Displaying a PDF

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1

I want to display a pdf, and in searching Glide’s official help docs and the community, I started to add the urlbox integration, but it looks like this would require me to have a paid subscription to another platform. Is there another way to display a pdf where I don’t have to pay for something else?

2

Have you tried using the web-embed component?

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3

Where are you storing your PDF?

4

I find the web embed component is hit and miss to display a PDF inside the application.

Alternatives:

  1. Turn the PDF into individual images and turn this into a carousel. I find this cumbersome and not realistic in my use case where I’m uploading many PDFs that represent Powerpoint presentations.

  2. Upload one image (such as the first page of the PDF) and bind an Open link action. Pointing to the PDF works well, the user experience is nice. But the PDF is not actually embedded inside the Glide app.

  3. I tried with the custom AI component, unsuccessfully.

I’m curious what others are doing to display PDFs inside their apps.

5

I use the Web Embed.

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6

Why do you think the web embed component is hit & miss? On which devices is it not working?

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7

I can load an MP4 or image without any issue with the web embed component, however with a PDF in the specific instance I’m testing, I noticed the file does not load on mobile yet loads fine on my laptop.

Mobile

The file name is displayed but the file name doesn’t not load. The user needs to click on “Open” and the file name is URL encoded, which makes it appear like an error message.

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Desktop / Laptop

Screenshot 2025-05-10 at 11.03.05
Screenshot 2025-05-10 at 11.03.052916×1808 113 KB

You’ve never had this? It could be because of the size of the PDF file, but I cannot change the PDF file.

8

I don’t think I have seen this behavior before. The worst I have had on iOS with web embed is them only showing the first page and not scrollable, but I have fixes in place for that with this template.

https://drive.google.com/viewerng/viewer?embedded=true&url=[insert your PDF URL here]
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9

I’ll try that, thanks a ton.

I’m curious, how did you come up with the code? Forums, or did you ask an AI by describing your issue?

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10

I think I got it from Stackoverflow. It was a very long time ago.

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