This example shows how to integrate PSPDFKit Document Engine and PSPDFKit for Web into a Node.js / Express app.
Note: This example demonstrates the usage of PSPDFKit for Web in a Node.js application and is not optimized for production deployments. For information on how to set up PSPDFKit for Web in production, please refer to our guides instead.
We recommend you use Docker to get all components up and running quickly.
You can easily run the example in trial mode without need for a license or activation key. Just make sure to check out this repository locally. The provided docker-compose.yml and Dockerfile will allow you to edit the example app on your host, and it will live-reload:
$ git clone https://github.com/PSPDFKit/pspdfkit-server-example-nodejs.git
$ cd pspdfkit-server-example-nodejs
$ docker-compose upThe example is now running on http://localhost:3000. You can access the PSPDFKit Document Engine dashboard at http://localhost:5000/dashboard using dashboard // secret.
Upload a PDF via the button in the top-left, then click on the cover image to see PSPDFKit for Web in action.
If you have a PSPDFKit Document Engine license you can use it as well by going through the following steps:
-
Open the
docker-compose.ymlfile in an editor of your choice and replace theYOUR_LICENSE_KEY_GOES_HEREplaceholder with your standalone license key. -
Start environment with your PSPDFKit Document Engine activation key:
$ ACTIVATION_KEY=YOUR_ACTIVATION_KEY_GOES_HERE docker-compose upIf you are using Windows make sure to set the environment variables accordingly. For this replace the line starting with ACTIVATION_KEY="... with:
$ SET "ACTIVATION_KEY=YOUR_ACTIVATION_KEY_GOES_HERE"
$ docker-compose upMake sure to replace YOUR_ACTIVATION_KEY_GOES_HERE with your PSPDFKit Document Engine activation key. You only have to provide the activation key once, after that Document Engine will remain activated until you reset it.
You can reset the server by first tearing down its containers and volumes and then recreating them.
$ docker-compose down --volumes
$ docker-compose upIf using an activation key, you'd need to set it again so as to recreate the containers:
$ docker-compose down --volumes
$ ACTIVATION_KEY=YOUR_ACTIVATION_KEY_GOES_HERE docker-compose upIf you are using Windows make sure to set the environment variables accordingly. For this replace the line starting with ACTIVATION_KEY="... with:
$ SET "ACTIVATION_KEY=YOUR_ACTIVATION_KEY_GOES_HERE"
$ docker-compose upYou can also run the example app directly on your machine, outside of a Docker container.
- Node.js
- PSPDFKit Document Engine running on http://localhost:5000 with the default configuration
$ git clone https://github.com/PSPDFKit/pspdfkit-server-example-nodejs.git
$ cd pspdfkit-server-example-nodejs
$ npm install
$ npm startThe example app is now running on http://localhost:3000.
Upload a PDF via the button in the top-left, then click on the cover image to see PSPDFKit for Web in action.
You can quit the running containers with Ctrl-C.
If you want to test PSPDFKit for Web on different devices in your local network, you need
to edit the PSPDFKIT_SERVER_EXTERNAL_URL environment variable in the docker-compose.yml and set it to an address that's reachable from your device.
Occasionally running the docker-compose scripts will result in errors because some containers are in a broken state. To resolve this, you can reset all containers and their attached volumes by running the following command:
docker-compose down --volumesIf you have further troubles, you can always reach out to us via our support platform.
PSPDFKit offers support for customers with an active SDK license via https://pspdfkit.com/support/request/
Are you evaluating our SDK? That's great, we're happy to help out! To make sure this is fast, please use a work email and have someone from your company fill out our sales form: https://pspdfkit.com/sales/
This software is licensed under a modified BSD license.
Please ensure you signed our CLA so we can accept your contributions.