There are several different ways that document viewing can be integrated into SharePoint. That is, the action that the end user takes to view a document is configurable. These options include use of the Previewer, the Redirector (see DRM Components & Architecture Overview), and custom implementations by calling the web tier API directly.

Previewer

The Previewer is a custom field type, which allows a SharePoint admin to create a column on a document library based on the custom field type. This column will render a “view” link for each document in the library. When the end user clicks the view link, the web browser opens the document for viewing in the web tier.

For example, the right most column in this document library view was created from the preview custom field type. Clicking on the view link in each row opens the document for viewing in the web tier:

Redirector

The Redirector is a component of the Digital Rights Management feature set. The redirector intercepts a direct request for a document and redirects the web browser to a page in the web tier for viewing the document.

For more information about the Redirector see DRM Components & Architecture Overview.

Custom Integration - Calling the Web Tier API Directly

Custom integration of document viewing involves making direct calls to the web tier’s public API. The integrator has the flexibility to decide the behavior they want to implement. The simplest example of custom integration is creating a link that opens a document for viewing. For more information see the section on Calling the API Directly.

For example, this content editor web part has a link that will open a document for viewing: