Adding comments and replies in our JavaScript PDF viewer

Nutrient Web SDK provides a user interface (UI) for viewing, adding, and deleting comments in PDF documents. Comments enable collaborative workflows where multiple users can discuss specific sections of a PDF document without leaving the viewer.

If you’re using Nutrient Web SDK with Document Engine and have Nutrient Instant enabled, comments are available starting from version 2020.1. For more information, refer to the Nutrient Instant guide.

If you’re not using Document Engine, comments are available starting from version 2023.3.

The main difference between the two setups is how collaboration works. With Document Engine, users see each other’s changes in real time. Without it, collaboration is asynchronous — changes appear only after a document is reloaded.

For a cross-product overview of Web SDK, Document Engine, and DWS Viewer API review workflows, refer to the choose the right comments and review workflow setup guide.

Licensing

Comments require a separate component in your Nutrient license. Without this included in your license, you won’t be able to add the functionality of viewing, searching, or adding comments in your application. Contact our Sales team to add comments to your license.

If you’re a new customer, you can try comments without a license key. If you’re an existing customer, ask our Sales team for a trial license if you’re interested.

Terminology

Before starting, here are a few key terms related to comments:

Root annotation — The annotation to which all the comments in a single thread are linked.
Comment thread — A group of comments associated with the same root annotation.
Comment — A single comment added by a user.

Root annotation types

All comments are linked to their respective root annotations. The comments with the same root annotation are part of a single comment thread. Root annotations come in two types:

MarkupAnnotation — You can start a new comment thread by selecting some text and clicking in the markup annotation inline toolbar. In this case, the markup annotation acts as the root annotation.
CommentMarkerAnnotation — A comment marker annotation is a new annotation that you can add anywhere in a PDF document and use to start comment threads.

Getting started

By default, we don’t show the comment tool in the main toolbar. This is because we want you to think about the workflow you want for your users. You can then decide whether to add the tool to the main toolbar. For example, to enable creating comments from the main toolbar and disable sticky notes, use the following code snippet:

const toolbarItems = NutrientViewer.defaultToolbarItems
  .concat({ type: "comment" }) // Add comment tool.
  .filter((item) => item.type !== "note"); // Remove note tool.

NutrientViewer.load({
  // ...
  toolbarItems,
});

You’ll have to add the comment tool in the main toolbar if you want to add comments using the comment marker annotation.

Adding a comment

You can add comments in two ways, depending on the type of root annotation.

This method involves the creation of CommentMarkerAnnotation before the creation of comments. Click the comment tool in the main toolbar to add a comment marker annotation. Then choose a location on the page for the comment. A comment editor will appear where you can write your first comment and start a new thread.

Comment main toolbar

Using markup annotations

To add a comment linked to a text annotation, create a new markup annotation and click the comment tool in the inline toolbar. This opens a comment editor where you can write your first comment and begin a new thread.

Comment inline toolbar

Mentioning users in a comment

To mention a user in a comment, type @, followed by the user’s name, and select the user from the list.

Mentions are only supported in Nutrient Web SDK, and not on iOS or Android.

Setting the list of mentionable users

To specify the users who can be mentioned in comments, follow the steps below.

Create a MentionableUser object for each mentionable user with the following string type properties.
- Required: name, id, displayName
- Recommended: description
- Optional: avatar
Create a list of the MentionableUser objects.
Pass the list to the mentionableUsers configuration property when you load the Nutrient Web SDK viewer. Alternatively, pass it to the setMentionableUsers method after loading the viewer.

