To access SigningHub via RESTful API a suitable Enterprise Admin account and API key is required. An Enterprise Admin can generate a unique API key to identify your application. Authentication uses the Enterprise Admin (or alternatively Enterprise User) and associated API key to generate an OAuth 2.0 bearer token. This token is then required for authorisation for all API calls.
Create an Enterprise Admin account – the business application has to connect to this account and makes JSON requests to control the signing users/recipients. The SigningHub cloud service can be used for testing and you can create a free Enterprise Admin. Once you have created the account, contact Ascertia Sales Team (sales@ascertia.com) and provide the name of your enterprise to have the standard restrictions removed from your account, to allow you to fully test the web services integration option. This restriction is for number of signatures, workflows, and templates. See details, how to create a new enterprise account.
Create an API Key – set an Application Name, Call-back URL and generate an API Key in SigningHub, using the Enterprise Settings menu > Integrations screen. Note the Application Nameand API Key. See details, how to configure an API key.
Create workflow templates (Optional) – the workflow template defines the location of each signature field and the user that is expected to sign the document. It also defines other document and workflow control options including PDF permissions, the ability to download or print document for example. Templates may increase efficiency, especially when a standard contract or agreement is used many times. SigningHub also supports dynamic creation of signature fields for use cases where documents are created and uploaded in real time where templates may not be appropriate. See details, how to create a workflow template.
It is important to understand that you know what type of signature you require. That is basic electronic versus digital. Digital signatures have more legal weight but in terms of SigningHub it means every signatory must have a SigningHub account. Conversely, for lower value/less sensitive transactions, electronic signatures may suffice, and in those use cases it is not necessary to create a SigningHub account for every signatory. Thus, the coding implementation differs dependent upon the signature type required. In terms of tight and loose integration this is the difference between end users having to authenticate to SigningHub or not. Packages SigningHub 7.x relies on document packages to handle all documents, and hence is required for all document related operations. At least one package must exist before a user can add documents to SigningHub. The package concept allows you to group similar documents into one package and share this as opposed to multiple individual files. This reduces administration time and allows SigningHub to offer real life services and situations in an electronic format.
Note all document related API calls rely on the package identifier. For example, to upload a document the call is: https://api.signinghub.com/v3/packages/{package_id}/documents. Note the package_id variable required.