Getting Started
Foxit PDF SDK for Android helps developers integrate powerful Foxit PDF technology into Android apps with ease. With the Foxit SDK, even developers new to PDF can build a professional PDF reader on Android in just a few lines of code.
For product capabilities, architecture details, and the feature comparison table, see Foxit PDF SDK for Mobile overview.
SDK architecture
Foxit PDF SDK for Android uses the same three-layer model as Foxit PDF SDK for Web and Foxit PDF SDK for Mobile. See the full mobile architecture description for component details and diagrams.
| Layer | Key classes | Role | Use cases |
|---|---|---|---|
| UIExtensions (Full UI) | UIExtensionsManager | Full-UI reader component (open source) | Quickly build a feature-complete PDF reader with built-in toolbar, annotations, search, and other UI |
| PDFViewCtrl (Basic Viewer) | PDFViewCtrl | Viewer control without UI | Custom UI while relying on SDK rendering, zoom, scroll, and other view capabilities |
| Core SDK | PDFDoc, PDFPage, Renderer, etc. | Low-level PDF APIs | Direct PDF structure and content operations without any UI |
NOTE
Foxit PDF SDK for Android, the Web SDK, and the iOS SDK are built on top of Foxit PDF SDK for Desktop/Server. Core SDK indicates low-level PDF operations that work without UI. PDFViewCtrl indicates APIs that depend on the viewer control. UIExtensions indicates features provided by the built-in UI components.
System requirements
| Platform | OS requirements | CPU / architecture |
|---|---|---|
| Android | Android 4.4+ (API Level 19+) | 32-bit & 64-bit ARM (armeabi-v7a / arm64-v8a)Intel x86 / x86_64 |
Android development requirements:
- Android Studio Koala | 2024.1.1
- JDK 17
- Gradle 8.7
- Android Gradle Plugin (AGP) 8.5.1
Package layout
After you extract the SDK package, you will find these main directories and files:
| Directory / file | Description |
|---|---|
docs/ | SDK documentation |
| ├─ API reference | API reference documentation |
| ├─ Development Guide | SDK usage and integration guides |
| └─ Upgrade Guide | Version changes and upgrade instructions |
icc_profile/ | ICC color profiles |
libs/ | Core libraries and required resources |
samples/ | Sample projects |
legal.txt | Legal and copyright information |
release_notes.txt | Release notes |
getting_started.pdf | Getting started guide |
libs folder
The libs directory contains the Foxit PDF SDK for Android core libraries, UI Extensions, and optional feature modules:
| Category | Files |
|---|---|
| Core SDK | FoxitRDK.aar (Java API + native .so libraries) |
| UI Extension | uiextensions_src (open source), FoxitRDKUIExtensions.aar |
| Scanning | pdfscan (open source)FoxitMobileScanningRDK.aar,FoxitPDFScan-UI.aar |
| Third-party / tools | RMSSDK-4.2-release.aar,rms-sdk-ui.aar |