Getting Started with Syncfusion^® PDF Viewer Component in Vue 3

25 Apr 202510 minutes to read

This article provides a step-by-step guide for setting up a Vite project with a JavaScript environment and integrating the Syncfusion^® Vue PDF Viewer component using the Composition API / Options API.

The Composition API is a new feature introduced in Vue.js 3 that provides an alternative way to organize and reuse component logic. It allows developers to write components as functions that use smaller, reusable functions called composition functions to manage their properties and behavior.

The Options API is the traditional way of writing Vue.js components, where the component logic is organized into a series of options that define the component’s properties and behavior. These options include data, methods, computed properties, watchers, life cycle hooks, and more.

Prerequisites

System requirements for Syncfusion^® Vue UI components

Set up the Vite project

A recommended approach for beginning with Vue is to scaffold a project using Vite. To create a new Vite project, use one of the commands that are specific to either NPM or Yarn.

npm create vite@latest

yarn create vite

Using one of the above commands will lead you to set up additional configurations for the project as below:

1.Define the project name: We can specify the name of the project directly. Let’s specify the name of the project as my-project for this article.

? Project name: » my-project

2.Select Vue as the framework. It will create a Vue 3 project.

? Select a framework: » - Use arrow-keys. Return to submit.
Vanilla
> Vue
  React
  Preact
  Lit
  Svelte
  Others

3.Choose JavaScript as the framework variant to build this Vite project using JavaScript and Vue.

? Select a variant: » - Use arrow-keys. Return to submit.
> JavaScript
  TypeScript
  Customize with create-vue ↗
  Nuxt ↗

4.Upon completing the aforementioned steps to create the my-project, run the following command to install its dependencies:

cd my-project
npm install

cd my-project
yarn install

Now that my-project is ready to run with default settings, let’s add Syncfusion^® components to the project.

Add Syncfusion^® Vue packages

Syncfusion^® Vue component packages are available at npmjs.com. To use Syncfusion^® Vue components in the project, install the corresponding npm package.

This article uses the Vue PDF Viewer component as an example. To use the Vue PDF Viewer component in the project, the @syncfusion/ej2-vue-pdfviewer package needs to be installed using the following command:

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

yarn add @syncfusion/ej2-vue-pdfviewer

Import Syncfusion^® CSS styles

You can import themes for the Syncfusion^® Vue component in various ways, such as using CSS or SASS styles from npm packages, CDN, CRG and Theme Studio. Refer to themes topic to know more about built-in themes and different ways to refer to themes in a Vue project.

In this article, Material theme is applied using CSS styles, which are available in installed packages. The necessary Material CSS styles for the PDF Viewer component and its dependents were imported into the <style> section of src/App.vue file.

~/src/App.vue
<style>
  @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-lists/styles/material.css';
  @import '../node_modules/@syncfusion/ej2-pdfviewer/styles/material.css';
</style>

Add Syncfusion^® Vue component

Follow the below steps to add the Vue PDF Viewer component using Composition API or Options API:

1.First, import and register the PDF Viewer component and its child directives in the script section of the src/App.vue file. If you are using the Composition API, you should add the setup attribute to the script tag to indicate that Vue will be using the Composition API.

Composition API (~/src/App.vue)
Options API (~/src/App.vue)
<script setup>
import { PdfViewerComponent as EjsPdfviewer, Toolbar, Magnification, Navigation, LinkAnnotation, 
         BookmarkView, ThumbnailView, Print, TextSelection, TextSearch, 
         Annotation, FormDesigner, FormFields } from '@syncfusion/ej2-vue-pdfviewer';
</script>
<script>
import { PdfViewerComponent, Toolbar, Magnification, Navigation, LinkAnnotation, 
         BookmarkView,ThumbnailView, Print,TextSelection, TextSearch, 
         Annotation, FormDesigner, FormFields } from '@syncfusion/ej2-vue-pdfviewer';

}
</script>

Add the component definition in template section.

~/src/App.vue
<template>
  <div id="app">
    <ejs-pdfviewer 
      id="pdfViewer" 
      :serviceUrl="serviceUrl" 
      :documentPath="documentPath"
          :style="{ height: '800px', width: '1200px' }"> 
    </ejs-pdfviewer>
  </div>
</template>

Declare the bound properties serviceUrl and documentPath in the script section.