The example below sets two mentionable users when loading the Nutrient Web SDK viewer:

NutrientViewer.load({
  // ... Other configuration options.
  mentionableUsers: [
    {
      name: "Jane Doe",
      displayName: "Jane Doe",
      id: "jane_doe",
      description: "jane@doe.com",
    },
    {
      name: "John Doe",
      displayName: "John Doe",
      id: "john_doe",
      description: "john@doe.com",
    },
  ],
});

The example below changes the list of mentionable users after the Nutrient Web SDK viewer has loaded:

instance.setMentionableUsers([
  {
    name: "Jane Doe",
    displayName: "Jane Doe",
    id: "jane_doe",
    description: "jane@doe.com",
  },
  {
    name: "John Doe",
    displayName: "John Doe",
    id: "john_doe",
    description: "john@doe.com",
  },
]);

Getting the list of users mentioned in a comment

To get the list of all users mentioned in a comment, call the getMentionedUserIds method on the comment object:

comment.getMentionedUserIds();

Notifying mentioned users

To notify users who are mentioned in a comment, add event listeners to the loaded instance.

One approach is to listen to the changes made by a specific user. To do this, listen to the comments.mention event and send notifications when the event fires. In the example below, the listener triggers when the user john_doe adds or removes the someCommentObject comment. The listener won’t trigger if another user makes the changes, even if those changes are visible to you:

instance.addEventListener("comments.mention", args: {
    comment: someCommentObject,
    modifications: [{
        userId: "john_doe",
        action: "ADDED" | "REMOVED"
        }]
    } => void)

Another approach is to listen to all changes to comments regardless of who made them. Listen to the comments.create, comments.update, and comments.delete events to send notifications when comments are created, updated, or deleted. The example below adds separate event listeners for each of these three cases and determines the users mentioned in the affected comments. If you implement a way to track users mentioned in different comments, you can determine whether new user mentions were added or deleted. You can then send notifications to the affected users.

This approach gives you control over the different ways comments can change (creation, update, deletion). The limitation is that changes by any user trigger notifications; you can’t specify which users’ changes trigger them. You also can’t determine who made the last change to a comment, but you can use the comment.creatorName property to identify who created it:

instance.addEventListener("comments.create", (createdComments) => {
  const users = createdComments
    .get(0)
    .forEach((comment) => comment.getMentionedUserIds());
});

instance.addEventListener("comments.update", (updatedComments) => {
  const users = updatedComments
    .get(0)
    .forEach((comment) => comment.getMentionedUserIds());
});

instance.addEventListener("comments.delete", (deletedComments) => {
  const users = deletedComments
    .get(0)
    .forEach((comment) => comment.getMentionedUserIds());
});

Deleting a comment

You can delete an individual comment by clicking the delete button. If you delete all the comments of a thread, Nutrient Web SDK automatically deletes the corresponding root annotation.

Document Engine’s REST API currently doesn’t expose an endpoint for deleting a comment. In Nutrient Web SDK, you can delete comments programmatically using instance.delete().

Working with comments programmatically

The UI provides tools for users to add and manage comments interactively. You can also create, read, update, and delete (CRUD) comments programmatically using the Nutrient Web SDK API. Use the programmatic API when you need to:

Automate comment workflows
Import comments from external systems
Build custom commenting interfaces
Prepopulate documents with review comments

Basic workflow

Programmatic comment CRUD uses the same change APIs as annotations and bookmarks: instance.create(), instance.update(), and instance.delete().

A comment thread has two parts:

A root annotation — The annotation that anchors the thread. This can be a CommentMarkerAnnotation placed anywhere on the page, or an existing markup annotation such as a highlight.
A Comment — The text content in the thread.

The rootId property of each Comment must match the id of the root annotation. The comment’s own id is separate; if you don’t provide one, Nutrient Web SDK assigns it when the comment is created.

Comments are immutable data structures. To modify a comment, use .set() to create a new instance with updated properties, similar to how ViewState works.

