--- title: "Annotation Sidebar" canonical_url: "https://www.nutrient.io/guides/android/samples/annotation-sidebar-kotlin/" md_url: "https://www.nutrient.io/guides/android/samples/annotation-sidebar-kotlin.md" last_updated: "2026-05-15T19:10:04.916Z" description: "Display a persistent sidebar listing all annotations with tap-to-navigate." --- # Annotation Sidebar Display a persistent sidebar listing all annotations with tap-to-navigate. [Get Started](https://www.nutrient.io/sdk/android/getting-started.md) [All Samples](https://www.nutrient.io/guides/android/samples.md) [Download](https://www.nutrient.io/guides/android/downloads.md) [Launch Demo](https://www.nutrient.io/demo/) --- ```kotlin /* * Copyright © 2020-2026 PSPDFKit GmbH. All rights reserved. * * The PSPDFKit Sample applications are licensed with a modified BSD license. * Please see License for details. This notice may not be removed from this file. */ package com.pspdfkit.catalog.examples.kotlin import android.annotation.SuppressLint import android.content.Context import android.content.Intent import android.net.Uri import android.os.Bundle import android.view.LayoutInflater import android.view.View import android.view.ViewGroup import android.widget.TextView import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity import androidx.recyclerview.widget.DividerItemDecoration import androidx.recyclerview.widget.LinearLayoutManager import androidx.recyclerview.widget.RecyclerView import com.pspdfkit.annotations.Annotation import com.pspdfkit.annotations.AnnotationProvider import com.pspdfkit.annotations.AnnotationType import com.pspdfkit.catalog.R import com.pspdfkit.catalog.SdkExample import com.pspdfkit.catalog.examples.kotlin.PersistentAnnotationSidebarActivity.Companion.EXTRA_CONFIGURATION import com.pspdfkit.catalog.examples.kotlin.PersistentAnnotationSidebarActivity.Companion.EXTRA_URI import com.pspdfkit.catalog.tasks.ExtractAssetTask import com.pspdfkit.configuration.activity.PdfActivityConfiguration import com.pspdfkit.configuration.sharing.ShareFeatures import com.pspdfkit.document.PdfDocument import com.pspdfkit.listeners.DocumentListener import com.pspdfkit.ui.PdfUiFragment import com.pspdfkit.ui.PdfUiFragmentBuilder import com.pspdfkit.utils.getSupportParcelable import kotlinx.coroutines.CoroutineScope import kotlinx.coroutines.Dispatchers import kotlinx.coroutines.Job import kotlinx.coroutines.SupervisorJob import kotlinx.coroutines.cancelChildren import kotlinx.coroutines.launch import java.util.EnumSet class PersistentAnnotationSidebarExample(context: Context) : SdkExample(context, R.string.annotationSidebarExampleTitle, R.string.annotationSidebarExampleDescription) { override fun launchExample(context: Context, configuration: PdfActivityConfiguration.Builder) { // We don't need to show it in the outline since we will build our own UI for this. configuration.annotationListEnabled(false) // We also disable the rest of the outline to make a bit more space in the toolbar. configuration.outlineEnabled(false) configuration.bookmarkListEnabled(false) configuration.documentInfoViewEnabled(false) // We also hide the share option to make a bit more space. configuration.setEnabledShareFeatures(EnumSet.noneOf(ShareFeatures::class.java)) configuration.printingEnabled(false) ExtractAssetTask.extract(WELCOME_DOC, title, context) { documentFile -> val intent = Intent(context, PersistentAnnotationSidebarActivity::class.java) intent.putExtra(EXTRA_URI, Uri.fromFile(documentFile)) intent.putExtra(EXTRA_CONFIGURATION, configuration.build()) context.startActivity(intent) } } } class PersistentAnnotationSidebarActivity : AppCompatActivity() { /** The adapter we use for our recycler view. */ private val annotationRecyclerAdapter = AnnotationRecyclerAdapter(this) /** View that is shown in the side bar when no annotations are in the document. */ private lateinit var noAnnotationsView: View /** The currently displayed PdfUiFragment. */ private lateinit var pdfUiFragment: PdfUiFragment override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState) // We need to load our layout first. setContentView(R.layout.activity_persistent_sidebar) noAnnotationsView = findViewById(R.id.noAnnotationsView) val recyclerView: RecyclerView = findViewById(R.id.annotationList) recyclerView.adapter = annotationRecyclerAdapter recyclerView.layoutManager = LinearLayoutManager(this) recyclerView.addItemDecoration(DividerItemDecoration(this, DividerItemDecoration.VERTICAL)) annotationRecyclerAdapter.annotationRecyclerAdapterListener = object : AnnotationRecyclerAdapter.AnnotationRecyclerAdapterListener { override fun onAnnotationClicked(annotation: Annotation) { // When an annotation is clicked we scroll to the page containing it. // And also select the annotation for editing if possible. pdfUiFragment.setPageIndex(annotation.pageIndex, true) pdfUiFragment.pdfFragment?.setSelectedAnnotation(annotation) } override fun onAnnotationsLoaded(annotations: List) { // We want to show a short description of what's going on if there are no annotations. if (annotations.isEmpty()) { noAnnotationsView.visibility = View.VISIBLE } else { noAnnotationsView.visibility = View.GONE } } } window.setBackgroundDrawableResource(R.color.primaryLight) // Finally we can setup our PDF fragment. obtainPdfFragment() } /** This adds or retrieves the [PdfUiFragment] we use to display the PDF. */ private fun obtainPdfFragment() { // We either grab the existing fragment or add a new one. pdfUiFragment = supportFragmentManager.findFragmentByTag(FRAGMENT_TAG) as? PdfUiFragment // There is no existing fragment, create a new one.?: PdfUiFragmentBuilder.fromUri(this, intent.extras!!.getSupportParcelable(EXTRA_URI, Uri::class.java)).configuration(intent.extras!!.getSupportParcelable(EXTRA_CONFIGURATION, PdfActivityConfiguration::class.java)).build().apply { // After creation we actually add it to the fragment manager. supportFragmentManager.beginTransaction().add(R.id.fragmentContainer, this, FRAGMENT_TAG).commit() } } override fun onStart() { super.onStart() // We need to be notified when the document was loaded. pdfUiFragment.pdfFragment?.addDocumentListener( object : DocumentListener { override fun onDocumentLoaded(document: PdfDocument) { // When the document is loaded clear the previous annotations. annotationRecyclerAdapter.clear() // We need to set the current document so we can load the annotations. annotationRecyclerAdapter.currentDocument = document // We need to be aware of any change to the annotations so we can keep our list updated. pdfUiFragment.pdfFragment?.addOnAnnotationUpdatedListener( object : AnnotationProvider.OnAnnotationUpdatedListener { override fun onAnnotationCreated(annotation: Annotation) { annotationRecyclerAdapter.refreshAnnotationsForPage(annotation.pageIndex) } override fun onAnnotationUpdated(annotation: Annotation) { annotationRecyclerAdapter.refreshAnnotationsForPage(annotation.pageIndex) } override fun onAnnotationRemoved(annotation: Annotation) { annotationRecyclerAdapter.refreshAnnotationsForPage(annotation.pageIndex) } override fun onAnnotationZOrderChanged(pageIndex: Int, oldOrder: List, newOrder: List) { annotationRecyclerAdapter.refreshAnnotationsForPage(pageIndex) } }, ) // We also need to initialize the list of annotations to begin with. // This is a bit ineffective since we refresh the RecyclerView adapter for each page but this is fine for our small example. for (pageIndex in 0 until document.pageCount) { annotationRecyclerAdapter.refreshAnnotationsForPage(pageIndex) } } }, ) } override fun onDestroy() { super.onDestroy() // This will cancel all running operations. annotationRecyclerAdapter.clear() } companion object { /** Tag we give to our PdfUiFragment. */ const val FRAGMENT_TAG = "PersistentAnnotationSidebarActivity.Fragment" const val EXTRA_URI = "PersistentAnnotationSidebarActivity.DocumentUri" const val EXTRA_CONFIGURATION = "PersistentAnnotationSidebarActivity.PdfConfiguration" } } class AnnotationRecyclerAdapter(private val context: Context) : RecyclerView.Adapter() { /** We keep a list of all annotations we display for easy access. */ private val displayedItems = mutableListOf() /** We keep a list of annotations per page so we can update only single pages easily. */ private val annotationsPerPage = mutableMapOf>() private val adapterScope = CoroutineScope(SupervisorJob() + Dispatchers.Main.immediate) private