Getting Started
Getting Started takes you from a DS Server to a first application that uses it. Each tutorial builds one small application that runs, for a developer who knows their web framework but has not worked with DS Server before.
DS Server provides three services, and the tutorials are grouped by them: DocumentProcessing converts, merges and creates documents on the server without a user interface; the Document Editor is a word processor in the browser; the Document Viewer displays documents in the browser, where users annotate and sign them. Your application reaches all three over HTTP, from ASP.NET Core, Angular, React, plain JavaScript or any language that can send a request.
Before You Begin
Every tutorial needs a DS Server to connect to. You have two options:
- A trial token. Text Control hosts a DS Server at
https://trial.dsserver.io. A Trial Token gives you a client ID and a client secret for it, valid for 30 days. You install nothing, and you skip the steps that set up a server. - A DS Server of your own. Install it as the Installation Guide describes, register it with your serial number or the trial serial number as Licensing shows, and create a security profile for your application, as Creating Security Profiles explains. A security profile is the set of OAuth credentials, a client ID and a client secret, that your application authenticates with.
The .NET tutorials were written with Visual Studio 2026 and .NET 10; the NuGet packages also support .NET 8. The Angular and React tutorials need Node.js and npm.
Find the Right Page
| If you want to | Read | Uses |
|---|---|---|
| Try DS Server without installing it | Trial Token | The trial server https://trial.dsserver.io |
| Convert or merge documents from a .NET application | Document Processing: ASP.NET Core | TXTextControl.DocumentServices.DocumentProcessing |
| Convert documents from any language with HTTP requests | Document Processing: Web API | curl, JavaScript |
| Let users edit documents and templates in the browser | Document Editor | ASP.NET Core, Angular, React or JavaScript |
| Let users view, annotate and sign documents in the browser | Document Viewer | ASP.NET Core, Angular, React or JavaScript |
The Document Editor and the Document Viewer run in the browser, but their scripts and their document processing come from DS Server. In ASP.NET Core, the NuGet packages TXTextControl.DocumentServices.DocumentEditor and TXTextControl.DocumentServices.DocumentViewer render them in a Razor view; Angular and React have npm packages such as @txtextcontrol/tx-ng-ds-document-editor and @txtextcontrol/tx-react-ds-document-viewer; a plain HTML page loads the script from DS Server directly. Client-Side Libraries describes every package.
Where to Start
If DS Server is new to you:
- Request a Trial Token, or install a DS Server of your own and create a security profile.
- Convert a first document with Web API. Two curl commands show how authentication and requests work, whatever language you use later.
- Continue with the tutorial for your framework: ASP.NET Core for server-side processing in .NET, or the Document Editor or Document Viewer when users work with documents in the browser.
Pages in This Section
- Trial Token: request a trial token and use it with the samples instead of your own server.
- Document Processing: convert HTML to PDF with the .NET package or with plain HTTP requests.
- Document Editor: add the word processor to an ASP.NET Core, Angular, React or JavaScript application.
- Document Viewer: display documents in an ASP.NET Core, Angular, React or JavaScript application.