Global tabs for document templates - docusignapi

Question

Is there a way to assign tabs to a document, without having a recipient declared?
Situation: We want to have a template for an employee application, and then use the API to fill the fields, assign the recipients, and embed for signing.
When I create the template with no recipient, it doesn't allow me to place any tags. Given that I don't know the recipient until the time I call the API, does that mean I can't place the tabs until then? I really don't want to have to place 50 tabs dynamically.
Thanks in advance.
Chase

Answer 1

DocuSign tabs are always with respect to a given recipient, never the document itself, however I believe you can still accomplish this workflow. If you create a Template through the DocuSign Console you can add a template role without providing any recipient info (i.e. name or email) at that time. Afterwards when you reference this template through a signature request API call you can then supply the actual recipient names and emails in the request and map them to your already configured envelope tabs through the
roleName
property for each recipient.
The very first DocuSign API Walkthrough has code that demonstrates how to do this with just one role, but note that this is just an example and you can have multiple roles.
DocuSign API Walkthroughs
From a high level these are the steps you want to take:
Create a template in the DocuSign Console.
Add document(s), then add at least one recipient but only fill in the role field.
Now on your document you'll see that you can add whatever tabs you want to the envelope, under that role.
Save the template.
Make an API call for requesting a signature, which references the templateId and has the roleName parameter present for your recipient(s). This roleName value should match the role that you saved with the template in step 2.
If you named the role Signer1 for instance, your request body (in JSON format) might look like this:
{
"accountId": "123456",
"emailSubject": "DocuSign API Call - Signature Request from Template",
"emailBlurb": "Sample email body",
"templateId": "B977F511-CAB0-...................",
"templateRoles": [
{
"roleName": "Signer1",
"email": "test#docusign.com",
"name": "John Doe"
}
],
"status": "sent"
}