Complete CRUD example

The following example creates a comment marker thread, reads the created comment, updates its text, and shows how to delete it. You can also try the complete flow in Playground:

NutrientViewer.load({
  ...baseOptions,
  theme: NutrientViewer.Theme.DARK,
}).then(async (instance) => {
  const id = NutrientViewer.generateInstantId();

  // 1. CREATE: Start a comment thread.
  const markerAnnotation =
    new NutrientViewer.Annotations.CommentMarkerAnnotation({
      id,
      pageIndex: 0,
      boundingBox: new NutrientViewer.Geometry.Rect({
        top: 50,
        left: 50,
        width: 20,
        height: 20,
      }),
    });

  const firstComment = new NutrientViewer.Comment({
    pageIndex: 0,
    text: {
      format: "plain",
      value: "Hello world comment",
    },
    rootId: id,
  });

  await instance.create([markerAnnotation, firstComment]);

  // 2. READ: Retrieve all comments.
  const comments = await instance.getComments();
  const commentToEdit = comments.find((item) => item.rootId === id);

  if (!commentToEdit) {
    return;
  }

  // 3. UPDATE: Modify the comment.
  const updatedComment = commentToEdit.set("text", {
    format: commentToEdit.text.format,
    value: "Hi there",
  });
  await instance.update(updatedComment);

  // 4. DELETE: Remove the comment (optional).
  // await instance.delete(updatedComment);
});

Creating comments

To create a comment thread with a marker annotation, create both the marker and the first comment in the same instance.create() call:

const rootId = NutrientViewer.generateInstantId();

// Create the marker that anchors the thread on the page.
const marker = new NutrientViewer.Annotations.CommentMarkerAnnotation({
  id: rootId,
  pageIndex: 0,
  boundingBox: new NutrientViewer.Geometry.Rect({
    top: 50,
    left: 50,
    width: 20,
    height: 20,
  }),
});

// Create the first comment in the thread.
const comment = new NutrientViewer.Comment({
  pageIndex: 0,
  text: { format: "plain", value: "Your comment text" },
  rootId, // Links the comment to the marker annotation.
});

// Add both to the document.
const createdChanges = await instance.create([marker, comment]);

You can pass the returned createdChanges value to instance.ensureChangesSaved() if your integration needs to wait until Nutrient Web SDK persists the new thread.

Key points:

Use NutrientViewer.generateInstantId() to create a unique ID.
The marker annotation’s id and the comment’s rootId must use the same value.
The comment’s own id is independent from rootId; Nutrient Web SDK can generate it for you.
Use instance.create() with an array containing both objects.

To start a comment thread on an existing annotation, mark it as a comment thread root. Then create a comment whose rootId matches the annotation’s id:

const highlightId = "01J..."; // ID of an existing highlight annotation.
const pageIndex = 0; // Page containing the highlight annotation.
const annotations = await instance.getAnnotations(pageIndex);
const highlight = annotations.find((annotation) => annotation.id === highlightId);

if (highlight) {
  const rootAnnotation = highlight.set("isCommentThreadRoot", true);
  const comment = new NutrientViewer.Comment({
    pageIndex: highlight.pageIndex,
    rootId: highlight.id,
    text: { format: "plain", value: "Please review this highlight." },
  });

  await instance.update(rootAnnotation);
  await instance.create(comment);
}

Reading comments

Retrieve comments using instance.getComments():

const allComments = await instance.getComments();
console.log(`Total comments: ${allComments.size}`);

// Find all comments in a thread.
const rootId = "01J..."; // ID of the root annotation for the thread.
const threadComments = allComments.filter((comment) => comment.rootId === rootId);

// Find comments by text content.
const searchResults = allComments.filter((c) =>
  (c.text.value ?? "").includes("search term"),
);

// Include draft comments created by the SDK while a new thread is being edited.
const commentsIncludingDrafts = await instance.getComments({
  includeDrafts: true,
});

By default, getComments() filters out draft comments. Use includeDrafts: true when building a custom UI that needs access to SDK-created draft comments. An open editor manages the text currently being typed until it’s saved.

