---
title: "iOS PDF viewer with integrated JavaScript"
canonical_url: "https://www.nutrient.io/guides/ios/features/javascript/"
md_url: "https://www.nutrient.io/guides/ios/features/javascript.md"
last_updated: "2026-05-25T14:09:00.342Z"
description: "Explore JavaScript features in iOS PDF viewer for workflows, scripting, and document-level solutions."
---

# Enhance your PDF workflow with JavaScript support

PDF JavaScript is currently supported in our iOS and Android SDKs, as well as in Nutrient Web SDK and Nutrient Electron SDK.

## Use

There are many places in a PDF where JavaScript can be used.

**Document-level scripts:** These scripts are executed when the document is open. To add a new document-level script in Adobe Acrobat, go to Tools and search for Document JavaScripts. A dialog box will open, which is where you can add a new document-level script to the PDF file.

You can retrieve the document in a document-level script by accessing the `event.target` property, like this:

```js

var document = event.target;
var textField = document.getField('MyTextField');
// Do things with `textField`.

```

This code snippet will get a reference to the form field with the name `MyTextField` in the document.

Document-level scripts are useful for reusing information and functions that will be accessed from several action scripts. For more information about document-level scripts, read the Doc/Open subsection on page 363 of the [JavaScript™ for Acrobat® API Reference](https://opensource.adobe.com/dc-acrobat-sdk-docs/library/jsapiref/index.html) guide.

**Action Scripts:** Form fields and annotations can be extended with JavaScript actions. A JavaScript action is represented by the class `JavaScriptAction`. You can initialize a [`JavaScriptAction`](https://www.nutrient.io/api/ios/documentation/pspdfkit/javascriptaction)  with a script and associate it with a form element and a particular trigger event. For more information about PDF actions, read our [PDF actions](https://www.nutrient.io/../../annotations/pdf-actions/) guide.

You can set regular action scripts in Adobe Acrobat too. Open the Prepare Form tool and double-click on a form field. Click on the Actions tab and choose Run a JavaScript from the Select Action dropdown box.

One interesting set of JavaScript actions is that of the format, validation, and calculation actions. A format action modifies the appearance of a form element so that its contents are shown in a particular way (like a date or time or the number of decimal places). A validation action validates the contents of a form field, ensuring they are always correct. A calculation action is invoked after certain events, like setting a form field value, and lets you establish relationships between form elements and perform calculations.

## Disabling JavaScript

JavaScript can be disabled on individual documents. To do this, set the `javaScriptStatus` property like this:

### SWIFT

```swift

document.javaScriptStatus =.disabled

```

### OBJECTIVE-C

```objc

document.javaScriptStatus = PSPDFJavaScriptStatusDisabled;

```

In addition to processing forms within the document, JavaScript might also play an important role in other areas described in the [Supported Features](#supported-features) section. Disabling all JavaScript in documents that rely on these features could make it unusable. Consider conditionally disabling actions using [`pdfViewController(_:shouldExecute:)`](https://www.nutrient.io/api/ios/documentation/pspdfkitui/pdfviewcontrollerdelegate/pdfviewcontroller(_:shouldexecute:)).

## Example of how to create a JavaScript-enabled PDF document using Adobe Acrobat

## Supported features

Nutrient has basic support for the most common JavaScript API methods and properties, detailed below.

Each of the methods listed below may support only a subset of the features and parameters detailed in the specification. We therefore advise you to test your JavaScript-enabled documents thoroughly. [Contact Support](https://support.nutrient.io/hc/en-us/requests/new) if you run into issues or limitations.

### App

- `alert`, `launchURL`, `viewerVersion`

### Console

- `println`

### Doc

- `getField`, `removeField`, `mailDoc`, `getNthFieldName`, `resetForm`, `print`

- `numFields`, `pageNum`, `info`, `gotoNamedDest`

File attachments aren’t supported when composing emails with `mailDoc`.

