Getting Started with the ASP.NET MVC PDF Viewer control

19 Jun 20265 minutes to read

This section explains how to integrate the ASP.NET MVC PDF Viewer into an ASP.NET MVC application using Visual Studio.

NOTE

Starting with the 2026 Vol 2 main release (June 2026), no new features will be added to the Server PDF Viewer, as almost all of the PDF Viewer functionalities are now available in the Standalone PDF Viewer. If you are currently using the server-backed PDF Viewer, please refer to the migration documentation to transition to the Standalone PDF Viewer.

Prerequisites

Create a new ASP.NET MVC App in Visual Studio

Install Syncfusion ASP.NET MVC Package in the application

Install the following NuGet packages to add the PDF Viewer to the ASP.NET MVC application.

Or run this command in Package Manager Console:

Install-Package Syncfusion.EJ2.PdfViewer.AspNet.Mvc5 -Version 34.1.29
Install-Package Syncfusion.EJ2.MVC5 -Version 34.1.29

Make sure that the Microsoft.AspNet.Mvc package and its dependency packages are updated to the latest version.

Add namespace

Add Syncfusion.EJ2 namespace reference in Web.config under Views folder.

<namespaces>
    <add namespace="Syncfusion.EJ2"/>
</namespaces>

Add the style sheet and script reference

Reference a theme and the required scripts from the CDN inside the <head> of ~/Views/Shared/_Layout.cshtml as follows:

<!-- Syncfusion ASP.NET MVC controls styles -->
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/34.1.29/fluent.css" />
<!-- Syncfusion ASP.NET MVC controls scripts -->
<script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/34.1.29/dist/ej2.min.js"></script>

NOTE

To learn other ways to load themes or scripts (such as NPM packages or CRG), see the Themes topic and Adding Script Reference documentation. To configure PDF Viewer with locally available script and style resources, follow these instructions.

Register the Syncfusion® script manager

Register the script manager at the end of the <body> element in the ~/Views/Shared/_Layout.cshtml file.

<!-- Syncfusion ASP.NET MVC Script Manager -->
@Html.EJS().ScriptManager()

Add the ASP.NET MVC PDF Viewer control

Add the Syncfusion® ASP.NET MVC PDF Viewer control in ~/Views/Home/Index.cshtml. Load a PDF by setting the DocumentPath property to a file name or URL, as shown below.

<div>
    <div style="height:500px;width:100%;">
        <!-- DocumentPath specifies the PDF document to load -->
        <!-- ServiceUrl specifies the controller endpoint that the viewer uses to communicate with the server -->
        @Html.EJS().PdfViewer("pdfviewer").ServiceUrl(VirtualPathUtility.ToAbsolute("~/Home/")).DocumentPath("https://cdn.syncfusion.com/content/pdf/pdf-succinctly.pdf").Render()
    </div>
</div>

Implement server-side handlers

Add the server side code to HomeController.cs in the Controllers folder. The class should contain handler methods that process all PDF operations on the server, such as loading documents, rendering pages, handling annotations, and managing downloads.

An implementation example can be found in Github.

Run the application

Press Ctrl+F5 (Windows) or ⌘+F5 (macOS) to run the app. The Syncfusion® ASP.NET MVC PDF Viewer will render in the default web browser.

ASP.NET MVC PDF Viewer Control

A fully functional example project is available in the GitHub repository.

Deployment notes

  • Unlike the standalone PDF Viewer which performs client-side rendering, the server-backed PDF Viewer processes and renders PDFs entirely on the server. As a result, the following files are not required and should be omitted during deployment:
    • pdfium.js
    • pdfium.wasm

  • For hosting the web service on Linux, include SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.Linux

  • For AWS environments, use the following packages:

    Amazon Web Services (AWS) NuGet package name
    AWS Lambda SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.Linux
    AWS Elastic Beanstalk SkiaSharp.NativeAssets.Linux.NoDependencies v3.119.1
  • The serviceUrl can be updated dynamically at runtime. After updating the value, invoke pdfViewer.dataBind() to apply the change and then load the document. This feature is supported in version 23.1.36 or later.
@{
    string serviceUrl = VirtualPathUtility.ToAbsolute("~/Home/");
}
<script>
    function load() {
        var pdfViewer = document.getElementById('pdfviewer').ej2_instances[0];
        pdfViewer.serviceUrl = "@serviceUrl";
        pdfViewer.documentPath = "https://cdn.syncfusion.com/content/pdf/pdf-succinctly.pdf";
        pdfViewer.dataBind();
    }
</script>

See also