Viewer SDK Tutorial

The Viewer SDK provides a set of JavaScript-based components for custom viewer development. The viewers are web-based applications that allow for rich media content served by Adobe Scene7 to be embedded in web pages.

For example, the SDK provides interactive zooming and panning. It also provides 360° view and video playback of assets that were uploaded to Adobe Scene7 through the backend application called SPS (Scene7 Publishing System).

Even though the components rely on HTML5 functionality, they are designed to work on Android and Apple iOS devices, and desktops, including Internet Explorer and later. This kind of experience means that you are able to provide a single workflow for all supported platforms.

The SDK consists of UI Components that make up viewer content. You can style these components through CSS, and non-UI components that have some kind of supporting role, like set definition fetching and parsing or tracking. All component behaviors are customizable through modifiers that you can specify in a number of ways, for example, as name=value pairs in the URL.

This tutorial includes the following order of tasks to help you create a basic zoom viewer:

Download the latest Viewer SDK from Adobe Developer Connection

  1. Download the latest Viewer SDK from Adobe Developer Connection here.


    You can complete this tutorial without the need to download the Viewer SDK package because the SDK is actually loaded remotely. However, the Viewer package includes additional examples and an API reference guide that you will find helpful when you create your own viewers.

Load the Viewer SDK

  1. Start by setting up a fresh page to develop the basic zoom viewer that you are going to create.

    Consider this the bootstrap—or loader—code to set up an empty SDK application. Open your favorite text editor and paste the following HTML markup into it:

    <!DOCTYPE html> 
            <meta name="viewport" content="user-scalable=no, height=device-height, width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, maximum-scale=1.0"/> 
            <!-- Hiding the Safari on iPhone OS UI components --> 
            <meta name="apple-touch-fullscreen" content="no"/> 
            <title>Custom Viewer</title> 
                Include Utils.js before you use any of the SDK components. This file  
                contains SDK utilities and global functions that are used to initialize the viewer and load viewer  
                components. The path to the Utils.js determines which version of the SDK that the viewer uses. You  
                can use a relative path if the viewer is deployed on one of the Adobe Scene7 servers and it is served  
                from the same domain. Otherwise, specify a full path to one of Adobe Scene7 servers that have the SDK  

    Add the following JavaScript code inside the script tag to initialize the ParameterManager. This helps you prepare to create and instantiate SDK components inside the initViewer function:

    /* We create a self-running anonymous function to encapsulate variable scope. Placing code inside such 
       a function is optional, but this prevents variables from polluting the global object.  */ 
    (function () { 
        // Initialize the SDK   
        /* Create an instance of the ParameterManager component to collect components' configuration 
           that can come from a viewer preset, URL, or the HTML page itself. The ParameterManager  
           component also sends a notification s7sdk.Event.SDK_READY when all needed files are loaded 
           and the configuration parameters are processed. The other components should never be initialized 
           outside this handler. After defining the handler for the s7sdk.Event.SDK_READY event, it 
           is safe to initiate configuration initialization by calling ParameterManager.init(). */ 
        var params = new s7sdk.ParameterManager(); 
        /* Event handler for s7sdk.Event.SDK_READY dispatched by ParameterManager to initialize various components of  
           this viewer. */ 
        function initViewer() { 
        /* Add event handler for the s7sdk.Event.SDK_READY event dispatched by the ParameterManager when all modifiers 
           are processed and it is safe to initialize the viewer. */ 
        params.addEventListener(s7sdk.Event.SDK_READY, initViewer, false); 
        /* Initiate configuration initialization of ParameterManager. */ 
  2. Save the file as an empty template. You can use any filename you want.

    You will use this empty template file as a reference when creating any new viewers in the future. This template works locally and when served from a web server.

You will now add style to your viewer.

Adding style to your viewer

  1. For this full page viewer that you are creating, you can add some basic styles.

    Add the following style block to the bottom of the head:

        html, body { 
            width: 100%; 
            height: 100%; 
        body { 
            /* Remove any padding and margin around the edges of the browser window */ 
            padding: 0; 
            margin: 0; 
            /* We set overflow to hidden so that scroll bars do not flicker when resizing the window */ 
            overflow: hidden; 

You will now include the components Container and ZoomView.

Including Container and ZoomView

  1. Create an actual viewer by including the components Container and ZoomView.

    Insert the following include statements to the bottom of the <head> element—after the Utils.js script is loaded:

        Add an "include" statement with a related module for each component that is needed for that particular  
        viewer. Check API documentation to see a complete list of components and their modules. 
  2. Now create variables to reference the various SDK components.

    Add the following variables to the top of the main anonymous function, just above s7sdk.Util.init():

    var container, zoomView;
  3. Insert the following inside the initViewer function to define some modifiers and instantiate the respective components:

    /* Modifiers can be added directly to ParameterManager instance */ 
    params.push("serverurl", ""); 
    params.push("asset", "Scene7SharedAssets/ImageSet-Views-Sample"); 
    /* Create a viewer container as a parent component for other user interface components that  
       are part of the viewer application and associate event handlers for resize and  
       full screen notification. The advantage of using Container as the parent is the  
       component's ability to resize and bring itself and its children to full screen. */ 
    container = new s7sdk.common.Container(null, params, "s7container"); 
    container.addEventListener(s7sdk.event.ResizeEvent.COMPONENT_RESIZE, containerResize, false); 
    /* Create ZoomView component */ 
    zoomView = new s7sdk.image.ZoomView("s7container", params, "myZoomView");  
    /* We call this to ensure all SDK components are scaled to initial conditions when viewer loads */ 
    resizeViewer(container.getWidth(), container.getHeight());
  4. For the above code to run properly, add a containerResize event handler and a helper function:

    /* Event handler for s7sdk.event.ResizeEvent.COMPONENT_RESIZE events dispatched by Container to resize 
       various view components included in this viewer. */ 
    function containerResize(event) { 
        resizeViewer(event.s7event.w, event.s7event.h); 
    /* Resize viewer components */ 
    function resizeViewer(width, height) { 
        zoomView.resize(width, height); 
  5. Preview the page so you can see what you have created. You page will look like the following:

You will now add the components MediaSet and Swatches to your viewer.

