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splnlss's avatar
splnlss
Explorer | Level 3
7 years ago

Display a pdf of a pdf

I can use 'filesGetPreview" to view a pdf of .csv, .doc, .ai etc but how do I actually get a pdf of a pdf??  The "filesGetThumbnail" only returns a tiny image of a pdf or image. Is there a better wa...
API
Greg-DB's avatar
Greg-DB
Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
7 years ago

If the file is a PDF to begin with, you can use filesDownload to retrieve the original file data.

Exactly what you do with the data is up to you. Downloading to the local filesystem is not required. You may want to pass the file data to some PDF viewer, for instance. 

  • splnlss's avatar
    splnlss
    Explorer | Level 3
    7 years ago

    I can retrieve the file but I can't load it into a pdf viewer using javascript. The pdf previewer is a small thumbnail that isn't useful.

    How would one do this without first saving it to a server or saving it locally? I've tried react-pdf and other libraries but they can't render a blob.

    For privacy reasons I don't want to render users files on a server, I just would like them to be able to view them in a JS webapp.

    Thanks!

    • Greg-DB's avatar
      Greg-DB
      Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
      7 years ago

      It sounds like you're able to retrieve the file data from the Dropbox API, and are now trying to use that file data client-side. The download-style methods, such filesDownload, yield a file blob of the file data. What you do with that is up to you.

      Unfortunately, I'm afraid I can't recommend or endorse any particular third party library for displaying data like this, nor can I offer support for any third party method or code. You may be better served by the support community or documentation for any third party library you're trying to use, or a general web development forum.

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