The `pdfjs-dist/lib/` directory contains a README file that explicitly advises against using those files, however based on a fairly large number of issues filed over the years users seem to be (mostly) overlooking that warning.
In particular it unfortunately seems to be somewhat common for users to attempt to "combine" proper builds from `pdfjs-dist/build/` together with individual components from the `pdfjs-dist/lib/web/` directory, which more often than not leads to subtle bugs and general problems.
When we receive bug reports about this it's often not immediately obvious what the problem is, given that many issues lack enough details (such as runnable test-cases), but after some back-and-forth it usually turns out that usage of `pdfjs-dist/lib/` is the culprit.
Considering that keeping the general PDF.js library working is challenging and time-consuming enough nowadays, this patch thus proposes that we stop including the "lib"-build in the `pdfjs-dist` repository to both reduce user confusion and the support burden.
By being less specific about which *exact* JavaScript features are required for the default vs `legacy` build, we don't need to worry about keeping multiple README files up-to-date.
These README files will now refer back to the FAQ for current browser/environment support information.
Currently we simply use the Babel `preset-env` in the `legacy`-builds of the PDF.js library. This has the side-effect of transpiling the code for *very old* browsers/environments, including ones that we (since many years) no longer support which unnecessarily bloats the size of the `legacy`-builds.
For the CSS files we're only targeting *the supported browsers*, and it's thus possible to extend that to also apply to Babel.
One of the most significant changes, with this patch, is that we'll no longer polyfill `async`/`await` in the `legacy`-builds. However, this shouldn't be an issue given the browsers that we currently support in PDF.js; please refer to:
- https://github.com/mozilla/pdf.js/wiki/Frequently-Asked-Questions#faq-support
- https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Statements/async_function#browser_compatibility
According to the MDN compatibility data, see https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/ReadableStream#browser_compatibility, all browsers that we support have native `ReadableStream` implementations (since quite some time too).
Hence only Node.js is now lagging behind w.r.t. `ReadableStream` support, and its experimental implementation doesn't really help us given the life-span of the LTS releases (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Node.js#Releases).
It seems quite unfortunate to bundle a `ReadableStream` polyfill in the `legacy` builds when it's unnecessary in browsers, given its overall size, but fortunately we can avoid that by simply listing `web-streams-polyfill` as a dependency for the `pdfjs-dist` library.
With ESLint 8 we should now finally be able to start using modern `class` features, see https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Classes/Public_class_fields and https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Classes/Private_class_fields
However, while both ESLint and Acorn now support this, it unfortunately turns out that Escodegen (which we use during building) still lack the necessary support. Looking at https://github.com/estools/escodegen there's not been any updates since last year, and there's also open PRs adding support for these new `class` features.
To avoid blocking usage of these `class` features in the PDF.js code-base, in particular *private* fields/methods, this patch thus proposes that we (hopefully temporarily) switch to an `escodegen` fork that has the necessary support; please see https://www.npmjs.com/package/@javascript-obfuscator/escodegen
While I have no reason to doubt the security of the `escodegen` fork, this patch nonetheless pins the version number. Furthermore, I've also diffed the output of the two `.js`-files in this forked package against the original files without finding anything that looks immediately "dangerous".
The Viewer API definitions do not compile because of missing imports and
anonymous objects are typed as `Object`. These issues were not caught
during CI because the test project was not compiling anything from the
Viewer API.
As an example of the first problem:
```
/**
* @implements MyInterface
*/
export class MyClass {
...
}
```
will generate a broken definition that doesn’t import MyInterface:
```
/**
* @implements MyInterface
*/
export class MyClass implements MyInterface {
...
}
```
This can be fixed by adding a typedef jsdoc to specify the import:
```
/** @typedef {import("./otherFile").MyInterface} MyInterface */
```
See https://github.com/jsdoc/jsdoc/issues/1537 and
https://github.com/microsoft/TypeScript/issues/22160 for more details.
As an example of the second problem:
```
/**
* Gets the size of the specified page, converted from PDF units to inches.
* @param {Object} An Object containing the properties: {Array} `view`,
* {number} `userUnit`, and {number} `rotate`.
*/
function getPageSizeInches({ view, userUnit, rotate }) {
...
}
```
generates the broken definition:
```
function getPageSizeInches({ view, userUnit, rotate }: Object) {
...
}
```
The jsdoc should specify the type of each nested property:
```
/**
* Gets the size of the specified page, converted from PDF units to inches.
* @param {Object} options An object containing the properties: {Array} `view`,
* {number} `userUnit`, and {number} `rotate`.
* @param {number[]} options.view
* @param {number} options.userUnit
* @param {number} options.rotate
*/
```
Current pdf_viewer definitions result in errors like the following when
trying to use them in a ts project:
[error] TypeScript error
node_modules/.pnpm/pdfjs-dist@2.10.377/node_modules/pdfjs-dist/web/pdf_viewer.d.ts:1:15
- error TS2691: An import path cannot end with a '.d.ts' extension.
Consider importing 'pdfjs-dist/types/web/pdf_viewer.component.js'
instead.
1 export * from "pdfjs-dist/types/web/pdf_viewer.component.d.ts";
Import/export statements in typescript should not include file extensions.
Please note that while the `gulp types`/`gulp typestest` tasks (obviously) still work with this patch, I've got no idea if the output is first of all even useable and secondly if it's actually useful in practice.
However, in the interest of closing some (seemingly simple) issues, I suppose that this probably shouldn't hurt (and we'd need TypeScript users to help improve things here).
This adds "optional chaining" and "nullish coalescing" to the list of features needed when using the *modern*, i.e. non-translated/non-polyfilled, build of the PDF.js library.
