Import and Export annotation

13 Jan 20252 minutes to read

The PDF Viewer library allows you to import annotations from objects or streams instead of loading it as a file. To import such annotation objects, the PDF Viewer control must export the PDF annotations as objects using the ExportAnnotationsAsObject() method. Only the annotations objects that are exported from the PDF Viewer can be imported.

The following steps are used to import and export annotations in various formats such as objects, JSON, and XFDF.

Step 1: Follow the steps provided in the link to create a simple PDF Viewer sample.

Step 2: Use the following code snippet to perform import and export annotation.

    <button type="button" onclick="exportAsJson()">Export Annotation As Json</button>
    <button type="button" onclick="exportAsXfdf()">Export Annotation As Xfdf</button>
    <button type="button" onclick="exportAnnotation()">Export Annotation</button>
    <button type="button" onclick="importAnnotation()">Import Annotation</button>

<script>
   var exportObject;
        //Export annotation as Json
        function exportAsJson() {
            var viewer = document.getElementById('pdfViewer').ej2_instances[0];
            viewer.exportAnnotation('Json');
        }
        //Export annotation as Xfdf
        function exportAsXfdf() {
            var viewer = document.getElementById('pdfViewer').ej2_instances[0];
            viewer.exportAnnotation('Xfdf');
        }
        //Export annotation as object.
        function exportAnnotation() {
            var viewer = document.getElementById('pdfViewer').ej2_instances[0];
            viewer.exportAnnotationsAsObject().then(function (value) {
                exportObject = value
            });
        }
        //Import annotation that are exported as object.
        function importAnnotation() {
            var viewer = document.getElementById('pdfViewer').ej2_instances[0];
            viewer.importAnnotation(JSON.parse(exportObject));
        }
</script>

View sample in GitHub