Question

Forms 9.2 Signature Not Carrying Through Steps

Forms Version 9 Ideas

Updated May 3, 2024

asked on October 7, 2014

We have switched some of our processes to use the new signature field in Forms 9.2. We are seeing a problem with a submission we just received. Below is a screenshot of the signature that was gathered at submission.

The next step is a Supervisor Approval step. Here is the signature that shows on that form:

The step after that is an HR Assistant step. Here is the signature for that step:

What happened to the signatures? Each signature field has the same variable.

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Answer

SELECTED ANSWER

replied on October 7, 2014

Hi there,

The signature field will display the original value if it's a readonly field.

If the signature field is not read only, which means this form needs to be resigned, the original value won't be populated.

Please try set the second form signature field to be readonly.

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View 4 previous replies

replied on October 7, 2014

That worked. Can this behavior be changed? If it's signed, could it populate the field regardless if it's marked read-only or not? We have situations where the signature can be gathered at any of 3 steps in the process. If we mark it read-only we now take that ability away.

Also, what about when we store the form into a Laserfiche repository? If we mark it read-only will it save the signature with the form or will it not show as marking fields as read-only in 9.1 made it so that fields data was not saved when the document was saved to the repository?

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replied on October 7, 2014

Maybe you might want to figure out how to find if the field is signed at any of those three steps and then have an alternative/identical path for the forms where the field is read-only

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replied on October 7, 2014

Hi there,

1. read-only field value will be saved into a Laserfiche repository. (the one you described in 9.1 is a bug which I think get fixed in the 9.1.x version.)

2. when you say signatures can be gathered at any of 3 steps, is it signed by same person?

Tip: if it's by same person. there's a setting "Use the default signature for the current user." This will save user some time to sign by one click. (User can setup their default signature in Account page)

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replied on October 7, 2014

Abby, yes, it can be signed by the same person, but the person is not the who the task is assigned to. We have what we call PAF forms that a school secretary or a principal starts. They fill out the PAF for an employee. The employee is who ultimately signs the form at 1 of the 3 steps. The reason it is available to be signed at one of the 3 steps is because when this form is created, sometimes the employee has not yet started working so they are not available to sign the form until a later step. Sometimes the employee has started working so it needs to go out to one of the schools to get their signature. And sometimes we are able to get the signature at the time the employee is hired, which means the signature is gathered at the district office.

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replied on October 7, 2014

If you have one form that is used for the submission form and also for a user task, and you mark the field itself as Required, but on the user task, you mark at the user task level "Make form read-only for task participants", would it show the signature?

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replied on October 7, 2014

Thanks for your use case, Blake. We'll take it into consideration in future Forms.

If you have one form that is used for submission step and user task step, and in user task step is marked as "Make form read-only".

Then in the user task step, it will show the signed signature.

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replied on May 24, 2017

Any update on this feature request?

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Replies

replied on May 26, 2017

Any update on this @████████?

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View 3 previous replies

replied on May 30, 2017

There is no update on this feature at this time. It is in the Forms backlog with many other feature requests and enhancements. I can raise the priority for this feature given the duration and activity on this post.

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replied on June 28, 2019

Using 10.3.1 and still have this issue. Is there any update on this?

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replied on April 4, 2022

Still having the same issue at Michelle. Any updates?

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replied on May 3, 2024

Any update on this feature request? I came back from Empower having learned to use the Process Stage in field rules such that we can use a single form across multiple user tasks for review/signature only to find the signatures are lost in successive stages.

I think most users likely type in their signature instead of drawing anyway (given the option); however, I think the pro of the signature field versus a single line field (which is the most straightforward workaround) is that the signing is more explicit, and the output is a more personalized looking signature with a font selected by the user, making it a more visceral signing experience.

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replied on May 3, 2024

This has been fixed in Cloud with the April release, so it is probably just a matter of time before it is released for Self-Hosted.

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replied on May 3, 2024

Fantastic news! Thanks, @████████ and Laserfiche!

