将 PDF 查看器添加到 WPF 应用程序

Question

I am new to WPF, and am trying to add a PDF viewer to my WPF application, but can't seem to work out how to do it... I have tried following a couple of tutorials/ examples that I have found online, but they don't seem to work for me for varying reasons...

For example, I tried following the tutorial at: https://documentation.devexpress.com/#WPF/CustomDocument114328 to add a PDF Viewer at Design Time- it says to

drag the PdfViewerControl from the DX.15.2: Data & Analytics Toolbox tab and drop it onto the main window

However, I don't seem to have a Data & Analytics tab in the toolbox... there's a Data tab, but that just has items like Pointer, Chart, ListView, etc. Is there something I need to do to add/ enable the Data & Analytics toolbar in Visual Studio?

I tried following the tutorial at: https://documentation.devexpress.com/#WPF/CustomDocument114329 to add a PDF Viewer via code- it says to

Open the Solution Explorer, right-click References and choose Add Reference... to add the PDF Viewer Library.

Then, locate the DevExpress.Data.v15.2, DevExpress.Pdf.v15.2.Core, DevExpress.Xpf.DocumentViewer.v15.2.Core, and DevExpress.Xpf.PdfViewer.v15.2 assemblies and activate their check boxes.

But when I go to Add Reference , I can't find the assemblies it mentions anywhere, and if I 'search' for them, no items are found...

Am I missing an include , or do I need to import some libraries from somewhere or something in order to use these?

Another one I have tried is: http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/380019/Using-Adobe-Reader-in-a-WPF-app which says:

Once this control is added to the project, the Windows Forms Designer should be open with a blank canvas. You will need to open the tool box (CTRL + W, X). As a first step it is a good idea to add a new tab for custom controls- this is an option from the context menu on the toolbox. With this new tab expanded, select “choose items” from the context menu. When the Choose Toolbox Items dialog appears, select the COM Components tab and select Adobe PDF Reader (this will add the AcroPDF.DLL to the toolbox).

But I can't seem to find the Choose Toolbox Items or COM Components it talks about...

Can anyone point me to a clearer tutorial, or explain how I would add a PDF viewer to my WPF application? I am using Visual Studio 2015.

Edit

I have tried to display the PDF file inside my application window, by doing the following:

Adding a <Grid> to display the PDF to the GUI in the XAML:

<StackPanel>
    <Grid x:Name="browserHost" Height="300" Width="525" Margin="0,0,0,0"></Grid>
</StackPanel>

Adding a WebBrowser to the <Grid> in the C#, and pointing that to the location of the PDF I want to display:

        System.Windows.Controls.WebBrowser browser = new System.Windows.Controls.WebBrowser();

public MainWindow()
    {
        InitializeComponent();

        try
        {
            //browser.Navigate("C:\\...\\sample.pdf");
            browserHost.Children.Add(browser);

            //browser.Visible = true;
            browser.Navigate("C:\\...\\sample.pdf");
            browserHost.Opacity = 200;
        }catch(Exception e)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("browser is visible/ not: " + browserHost.Visibility);
        }
    }

    private void Window_Loaded_1(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
    {
        /*Create the interop host control */
        //System.Windows.Forms.Integration.WindowsFormsHost host = new System.Windows.Forms.Integration.WindowFormsHost();

        /*Create the MaskedTextBox control */
        //browser.Navigate("C:\\...\\sample.pdf");
        //host.Child = browser;
        browserHost.Children.Add(browser);
    }

But currently, when I run my application, as soon as it loads, the browser that I've added to it displays a page that says:

Navigation to the webpage was canceled

and a dialog box pops up asking me if I want to open or save the file ( sample.pdf - the one I'm trying to display in the browser)...

Why is it trying to download the file, rather than display it? How can I get the browser to display the file instead of trying to download it? Or should I be using something other than a System.Windows.Controls.WebBrowser here?

Answer 1

As already suggested by @NawedNabiZada, one tried and straightforward way is to use embedded InternetExplorer to show Adobe PDF Reader ActiveX control. So it assumes you are running on Windows and have Adobe PDF Reader installed.

Then you create a user control, window etc. that contains following control:

<WebBrowser x:Name="pdfWebViewer"></WebBrowser>

In the constructor navigate to blank page:

pdfWebViewer.Navigate(new Uri("about:blank"));

To load a PDF document to that control use this simple code:

pdfWebViewer.Navigate(fullPathToPDF);

This approach is used by many Windows software not only WPF apps including SAP client, but has a hidden problem, see this question .

The Adobe PDF Reader Addon in Internet Explorer must be enabled for this to work. There are various problems with Acrobat Reader XI, better to use DC version. To enable Adobe PDF go to IE settings, add-ons and find Adobe PDF Reader and enable it (AR XI and above).

For me this was the preferred way compared to the code project article you linked.

Answer 2

For anyone stumbling upon this, and in need of a litte bit more control than with the WebBrowser: It's quite easy to make your own PDF viewer with Windows 10 APIs. I wrote a blog on how to do it. You can easily add other features to it like drawing on top (signature) of it and so on.

The code is available on github .

However for super advanced features, you probably will need one of those fancy expensive libraries.

Answer 3

The answer from @LanderV works nicely. The only challenge is that his solution on github uses VS2014 and .NET Framwork 4.7.1, whereas I am using Visual Studio 2019 and .NET 5. It took me a day to get the Framwork 4.7 solution to run on my PC, but to make it run under .NET 5 was very easy. I explain here the steps to take for both configurations.

.NET 5

Read docs.microsoft.com: modernize desktop to uwp if you want to know what is going on.

Create a new WPF .Net 5 solution in VS.

In the WPF project file, change

<TargetFramework>net5.0-windows</TargetFramework> 

to

<TargetFramework>net5.0-windows10.0.19041.0</TargetFramework>

If the Windows on your PC is a different build, change 19041 accordingly. You might get an error message about an incorrect .json file, but clean the solution, rebuild it and there should be no more errors.

Now just copy over the source code from Githup:
MainWindow.xaml
MainWindow.xaml.cs
PdfViewer.xaml
PdfViewer.xaml.cs

Now you should be able to run the application.

.NET Framwork 4.7.1

If you can, use .NET 5 or higher, as described above, it's much easier. To run the Github code as it is, I had to do the following steps:

Clone from https://github.com/LanderVe/WPF_PDFDocument

Download .NET Framework 4.7.1, developer pack https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet-framework/net471

Read help https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/desktop/modernize/desktop-to-uwp-enhance

Use NuGet Package Manager to install Microsoft.Windows.SDK.Contracts

There will be an error message about a .dll being installed twice. Keep the one in the nuget location, remove the one under References which is stored in the .NET framework location.

Project should compile and run

Remove Windows from References, it cannot be found and is no longer needed.

Answer 4

It is also possible by the cefsharp Web Browser.

it includes embedded modules for PDF, so you dont need Acrobat-Reader, or any other ActiveX.

Get-Started CefSharp in WPF

Answer 5

对于WPF pdf查看器，您可以使用http://pdfprinting.net/

Answer 6

Posting an answer with @GeersJ 's comment for better visibility.

Microsoft now does this with WebView2 .

This approach is by far the easiest and probably what most of the devs are looking for moving forward.

In OP's context, the solution would look like

<wv2:WebView2 Name="webView" Source="C:\sample.pdf"/>

Add the xmlns

xmlns:wv2="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Web.WebView2.Wpf;assembly=Microsoft.Web.WebView2.Wpf"

For this you need the nuget package:

<PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Web.WebView2" Version="X.X.X.X" />