I'm currently testing Community as a possible new home for my Weebly website. And one thing I'm trying to figure out how to do may actually be a feature of Community - Document Library. But I'm not finding much information about it.

What I'd like to do is to create a large library of PDFs that anyone on the web can find, view, search, and download. I've started by creating several large PDFs, each with lots of the individual PDFs, and bookmarked everything. Then I've added them to my Weebly website via the Adobe Embed API so people can find what they are looking for. But that's not going well, especially for the one regarding Technical Service Bulletins (TSBs) as the file is getting too large and no longer loads on a mobile device.

So what I'm asking is if Document Library would allow me to upload lots of documents, arrange them in sections of the library, and let people find them via searches, view them, and even download them? If so, how do I do that?

By Document Library, Im assuming you are referring to downloads. The direct answer to your questions would be

1 hour ago, Gary Lewis said:

So what I'm asking is if Document Library would allow me to upload lots of documents, arrange them in sections of the library

Yes, you can upload them to the downloads section, organise them into categories as needed

1 hour ago, Gary Lewis said:

and let people find them via searches

It is searchable, the same as any other area of the community. Given what you are saying above, I need to make it clear, they would be search for the downloads item, not searching within PDFs

1 hour ago, Gary Lewis said:

view them, and even download them?

There is no facility to view PDFs in the software. Users would have to download them

1 hour ago, Gary Lewis said:

If so, how do I do that?

Take a look here, which shows how you could get stared on that

Thanks, Marc.

I got the term Document Library from Google's AI as a result of a search. In the initial response that's what AI called it. But when I did a "deeper dive" after asking the question here

it said there is no such thing and that it is made up of Pages and Downloads. So, yes.

But the fact that there's no facility to view a pdf w/o downloading it might be a deal-breaker. I need to think about that and give it a try. If you click a link and it opens in a browser that would be good. But if they have to go through the download process just to see what it contains that may not work.

However, I'm not authorized to see what you want me to see:

You may well want to try using pages for that purpose, as the downloads system will actively make sure you download it, as after all, thats its function

8 minutes ago, Marc said:

You may well want to try using pages for that purpose

I think you are suggesting that I put a single PDF on a page via Pages, right? But by "put ... on a page" do you mean embed? And that then gets to the previous discussion where it is something like Oembed that, in the case of Google, gives a thumbnail and then you click to open it? Or am I off on a tangent?

If so then I'd create my own "library", page/pdf at a time. But I can do that in Weebly. In fact, I have done.

I really don't know what I'm looking for. But I think I'm looking for the ability to build a library that allows me to put the index on a webpage and then let users easily navigate to see what they are interested in with a single click. Or search for key words.

12 minutes ago, Gary Lewis said:

I think you are suggesting that I put a single PDF on a page via Pages, right? But by "put ... on a page" do you mean embed? And that then gets to the previous discussion where it is something like Oembed that, in the case of Google, gives a thumbnail and then you click to open it? Or am I off on a tangent?

Youd create a pages database, do you could then add categories etc to that database. However if you are looking for very specific ways to display them you are going to need some amount of pages template creation of your own

Do you have an example of someone that's done this? I'd like to see what it might look like.

And I'm still interested in seeing what your documentation says - but I can't see it as I don't appear to have the right permissions.

I dont have any examples of anyone who has done this to hand unfortunately.

I would need to get someone to take a look at that, however as mentioned, downloads is not going to do what you are looking for there.

Try this link instead

1 minute ago, Marc said:

to hand

Are you British? I was quite au fait with that terminology when we lived in London.

Anyway, if you could have someone look at that I'd appreciate it. I've found several ways not to present all the info I have, but there has to be a good way. And if Community is it then I'm ready to sign up and start migrating my Weebly website. I've not found the compelling reason to do so yet, but if we/you can solve this problem that might be it.

Let me set out the issue again, just to make sure we are on the same page. There are many similar opportunities, but the issue of how to save & display Ford's Technical Service Bulletins for the 1980 - 86 trucks is a classic example. I have all of the TSBs and have scanned ~150 of them but there are thousands more. Here's what I've tried:

1. Pages: I've created a page for each of the TSB's within the 9 high level categorizations Ford used. You can see that by going to our main page (our Invision forum embedded on Weebly) and then using the menu above to go to Documentation/TSBs and then each of the categories with the TSBs below them. But that is getting really, really fiddly and hard to use - and I don't have that many of the TSBs on there yet.
   

2. Spreadsheet: I've created a spreadsheet, which you can see at Documentation/TSBs/TSB Index. But that is a huge pain to manage and since it is currently on my MS OneDrive it doesn't always load. I could move it to my Google Drive but emedding it on Community doesn't have the same effect due to the Oembed function. Maybe there's a better way to use Google Sheets on Community?
   

3. Adobe Embed API: The latest attempt has been to create one large PDF with all the TSBs in it and display it on a Weebly page via Adobe's Embed API. You can see it on our page at Test TSB Page on Weebly. It works well - on a desktop - as you have the bookmarks I added and the ability to search the document for any term. But on my iPhone 14 Pro Max it has gotten large enough it won't load - and I only have ~100 TSBs on. So this isn't the way either.

Again, I'm looking for a better way. I've Googled it and AI says:

Website Content Management Systems (CMS): If you have a website, you can integrate a PDF library. WordPress: Plugins like Document Library Pro or Filr can be used to create searchable and organized PDF libraries directly within your WordPress site. (Hmmm, tab doesn't do what indent does, but there's no indent function in the editor in V5?)

