Installation

What this page is about

Install Aspose.Slides for Node.js via .NET from npm on Windows or Linux: prerequisites, the edge-js override, a one-time NuGet restore, and a first program that creates a presentation.

Overview

Aspose.Slides for Node.js via .NET is the npm package aspose.slides.via.net. It runs the Aspose.Slides .NET library inside Node.js through the edge-js bridge, so a working installation needs both Node.js and .NET.

This article takes you from a clean machine to a first program that creates a presentation. There are four steps: create a project with an edge-js override, install the package from npm, restore the package’s .NET dependencies once, and run your script from the project folder.

Prerequisites

Node.js 22 or 24 LTS, x64 build, from nodejs.org.
.NET SDK 8 or later, from dotnet.microsoft.com. The .NET runtime alone is not enough: the restore step below needs the SDK, and so does the bridge when your script runs. Run dotnet --list-sdks to check which SDKs are installed.
On Linux only:
- the build tools python3, make and g++, because npm compiles edge-js during installation on Linux;
- the fontconfig library, which the Aspose.Slides native drawing library loads.
On Debian, these are the packages python3, make, g++ and libfontconfig1.

The steps in this article were tested on these platforms:

Platform	Result
Windows x64 with Node.js 22 or 24	Works. Tested with the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable installed.
Linux x64 with Node.js 22 or 24, where the system OpenSSL is from the same release line as the OpenSSL built into Node.js, such as Debian 13	Works.
Linux where the two OpenSSL versions differ, such as Debian 12	Node.js crashes with a segmentation fault when a presentation is created.
macOS	Not verified.

On Linux, compare the two versions before you start. The first command prints the OpenSSL version built into Node.js; the second prints the system version. Use a system where both start with the same major and minor numbers, for example 3.5:

node -p process.versions.openssl
openssl version

If the openssl command is not found, install the openssl package first.

Create a Project

Create a folder for your project, initialize it, and add an override that tells npm which edge-js release to install:

mkdir hello-slides
cd hello-slides
npm init -y
npm pkg set overrides.edge-js=26.1.0

The package asks for an older edge-js release whose prebuilt Windows binaries stop at Node.js 20, so without the override the first script on Windows stops with “The edge module has not been pre-compiled for node.js version”. The command writes the override to the overrides section of package.json; add it before you install the package.

Install the Package

Install Aspose.Slides for Node.js via .NET from npm:

npm install aspose.slides.via.net

During installation, the package copies its native drawing libraries (the files whose names contain aspose.slides.drawing.capi) into the project folder, next to package.json.

The package is also published as a ZIP archive on releases.aspose.com. This article covers installation from npm only.

Restore the .NET Dependencies

The package contains the Aspose.Slides .NET assemblies, but not the 20 NuGet packages that those assemblies depend on. At run time, .NET looks for them in the NuGet package cache: %USERPROFILE%\.nuget\packages on Windows, ~/.nuget/packages on Linux, or the folder set in the NUGET_PACKAGES environment variable. If they are missing, the first script stops with “assembly specified in the dependencies manifest was not found”.

To fill the cache, create a folder named deps in the project folder and save the following file in it as deps.csproj. Each PackageDownload item downloads one package at the exact version in brackets; nothing is built.

