Web Forms + Data Requests

You can use a web form to gather information with text inputs, then create a data request that is prefilled with the data from the web form. The data request will show a preview of the PDF with the filled-in data before asking the user to sign the form.

View Combined Forms Example Example combining simple forms with data requests

Tip

“View Source” in your browser to see how the JavaScript library is used in the example above.

In this example, we use the simple embedded forms to show a form, but we hide the signature field in the processTemplateSchema callback by removing it from the template schema. We also cancel the PDF submission by returning false in the onSubmit callback. When the simple form is submitted, we send the data to our server, which makes an API call to create a prefilled data request.

Caution

You must always use a data request if you are collecting legally binding electronic signatures. If you only use a simple form with a signature field, the user could be signing a document that they haven’t seen. DocSpring will also not be able to store any information about how the user was authenticated, so these signatures will not be legally binding.

For the initial data collection step, you could use any form library that supports JSON schemas, such as react-jsonschema-form.

Next Steps

Web Forms JavaScript API Reference Complete reference for DocSpring.createSimpleForm() options and callbacks

Data Requests JavaScript API Reference Complete reference for DocSpring.createVisualForm() options and callbacks