val loadingJobs = mutableMapOf() var currentDocument: PdfDocument? = null var annotationRecyclerAdapterListener: AnnotationRecyclerAdapterListener? = null // We only list certain annotation types. private val listedAnnotationTypes = AnnotationType.entries.toMutableSet().apply { // We don't want to clutter the list with widget or link annotations. remove(AnnotationType.WIDGET) remove(AnnotationType.LINK) } override fun onCreateViewHolder(parent: ViewGroup, viewType: Int): AnnotationRecyclerAdapterViewHolder { val root = LayoutInflater.from(context).inflate(R.layout.item_annotation, parent, false) return AnnotationRecyclerAdapterViewHolder(root) } override fun getItemCount(): Int = displayedItems.size override fun onBindViewHolder(holder: AnnotationRecyclerAdapterViewHolder, position: Int) { val item = displayedItems[position] // In the top text view we display whatever information we can get on the annotation. holder.titleView.text = item.contents?: item.name?: item.uuid // In the bottom text view we display the annotation type. holder.infoView.text = item.type.toString() holder.itemView.setOnClickListener { annotationRecyclerAdapterListener?.onAnnotationClicked(item) } } /** Removes all currently loaded annotations, and clears the state */ fun clear() { displayedItems.clear() annotationsPerPage.clear() loadingJobs.values.forEach { it.cancel() } loadingJobs.clear() adapterScope.coroutineContext.cancelChildren() currentDocument = null } /** Reloads the list of annotations for the given page. */ fun refreshAnnotationsForPage(pageIndex: Int) { // If no document is set we don't to anything. val document = currentDocument?: return // Cancel any already running loading operation for this page. loadingJobs[pageIndex]?.cancel() // We grab the annotations for the current page index. // This operates on a background scheduler so we have to explicitly observe it on the main thread. loadingJobs[pageIndex] = adapterScope.launch { val annotations = document.annotationProvider.getAllAnnotationsOfType(listedAnnotationTypes, pageIndex, 1) annotationsPerPage[pageIndex] = annotations refreshDisplayedItems() } } @SuppressLint("NotifyDataSetChanged") private fun refreshDisplayedItems() { val document = currentDocument?: return displayedItems.clear() for (pageIndex in 0 until document.pageCount) { // We add all pages we already loaded here. val items = annotationsPerPage[pageIndex] if (items!= null) { displayedItems.addAll(items) } } // We notify the listener so we can update the visibility of our empty view. annotationRecyclerAdapterListener?.onAnnotationsLoaded(displayedItems) notifyDataSetChanged() } interface AnnotationRecyclerAdapterListener { fun onAnnotationClicked(annotation: Annotation) fun onAnnotationsLoaded(annotations: List) } } class AnnotationRecyclerAdapterViewHolder(root: View) : RecyclerView.ViewHolder(root) { val titleView: TextView = root.findViewById(R.id.annotation_list_item_title) val infoView: TextView = root.findViewById(R.id.annotation_list_item_info) } ``` This code sample is an example that illustrates how to use our SDK. Please adapt it to your specific use case. --- ## Related pages - [Application Policy](/guides/android/samples/application-policy-kotlin.md) - [Custom Form Highlight Color](/guides/android/samples/custom-form-highlight-color-java.md) - [Custom Page Templates](/guides/android/samples/custom-page-templates-java.md) - [Digital Signature (Basic)](/guides/android/samples/digital-signature-basic-kotlin.md) - [Disabled Annotation Property](/guides/android/samples/disabled-annotation-property-java.md) - [Image Document](/guides/android/samples/image-document-kotlin.md) - [Compose Image Document](/guides/android/samples/compose-image-document-kotlin.md) - [Inline Multimedia](/guides/android/samples/inline-multimedia-kotlin.md) - [JavaScript Form Filling](/guides/android/samples/javascript-form-filling-kotlin.md) - [Overlay Visibility](/guides/android/samples/overlay-visibility-kotlin.md) - [PdfFragment](/guides/android/samples/pdffragment-kotlin.md) - [Reader View](/guides/android/samples/reader-view-kotlin.md) - 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