How can we use Adobe Sign in an Adaptive Form?

Documentation AEM as a Cloud Service User Guide

Last update: Wed Dec 13 2023 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

CREATED FOR:

Intermediate
User

Adobe recommends using the modern and extensible data capture Core Componentsfor creating new Adaptive Formsor adding Adaptive Forms to AEM Sites pages. These components represent a significant advancement in Adaptive Forms creation, ensuring impressive user experiences. This article describes older approach to author Adaptive Forms using foundation components.

Version

Article link

AEM 6.5

Click here

AEM as a Cloud Service

This article

Adobe Sign enables e-signature workflows for Adaptive Forms. E-Signatures improve workflows to process documents for legal, sales, payroll, human resource management, and more areas.

In a typical Adobe Sign and Adaptive Forms scenario, a user fills an Adaptive Form to apply for a service that requires signatures of one or more parties. For example, a mortgage and credit-card application requires legal Signatures from all the borrowers and co-applicants. To enable electronic-signature workflows for similar scenarios, you can integrate Adobe Sign with an Adaptive Form. A few more examples are, you can use Adobe Sign to:

Close deals from any device with fully automated proposal, quote, and contract processes.
Finish Human Resource processes faster and give your employees the digital experiences.
Cut contract cycle times and onboard your vendors faster.
Create digital workflows that automate common processes.

Adobe Sign integration with AEM Forms supports:

Single and multiple-user signing workflows
Sequential and simultaneous signing workflows
Signing forms as an anonymous or logged-in user
Dynamic signing processes (integration with AEM Forms Workflow)
Authentication through a knowledge base, phone, social profiles, and Government ID
Assign roles to each agreement recipients. Adobe Sign for business and enterprise service levels have the option to expand the roles for agreement recipients.

Prerequisites prerequisites

Before using Adobe Sign in an Adaptive Form:

Ensure that AEM Forms as a Cloud Service is configured to use Adobe Sign. For details, see Integrate Adobe Sign with AEM Forms.
Keep the list of recipients ready. You require at least an email address for every recipient.

Configure Adobe Sign for an Adaptive Form configure-adobe-sign-for-an-adaptive-form

To configure Adobe Sign for an Adaptive Form:

Enable Adobe Sign for an Adaptive Form
Add Adobe Sign fields to an Adaptive Form
Select Adobe Sign Cloud Service for an Adaptive Form
Add Adobe Sign recipient to an Adaptive Form
Select Submit Action for an Adaptive Form

Recipient Details

Enable Adobe Sign for an Adaptive Form enableadobesign

You can enable Adobe Sign for an existing Adaptive Form or create an Adobe Sign enabled Adaptive Form. Choose one of the following:

Create an Adobe Sign enabled Adaptive Form
Enable Adobe Sign for an existing Adaptive Form.

Create an Adaptive Form for Adobe Sign create-an-adaptive-form-for-adobe-sign

To create a sign-enabled Adaptive Form:

Navigate to Adobe Experience Manager > Forms > Forms & Documents.
Select Create and select Adaptive Form. A list of templates appears. Select a template and select Next.
In the Basic tab:
1. Specify the Name and Title for the Adaptive Form.
2. Select the configuration container created while integrating Adobe Sign with AEM Forms.
The configuration container contains the Adobe Sign Cloud Services configured for your environment. These services are available for selection in Adaptive Form editor.
In the Form Model tab, select one of the following options:
- If you have a custom form template and require a Document of Record based on the form template, select the Associate form template as the Document of Record template option and select a Document of Record template. When you use the option, then the documents sent for signing display only those fields which are based on the associated form template. It does not display all the fields of the Adaptive Form.
- If you do not have a custom form template, select the Generate Document of Record option. When you use the option, the document sent for signing displays all the fields of the Adaptive Form.
Select Create. A sign-enabled Adaptive Form is created. You can add your Adobe Sign fields to the form and send it for signing.

