Is there a version of Synactis' TPDFViewer in Delphi XE

Question

I have used the Synactis product PDF-in-the-box in Delphi 2006 projects and also a free component they had called TPDFViewer, which allows you to embed a PDF viewer in your application.

I am porting one app to XE and - having found that trying to install the TPDFViewer I had in XE did some serious damage to my installation - I'm looking for a replacement.

I have installed XE-supported trial versions of their current offerings PDF-in-the-box 4.04 and All-in-the-box 4.04 but can't see any sign of the TPdfViewer component in either. Their website FAQ implies this functionality has been replaced by functions to start Adobe Reader.

So I want a (free would be nice, but not essential) PDF viewer for Delphi XE which doesn't just chain to Adobe Reader and allows user interaction or programmatic control over zoom, page number etc.

Answer 1

I tried several times to find a good PDF viewer. Most of them were fake components. The best way is to embed acrobat reader dll directly into your application and command it from there.

It was 8 years ago, so I do not remember the code that I used to do this. You import the acroXX.dll file directly into Delphi, it prepares a user component for you and then you install this component directly in to your Component palette.

The worst thing in this configuration is that you have to take care of the acrobat reader dll that is installed on your clients. Any update/upgrade of the reader may cause your application to fail.