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Import and export annotations in React PDF Viewer

25 Feb 20261 minute to read

The PDF Viewer control supports exporting and importing annotations in multiple formats: JSON, XFDF, or as native annotation objects. Use exportAnnotation('Json') or exportAnnotation('Xfdf') for serialized formats, and exportAnnotationsAsObject() to obtain the in-memory annotation objects that can be re-imported with importAnnotation().

The following steps show how to export annotations in different formats and import annotation objects back into the viewer.

Step 1: Follow the steps provided in the getting started guide to create a simple PDF Viewer sample.

Step 2: Use the following code to perform import and export operations.

    <button onClick={ExportXfdf}>Export XFDF</button>
    <button onClick={ExportJSON}>Export JSON</button>
    <button onClick={ExportAsObject}>Export as Object</button>
    <button onClick={Import}>Import from Object</button>
<script>
    // export the annotation in XFDF format.
  function ExportXfdf(){
        var viewer = document.getElementById('container').ej2_instances[0];
        viewer.exportAnnotation('Xfdf');
    }
    // export the annotation in JSON format.
    function ExportJSON(){
        var viewer = document.getElementById('container').ej2_instances[0];
        viewer.exportAnnotation('Json');
    }
    let exportAsObject;
    //Export annotation as object.
    function ExportAsObject(){
        var viewer = document.getElementById('container').ej2_instances[0];
        viewer.exportAnnotationsAsObject().then(function(value) {
            exportAsObject = value;
        });
    }
    //Import annotation that are exported as object.
    function Import (){
        var viewer = document.getElementById('container').ej2_instances[0];
        viewer.importAnnotation(JSON.parse(exportAsObject));
    }

View sample in GitHub.