Search

The Doconut Viewer provides normal Search using text extracted by the format viewer or a text-based PDF redirect. It requires the Search license capability.

Enable the search UI

Search is a Viewer module, not a standalone toolbar. The complete page must include the Viewer resources, Viewer toolbar, Viewer mount, and initialized objViewer; the Search Ribbon is then mounted and attached to that same instance.

Search and annotation are built-in licensed features, not AddPlugin<T>() packages. Request the search resources from the injected Viewer; their tags are emitted only when the license grants Search.

@Html.Raw(Viewer.ReferenceCss(new CssConfig
{
    IncludeViewerCss = true,
    IncludeSearchCss = true
}))

@Html.Raw(Viewer.ReferenceScripts(new ScriptConfig
{
    IncludeJQuery = true,
    IncludeViewerScripts = true,
    IncludeSearchScripts = true,
    IncludeSearchBar = true
}))

The embedded ribbon calls the same JavaScript methods available to a custom UI.

Keep the complete Viewer composition visible in the markup, initialize docViewer first, and then attach the licensed Ribbon:

<nav id="toolbar" aria-label="Document viewer controls">
    <!-- Viewer controls, including the button that opens Search -->
</nav>
<div id="searchBarMount"></div>
<div id="divDocViewer"><div id="div_ctlDoc"></div></div>

<script>
    let searchBar = null;
    let currentToken = '';

    const objViewer = $('#div_ctlDoc').docViewer({
        BasePath: '/doconut',
        ResPath: '/doconut-res/images'
    });

    @if (Viewer.IsSearchEnabled)
    {
        <text>
    searchBar = $('#searchBarMount').doconutSearchBar({
        docId: 'ctlDoc',
        getRequestParams: () => ({ token: currentToken }),
        onStatus: (message) => console.log(message),
        onToast: (message, type) => console.log(type, message),
        onLayout: () => requestAnimationFrame(() => objViewer.Refit())
    });
    searchBar.attach(objViewer);
        </text>
    }
</script>

The component injects Find, Options, and Results groups and handles searching, clearing, match counts, and previous/next match navigation. A host-owned Viewer toolbar only needs to toggle it:

searchBar.isOpen() ? searchBar.close() : searchBar.open();

Its public API is intentionally small:

The optional onToggle(isOpen) callback lets the host synchronize its Search button, and onLayout lets it resize/refit the viewer when the Ribbon changes height. For the combined Viewer, Search, and Annotation startup sequence, see Quick Start.

Search from JavaScript

objViewer.Search(keyword, false, function (resultCount) {
    console.log('Matches:', resultCount);
});

The second argument is whole-word/exact matching. After the callback:

The middleware route uses search=<term> and exact=true|false and returns XML. Use the widget API rather than parsing that internal response yourself.

Check search capability

The initialization response reports:

X-Doconut-Can-Search: 1

After initialization, objViewer.CanSearch() exposes the same format/session verdict. It returns false when the server sends 0; before the response, or with an older server that omits the header, it defaults to true.

Three independent gates must not be confused:

A format can be technically searchable while the current license denies the operation.

Enable extraction per format

var token = await viewer.OpenDocumentAsync(path, new PdfConfig
{
    AllowSearch = true,
    AllowCopy   = true   // optional: lets the user drag a region and copy its text
});

AllowSearch and AllowCopy exist on PdfConfig, WordConfig, ExcelConfig, and PptConfig. The Office properties delegate to their nested PdfConfig. Both default to false.

Normal native-search adapters exist for PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, TXT, Visio, email, EPUB, and MHT. XPS uses its PDF path by default. HTML and Microsoft Project benefit from a text-based PDF redirect:

// DefaultRender = false → converted to a text-based PDF → searchable
var token = await viewer.OpenDocumentAsync(path, new HtmlConfig { DefaultRender = false });

For native renderers, CanSearch() describes the viewer capability; it does not guarantee that a particular document contains usable text. A PDF whose pages are only scanned images can still produce zero native results.

Normal Search behavior

The server tries search sources in this order:

1. Native ISearchableViewer results.
2. A prebuilt .srh search index.
3. An error/empty result when no search source exists.

CanSearch() can be true for a searchable viewer even when a particular document has no text layer and therefore returns no matches.

Licensing and UI behavior

An active Temporary/Demo license grants Search during its active period. A missing license and legacy TRIAL file grant no Search capability. Without Search:

• ReferenceCss and ReferenceScripts omit the search bundles.
• The middleware denies search instead of returning licensed results.

Drive custom UI visibility from IDoconutLicenseService.IsCapabilityGranted(LicenseCapability.Search) and use CanSearch() for the separate format/session verdict.

Troubleshooting