Enable Adobe Sign for an Adaptive Form editafsign

To use Adobe Sign in an existing Adaptive Form:

Navigate to Adobe Experience Manager > Forms > Forms & Documents.
Select the Adaptive Form and select Properties.
In the Basic tab, select the configuration container created while integrating Adobe Sign with AEM Forms.
In the Form Mode tab, select one of the following options:
- If you have a custom form template and require a Document of Record based on the form template, select the Associate form template as the Document of Record template option and select a Document of Record template. When you use the option, then the documents sent for signing display only those fields which are based on the associated form template. It does not display all the fields of the Adaptive Form.
- If you do not have a custom form template, select the Generate Document of Record option. When you use the option, the document sent for signing displays all the fields of the Adaptive Form.
Select Save & Close. The Adaptive Form is enabled for Adobe Sign. Now, you can add your Adobe Sign fields to the form and send it for signing.

Add Adobe Sign fields to an Adaptive Form addadobesignfieldstoanadaptiveform

Adobe Sign has various fields that can be placed on an Adaptive Form. These fields accept various types of data such as signatures, initials, company, or title and help collect extra information during signing, along with the signatures. You can use the Adobe Sign Block component to place Adobe Sign fields at various locations in an Adaptive Form.

To add fields to an Adaptive Form and customize various options related to these fields:

Drag-and-drop Adobe Sign Block component from the component browser to the Adaptive Form. The Adobe Sign Block component has all the supported Adobe Sign fields. By default, it adds a Signature field to the Adaptive Form.

Sign block

By default, the Adobe Sign Block is not visible in the published Adaptive Form. It is visible only in the signing documents. You can change the visibility of Adobe Sign Block from the properties of the Adobe Sign Block component.

note note

NOTE

Using Adobe Sign block is not mandatory to use Adobe Sign in an Adaptive Form. If you do not use Adobe Sign block and add fields for the recipients, then the default signature field is displayed at the bottom of the signing documents.
Use Adobe Sign block only for those Adaptive Forms which automatically generate Document of Record. If you are using a custom XDP for generating Document of Record or a form template based Adaptive Form, Adobe Sign block is not supported.

Select the Adobe Sign Block component and select the Edit icon. It displays options to add fields and format appearance of a field.

A. Select and add Adobe Sign fields. B. Expand the Adobe Sign block to full screen view
Select the Adobe Sign Field icon. It displays options to select and add Adobe Sign fields.

Expand the Type drop-down field to select an Adobe Sign field and select the Done icon to add the selected field to Adobe Sign block. The Type drop-down field includes Signature, Recipient info, and Data field types. Adobe Sign integration with AEM Forms support fields listed in the Type drop-down box only. For detailed information about Adobe Sign fields, see Adobe Sign documentation.

It is mandatory to provide a unique name for a field. You can also select the required option to mark a field mandatory. In addition to the Name and Required option, some Adobe Sign field have more options. For example, mask and multi-line. Moreover, specify a unique name for each Adobe Sign field whether the fields reside in same or different Adobe Sign blocks.

If you select Digital Signature from the drop-down list, you can apply digital signatures to the Adaptive Form:
- Online using cloud signatures to sign with a digital ID hosted by a trust service provider.
- Locally by downloading the document with Adobe Acrobat or Reader using a smart card, USB token, or file-based digital ID.

Enable Adobe Sign for an Adaptive Form enableadobsignforanadaptiveform

Out of the box, Adobe Sign is not enabled for an Adaptive Form. To enable it:

In the Content browser, select Form Container, and select the Configure icon. It opens properties browser and displays Adaptive Form container properties.
In the properties browser, expand the Electronic Signature accordion, and select the Enable Adobe Sign option. It enables Adobe Sign for an Adaptive Form.

Select Adobe Sign Cloud Service and signing order select-adobe-sign-cloud-service-and-signing-order

You can configure multiple Adobe Sign services for an instance of AEM Forms. It is advisable to have a separate set of services for each function (Human Resource, Finance, and more). It makes tracking and reporting of signed documents easier. For example, A bank has multiple departments. You can have a separate configuration for each department for better tracking of the documents.