Composition API (~/src/App.vue)
Options API (~/src/App.vue)
<script setup>

import { provide } from 'vue';
import { PdfViewerComponent as EjsPdfviewer, Toolbar, Magnification, Navigation, LinkAnnotation, BookmarkView, 
         ThumbnailView, Print, TextSelection, TextSearch, Annotation, FormDesigner, FormFields } from '@syncfusion/ej2-vue-pdfviewer';

const serviceUrl = 'https://services.syncfusion.com/vue/production/api/pdfviewer';
const documentPath = 'https://cdn.syncfusion.com/content/pdf/pdf-succinctly.pdf';
const pdfViewer = null;

provide('PdfViewer', [ Toolbar, Magnification, Navigation, LinkAnnotation, BookmarkView, ThumbnailView, 
                       Print, TextSelection, TextSearch, Annotation, FormDesigner, FormFields]);
</script>
<script>

import { PdfViewerComponent, Toolbar, Magnification, Navigation, LinkAnnotation, 
         BookmarkView,ThumbnailView, Print,TextSelection, TextSearch, 
         Annotation, FormDesigner, FormFields } from '@syncfusion/ej2-vue-pdfviewer';

  export default {

  name: 'App',

  components: {
    "ejs-pdfviewer": PdfViewerComponent
  },

    data () {
      return {
        serviceUrl:"https://services.syncfusion.com/vue/production/api/pdfviewer",
        documentPath:"https://cdn.syncfusion.com/content/pdf/pdf-succinctly.pdf"
      };
    },

    provide: {
      PdfViewer: [ Toolbar, Magnification, Navigation, LinkAnnotation, BookmarkView, ThumbnailView, 
                   Print, TextSelection, TextSearch, Annotation, FormDesigner, FormFields ]}
}

</script>

Here is the summarized code for the above steps in the src/App.vue file:

Composition API (~/src/App.vue)
Options API (~/src/App.vue)
<template>
  <ejs-pdfviewer
    ref="pdfViewer"
    :serviceUrl="serviceUrl"
    :documentPath="documentPath"
    :style="{ height: '800px', width: '1200px' }">
  </ejs-pdfviewer>
</template>

<script setup>

import { provide } from 'vue';
import { PdfViewerComponent as EjsPdfviewer, Toolbar, Magnification, Navigation, LinkAnnotation, BookmarkView, 
  ThumbnailView, Print, TextSelection, TextSearch, Annotation, FormDesigner, FormFields } from '@syncfusion/ej2-vue-pdfviewer';

const serviceUrl = 'https://services.syncfusion.com/vue/production/api/pdfviewer';
const documentPath = 'https://cdn.syncfusion.com/content/pdf/pdf-succinctly.pdf';
const pdfViewer = null;

provide('PdfViewer', [ Toolbar, Magnification, Navigation, LinkAnnotation, BookmarkView, ThumbnailView, 
                       Print, TextSelection, TextSearch, Annotation, FormDesigner, FormFields]);
</script>

<style>

  @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-lists/styles/material.css';
  @import '../node_modules/@syncfusion/ej2-pdfviewer/styles/material.css';

</style>
<template>
  <ejs-pdfviewer 
    id="pdfViewer" 
    :serviceUrl="serviceUrl" 
    :documentPath="documentPath"
    :style="{ height: '800px', width: '1200px' }">
  </ejs-pdfviewer>
</template>

<script>
  import { PdfViewerComponent, Toolbar, Magnification, Navigation, LinkAnnotation, BookmarkView, 
           ThumbnailView, Print, TextSelection, TextSearch, Annotation, FormDesigner, FormFields } from '@syncfusion/ej2-vue-pdfviewer';

  export default {
    name: 'App',

    components: {
      "ejs-pdfviewer": PdfViewerComponent
    },

    data() {
      return {
        serviceUrl: "https://services.syncfusion.com/vue/production/api/pdfviewer",
        documentPath: "https://cdn.syncfusion.com/content/pdf/pdf-succinctly.pdf"
      };
    },
    provide: {
      PdfViewer: [ Toolbar, Magnification, Navigation, LinkAnnotation, BookmarkView, ThumbnailView,
                   Print, TextSelection, TextSearch, Annotation, FormDesigner, FormFields ]
    }
  }
</script>

<style>
  @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-lists/styles/material.css';
  @import '../node_modules/@syncfusion/ej2-pdfviewer/styles/material.css';
</style>

Run the project

To run the project, use the following command:

npm run dev

yarn run dev

The output will appear as follows:

Output

View sample in GitHub.

For migrating from Vue 2 to Vue 3, refer to the migration documentation.

Getting Started with Syncfusion® PDF Viewer Component in Vue 3