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <TargetFramework>net8.0</TargetFramework>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <PackageDownload Include="Humanizer.Core" Version="[2.14.1]" />
    <PackageDownload Include="Microsoft.Bcl.AsyncInterfaces" Version="[6.0.0]" />
    <PackageDownload Include="Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.Common" Version="[4.5.0]" />
    <PackageDownload Include="Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.CSharp" Version="[4.5.0]" />
    <PackageDownload Include="Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.CSharp.Workspaces" Version="[4.5.0]" />
    <PackageDownload Include="Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.VisualBasic" Version="[4.5.0]" />
    <PackageDownload Include="Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.VisualBasic.Workspaces" Version="[4.5.0]" />
    <PackageDownload Include="Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.Workspaces.Common" Version="[4.5.0]" />
    <PackageDownload Include="Microsoft.DotNet.InternalAbstractions" Version="[1.0.0]" />
    <PackageDownload Include="Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyModel" Version="[7.0.0]" />
    <PackageDownload Include="Newtonsoft.Json" Version="[13.0.3]" />
    <PackageDownload Include="System.Composition.AttributedModel" Version="[6.0.0]" />
    <PackageDownload Include="System.Composition.Convention" Version="[6.0.0]" />
    <PackageDownload Include="System.Composition.Hosting" Version="[6.0.0]" />
    <PackageDownload Include="System.Composition.Runtime" Version="[6.0.0]" />
    <PackageDownload Include="System.Composition.TypedParts" Version="[6.0.0]" />
    <PackageDownload Include="System.IO.Pipelines" Version="[6.0.3]" />
    <PackageDownload Include="System.Reflection.Metadata" Version="[6.0.1]" />
    <PackageDownload Include="System.Text.Encodings.Web" Version="[7.0.0]" />
    <PackageDownload Include="System.Text.Json" Version="[7.0.0]" />
  </ItemGroup>
</Project>

Then restore it from the project folder:

dotnet restore deps/deps.csproj

You need this step once per machine, not once per project: the packages stay in the NuGet cache, and later projects on the same machine use them. After the restore, you can delete the deps folder.

Run a First Program

Create a file named hello.js in the project folder with the following code. It creates a presentation, adds a rectangle with the text “Hello, World!” to the first slide, and saves the result as hello.pptx:

const asposeSlides = require("aspose.slides.via.net");
const { Presentation, ShapeType, SaveFormat } = asposeSlides;

// A new presentation contains one empty slide.
const presentation = new Presentation();
try {
    const slide = presentation.slides.get(0);

    // Position and size are in points (1/72 inch): x, y, width, height.
    const rectangle = slide.shapes.addAutoShape(ShapeType.Rectangle, 50, 50, 400, 100);
    rectangle.addTextFrame("Hello, World!");

    presentation.save("hello.pptx", SaveFormat.Pptx);
    console.log("Saved hello.pptx");
} finally {
    // Release the .NET object that backs the presentation.
    presentation.dispose();
}

Run it from the project folder:

node hello.js

The script prints Saved hello.pptx. Open hello.pptx to see one slide with a filled rectangle that contains the text. Without a license, Aspose.Slides also adds an evaluation watermark; see Evaluate Aspose.Slides and Licensing.

Note

Run your scripts from the project folder, the one that contains package.json. Relative paths such as hello.pptx are resolved against the current folder, and on some machines a script started from another folder cannot create a presentation.

The JavaScript API mirrors Aspose.Slides for .NET: classes keep their .NET names, properties and methods use camelCase (Slides becomes slides, AddAutoShape becomes addAutoShape), and collection items are read with get(index). There is no separate API reference for this package, so use the Aspose.Slides for .NET API reference for class and member details, for example Presentation and ShapeCollection.AddAutoShape.

FAQ

What does “The edge module has not been pre-compiled for node.js version” mean?

npm installed the older edge-js release that the package asks for. Add the override from Create a Project and run npm install again.

What does “assembly specified in the dependencies manifest was not found” mean?

The .NET dependencies are not in the NuGet cache. The same run also reports “edge.initializeClrFunc is not a function”. Follow Restore the .NET Dependencies once, then run your script again.

What does “The edge native module is not available” mean on Linux?

edge-js was not compiled during npm install, for example because python3, make or g++ was missing. npm does not report this as an error. Install the build tools, then run npm rebuild edge-js in the project folder.

Why does creating a presentation fail with an empty “Error”?

On Linux, check that the fontconfig library is installed (libfontconfig1 on Debian); without it, the native drawing library cannot load. On any system, also check that you run the script from the project folder.

Why does Node.js crash with a segmentation fault on Linux?

The system OpenSSL and the OpenSSL built into Node.js are from different release lines. Compare them as shown in Prerequisites and use a distribution or Node.js build where they match.

Do I need to repeat the NuGet restore for every project?

No. The restore fills the NuGet cache for your user account, and every project on that machine uses the same cache.

System Requirements Licensing