A document can also have multiple recipients. For example, a credit-card application can have multiple applicants. A bank requires signatures of all the applicants before starting processing application. For multi-recipient scenarios, you can select to sign the document in sequential or simultaneous order.

To select a Cloud Service and order of signing:

Cloud-service

In the Content browser, select Form Container, and select the Configure icon. It opens properties browser and displays Adaptive Form container properties.
In the properties browser, expand the Electronic Signature accordion, and select the Enable Adobe Sign option. It enables Adobe Sign for an Adaptive Form.
Select a Cloud Service from the already configured list of Adobe Sign Cloud Services.

If the Adobe Sign Cloud Service list is empty, follow the Configure Adobe Sign with AEM Forms article to configure the service.

The drop-down lists the Cloud Services that exist in the global folder in Tools > Cloud Services > Adobe Sign. In addition, the drop-down list also lists the Cloud Services that exist in the folder that you select in the Configuration Container field when you create an Adaptive Form.
Select the option to configure the submit action using Submit the form. You can select either of the two options from the following:
- Submit the form (and send the agreement for signing): This option submits the form immediately and then send the form for signing to the recipients.
- Submit the form (after every recipient completes signing ceremony): This option submits Adaptive Forms only after all the signers complete the signing process. You can configure the interval to check the signing status for all the signers. For details, see Configure Adobe Acrobat Sign scheduler.
Select the signing order from the Recipients can complete dialog box. The recipients can sign an Adaptive Form Sequentially - one after another recipient, or Simultaneously - in any order.

In sequential order, one recipient receives the Adobe Sign agreement at a time. After the recipient completes the assigned action, the agreement is sent to the next recipient, and so on.

In simultaneous order, all the recipients receive the Adobe Sign agreement and can act in parallel to each other.

Use the Agreement Id Field to associate a bindref to Agreement ID (agreementId). It adds Agreement ID to afBoundData section of submit data for schema-based forms. The Agreement ID is also added to afSubmissionInfo section in the submitted data for all Adobe Sign-enabled forms. You can use the agreement ID for tracking agreement status using custom code (requires custom implementation).

note note
NOTE
If an Adaptive Form is created using a Form Data Model, the Agreement ID field becomes visible in the dialog box.

Add recipients to an Adaptive Form and select the Done icon to save the changes.

Add recipients to an Adaptive Form addsignerstoanadaptiveform

You can have one or multiple recipients for an Adobe Sign agreement. When you add a recipient, you can also configure authentication details for the recipient and select if the form filler and recipient are the same person. Perform the following steps to add and provide various details about a recipient:

In the Content browser, select Form Container, and select the Configure icon. It opens properties browser with Adaptive Form container properties.
In the properties browser, expand the Electronic Signature accordion, and select the Enable Adobe Sign option. It enables Adobe Sign for an Adaptive Form.
Select Add Recipient. It adds a recipient to the Adaptive Form. You can add multiple recipients to an Adaptive Form. All the recipients receive an Adobe Sign agreement on submission of the adaptive form.

Click the Edit icon to specify the following information about the recipient:

Title: Specify a title to uniquely identify a recipient.
Is the recipient and the person filling the form same?: Select Yes, if form filler and first recipient are the same person.
Recipient Role: Select the role of a recipient. Adobe Sign for business and enterprise service levels have the option to expand the roles for agreement recipients, beyond just the Signer, to better match their workflow requirements.

Recipient Email Address: Specify email address of the recipient. Recipient receives the Adobe Sign agreement on the specified email address. You can choose to use an email address provided in a form field, in Experience Manager user profile of the logged-in user, or manually enter an email address. It is a mandatory step.

note note
NOTE
Ensure that the email address of the first recipient or the only recipient (if there is single recipient) is not identical to Adobe Sign account used to configure AEM Cloud Services.

Recipient Authentication Method: Specify the method to authenticate a recipient before opening the Adobe Sign agreement. You can choose between phone, knowledge base, social identity-based authentication, and Government ID for Adobe Acrobat Sign. For Adobe Acrobat Sign for Government you can choose between phone and knowledge-based authentication.

note note
NOTE
By default, the social identity-based authentication provides an option to authenticate using Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn. You can contact Adobe Sign support to enable other social authentication providers.