Updating comments

Modify existing comments using instance.update():

const comments = await instance.getComments();
const target = comments.find((c) =>
  (c.text.value ?? "").includes("Hello world"),
);

if (target) {
  // Update single or multiple properties using `.set()`.
  const updated = target
    .set("text", { format: target.text.format, value: "Updated text" })
    .set("creatorName", "Updated Author");

  await instance.update(updated);
}

Keep the comment’s rootId pointing to the same root annotation. If you need to move the visible marker for a marker-based thread, update the associated CommentMarkerAnnotation instead.

Deleting comments

Remove comments programmatically using instance.delete():

const rootId = "01J..."; // ID of the root annotation for the thread.
const allComments = await instance.getComments();
const threadComments = allComments.filter((comment) => comment.rootId === rootId);
const firstThreadComment = threadComments.first();

// Delete one comment from the thread.
if (firstThreadComment) {
  await instance.delete(firstThreadComment);
}

// Or delete the root annotation, which removes the whole thread.
// await instance.delete(rootId);

// Or delete multiple comments at once.
// await instance.delete(threadComments);

Comments are automatically removed when their root annotation is deleted. If you use instance.history.undo() to restore a deleted root annotation, Nutrient Web SDK also restores its associated comments.

Saving comment changes

New comments, updates, and deletions are visible in the UI immediately. Whether they’re persisted automatically depends on your Configuration#autoSaveMode setting and the selected AutoSaveMode.

If you use manual saving, check instance.hasUnsavedChanges() and call instance.save() to persist all pending changes:

if (instance.hasUnsavedChanges()) {
  await instance.save();
}

If you need to wait until specific comments or marker annotations are persisted, use instance.ensureChangesSaved() with the changes returned by create, update, or delete:

const createdChanges = await instance.create([marker, comment]);
await instance.ensureChangesSaved(createdChanges);

Listening for comment changes

Use comments.change when your UI needs to refresh whenever comments change. Use the more specific comments.create, comments.update, and comments.delete events when you need to react to a specific operation:

instance.addEventListener("comments.change", async () => {
  const latestComments = await instance.getComments();
  // Update your own comments UI.
});

instance.addEventListener("comments.create", (createdComments) => {
  createdComments.forEach((comment) => {
    console.log(`Created comment: ${comment.id}`);
  });
});

instance.addEventListener("comments.update", (updatedComments) => {
  // React to updated comments.
});

instance.addEventListener("comments.delete", (deletedComments) => {
  // React to deleted comments.
});

For manual save workflows, comments.willSave fires before comment changes are saved, and comments.didSave fires after saving finishes.

Limitations

The programmatic API works with comment records. It doesn’t directly modify text being typed in the built-in comment editor because the editor manages that local state until the user saves the comment.

If you need to set initial comment text programmatically, use setOnCommentCreationStart():

instance.setOnCommentCreationStart((comment) => {
  return comment.set("text", {
    format: "plain",
    value: "Pre-populated text",
  });
});

For use cases requiring live draft editing — such as accessibility tools like dictation or text prediction — contact our Support team(opens in a new tab) to discuss your requirements.

API reference

For detailed API documentation, see:

Comment class — Comment object properties and methods
instance.create() — Create comments programmatically
instance.getComments() — Retrieve all comments
instance.update() — Update saved comments
instance.delete() — Delete comments
instance.save() — Persist pending changes manually
instance.ensureChangesSaved() — Wait for specific changes to be persisted
comments.change — Listen for comment changes
CommentMarkerAnnotation — Visual marker for comment threads

Disabling the comments UI

If your license includes comments but you want to prevent users from viewing and adding them, set showComments to false in ViewState:

const initialViewState = new NutrientViewer.ViewState({
  showComments: false,
});

const instance = NutrientViewer.load({
  // ... other options.
  initialViewState: initialViewState,
});

Comment permissions

You might want to disable the editing or deletion of individual comments based on some condition. To do this, you can define the isEditableComment function as a configuration option when initializing the viewer. When isEditableComment returns false for a comment, the user can no longer edit or delete that comment. isEditableComment only applies to existing comments. It doesn’t control whether a user can reply to a thread. To control replies, refer to the replies guide.

