The prerequisite for successful signing is to have the document available in PDF format, the recommended version is 1.7 and higher.
There are several ways to specify where inside the document should the user sign:
- Signature acrofields
- Tags
Specifying where the user should sign allows for better management of the entire signing process. Especially when multiple people are signing remotely (i.e. not signing on single device in a face-to-face scenario).
Signature acrofields
Acrofield is a type of active field supported in PDF. A signature acrofield is a special type of active field that allows a signature to be inserted into a document at a fixed location.
Acrofields can be inserted into PDFs with specialized PDF tools such as Adobe PRO, or with template tools such as JasperReport.
Tags
A tag represents a unique text value that the API server scans. If it finds it, it inserts the signature acrofield in its place. The tag lookup is provided by the “tags” document state, which must be set when the JSON/document service is called.
OKdokument API supports the following tags for optional signature:
- _SO1_
- _SO2_
- _SO3_
- _SO4_
- _SO5_
OKdokument API supports the following tags for mandatory signature:
- _SC1_
- _SC2_
- _SC3_
- _SC4_
- _SC5_
- _S1_
- _S2_
- _S3_
- _S4_
- _S5_
If mandatory tags are used, all visible mandatory signature acrofields must signed before submitting the document.
In case it is not possible to prepare documents with signature acrofields or tags when registering signatureRequest, it is possible to enable “sign anywhere” functionality, which will allow the user to sign the document at any location, simple where the user clicks/taps.
Convert document to PDF
OKdokument API supports conversion of .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx into PDF file format. The source file can contain also tags, OKdokument API will first do the file conversion and then automatically inserts signature acrofields.
Note: we recommend to check the converted PDF structure before signing.