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Getting Started with PrizmDoc Viewer

Getting Started PrizmDoc Viewer

Getting Started with PrizmDoc Viewer.  Searching for documents wastes time. Almost five hours a week for many information workers. But it doesn’t stop there. Documents require third-party applications to view, edit, and share. PrizmDoc™ Viewer integrates with your existing applications to deliver in-browser viewing that displays accurate and complete document content on-demand. Ready to get started? Here’s what you need to know.

Architecture Overview

Let’s start with the basics. What pieces do you need?

PrizmDoc Viewer contains three key components:

  • The HTML5 Viewer This runs in-browser to display your content.
  • The Backend — This converts documents to SVG format for viewing.
  • The Reverse Proxy This is your web application. It sits between the viewer and the backend to request your content.

The backend itself has two components: PrizmDoc Application Services (PAS) and PrizmDoc Server. Both run on their own hosts or ports using their own REST APIs. PrizmDoc Server is the computing powerhouse of Accusoft’s document viewer — the actual engine that converts documents to SVG. 

PAS, meanwhile, has privileged access to your source document storage and is responsible for functions such as pre-converted content caching and the saving and loading of annotations. PAS doesn’t do the heavy lifting of document conversion; instead, your web app makes REST API calls to PAS, which in turn calls PrizmDoc Server to complete the conversion and serve SVG documents. 

If you need direct conversion for non-viewing work such as file format changes or burned-in annotations, your web app can make REST API calls directly to the Server.

Illustrating the Viewing Sequence

Next up: How does this all work?

Think of it like a conversation.

First your web app POSTs to PAS and asks for a new viewing session. PAS responds with a new ViewingSessionID. This lets your web app render the page HTML and pass it along to the in-browser document viewer, while simultaneously delivering original documents to PAS.

PAS talks to PrizmDoc Server, asking it to start conversion. Meanwhile, the document viewer has its own question for the PAS (via your web proxy): Can I have the first page now? Once available, PAS sends the first page back as an SVG even as other pages are still being converted, letting users view and interact with documents while conversion is underway. 

Sample Applications

How it all comes together: What does this look like in practice?

Start simple. Use one of our minimal “hello viewer” sample applications to see PrizmDoc Viewer in action. The Node.js, C#, and Java apps all load a single document into the browser using PrizmDoc, making it easier to visualize how the HTML5 viewer, your reverse proxy, and the PrizmDoc backend interact to deliver SVG content on-demand. From here, it’s easy to scale up and start converting, viewing and annotating documents at scale — all without leaving your application.

Document access drives productivity. Time spent searching for conversion tools puts on the breaks. Make it easier for staff to view the content they need, when they need it by integrating in-browser, in-app, on-demand document viewing. Try PrizmDoc Viewer on your own terms and on your own timeline.  Getting started with PrizmDoc Viewer is easy!  Try it now.