Adobe Sign fields to fill or sign: Select Adobe Sign fields for the recipient. An Adaptive Form can have multiple Adobe Sign fields. You can choose to enable specific fields for a recipient. The field displays all the available Adobe Sign Blocks. When you select a block, all the fields of the block are selected. You can use the X icon to deselect a field.

recipient-details

The above image has two example Adobe Sign Blocks: Personal-Information and Office-details

Select the icon. The recipient is added.

Select Submit Action for an Adaptive Form selectsubmitactionforanadaptiveform

After you, add Adobe Sign fields to an Adaptive Form, enable Adobe Sign from form container, select Adobe Sign Cloud Service, and add Adobe Sign agreement recipients, select an appropriate Submit Action for the Adaptive Form. For detailed information about Adaptive Forms Submit Actions, see Configuring the Submit Action.

Signing and submitting a form are independent of each other. Adaptive Form submission takes place as soon as an Adobe Sign agreement is created after a user submits a form. AEM Forms as a Cloud Service does not wait for the recipients to sign or complete other actions to submit an Adaptive Form. A form is submitted as soon as a user clicks the Submit button or a Summary step displays the summary of the form.

Also, an Adobe Sign enabled Adaptive Form embeds the Adobe Sign agreement ID to submit data. You can use the agreement ID for tracking agreement status using custom code (requires custom implementation).

Adobe Sign Agreement ID (agreementId) is included in the submit data of the Adaptive Form. By default, the Agreement ID is present in the afSubmissionInfo node of of submitted data.


   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
   <afData>
      <afUnboundData>
         <data>
            <textbox1613455050902>ff</textbox1613455050902>
         </data>
      </afUnboundData>
      <afBoundData>
         <data xmlns:xfa="http://www.xfa.org/schema/xfa-data/1.0/" />
      </afBoundData>
      <afSubmissionInfo>
         <lastFocusItem>guide[0].guide1[0].guideRootPanel[0].textbox1613455050902[0]</lastFocusItem>
         <stateOverrides />
         <signers>
            <signer0>
               <email />
            </signer0>
         </signers>
         <afPath>/content/dam/formsanddocuments/testsign</afPath>
         <afSubmissionTime>20210311031009</afSubmissionTime>
         <agreementId>xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx</agreementId>
      </afSubmissionInfo>
   </afData>

Optionally, you can also associate a bindref to Agreement ID (agreementId). It adds Agreement ID to afBoundData section of submitted data. For example, in the following submitted data, the Agreement ID is bound to <userName> node:


      <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
      <afData>
         <afUnboundData>
            <data />
         </afUnboundData>
         <afBoundData>
            <config xmlns:xfa="http://www.xfa.org/schema/xfa-data/1.0/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
               <userName>3AAABLblqZhC2MWu7GFauKh45j_t2ih8mAtmbdIcNSl1HgQubhMJfDaDfylyN7NQiYRam_44ISKm45enIOafHqWZrdaxShf9r</userName>
               <dateOfBirth>0001-01-01</dateOfBirth>
            </config>
         </afBoundData>
         <afSubmissionInfo>
            <lastFocusItem>guide[0].guide1[0].guideRootPanel[0].projectDetails[0]</lastFocusItem>
            <stateOverrides />
            <signers>
               <signer0>
                  <email />
               </signer0>
            </signers>
            <afPath>/content/dam/formsanddocuments/testathon2021-1/gaurav/xsd-based</afPath>
            <afSubmissionTime>20210311095211</afSubmissionTime>
            <agreementId>xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx</agreementId>
         </afSubmissionInfo>
      </afData>

Your form signing experience is ready. You can preview the form to verify the signing experience. On the published form, Adobe Sign Block fields are displayed when a recipient receives the form for signing through an email. When the When Is the recipient and the person filling the form same? option is marked yes and condition is met, the user is redirected to Adobe Sign agreement after submissions and user can Sign the document immediately, instead of waiting for agreement to appear on email.

