Auto Save PDF Files in React Native

PSPDFKit for React Native automatically saves a modified open document to your device’s local storage. You can also disable automatic saving and manually save the changes. Note that files are saved locally on your device, and no server is required.

Auto Save

PSPDFKit will automatically save changed, created, or deleted annotations and bookmarks on several occasions. In practice, this means that automatic saving will be performed when:

  • The application goes into the background

  • A configuration change occurs (for example, change of device orientation, change of locale, added keyboard)

  • The PSPDFKitView is fully covered by another View

  • The document on the PSPDFKitView is changed

  • A document will be digitally signed

Each time a document is saved, the onDocumentSaved() event is called:

onDocumentSaved={(event) => {
  alert("Document was saved!");
}}

If there were no new changes to save, the event won’t be called.

Disable Automatic Saving

To disable automatic saving, set the disableAutomaticSaving prop to true, like so:

<PSPDFKitView
	document={DOCUMENT}
	disableAutomaticSaving={true}
	ref="pdfView"
	fragmentTag="PDF1"
/>

Manual Saving

Saving can always be triggered from the main thread by calling save() on the current document:

await this.pdfRef?.current?.getDocument().save();

For more details and sample code, refer to the ManualSave.tsx example from our Catalog example project.