Install and upgrade

Install eSign Web Forms on a Frappe v16 bench, see what the install adds to a site, and upgrade or remove the app.

Updated2026-10-26

On this page

eSign Web Forms installs like any Frappe app. It adds fields to two standard DocTypes and one option to Communication, and creates no DocTypes or records of its own.

Before you start

A bench with Frappe v16 and a System Manager login on the site.
Node 24 or newer and yarn on the machine that builds the app. bench build runs the app's yarn build, which bundles the signature fonts.
Background workers running on the bench (bench start in development, the worker processes in production). Without them nothing is signed: the PDF and the audit record are written by jobs on the short queue.
Outgoing email set up on the site, if staff will send signing requests from the desk.

Install

Run these from the bench directory. <SITE_NAME> is your site, for example site1.example.com.

bench get-app https://github.com/Avunu/esign_webforms --branch version-16
bench --site <SITE_NAME> install-app esign_webforms

The version-16 branch is created by the first release. Until then, get the app from develop:

bench get-app https://github.com/Avunu/esign_webforms --branch develop

bench get-app builds the app's assets. If you pull new code by hand, run bench build --app esign_webforms afterwards.

What installing sets up

Change	Where	Detail
eSign fields	Web Form	Enable eSign, and the eSign Settings, Signer and Notification Settings sections. See Configuration.
Print Format shown with eSign	Web Form	A property setter makes Print Format show when Enable eSign or Allow print is ticked; Frappe shows it only with Allow print.
eSign Request	Email Template	A check box, and a Message Template section break below it.
`eSign` Communication type	Communication, Communication Type options	Added by `after_install`, and again by `after_migrate` if it is missing, through a property setter on the field's options. The audit records are Communications of this type.
Signature control	Desk and signing page	The app's bundles replace Frappe's Signature control everywhere in the desk, and on eSign signing pages.

The fields and the property setter are customizations of the eSign module with sync_on_migrate set, so each bench migrate keeps them in step with the app. The app has no patches and no scheduled jobs.

Upgrade

Update the app the way you update any Frappe app: bench update, or pull the new code in apps/esign_webforms and then run these from the bench directory.

bench build --app esign_webforms
bench --site <SITE_NAME> migrate

bench migrate re-syncs the custom fields and adds the eSign Communication type if it is missing. No release so far has shipped a patch that changes data.

The app was once called esign. Calls to the old method paths, such as esign.esign.custom.web_form.accept, still work through override_whitelisted_methods in hooks.py, for bookmarks, cached pages and webhooks. They will be removed in a later release.

Uninstall

bench --site <SITE_NAME> uninstall-app esign_webforms

Frappe deletes the records that belong to the app's eSign module, which removes the custom fields on Web Form and Email Template and the Print Format property setter. The app's after_uninstall then removes eSign from the Communication Type options.

What stays behind:

The signed PDFs, attached to the documents as private files, and their copies on the eSign Communications.
The eSign Communications themselves. They stay on the documents, but without the app the timeline no longer shows them as eSign cards.
The Document Share Keys that signing links created, until they expire.
The web forms. Without the app, a web form that had Enable eSign is an ordinary web form again.