Email notification to user is not sent when ClientUserId is provided - docusignapi

Question

I'm trying to create envelope from template i uploaded to my account.
Using following code to do that:
public static void main(String[] args) throws ApiException {
// Enter your DocuSign credentials
String UserName = "my-user-name";
String Password = "my-password";
String IntegratorKey = "my-integrator-key";
// for production environment update to "www.docusign.net/restapi"
String BaseUrl = "https://demo.docusign.net/restapi";
// initialize the api client for the desired environment
ApiClient apiClient = new ApiClient();
apiClient.setBasePath(BaseUrl);
// create JSON formatted auth header
String creds = "{\"Username\":\"" + UserName + "\",\"Password\":\"" + Password + "\",\"IntegratorKey\":\"" + IntegratorKey + "\"}";
apiClient.addDefaultHeader("X-DocuSign-Authentication", creds);
// assign api client to the Configuration object
Configuration.setDefaultApiClient(apiClient);
//////////////////////////////// LOGIN START
// login call available off the AuthenticationApi
AuthenticationApi authApi = new AuthenticationApi();
// login has some optional parameters we can set
AuthenticationApi.LoginOptions loginOps = authApi.new LoginOptions();
loginOps.setApiPassword("true");
loginOps.setIncludeAccountIdGuid("true");
LoginInformation loginInfo = authApi.login(loginOps);
// note that a given user may be a member of multiple accounts
List<LoginAccount> loginAccounts = loginInfo.getLoginAccounts();
System.out.println("LoginInformation: " + loginAccounts);
// use the |accountId| we retrieved through the Login API to create the Envelope
String accountId = loginAccounts.get(0).getAccountId();
/////////////////////////////////////// LOGIN END
////////////////////////////////////// CREATE ENVELOPE START
// create a new envelope object that we will manage the signature request through
EnvelopeDefinition envDef = new EnvelopeDefinition();
envDef.setEmailSubject("Hey! Sign the following document");
// assign template information including ID and role(s)
envDef.setTemplateId("ebbe20e3-1c2e-4696-a0c4-41269bf54aeb");
// create a template role with a valid templateId and roleName and assign signer info
TemplateRole tRole = new TemplateRole();
tRole.setRoleName("Client");
String name = "Jake";
String email = "someEmail#goes.here";
tRole.setName(name);
tRole.setEmail(email);
tRole.setClientUserId("someClientUuid");
// create a list of template roles and add our newly created role
List<TemplateRole> templateRolesList = new ArrayList<>();
templateRolesList.add(tRole);
Tabs tabs = new Tabs();
Text clientIdField = new Text();
clientIdField.setTabLabel("CustomerId");
clientIdField.setValue("I changed text from API! It works!");
List<Text> textList = new ArrayList<>();
textList.add(clientIdField);
tabs.setTextTabs(textList);
tRole.setTabs(tabs);
// assign template role(s) to the envelope
envDef.setTemplateRoles(templateRolesList);
// send the envelope by setting |status| to "sent". To save as a draft set to "created"
envDef.setStatus("sent");
// use the |accountId| we retrieved through the Login API to create the Envelope
// instantiate a new EnvelopesApi object
EnvelopesApi envelopesApi = new EnvelopesApi();
// call the createEnvelope() API
EnvelopeSummary envelopeSummary = envelopesApi.createEnvelope(accountId, envDef);
System.out.println("EnvelopeSummary: " + envelopeSummary);
///////////////////////////////////// CREATE ENVELOPE END
String envelopeId = envelopeSummary.getEnvelopeId();
//////////////////////////////////////// CREATE RECIPIENT VIEW
// use the |accountId| we retrieved through the Login API
// instantiate a new EnvelopesApi object
// set the url where you want the recipient to go once they are done signing
RecipientViewRequest returnUrl = new RecipientViewRequest();
returnUrl.setReturnUrl("https://www.docusign.com/devcenter");
returnUrl.setAuthenticationMethod("email");
// recipient information must match embedded recipient info we provided in step #2
returnUrl.setEmail(email);
returnUrl.setUserName(name);
returnUrl.setClientUserId("someClientUuid");
// call the CreateRecipientView API then navigate to the URL to start the signing session
ViewUrl recipientView = envelopesApi.createRecipientView(accountId, envelopeId, returnUrl);
System.out.println("ViewUrl: " + recipientView);
//////////////////////////////////////// CREATE RECIPIENT VIEW
}
And i noticed strange thing - when i provide clientUserId field to my TemplateRole, while creating envelope from template - email notification to sign document is not sent to user. But when i remove this field - email is sent successfully.
The problem is that i need that clientUserId in my TemplateRole to be able to properly generate ViewUrl to use in my application.
So is it a bug or a feature, that notification is not sent with provided clientUserId in TemplateRole? Did not found any documentation about that on official site.

Answer 1

When clientUserId is specified the recipient is considered as an embedded recipient. By default only remote recipients receive email notifications.
If you want embedded recipients to receive email notifications then set the embeddedRecipientStartURL property.
tRole.setEmbeddedRecipientStartURL("SIGN_AT_DOCUSIGN")
See this answer for more information
Official Documentation