Given that we're already using the `external/dist/` folder for things we simply want to copy to pdfjs-dist during building, this patch *should* hopefully work since it's based on the suggestion in issue 12827.
As long as this only requires a *single/small* file, to fix the TypeScript definitions in es5-builds, this solution seem acceptable as far as I'm concerned. (Although, please note that I don't know enough about TypeScript to actually test the patch.)
Using `require.resolve("worker-loader")` to check if `worker-loader` is installed causes webpack to include `worker-loader` in the output bundle, which is not the intended effect. Aside from increasing the bundle size unnecessarily, it also causes errors for webpack configs with targets that don't have node's built-in modules.
These errors can be fixed by configuring webpack `externals` to exclude `worker-loader`, but it's more difficult to figure out this solution than to figure out that `worker-loader` needs to be installed (even without this explicit error message).
To solve this, the explicit check for `worker-loader` has been removed. An alternative solution would be to use webpack's `resolveWeak`. Documentation has also been added in `examples/webpack` to help users.
With two kind of builds now being produced, with/without translation/polyfills, it's unfortunately somewhat easy for users to accidentally pick the wrong one.
In the case where a user would attempt to use a modern build of PDF.js in an older browser, such as e.g. IE11, the failure would be immediate when the code is loaded (given the use of unsupported ECMAScript features).
However in some browsers/environments, in particular Node.js, a modern PDF.js build may load correctly and thus *appear* to function, only to fail for e.g. certain API calls. To hopefully lessen the support burden, and to try and improve things overall, this patch adds checks to ensure that a modern build of PDF.js cannot be used in browsers/environments which lack native support for critical functionality (such as e.g. `ReadableStream`). Hence we'll fail early, with an error message telling users to pick an ES5-compatible build instead.
To ensure that we actually test things better especially w.r.t. usage of the PDF.js library in Node.js environments, the `gulp npm-test` task as used by Node.js/Travis was changed (back) to test an ES5-compatible build.
(Since the bots still test the code as-is, without transpilation/polyfills, this shouldn't really be a problem as far as I can tell.)
As part of these changes there's now both `gulp lib` and `gulp lib-es5` build targets, similar to e.g. the generic builds, which thanks to some re-factoring only required adding a small amount of code.
*Please note:* While it's probably too early to tell if this will be a widespread issue, it's possible that this is the sort of patch that *may* warrant being `git cherry-pick`ed onto the current beta version (v2.4.456).
Currently *all* users of `pdfjs-dist` are forced to install the `webpack` and `worker-loader` packages, despite the fact that they are *only* relevant if the `webpack.js` file is being used (with a custom Webpack build).
This really doesn't seem great, especially since those packages are the only remaining dependencies in the `pdfjs-dist` library, and it thus seem more reasonable overall that Webpack users handle those dependencies themselves.
To prevent unnecessarily cryptic runtime failures, when people update to newer `pdfjs-dist` versions, the `webpack.js` file was updated to explicitly check for the existence of the `worker-loader` package and error otherwise.
Furthermore, note that `webpack` was only listed as a dependency because of the `worker-loader` package itself (see issue 9248).
Obviously these changes may not be seen as great by Webpack users who rely on `pdfjs-dist`, since it forces them to handle the dependencies themselves, however it should improve things considerably for "general" users of `pdfjs-dist` by not burdening them with unnecessary dependencies.
These sort of changes are also in line with other recent changes, see PR 11418, which removed built-in fake worker loader code for specific JS builders/bundlers/frameworks. This work was prompted not only by a desire to simplify/clean-up old code, but also to lessen future support burden since the PDF.js contributors cannot be assumed to be experts in various JS bundlers.
Note that Prettier, purposely, has only limited [configuration options](https://prettier.io/docs/en/options.html). The configuration file is based on [the one in `mozilla central`](https://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/source/.prettierrc) with just a few additions (to avoid future breakage if the defaults ever changes).
Prettier is being used for a couple of reasons:
- To be consistent with `mozilla-central`, where Prettier is already in use across the tree.
- To ensure a *consistent* coding style everywhere, which is automatically enforced during linting (since Prettier is used as an ESLint plugin). This thus ends "all" formatting disussions once and for all, removing the need for review comments on most stylistic matters.
Many ESLint options are now redundant, and I've tried my best to remove all the now unnecessary options (but I may have missed some).
Note also that since Prettier considers the `printWidth` option as a guide, rather than a hard rule, this patch resorts to a small hack in the ESLint config to ensure that *comments* won't become too long.
*Please note:* This patch is generated automatically, by appending the `--fix` argument to the ESLint call used in the `gulp lint` task. It will thus require some additional clean-up, which will be done in a *separate* commit.
(On a more personal note, I'll readily admit that some of the changes Prettier makes are *extremely* ugly. However, in the name of consistency we'll probably have to live with that.)
Despite this patch removing the `disableWorker` option itself, please note that we'll still fallback to loading the worker file(s) on the main-thread when running in environments without proper Web Worker support.
Furthermore it's still possible, even with this patch, to force the use of fake workers by manually loading the necessary file using a `<script>` tag on the main-thread.[1]
That way, the functionality of the now removed `SINGLE_FILE` build target and the resulting `build/pdf.combined.js` file can still be achieved simply by adding e.g. `<script src="build/pdf.worker.js"></script>` to the HTML (obviously with the path adjusted as needed).
Finally note that the `disableWorker` option is a performance footgun, and unfortunately many existing third-party examples actually use it without providing any sort of warning/justification.
---
[1] This approach is used in the default viewer, since certain kind of debugging may be easier if the code is running directly on the main-thread.