### Global

- `global`

### Util

- `printx`, `printd`, `printf`

### Color

- `convert`, `transparent`, `black`, `white`, `red`, `green`, `blue`, `cyan`, `magenta`, `yellow`, `dark gray`, `gray`, `light gray`, custom color arrays

### Event

- `value`, `rc`, `selStart`, `selEnd`, `willCommit`, `target`, `change`, `name`, `type`

### Field

- `getArray`, `checkThisBox`, `isBoxChecked`, `getItemAt`, `setItems`, `clearItems`, `setItems`, `insertItemAt`, `deleteItemAt`, `setAction`, `buttonImportIcon`

- `name`, `value`, `textColor`, `fillColor`, `strokeColor`, `readonly`, `exportValues`, `currentValueIndices`, `multipleSelection`, `commitOnSelChange`, `numItems`, `hidden`, `editable`, `type`, `page`, `borderStyle`, `rotation`, `defaultValue`, `doNotSpellCheck`, `userName`, `alignment`, `rect`, `doc`, `required`, `display`, `calcOrderIndex`, `comb`, `doNotScroll`, `richText`, `multiline`, `fileSelect`, `password`, `charLimit`

Various functions for formatting, validation, and calculation are also supported. You can read Adobe’s documentation to learn more about them.

### Number formatting

- `AFNumber_Format`, `AFNumber_Keystroke`, `AFMakeNumber`

### Percent formatting

- `AFPercent_Format`, `AFPercent_Keystroke`

### Date formatting

- `AFDate_Format`, `AFDate_FormatEx`, `AFDate_Keystroke`, `AFDate_KeystrokeEx`, `AFTime_Format`, `AFTime_FormatEx`, `AFTime_Keystroke`, `AFTime_KeystrokeEx`

### Special formatting

- `AFSpecial_Format`, `AFSpecial_Keystroke`, `AFSpecial_KeystrokeEx`

### Simple formatting

- `AFSimple`, `AFSimple_Calculate`

### Range validation

- `AFRange_Validate`

## Debugging

If there is a problem with the JavaScript in a document, it’s a good idea to first check that the scripts do not contain syntax or logic errors. To see all JavaScript code that is used in a document, open Adobe Acrobat, click on Tools, select Prepare Form, click the small down arrow on the sidebar, and then choose All JavaScripts. The screenshots below shows how the All JavaScripts window appears in Adobe Acrobat.

### JavaScript logs

If JavaScript is enabled, Nutrient will log errors to the console if there’s a problem with the JavaScript code. We tried to make diagnostics as specific as possible to help you debug your documents more easily. For example, the following error message is logged if the script creator mistakenly writes `this.getField(4);`:

```sh

Catalog[58188:7996163] [JavaScript] [Error] Error: Argument name 'cName' has wrong type. Argument has type number, but expected string.

```

As you can read in [the API documentation](https://opensource.adobe.com/dc-acrobat-sdk-docs/library/jsapiref/doc.html#getfield), `getField`’s `cName` argument must be a string.

In this other example, the script contains one API property that we currently don’t support:

```sh

Catalog[58188:7996163] [JavaScript] [Error] TypeError: undefined not callable (property 'notSupportedAPI' of [object global])

```

## Learn more

- [JavaScript™ for Acrobat® API Reference](https://opensource.adobe.com/dc-acrobat-sdk-docs/library/jsapiref/index.html)

- [Developing Acrobat® Applications Using JavaScript™](https://opensource.adobe.com/dc-acrobat-sdk-docs/library/jsdevguide/index.html)
---

## Related pages

- [iOS image viewer library](/guides/ios/viewer/images.md)
- [Embedded files and PDF portfolio collections](/guides/ios/features/embedded-files.md)
- [Customizing page navigation in our iOS viewer](/guides/ios/getting-started/document-interactions.md)
- [iOS PDF viewer library](/guides/ios/viewer.md)
- [Configuring scroll directions and page transitions in our viewer](/guides/ios/customizing-the-interface/document-presentation-options.md)
- [Configure permissions for iOS PDF viewer](/guides/ios/features/document-permissions.md)
- [Swift PDF viewer library](/guides/ios/viewer/swift.md)
- [Troubleshooting](/guides/ios/viewer/troubleshooting.md)
- [visionOS AR/VR PDF viewer](/guides/ios/viewer/visionos.md)
- [Display PDFs with the view state on iOS](/guides/ios/view-management/store-load-view-state.md)