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Understanding the Business Case for Hybrid Viewing

Hybrid viewing solution

Integrating third-party viewing solutions like Accusoft’s PrizmDoc allow developers to seamlessly incorporate powerful document conversion and viewing capabilities into their web applications to deliver a seamless user experience to their customers. However, building a solution that works great for customers without heavy server reliance, and a fast responsive viewing experience can sometimes be challenging as usage demands scale. PrizmDoc’s new Hybrid Viewing feature makes it easy to meet growing viewing requirements without locking developers into unsustainable processing loads.

How PrizmDoc Hybrid Viewing Works

Rather than converting files into large SVGs, a web-friendly format, for client viewing on the server side, PrizmDoc’s Hybrid Viewing feature instead converts files into optimized PDFs and then offloads the viewer processing work to client-side devices. Rendering PDF files in the browser on the end user’s device significantly reduces the amount of pre-conversion workloads needed to display documents. Since all the processing work associated with viewing is being handled on the client’s device, the user experience is much more responsive.

The Business Case for Hybrid Viewing

The Accusoft engineering team developed the Hybrid Viewing feature based on extensive conversations with PrizmDoc customers about their evolving application needs. While there are still many situations where documents need to be processed and edited on the server to take full advantage of PrizmDoc’s server-side features, customers were looking for a more flexible option that would allow users to simply view files without increasing server loads.

Hybrid Viewing provides several important business benefits to existing and potential PrizmDoc customers.

Reduced Costs

One of the challenges with server-based processing is that scaling to a larger number of users can be expensive. Adding more users increases the overall server workload because each viewing session requires the server to prepare and process the document for viewing. Scaling this model after a certain usage threshold becomes expensive for many organizations. By offloading the processing work needed for viewing to client-side devices and minimizing server loads, PrizmDoc customers can scale usage more cost-effectively.

Improved Performance

Server-based viewing sometimes struggles to keep up when users are scrolling through a large, multi-page document. Lag can be even more significant if they need to jump from one section to another, forcing the server to stop loading one page so it can begin processing another. Offloading that processing work to a client-side device speeds up viewing performance because the device doesn’t have to continually connect to the server each time the user pulls up a new page. Increased responsiveness provides end users with a better overall viewing experience.

Tech-Stack Consolidation

Limitations with server-based viewing forced many customers to implement alternative solutions that made sense for their applications but involved a lot of extra development and maintenance. These solutions often include outdated desktop-based viewers that don’t offer much in the way of features. Transitioning to PrizmDoc Hybrid Viewing will allow customers to consolidate their tech stack, streamline development, and provide a more unified user experience without sacrificing performance or incurring additional costs.  

Frequently Asked Questions about Hybrid Viewing

It’s understandable that there are many questions about how the Hybrid Viewing feature works and how it will impact deployments. To address those concerns, we’ve provided answers here for some of the most common questions we’ve received.

Do I have to move to metered licensing?

PrizmDoc’s Hybrid Viewing feature is only available with metered licensing. We understand that some customers are currently on OEM licensing or one of our deprecated licensing options and we will work with you, review your current and projected transactions, and make the move to metered licensing as easy as possible.

How will metered licensing impact my data security?

Under our metered licensing plan, your PrizmDoc Server instance must contact Accusoft to 1) report the number of documents you have processed and 2) validate that your license is still current. Each report covers a period of time (usually 4-hour intervals) and is sent once every 18 hours. The data contained in these reports include:

  • Timestamp of when the period began
  • Duration of the period
  • Count of documents processed
  • An auto-generated ID

No other data is reported back to Accusoft.

Do I have to upgrade PrizmDoc to use Hybrid Viewing?

Yes, PrizmDoc Hybrid Viewing is only available starting in v13.22. We always recommend that customers upgrade to the latest version of PrizmDoc Server. Our engineering team is constantly implementing bug fixes, quality-of-life improvements, and critical security updates. Neglecting to upgrade PrizmDoc Server instances could leave your application exposed to potential security risks. All PrizmDoc versions are backward compatible. The Hybrid Viewing feature works for self-hosted, private cloud-hosted, and public cloud-hosted servers and requires customers to use metered licensing.

Start Taking Advantage of Hybrid Viewing Today!

If you’re already a PrizmDoc customer and you’re looking for a better way to scale your application’s viewing capabilities, our new Hybrid Viewing feature can help you achieve those goals. Talk to your Accusoft Account Manager to find out how you can implement Hybrid Viewing today.

Considering using PrizmDoc to implement powerful viewing and document management tools into your application? Talk to an Accusoft solutions specialist to learn more about how Hybrid Viewing can help you deliver greater value to customers without taking on unsustainable costs.