Signature tags within pdf? - docusignapi

Question

I am evaluating Docusign API to automate document signing process.
I see that we need to add Tabs, Anchor tags and provide with the X,Y coordinates/offsets to place the signatures. Is there a easier way to do this. I was wondering if I can add embed this information within my document so that recipient can see this while signing.
Really appreciate any advice.
Thanks
N

Answer 1

With the DocuSign API you have two main methods of positioning your Stick-eTabs. One method is through Absolute positioning, where you use X and Y coordinates to place your tabs at specific locations on the document(s). The other method is through Relative or Anchor Based positioning, where tab placement is based on actual document content.
For instance, you could use Absolute positioning to place a signature tab at a location 200 pixels to the right, and 100 pixels down from the top left of the document using the following (partial) JSON body:
"tabs": {
"signHereTabs": [
{
"xPosition": "200",
"yPosition": "100",
"documentId": "1",
"pageNumber": "1",
}
]
}
On the other hand, if you wanted to use Relative positioning you can actually place any tab at a location based on document content. For instance, if you had the text "Please Sign Here" somewhere in your document, you can place any tag right on or near this text very easily. You could place a signature tab 1 inch to the right, or an initial tab 5 pixels to the left and 10 pixels down, or a date tab 1 cm up and 2 cms to the right, for example. To do this you could use the following JSON to define your tab(s):
"tabs": {
"signHereTabs": [
{
"anchorString": "Please Sign Here:",
"anchorXOffset": "1",
"anchorYOffset": "0",
"anchorIgnoreIfNotPresent": "false",
"anchorUnits": "inches"
}
]
}
The above example would place a signature tab 1 inch to the right and at the same height as the text "Please Sign Here". One common approach that many developers take here is to embed content into the documents themselves such as the string \s1 for example. They additionally set the font color to the same color as the background where the string is placed (usually white) and this in turn makes the string \s1 invisible so that the recipient only sees the DocuSign tab at this location. For more information on this and absolute vs. relative tagging please read the Tab Positioning page on the Stick-eTabs features section.