Configure cloud signatures for an Adaptive Form configure-cloud-signatures-for-an-adaptive-form

Cloud-based digital signatures or remote signatures are a new generation of digital signatures that work across desktop, mobile, and the web — and meet the highest levels of compliance and assurance for recipient authentication. You can sign an Adaptive Form with cloud-based digital signatures.

After editing Adaptive Form properties for Adobe Sign, perform the following steps to add cloud signature field to an Adaptive Form:

Drag-and-drop Adobe Sign Block component from the component browser to the Adaptive Form. The Adobe Sign Block component has all the supported Adobe Sign fields. By default, it adds a Signature field to the Adaptive Form.
Select the Adobe Sign Block component and select the Edit icon. It displays options to add fields and format appearance of a field.

A. Select and add Adobe Sign fields. B. Expand the Adobe Sign block to full screen view

Select the Adobe Sign Field icon. It displays options to select and add Adobe Sign fields.

Expand the Type drop-down field to select Digital Signature and select the Done icon to add the selected field to Adobe Sign block.

Digital signatures

It is mandatory to provide a unique name for a field.

Apply digital signatures to the Adaptive Form using:

Cloud signatures: Sign with a digital ID hosted by a trust service provider.

Adobe Acrobat or Reader: Download and open the document with Adobe Acrobat or Reader to sign using a smart card, USB token, or file-based digital ID.

note note
NOTE
Digital Signature is also applicable to Adobe Acrobat Sign for Government but you cannot apply it using Cloud Signatures.

After adding the cloud signature field to the Adaptive Form, perform the following steps to complete the configuration process:

Enable Adobe Sign for an Adaptive Form
Select Adobe Sign Cloud Service for an Adaptive Form
Add recipients to an Adaptive Form
Select Submit Action for an Adaptive Form

Configure the thank you page or summary step component configure-the-thank-you-page-or-summary-step-component

The Summary Step component automatically submits the form, populates the information inside the customized Summary page, and displays the summary of the submitted form. The Summary Step component takes up full width available for the form. It is recommended to not have any other component on the section containing the Summary Step component.

Frequently asked questions frequently-asked-questions

Q: You can embed an Adaptive Form in another Adaptive Form. Can the embedded Adaptive Form be Adobe Sign enabled?
Ans: No, Experience Manager Forms do not support using an Adaptive Form that embeds an Adobe Sign enabled Adaptive Form for signing

Q: When I create an Adaptive Form using the advanced template and open it for editing, an error message “Electronic Signature or recipients are not configured correctly.” appears. How to resolve the error message?
Ans: Adaptive Form created using the advanced template is configured to use Adobe Sign. To resolve the error, create and select an Adobe Sign cloud configuration and configure an Adobe Sign recipient for the Adaptive Form.

Q: Can I use Adobe Sign text tags in a static text component of an Adaptive Form?
Ans: Yes, you can use text tags in a text component to add Adobe Sign fields to a Document of Record (Auto-generated Document of Record option only) enabled Adaptive Form. To learn about the procedure and rules to create a text tag, see Adobe Sign Documentation. Also note, Adaptive Forms have a limited support for text tags. You can use the text tags to create only those fields that Adobe Sign Block supports.

Troubleshoot troubleshoot

Adobe Sign agreement failures adobe-sign-agreement-failures

Issue
When Adobe Sign service is configured for an Adaptive Form, the service fails to create an Adobe Sign agreement for the underlying Adaptive Form.

Resolution

Check the configuration of Adobe Sign Cloud Service used in the Adaptive Form.
Ensure that the API application on Adobe Sign server used to configure Adobe Sign Cloud Service has required permissions.
If you are using multiple Adobe Sign Cloud Services, point the oAuth URL of all the services to same Adobe Sign Shard.
Use separate email addresses to configure Adobe Sign account and for the first or single recipient. The email address of the first recipient or the only recipient (if there is the single recipient) cannot be identical to Adobe Sign account used to configure AEM Cloud Services.

Use Adobe Sign in an Adaptive Form using-adobe-sign-in-an-adaptive-form