fmESignature Link (DocuSign Edition) v1.25 Update

We’ve just released another free update to fmESignature Link (DocuSign Edition), our FileMaker solution for integrating with the DocuSign eSignature platform. This update includes a new Template example that utilises the Auto-place (anchor tagging) feature, as well as Webhooks that work with the FileMaker Data API (in addition to the PHP API Webhooks).

Auto Place Template Example

We’ve added another example Template that demonstrates how to use the Auto-place (anchor tagging) feature of DocuSign. AutoPlace adds fields near each occurrence of a given string in a template or document. You can use AutoPlace with any field type – it is automatically placed at all instances in your document of the specified string.

Our previous Template examples demonstrated how to place DocuSign tabs at fixed locations on a page or by reference to a DocuSign Template, but there are circumstances where you will not know in advance the page number where the tabs should be placed. For example you might have a standard legal agreement that varies in length due to the number of standard clauses that are included which might cause the document to run to 1, 2, 3 or more pages in length as a result.

Tab anchoring enables you to place tabs at every location where a specified text string, also known as an anchor, is found in a document. This allows the tabs to move with the text of the document. One common approach to anchor tagging is to use special strings that don’t appear anywhere else in the document as the anchorString property for anchor tagging, then setting the colour of these strings to match the document background, making them invisible to recipients. This enables you to easily attach tabs to many places in your documents without disrupting the signing experience for your recipients.

The new Auto Place Agreement Template uses a new layout Customer Agreement Auto Place PDF that demonstrates the use of special text strings that are used as the guide for the Auto Place tabs. If you have a look at this layout in Layout mode you will see these invisible text objects highlighted here:

These text objects have a white text colour set – the same colour as the layout background – so they are not visible when printed or saved to a PDF file. If we change the colour of these to red you can see the strings that we have set for these:

There is a new setting option on the Template Tabs tab in the Template Details screen where you can specify the same strings to associate with these. If you click the gear icon to the right of a Template Tab you will get this popover:

Here you can specify the Anchor String and any X/Y offset values. As I have specified /SigName1/ as the Anchor String for this tab it will search the document for any matches for this and place the specified tab in that location.

Webhooks Changes

In addition to the existing PHP API Webhooks we now include Data API compatible versions of these. Remember when working with the Data API you will need to enable the fmrest extended privilege for the Webhooks Privilege Set:

You’ll now find 2 folders in the PHP Webhooks folder containing the php files for both the Data API Webhooks and the PHP API Webhooks:

Both folders contain the same contents (each set of PHP files works with either the PHP API or the newer Data API) – see our DocuSign Webhooks page for further details on installing these on your server and configuring the fmESignature Link (DocuSign Edition) file for these.

Other Changes

As well as the new Auto Place Template example and Data API Webhooks updates this update includes a number of other small changes, including:

• you can now specify the Template Tab Recipient ID to assign tabs to specific recipient
• we’ve added the option to allow you to set the Routing Order to 1 for all recipients which means that when set all recipients will receive the signing request at the same time. This overrides the Position value that you can set when specifying the Recipient Contacts for a Request. This is helpful when you don’t want all recipients to be delayed by a previous recipient not having signed the document in a timely manner.

The full list of changes are listed in the version history notes here. Existing customers can download this version from the link on your original order email (contact us if you need the link to be reset etc).