Operational modes
Nutrient Web SDK can run locally in the browser, or work together with Document Engine — either self-hosted or managed — to offload document storing, rendering, and editing.
Regardless of the operational mode being used, your frontend code will be identical, with some exceptions — such as initialization and opening files.
Nutrient Web SDK in the browser
The Web SDK uses our JavaScript library for rendering and editing documents directly in the browser. In this mode, it’s powered by WebAssembly technology, and it doesn’t require a server, plugins, or internet access.
Performing document rendering and processing in the browser has the following advantages:
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Get up and running faster — No servers need to be deployed or maintained.
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Lower infrastructure costs — Rendering and processing are offloaded to the client.
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More tolerant to internet connection — Slow networks don’t affect user interface.
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Security and privacy — Documents don’t need to be transferred across a network.
Nutrient Web SDK with Document Engine
Nutrient Web SDK with Document Engine delegates document processing to its backend, which is either hosted by you or managed by us.
This distributed solution has the following advantages:
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Faster — Leveraging both client-side viewing and server-side rendering, it ensures swift performance, enhancing user interactions, even on slower devices. This results in a lighter end user experience by shifting operations from the browser to the backend.
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Seamless syncing — Annotations and form field values synchronize across servers and sessions without additional configuration, streamlining collaborative workflows.
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Security and privacy — Designed with privacy and security in mind, it allows building a resilient infrastructure to protect sensitive data.
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High-performance capabilities — Developers can harness advanced features like OCR (web) and Instant collaboration (web, mobile), empowering real-time collaborative document management.
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Scalability and resilience — Document Engine is scalable both vertically and horizontally, providing a reliable foundation for projects of all sizes.
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Headless processing — Supports headless document processing, enabling automated tasks such as batch conversion and manipulation without the need for a graphical user interface, thus enhancing efficiency and integration capabilities.
Comparing operational modes
| Deployment | Standalone | With Document Engine |
|---|---|---|
| Deployment options | On your infrastructure | On your infrastructure or managed by Nutrient |
| Backend | Static | Document Engine |
| Deployment method | Any | Container |
| Framework | Standalone | Server-backed |
|---|---|---|
| Angular | ✓ | ✓ |
| ASP.NET | ✓ | ✓ |
| Blazor | ✓ | ✓ |
| Electron | ✓ | |
| HTML5 | ✓ | ✓ |
| jQuery | ✓ | ✓ |
| Next.js | ✓ | ✓ |
| Nuxt.js | ✓ | ✓ |
| Progressive web apps | ✓ | ✓ |
| React | ✓ | ✓ |
| Ruby on Rails | ✓ | ✓ |
| Svelte | ✓ | ✓ |
| TypeScript | ✓ | ✓ |
| Vue | ✓ | ✓ |
| Integrations | Standalone | Server-backed |
|---|---|---|
| SharePoint Online | ✓ | Coming soon |
| SharePoint On-Premises | ✓ | Coming soon |
| Microsoft Teams | ✓ | Coming soon |
| Microsoft OneDrive | ✓ | Coming soon |
| Salesforce | ✓ | Coming soon |
| PDF support | Standalone | Server-backed |
|---|---|---|
| ✓ | ✓ | |
| PDF/A 1, 2, 3, 4 | ✓ | ✓ |
| XFDF | ✓ | ✓ |
| Instant JSON | ✓ | ✓ |
| Office document support | Standalone | Server-backed |
|---|---|---|
| DOCX, DOC, DOTX, DOCM | ✓ | ✓ |
| PPTX, PPT, PPTM, PPSX | ✓ | ✓ |
| XLSX, XLS, XLSM | ✓ | ✓ |
| RTF | ✓ | |
| ODT | ✓ |
| HTML support | Standalone | Server-backed |
|---|---|---|
| HTML | ✓ |
| Image support | Standalone | Server-backed |
|---|---|---|
| PNG | ✓ | ✓ |
| JPEG, JPG | ✓ | ✓ |
| TIFF, TIF | ✓ | ✓ |
| HEIC | ✓ | |
| GIF | ✓ | |
| WEBP | ✓ | |
| SVG | ✓ | |
| TGA | ✓ | |
| EPS | ✓ |
| Performance | Standalone | With Document Engine |
|---|---|---|
| Initial load time | Fast | Fastest |
| Document rendering | Client-side | Server-side |
| Document processing | Client-side | Server-side |
| Document streaming | ✓ |
| Functionality | Standalone | With Document Engine |
|---|---|---|
| Viewer | ✓ | ✓ |
| Annotations | ✓ | ✓ |
| Forms | ✓ | ✓ |
| Signatures | ✓ | ✓ |
| Editor | ✓ | ✓ |
| PDF generation | ✓ | ✓✓ |
| Conversion | ✓ | ✓ |
| Extraction | ✓ | ✓ |
| Redaction | ✓ | ✓ |
| OCR | ✓ | |
| Document security | ✓ | ✓✓ |
| Search | ✓ | ✓ |
| Bookmarks | ✓ | ✓ |
| Events and notifications | ✓ | ✓ |
| ✓ | ✓ | |
| User authentication | Not built-in | Built-in |
| Annotation and form synchronization | Standalone | With Document Engine |
|---|---|---|
| Sync annotations and form data to a server | Not built-in | Built-in |
| Conflict resolution for concurrent editing | Not built-in | Built-in* |
| Customizable permissions | Not built-in | Built-in |
| Incremental sync (annotation diff) | Not built-in | Built-in |
* Via Nutrient Instant (a component for Document Engine)
Learn more about Document Engine.