In the example below, all the comments that have a root annotation with an id other than the rootAnnotationId will be editable:

NutrientViewer.load({
  // ...
  isEditableComment: (comment) => {
    return comment.rootId !== rootAnnotationId;
  },
});

To set the permissions after you create a viewer instance, use instance.setIsEditableComment:

NutrientViewer.load(options).then((instance) => {
  instance.setIsEditableComment((comment) => {
    return comment.rootId !== rootAnnotationId;
  });
});

Customizing a comment block

Customize the look of a comment block using CSS. Make sure you’re using the public class names starting with PSPDFKit-, as other class names might change in the future and break your application.

For example, if you want to customize the border-radius of avatars, you can do that by writing the following CSS:

.PSPDFKit-Comment-Avatar {
  border-radius: 6px;
}

You can also show avatars in comment blocks by setting a custom renderer:

NutrientViewer.load({
    customRenderers: {
        CommentAvatar: (comment: Comment) => ({
            node: element,
            append: false, // This should always be `false` in this case.
        }),
    },
});

If you want to change the avatar after the viewer instance has been created, you can use setCustomRenderers.

Responsive UI

The comments UI adapts to the screen size of your browser. When there’s enough space in the viewport outside of the current page, comment threads appear in a sidebar alongside the page and are always visible. If the remaining viewport space is too small, floating comment threads stay hidden until the user clicks or taps a root annotation.

You can customize this default behavior by changing the value of ViewState#commentDisplay, which accepts the following values:

NutrientViewer.CommentDisplay.FITTING — The default value; shows comments in a floating sidebar by the page when there’s enough space, and in a popover otherwise, when the marker annotation is selected.
NutrientViewer.CommentDisplay.FLOATING — Always shows comments in a floating sidebar by the page side. When ViewState#zoom is NutrientViewer.ZoomMode.FIT_TO_WIDTH, comments appear in a popover dialog instead.
NutrientViewer.CommentDisplay.POPOVER — Always shows comments in a popover when the marker annotation is selected.

These values only affect desktop and tablet screens; on mobile devices, comments always appear in a drawer at the bottom of the viewport.

Here’s an example of how to change it:

NutrientViewer.load({
  ...config,
  initialViewState: new NutrientViewer.ViewState({
    commentDisplay: NutrientViewer.CommentDisplay.FLOATING,
  }),
});

Rich text comments

Comments support rich text editing. Using the UI, you can select parts of a comment and do the following:

Make parts of the comment bold, italic, or underlined.
Change the color and the background color of the parts of the comment.
Add hyperlinks to the comment.

Adding comments and replies in our JavaScript PDF viewer

Licensing

Terminology

Root annotation types

Getting started

Adding a comment

Using markup annotations

Mentioning users in a comment

Setting the list of mentionable users

Getting the list of users mentioned in a comment

Notifying mentioned users

Deleting a comment

Working with comments programmatically

Basic workflow

Complete CRUD example

Creating comments

Reading comments

Updating comments

Deleting comments

Saving comment changes

Listening for comment changes

Limitations

API reference

Disabling the comments UI

Comment permissions

Customizing a comment block

Responsive UI

Rich text comments

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Help us improve

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Adding comments and replies in our JavaScript PDF viewer

Licensing

Terminology

Root annotation types

Getting started

Adding a comment

From the main toolbar

Using markup annotations

Mentioning users in a comment

Setting the list of mentionable users

Getting the list of users mentioned in a comment

Notifying mentioned users

Deleting a comment

Working with comments programmatically

Basic workflow

Complete CRUD example

Creating comments

Reading comments

Updating comments

Deleting comments

Saving comment changes

Listening for comment changes

Limitations

API reference

Disabling the comments UI

Comment permissions

Customizing a comment block

Responsive UI

Rich text comments

Was this helpful?

Help us improve

Thank you for your feedback!

Something went wrong. Please try again or let us know.