Adding MediaSet and Swatches components to your viewer

  1. To give users the ability to select images from a set, you can add the components MediaSet and Swatches.

    Add the following SDK includes:

  2. Update the variable list with the following:

    var mediaSet, container, zoomView, swatches;
  3. Instantiate MediaSet and Swatches components inside the initViewer function.

    Be sure to instantiate the Swatches instance after the ZoomView and Container components, otherwise the stacking order hides the Swatches:

    // Create MediaSet to manage assets and add event listener to the NOTF_SET_PARSED event 
    mediaSet = new s7sdk.set.MediaSet(null, params, "mediaSet"); 
    // Add MediaSet event listener 
    mediaSet.addEventListener(s7sdk.event.AssetEvent.NOTF_SET_PARSED, onSetParsed, false); 
    /* create Swatches component and associate event handler for swatch selection notification */ 
    swatches = new s7sdk.set.Swatches("s7container", params, "mySwatches");   
    swatches.addEventListener(s7sdk.event.AssetEvent.SWATCH_SELECTED_EVENT, swatchSelected, false);
  4. Now add the following event handler functions:

    /* Event handler for the s7sdk.event.AssetEvent.NOTF_SET_PARSED event dispatched by MediaSet to 
       assign the asset to the Swatches when parsing is complete. */ 
    function onSetParsed(e) { 
        // set media set for Swatches to display  
        var mediasetDesc = e.s7event.asset;  
        // select the first swatch by default  
        swatches.selectSwatch(0, true);      
    /* Event handler for s7sdk.event.AssetEvent.SWATCH_SELECTED_EVENT events dispatched by Swatches to switch 
       the image in the ZoomView when a different swatch is selected. */ 
    function swatchSelected(event) {     
  5. Position the swatches at the bottom of the viewer by adding the following CSS to the style element:

    /* Align swatches to bottom of viewer */ 
    .s7swatches { 
        bottom: 0; 
        left: 0; 
        right: 0; 
        height: 150px; 
  6. Preview your viewer.

    Notice that the swatches are in the lower left of the viewer. To have the swatches to take the entire viewer width, add a call to manually resize the swatches whenever the user resizes their browser. Add the following to the resizeViewer function:

    swatches.resize(width, swatches.getHeight());

    Your viewer now looks like the following image. Try resizing the browser window of the viewer and notice the resulting behavior.

You will now add zoom in, zoom out, and zoom reset buttons to your viewer.

Adding buttons to your viewer

  1. Currently, the user can only zoom using click or touch gestures. Therefore, add some basic zoom control buttons to the viewer.

    Add the following button components:

  2. Update the variable list with the following:

    var mediaSet, container, zoomView, swatches, zoomInButton, zoomOutButton, zoomResetButton;
  3. Instantiate Buttons at the bottom of initViewer function.

    Remember that the order matters, unless you specify the z-index in CSS:

    /* Create Zoom In, Zoom Out and Zoom Reset buttons */ 
    zoomInButton  = new s7sdk.common.ZoomInButton("s7container", params, "zoomInBtn"); 
    zoomOutButton = new s7sdk.common.ZoomOutButton("s7container", params, "zoomOutBtn"); 
    zoomResetButton = new s7sdk.common.ZoomResetButton("s7container", params, "zoomResetBtn"); 
    /* Add handlers for zoom in, zoom out and zoom reset buttons inline. */ 
    zoomInButton.addEventListener("click", function() { zoomView.zoomIn(); }); 
    zoomOutButton.addEventListener("click", function() { zoomView.zoomOut(); }); 
    zoomResetButton.addEventListener("click", function() { zoomView.zoomReset(); });
  4. Now define some basic styles for the buttons by adding the following to the style block at the top of your file:

    /* define styles common to all button components and their sub-classes */ 
    .s7button { 
        width: 28px; 
        height: 28px; 
    /* position individual buttons*/ 
    .s7zoominbutton  { 
        top: 50px; 
        left: 50px; 
    .s7zoomoutbutton  { 
        top: 50px; 
        left: 80px; 
    .s7zoomresetbutton  { 
        top: 50px; 
        left: 110px; 
  5. Preview your viewer. It will look like the following:

    You will now configure the Swatches so that they are aligned vertically on the right.

Configuring the Swatches vertically

  1. You can configure modifiers directly on the ParameterManager instance.

    Add the following to the top of the initViewer function to configure the Swatches thumb layout as a single row:

    params.push("Swatches.tmblayout", "1,0");
  2. Update the following resize call inside resizeViewer:

    swatches.resize(swatches.getWidth(), height);
  3. Edit the following s7swatches rule in ZoomViewer.css:

    .s7swatches { 
        top:0 ; 
        bottom: 0; 
        right: 0; 
        width: 150px; 
  4. Preview your viewer. It will look like the following:

    Your basic zoom viewer is now complete.

    This viewer tutorial touches on the fundamentals of what the Scene7 Viewer SDK provides. As you work with the SDK you can use the various standard components to easily build and style rich viewing experiences for your target audiences.

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