Flutter Guides Open a document

Open a Document

ComPDF SDK for Flutter offers multiple ways to open PDF documents depending on your use case:

• Use CPDFReaderWidget to display an embedded reader UI.
• Use ComPDFKit.openDocument() to quickly launch a full-screen document viewer.
• Use CPDFDocument for background processing or non-UI operations.

Using CPDFReaderWidget (Recommended for embedded reader scenarios)

const String _documentPath = 'pdfs/PDF_Document.pdf';

File document = await CPDFFileUtil.extractAsset(_documentPath, shouldOverwrite: false);

Scaffold(
  resizeToAvoidBottomInset: false,
  appBar: AppBar(),
  body: CPDFReaderWidget(
    document: document.path,
    configuration: CPDFConfiguration(),
    onCreated: (controller) {

    },))

Using ComPDFKit.openDocument() (Quick full-screen viewer)

This is ideal for quickly launching a standalone document viewer.

const String _documentPath = 'pdfs/PDF_Document.pdf';

File document = await CPDFFileUtil.extractAsset(_documentPath);

ComPDFKit.openDocument(document.path, password: '', configuration: CPDFConfiguration());

Using CPDFDocument (For background or logic-only use cases)

This is useful for non-UI operations such as annotation management, import/export, etc.

const String _documentPath = 'pdfs/PDF_Document.pdf';

File sourceFile = await CPDFFileUtil.extractAsset(_documentPath);
// Create and open the document
CPDFDocument document = await CPDFDocument.createInstance();
CPDFDocumentError error = await document.open(sourceFile.path);

if (error == CPDFDocumentError.success) {
  // Perform operations with the CPDFDocument instance...
}

Local File Paths on iOS

Starting with 3.2.0, CPDFReaderWidget retains the original path when opening a file in the application sandbox. Subsequent edits and saves apply to that file. Resources in the application bundle are still copied to a writable directory before opening.

To retain the original, create a working copy first or use Save As.