What is best alternate to PDF to use?

Getting Started Newbie Questions
#1

Hello,

I have read all of the hard tasks of showing a PDF file on both Android and iOS. I am needing to display a documentation file in the app but also allow searching within the app. One way I thought of doing this is converting the PDF to HTML and then display within a webView. As for the searching I can actually load the HTML through an ASP.NET page since I am a .NET developer and include the search with it.

I think my biggest challenge is getting the HTML in the website to show in mobile wen format so it is not so small to view and read.

Does anyone suggest another method to replace the PDF files and include searching?

Thanks,

Warren

#2

What if I used a PDF viewer in a webView? My other solution was to convert the PDF to HTML and show that in a PDF.

#3

PDF’s are troublesome in mobile apps and in particular Corona apps. Corona is not a native UI platform. There is no good way to display a PDF in OpenGL and give  you the features you want. Even then Android wants to open them in their PDF viewer app and not in your mobile app. A webView might be your best option.

Rob

#4

I thought of that as I mentioned. The other option is to convert the PDF file to HTML and display that in a webview. So I will have to see which works best as far as using a PDF viewer or converting to HTML.

My one concern is having the content show large enough in the PDF viewer for the mobile device. If I convert to html I may be able to add the code for the viewport to show large enough. I guess I just need to try to see what the result comes out to be.

Thanks!

#5

What if I used a PDF viewer in a webView? My other solution was to convert the PDF to HTML and show that in a PDF.

#6

PDF’s are troublesome in mobile apps and in particular Corona apps. Corona is not a native UI platform. There is no good way to display a PDF in OpenGL and give  you the features you want. Even then Android wants to open them in their PDF viewer app and not in your mobile app. A webView might be your best option.

Rob

#7

I thought of that as I mentioned. The other option is to convert the PDF file to HTML and display that in a webview. So I will have to see which works best as far as using a PDF viewer or converting to HTML.

My one concern is having the content show large enough in the PDF viewer for the mobile device. If I convert to html I may be able to add the code for the viewport to show large enough. I guess I just need to try to see what the result comes out to be.

Thanks!