Apps Reimagined with Apryse: Online Forums

Over the past several weeks, we’ve been working on this series of blogs reimagining popular applications and web platforms that don’t currently use Apryse SDK technology as if they did. If you’re reading this blog, you’re probably already aware of some parts of Apryse’s document processing toolkit, enabling developers to quickly and easily add robust, secure functionality for PDF and Office document viewing, collaboration and editing, digital signatures, and more, as well as more advanced functionality such as OCR, Smart Data Extraction, and automated document generation.

In past instalments of our Apps Reimagined with Apryse series, we’ve looked at what Apryse document processing tools might do for a language learning platform, a book review site, personal online banking, an AI chat assistant, and an artisan marketplace. Today, let’s imagine what a popular social forum site, where users share links, post content, and participate in discussion threads might look like with Apryse capabilities.

Today's forum platforms offer a place for users to share information and resources, bringing knowledge together from all corners of the community around specific niche subjects. For example, on Reddit, the knitting community has over 500,000 members. On another forum site StackOverflow, the community dedicated to PHP has 15,000 members.

Online forums are centered around asking questions, sparking discussion and sharing knowledge. This is what kickstarted our imagination for this Apps Reimagined with Apryse blog series. Documents are at the heart of sharing knowledge, so let’s take a look at how Apryse document technology can benefit forum platforms.

Currently on forum sites, users share resources like PDF or Office documents by linking to external sites. Instead, users could view shared resources directly within the thread using Apryse’s high-fidelity document viewer. This would allow seamless reading without leaving the page, keeping discussions focused and uninterrupted, and keeping users on the platform, unifying their experience.

Building on this embedded document experience, with the Apryse Web SDK users could annotate documents collaboratively, adding comments, highlights, or drawing attention to specific sections. This brings engagement from the comment thread directly into the document, enhancing engagement and communication.

Forum moderators or trusted users could share sensitive documents with redacted content or digitally signed files, ensuring authenticity and privacy. This is especially useful in professional or academic communities, leveling up forums from informal chat spaces to hubs for real work to be completed.

Using Apryse’s document generation toolkits, forums could automatically create up-to-date guides, FAQs, or community rulebooks based on user input and evolving discussions. These documents could be version-controlled and collaboratively edited. Forums with multiple communities, such as Reddit or StackOverflow, could provide DOCX templates for document creation.

In addition to the tools above which rely on our Web SDK and add-ons, forum platforms incorporating PDF support can also take advantage of Server SDK capabilities to extract and use the data.

For example, If users upload scanned images of handwritten notes, diagrams, or printed materials, Apryse’s OCR capabilities could convert them into searchable, editable text—making even offline knowledge accessible and usable by LLMs.

In addition, Smart Data Extraction could automatically pull key insights from lengthy documents—like meeting notes, research papers, or legal texts—and present them as summaries or bullet points in the post. This makes complex content more digestible and encourages engagement. No more “too long, didn’t read” or engaging only with the headline of the study: with AI-powered summaries of published documents, users can get the scoop faster.

These ideas represent a lighthearted look at a few ways a forum platform could leverage our expansive toolkits for document processing. If you’re interested in using Apryse capabilities in your application, contact sales or check out the trial.

So far in this series, we’ve imagined Apryse in many popular web apps and platforms, including a book review site, language learning app, online banking, AI chat assistant, and artisan ecommerce site. If you have an idea for what we should reimagine next in this series, let us know on LinkedIn!