Server-Side Usage (Node.js)

The PDF SDK runs natively in Node.js for server-side PDF processing — creating, editing, merging, and extracting content without a browser.

Requirements

• Node.js 20+ (for native File and fetch support)
• ESM project ("type": "module" in your package.json)

Setup

1. Install the package

npm install @avanquest/pdf-web-viewer
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2. Initialize the SDK

The SDK auto-detects worker and font assets from node_modules — no asset copying needed:

import { PdfSdk } from '@avanquest/pdf-web-viewer/sdk';

await PdfSdk.initialize({
  license: 'YOUR_LICENSE_KEY',
});
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That's it! The SDK will automatically find the worker and font files in node_modules/@avanquest/pdf-web-viewer/public/.

All accepted options of PdfSdk.initialize(options):

Custom Asset Path (Optional)

If you prefer to host assets separately (e.g., for Docker or CI environments), point basePath at the absolute filesystem path of the parent directory that contains your copied pwv-workers/ and pwv-fonts/ folders:

import { resolve, dirname } from 'path';
import { fileURLToPath } from 'url';

const __dirname = dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url));

await PdfSdk.initialize({
  license: 'YOUR_LICENSE_KEY',
  basePath: resolve(__dirname, 'assets'), // Parent dir containing pwv-workers/ and pwv-fonts/
});
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Copy assets from the package into that directory:

mkdir -p ./assets
cp -R ./node_modules/@avanquest/pdf-web-viewer/public/pwv-workers ./assets/pwv-workers
cp -R ./node_modules/@avanquest/pdf-web-viewer/public/pwv-fonts ./assets/pwv-fonts
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Complete Example (Express Server)

import express from 'express';
import { PdfSdk } from '@avanquest/pdf-web-viewer/sdk';
import { readFileSync } from 'fs';

const app = express();

// Initialize SDK once at startup
await PdfSdk.initialize({
  license: process.env.PDF_LICENSE_KEY,
});

// Create a blank PDF
app.get('/create-blank', async (req, res) => {
  const document = await PdfSdk.openBlankDocument({
    name: 'New Document.pdf',
    numPages: 3,
    Rectangle: [0, 792, 612, 0], // Letter size
    PDFVersion: '2.0',
  });

  const bytes = await document.exportDocument({ as: 'uint8array' });
  await document.dispose();

  res.setHeader('Content-Type', 'application/pdf');
  res.send(Buffer.from(bytes));
});

// Open and process an existing PDF
app.post('/process', async (req, res) => {
  const pdfBuffer = readFileSync('/path/to/input.pdf');
  const file = new File([pdfBuffer], 'document.pdf', { type: 'application/pdf' });

  const document = await PdfSdk.openDocument({ file });

  // Delete first page
  await document.deletePages({ range: [0] });

  // Export result
  const result = await document.exportDocument({ as: 'uint8array' });
  await document.dispose();

  res.setHeader('Content-Type', 'application/pdf');
  res.send(Buffer.from(result));
});

// List available fonts
app.get('/fonts', async (req, res) => {
  const fonts = await PdfSdk.listSystemFonts();
  res.json({ fontCount: fonts.length, fonts });
});

app.listen(8080, () => console.log('Server running on http://localhost:8080'));
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Asset Resolution Order

The SDK resolves the pwv-workers/ and pwv-fonts/ folders in the following order:

Considerations

• ESM Only: The SDK is an ES module. Your package.json must have "type": "module", or use .mjs file extensions.
• License: The SDK validates the license at initialization. Ensure your server can reach https://api-developers.avanquest.com over HTTPS. The validation request is synchronous (Node spawns a short-lived child process to perform it) and does not honor HTTP_PROXY / HTTPS_PROXY environment variables — if you sit behind a corporate proxy, surface the SDK from outside it.
• Resource Management: Always call document.dispose() when done to prevent memory leaks.
• Single Initialization: Call PdfSdk.initialize() once at startup. All subsequent operations share the same worker instance.

Troubleshooting

Cannot reach the licensing server (errorCode 18) on startup

The WASM worker performs the license check using a synchronous HTTPS request. If it fails:

1. Confirm raw connectivity from the same machine:

   node -e "require('https').get('https://api-developers.avanquest.com', r => console.log(r.statusCode))"
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   Expect a 2xx/4xx response. A network/DNS error here means the licensing host is unreachable.
2. Confirm the license key has no trailing whitespace and was issued for the SDK (not the UI-only product).
3. Pass logging: true to PdfSdk.initialize(...) to surface [PDFWORKER] … debug lines from the worker.

Worker files not found

If you see errors about pdfworker-*.wasm or pdfworker-*.data being missing:

• Verify <basePath>/pwv-workers/ (the default location, or your custom basePath) contains all three pdfworker-* files.
• The basePath you pass must be absolute. Use resolve(__dirname, 'assets') rather than a relative string.
• If you copied assets manually, copy the entire pwv-workers/ directory — the hashed filenames must match the ones this SDK build expects (they are embedded into the bundle at build time).