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replied on March 10, 2015

Just wondering if this is till being thought of for a future release? It would be nice if a signature that is already populated would keep its data instead of being cleared out just because it was not marked as read-only. We are having to create multiple duplicates of forms to accommodate this behavior.

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replied on July 8, 2015

This is kinda strange. By default, the signatures are just dropped? There should be a warning if the system is going to delete data.

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replied on July 8, 2015

Hi Chad,

What's your flow? Do you have multiple signatures on one form?

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replied on August 25, 2015

Any word if the behavior of the Signature Field will be changed in Forms 10?

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View 6 previous replies

replied on August 25, 2015

The behavior won't be changed in next version of Forms. If it's read-only it preserves the previous signed value, otherwise, it'll be clean up.

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replied on August 25, 2015

Is there discussion about changes this in another version then? This really causes us a lot of extra work.

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replied on August 25, 2015

We're considering this use case. If there's a new option for read-only (something like read-only when it's not empty), will it solve your case?

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replied on August 25, 2015

I hadn't thought of that option, but that might just solve our problem of having a regular form that allows someone to sign and then a duplicate second form that makes the signature read-only. We just need to be able to use the same signature field so that th

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replied on August 26, 2015

Thanks for your feedback.

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replied on August 26, 2015

Abby, I think that a behavior like you describe above where it is read only if not empty would work well in most cases as long as the initial signer can edit the field for a set amount of time such as clear to re-sign if it is a bad signature but if unaltered for 90 seconds or so or upon a submission act it becomes read only.

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replied on June 15, 2016

Any update on if this will be included in a future update?

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replied on July 26, 2016

It sounds like I'm trying to accomplish the same thing Blake and others are. I'm using one form to pass between 5 different roles in a process. The form has signature fields for 2 of the roles. Based on the content of this thread, I set both signature fields to readonly in the layout. When the form goes to the roles that need to sign the form, I remove the readonly attribute and let the participants sign the form. However, the signature is gone when the next participant opens the form. I thought since the field is set to readonly to begin with, the signature would be retained.

I don't want to have to maintain several identical forms just because of a signature. That tends to be a maintenance nightmare when you have javascript behind it. Has anyone found a way around this?

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replied on July 26, 2016

So far that is the only way I have found. Hopefully the Forms team will release the feature that Abby mentioned above.

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replied on October 7, 2014 • Show version history

This is by design. The signatures are only meant to show on the saved forms the person who performed the task. I have not yet played around with Forms 9.2 for the signatures yet, but from the documentation, you may want to make that field read-only in the steps after which it was used.

Tip: If a specific signature field is used on multiple forms (e.g., you used the field's variable to add it to multiple forms), the signature will be editable on all forms unless it's made read-only. For example, Sally has a form that needs to be signed by an employee and then routed to a manager for review. She makes the signature field read-only on the form the manger reviews so the manager will see the employee's signature instead of a Sign button.

Source: http://www.laserfiche.com/support/webhelp/laserficheforms/9.2/en-us/forms/#Forms/FormFields/Signatures.htm%3FTocPath%3DCreating%2520a%2520Form%7CUsing%2520the%2520Edit%2520Page%2520to%2520Add%2520Fields%2520to%2520a%2520Form%7C_____9

EDIT: Abby Shen appears to have answered your question earlier than I did, but the documentation may serve useful if other questions about the Signature field comes up.

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replied on October 7, 2014

Kenneth, thank you for the information from the help documentation. It would still be nice if this could be changed. I am currently having to create additional forms because we had a form called "Supervisor Approval" that was used in several places in our process. The same form was assigned to multiple steps in the process, but some steps may have had the signature already, and others would not have. So I now I need to make a different form for those tasks.

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replied on October 7, 2014

I agree, definitely looking forward to more controls over this field in the future updates.

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replied on October 10, 2014

Blake, would it be possible to create multiple signature fields on the same form and hide/show them depending on the step the form is viewed from? Maybe base the display of the signature field on other fields that are being filled in during the step using field rules? That gets you away from having to maintain multiple identical forms.

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