How to clear previous search results?

Technical Support
1

Which product are you using?
PDF.js Express Viewer

PDF.js Express Version
8.7.2

Detailed description of issue
There are two very related issues

  1. If I search something twice using the UI.searchText API, I get an error message on the console saying
searchText.js:107 TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'text')
    at e.zC (webviewer-core.min.js:1559:222)
    at e.wg (webviewer-core.min.js:1544:33)
    at r (webviewer-core.min.js:324:55)
  1. If the second search is for a different string that is not located in the pdf (i.e. no results found), the previous search result highlight is not cleared. How to clear older results each time a new search is initiated?

Expected behaviour

  1. There should be no error on the console for a repeated search.
  2. On initiation of a new search, the previous search result should be cleared.

Does your issue happen with every document, or just one?
Yes

Code snippet

var search = function(search_term) {
    // search_term = 'Annotate'
    console.log("Initiating search: " + search_term)
    pdfjs_instance.UI.searchText(search_term, {
        wildcard:false
    })
    pdfjs_instance.UI.closeElements([ 'searchPanel' ]);

}

var searchListener = function(searchValue, options, results) {
    console.log(`CALLBACK: ${searchValue}.`)
    // console.log(options);
    console.log(results);
    console.log(`Time taken ${(performance.now() - start_time) / 1000}s. Total results found ${results.length}`)
};

// for 1
search('Annotate')
search('Annotate')

//for 2
search('Annotate')
search('asdasd')
2

Hello there,

We are currently investigating this issue and will provide you with an update when we have more information.

Thank you.

3

Hello there,

I tried using the code you provided in the then method when instantiating WebViewer, but I didn’t receive any errors. Could you please provide any steps or configurations I may have missed along with the PDF you used?

Please try updating to 8.7.4 as well.

Thank you,
Darian

4

Hi Darian,
Two questions about your setup

  1. Are you using version 8.7.2 or 8.7.4?
  2. What happens when you search for something twice?
  3. Irrespective of the error message, I want to know how to clear previous search results (i.e. any highlights of the previous search result) without initiating a new search.
5

Hello Simar,

I am using 8.7.4 and I do not see any errors in the console when I run your code, it appears to simply just search multiple times.

You can clear previous search results by using the clearSearchResults API.
https://pdfjs.express/api/Core.DocumentViewer.html

instance.Core.documentViewer.clearSearchResults();

Best Regards,
Darian