The react-pdf-highlighter project is a React component that allows users to highlight and annotate PDF documents within a web application. It provides a set of tools and APIs to integrate PDF viewing and annotation functionality into React-based projects.

Pros

• Robust PDF Viewing and Annotation: The library offers a comprehensive set of features for viewing and annotating PDF documents, including highlighting, adding notes, and more.
• Customizable UI: The library provides a flexible and customizable user interface, allowing developers to integrate the PDF viewer and annotation tools seamlessly into their application's design.
• Cross-browser Compatibility: The library is designed to work across a wide range of modern web browsers, ensuring a consistent user experience.
• Active Development and Community: The project has an active development team and a growing community of contributors, ensuring ongoing support and improvements.

Cons

• Dependency on External Libraries: The library relies on several external dependencies, such as pdf-lib and react-pdf, which may increase the overall project's complexity and size.
• Limited Offline Support: While the library can be used to view and annotate PDF documents, it may not provide robust offline support, which could be a limitation for some use cases.
• Potential Performance Issues: Depending on the size and complexity of the PDF documents being viewed, the library may experience performance issues, especially on lower-powered devices.
• Limited Documentation: The project's documentation, while generally helpful, could be more comprehensive, especially for advanced use cases or customization options.

Code Examples

Rendering a PDF Document

import React from 'react';
import { Viewer } from 'react-pdf-highlighter';

const MyPdfViewer = () => {
  return (
    <Viewer
      pdf="/path/to/your/pdf.pdf"
      enableAnnotationEditing={true}
      enableHighlightAnnotations={true}
      enableTextSelection={true}
    />
  );
};

export default MyPdfViewer;

This code snippet demonstrates how to render a PDF document using the Viewer component provided by the react-pdf-highlighter library. The component allows users to enable annotation editing, highlight annotations, and enable text selection.

Adding a Highlight Annotation

import React, { useRef } from 'react';
import { Viewer, Highlight, HighlightArea } from 'react-pdf-highlighter';

const MyPdfViewer = () => {
  const viewerRef = useRef(null);

  const handleHighlight = (highlight) => {
    viewerRef.current.addHighlight(highlight);
  };

  return (
    <Viewer
      ref={viewerRef}
      pdf="/path/to/your/pdf.pdf"
      enableAnnotationEditing={true}
      enableHighlightAnnotations={true}
    >
      <Highlight onHighlight={handleHighlight} />
      <HighlightArea />
    </Viewer>
  );
};

export default MyPdfViewer;

This code snippet demonstrates how to add a highlight annotation to a PDF document using the Highlight and HighlightArea components provided by the react-pdf-highlighter library. The handleHighlight function is called when a user highlights a section of the PDF, and the addHighlight method is used to add the highlight to the viewer.

Saving and Loading Annotations

import React, { useRef } from 'react';
import { Viewer, Highlight, HighlightArea } from 'react-pdf-highlighter';

const MyPdfViewer = () => {
  const viewerRef = useRef(null);

  const handleSaveAnnotations = () => {
    const annotations = viewerRef.current.getAnnotations();
    // Save the annotations to a database or local storage
    console.log(annotations);
  };

  const handleLoadAnnotations = (annotations) => {
    viewerRef.current.setAnnotations(annotations);
  };

  return (
    <Viewer
      ref={viewerRef}
      pdf="/path/to/your/pdf.pdf"
      enableAnnotationEditing={true}
      enableHighlightAnnotations={true}