So, can Community do anything like that?

As Marc mentioned, there is no native way to embed a PDF on a page. However, in Pages, you could theoretically, create your own Pages Database with a custom template via PHP/HTML (template code) which then does the HTML bit that you need and grabs any fields that you need from the Database record. You would have to create likely one record per whatever you're attempting to embed but that could be a way to get the display you want here.

Of course, please note that you'd have to work with a developer to get the custom template you want if that is out of your wheelhouse as it is a customization and outside our scope of support.

57 minutes ago, Gary Lewis said:

Adobe Embed API: The latest attempt has been to create one large PDF with all the TSBs in it and display it on a Weebly page via Adobe's Embed API. You can see it on our page at Test TSB Page on Weebly. It works well - on a desktop - as you have the bookmarks I added and the ability to search the document for any term. But on my iPhone 14 Pro Max it has gotten large enough it won't load - and I only have ~100 TSBs on. So this isn't the way either.

This is likely the limitation of the Adobe embed causing it to slow down rather than where you are embedding.

On a related note, taking off my support cap and putting on my community admin cap, my personal community is an automotive one as well. I use Downloads to display owner's manuals, service manuals, etc... I organized categories by year and just dump the information in it for each model (community is only around 1 make). My members then can go in, look for their year (or search by model), see what is available for models of that year and download. This way the user is able to download the document and read it where they choose and not inconvenienced by an iframe/embed of a large PDF.

10 minutes ago, Jim M said:

As Marc mentioned, there is no native way to embed a PDF on a page. However, in Pages, you could theoretically, create your own Pages Database with a custom template via PHP/HTML (template code) which then does the HTML bit that you need and grabs any fields that you need from the Database record. You would have to create likely one record per whatever you're attempting to embed but that could be a way to get the display you want here.

Of course, please note that you'd have to work with a developer to get the custom template you want if that is out of your wheelhouse as it is a customization and outside our scope of support.

That is out of my wheelhouse, but might not be out of that of Chris, our IT guru. I'm going to ask him to get involved, maybe not on here but at least on our forum.

As for Adobe, you may be right. It worked two days ago but yesterday I added another 40 TSBs and that was the straw. But it gave me the heads-up that I was going in the wrong direction.

13 minutes ago, Jim M said:

On a related note, taking off my support cap and putting on my community admin cap, my personal community is an automotive one as well. I use Downloads to display owner's manuals, service manuals, etc... I organized categories by year and just dump the information in it for each model (community is only around 1 make). My members then can go in, look for their year (or search by model), see what is available for models of that year and download. This way the user is able to download the document and read it where they choose and not inconvenienced by an iframe/embed of a large PDF.

Could I see your community? Maybe that would help me understand how to do that.

As for the iframe/embed, if the source is on Google it is easy for them to download it after viewing it and determining that's what they want. But maybe that's not the best way.

We have owner's manuals, brochures, sections of the factory shop manuals, sections of the Master Parts Catalogs (6000+ pages), copies of the "dealer facts books" which Ford gave to the dealerships each year, etc. And in the background I personally have copies of the MPCs in microfiche, paper, & DVD. And paper copies of many other Ford pubs that I hope to eventually get on the site. But I need to stop and figure out the best way to do that, and so far I've found 3 that aren't it. My worry is that Edison said he found 10,000 ways it won't work. ☹️

1 hour ago, Gary Lewis said:

Could I see your community? Maybe that would help me understand how to do that.

I've sent that on over in a message to you.

1 hour ago, Gary Lewis said:

We have owner's manuals, brochures, sections of the factory shop manuals, sections of the Master Parts Catalogs (6000+ pages), copies of the "dealer facts books" which Ford gave to the dealerships each year, etc. And in the background I personally have copies of the MPCs in microfiche, paper, & DVD. And paper copies of many other Ford pubs that I hope to eventually get on the site. But I need to stop and figure out the best way to do that, and so far I've found 3 that aren't it. My worry is that Edison said he found 10,000 ways it won't work.

Downloads is nice that you could theoretically upload multiple PDF documents to one downloads listing. Then in the listing, you can have screenshots of parts of the document so that users could read each before downloading. Could theoretically, also put a few excerpts in the description of the listing too so you don't lose out on any SEO.

Yeah, as the saying goes "more than one way to skin a cat." Just need to find the one that works for you and your users.

Thanks! I'll go look...

On 12/5/2025 at 12:04 PM, Gary Lewis said:

However, in Pages, you could theoretically, create your own Pages Database with a custom template via PHP/HTML (template code) which then does the HTML bit that you need and grabs any fields that you need from the Database record. You would have to create likely one record per whatever you're attempting to embed but that could be a way to get the display you want here.

Of course, please note that you'd have to work with a developer to get the custom template you want if that is out of your wheelhouse as it is a customization and outside our scope of support.

Hey guys, just to let you know we've figured this out. In our trial of Pages V5 we've created a database for Ford's technical service bulletins, TSBs. The user can sort the database by applicable year and/or category, like body or electrical, and then see all the TSBs that apply. Click on any TSB and the code hands the URL of that TSB to the Adobe API and the TSB then opens on the page - quickly. The user can then search for anything in the TSB, use any bookmarks that have been added, or download the file itself.

This is a really powerful tool for our documentation library which, by the way, is the place on the internet for Bullnose (1980 - 86) Ford trucks. (So much so that we are recognized by Ford.)