='resource' 
    style="height:640px;display:block">
  </ejs-pdfviewer>
</div>`,
  providers: [ LinkAnnotationService, BookmarkViewService, MagnificationService,
               ThumbnailViewService, ToolbarService, NavigationService,
               TextSearchService, TextSelectionService, PrintService,
               AnnotationService, FormDesignerService, FormFieldsService, PageOrganizerService]
})
export class AppComponent implements OnInit {
    public document = 'https://cdn.syncfusion.com/content/pdf/pdf-succinctly.pdf';
    public resource: string = "https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/23.1.43/dist/ej2-pdfviewer-lib";
    ngOnInit(): void {
    }
}
import { BrowserModule } from '@angular/platform-browser';
import { NgModule } from '@angular/core';
import { PdfViewerModule, LinkAnnotationService, BookmarkViewService, MagnificationService, ThumbnailViewService,
  ToolbarService, NavigationService, TextSearchService, TextSelectionService, PrintService, PageOrganizerService  } from '@syncfusion/ej2-angular-pdfviewer';


import { AppComponent } from './app.component';

@NgModule({
  imports: [ BrowserModule , PdfViewerModule ],
  declarations: [ AppComponent ],
  bootstrap: [AppComponent],
  providers: [LinkAnnotationService, BookmarkViewService, MagnificationService,
    ThumbnailViewService, ToolbarService, NavigationService, TextSearchService, TextSelectionService, PrintService, PageOrganizerService]
})
export class AppModule { }
import { platformBrowserDynamic } from '@angular/platform-browser-dynamic';
import { enableProdMode } from '@angular/core';
import { AppModule } from './app.module';

import 'zone.js';
enableProdMode();
platformBrowserDynamic().bootstrapModule(AppModule);

Limitation over Server-Backed PDF Viewer to Standalone PDF Viewer control

When comparing a Standalone PDF Viewer to a Server-Backed PDF Viewer control, it’s crucial to understand the limitations that the Standalone PDF Viewer may have in comparison. These limitations are important to consider

PNG Image Support

The Standalone PDF Viewer does not have the capability to utilize PNG format for adding images to handwritten annotations ,custom stamp ,signature and initial form fields. It’s important to be aware that only certain image formats, such as JPEG, are compatible for these purposes.

Local File Access

The Standalone PDF Viewer control does not have the capability to directly access and load local physical files from a user’s device. As a result, it is not possible to use a documentPath to load a PDF file directly from a local server within the viewer.
The Standalone PDF Viewer allows users to export annotations and form fields from the viewer, it’s important to be aware that the viewer does not support the direct import of annotations and form fields from a locally specified file path. In other words, you can extract annotations and form fields from the viewer, but you cannot reintroduce them into the viewer from external sources by specifying a file path located on your local device.

NOTE

These limitations are temporary and are expected to be addressed in the near future.

View sample in GitHub.