Set up a signing web form

A document is signed through a web form of its DocType. This page walks through the one-time set-up for a DocType: the Signature field, the eSign web form and an email template. Every setting is described in Configuration.

Prepare the DocType

1. Give the DocType you want signed a field of type Signature. To change the words the signature dialog uses, put them in the field's Options: Initials makes the dialog say "Add your initials" instead of "Add your signature".

2. Add the fields the signer should fill in, if the DocType does not have them yet. For a signer without an account, add a Data field for their name and a Data field for their email, with the options Email.

3. To sign documents that are already submitted, tick Allow on Submit on the Signature field and on every other field the web form changes. Frappe refuses to change any other field of a submitted document.

Create the web form

1. Create a Web Form, set Select DocType to your DocType and tick Published.

2. Tick Enable eSign. The Print Format field and the eSign Settings, Signer and Notification Settings sections appear.

3. Add the Signature field to the web form's fields, and any field the signer fills in, such as their name and email. Make a field mandatory on the web form if every signer must fill it.

4. Pick the Print Format the signer reads and the signed PDF is made from. Left empty, Frappe's standard format is used.

5. In eSign Settings, choose what happens when the document is signed:

   • Submit on Response submits a submittable document.

   • Set Property After Response and Value To Be Set set a Select, Link, Data or Text field, for example Status to Signed.

   • Only allow Signing on Mobile sends desktop signers to their phone with a QR code.

6. In Signer, name the fields the audit trail records:

   • Signer Name Field: the form field the signer types their name into.

   • Signer Email Field: the form field the signer types their email into.

   • Require Verified Email: tick it to sign only through a link emailed to each signer. Read Verified email first.

   • Consent Text: replaces "I agree to sign this document electronically." if you need other wording.

   

7. Optionally, in Notification Settings, tick Send Notification on Response and pick a Notification. Create the Notification first: same Document Type as the web form, Send Alert On set to Custom, Channel Email, and Enabled ticked. Its recipients get the signed PDF and the audit trail.

8. Save. Saving ticks Allow editing after submit for you, and refuses a Set Property After Response, Signer Name Field or Signer Email Field the app cannot use.

The web form's own Introduction, Submit button label, Success title, Success message and Success URL shape the signing page too: see Configuration.

Create the email template

1. Create an Email Template and tick eSign Request.

2. Write the Subject and the Response. Frappe renders both with the document's fields as the context, so {{ name }} and the document's other fields work. The dialog fills them in when the template is picked, and the sender can still edit them.

3. You do not need to put the link in the message. When the message does not contain it, the email gets a Sign Document button. To place the link yourself, see Links in your own templates.

Check it

1. Make sure an outgoing Email Account exists and the bench's workers are running.

2. Open a saved document of the DocType. Send for eSign appears among the form's buttons.

3. Send a request to yourself, open the link in a private window, and sign. Within a few seconds the document's timeline shows the eSign card and the signed PDF is attached. See Signed PDFs and the audit trail.