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Communication

The Signicat Communication service lets you manage your configurations for SMS messages and email. These custom settings override the default Signicat settings.

Try it in the Signicat Dashboard

To access the communication service, go to Signicat Dashboard > Branding > Communication.

What is communication?​

We use SMS messages and emails to communicate important information from Signicat services to your end-users. For example, when you want a document to be signed, an email or SMS message can be sent to your end-user with a signing link.

With this service, you can:

  • Customise the email and SMS sender name.
  • Specify the preferred primary and secondary SMS provider.
  • Add your own custom domain for sending emails.
  • Customise your own email sender address prefix.
  • Directly connect to your own SMTP server for emails.
  • Look at delivery logs and the corresponding status.

Example use case​

When you want a document to be signed, the account's email configuration is retrieved, and if not overridden, a Signicat default email is used. You may override these settings to customise the email domain, sender and sender address being sent from provided services such as Signature.

What does a test message look like?​

If you are testing our services with a sandbox account, then we prepend all emails and SMS messages with a test message warning.

  • For emails, we prepend the contents with a warning banner. This banner describes that the email is intended solely for testing purposes and warns the recipient against clicking on any of the links, unless they are actively conducting tests.
  • For SMS messages, we prepend the message with TEST SMS:.
Why do we do this?

We do this to protect recipients from clicking on potentially malicious links that appear to come from Signicat.

SMS​

From the SMS page, you can manage the SMS settings for your account.

Customise the SMS sender name​

This is the name of the sender that is displayed to the recipient of the SMS when receiving the text. To change this:

  1. From the SMS page, click the Edit button.
  2. In the Sender field, replace 'Signicat' with the name of your choice. The name must consist of 3 to 11 alphanumeric characters (A-Za-z0-9). It can also contain dots (.) and spaces.
  3. Click the Save button.

Customise the primary SMS provider​

This is the primary SMS provider to use when sending SMS messages. To change this:

  1. From the SMS page, click the Edit button, then click the Primary SMS provider field.
  2. From the dropdown menu, select the provider of your choice.
  3. Click the Save button.

Add a secondary SMS provider​

This is the secondary SMS provider to use as a fallback if there is a temporary failure with the primary SMS provider. This is disabled by default.

The primary SMS provider is always used first. If there is a failure, then the SMS message is automatically attempted with the secondary provider if enabled.

To add a secondary SMS provider:

  1. From the SMS page, click the Edit button, then click the Secondary SMS provider field.
  2. From the dropdown menu, select the provider of your choice.
  3. Click the Save button.

Email​

From the Email page, you can:

  • Manage the email settings for your account.
  • Add your own custom email domain for use in sending emails.

Customise the from address prefix​

The full email address uses the form {from_address_prefix}@{domain_name}. The Signicat domain is the default setting, hence the default email address is noreply@email.signicat.com.

To customise the from_address_prefix:

  1. From the Email page, on the Email settings tab, click the Edit button.
  2. In the From address prefix field, replace 'noreply' with the prefix of your choice.
  3. Click the Save button.

Customise the email sender name​

To customise the name of the sender that is displayed to the recipient when they are viewing the email:

  1. From the Email page, on the Email settings tab, click the Edit button.
  2. In the Sender field, replace 'Signicat' with the name of your choice.
  3. Click the Save button.

Use custom SMTP server settings​

To specify whether to connect to a custom SMTP server, and use a sending API key:

  1. From the Email page, on the Email settings tab, click the Edit button.
  2. Click the toggle button beside Use custom SMTP server settings. A new set of fields will appear.
  3. Complete the fields as required.
    What do the fields mean?
    Field nameDescription
    PortSet which SMTP port to use when connecting to the SMTP server. The default is 25, and available options are 25, 587 and 465.
    Host AddressRequired: Set which SMTP host to connect to. For example: smtp.mydomain.com.
    Sender AddressRequired: Set the default sender address to use when sending emails. For example: noreply@email.mydomain.com.

    If the Sender address cannot be overridden box is ticked, then the Sender Address cannot be overridden via any API calls, and is always used.
    Authentication flowSet the method to authenticate to the SMTP server. This can be either:
    • None: Requires no authentication.
    • Username and password: Requires a valid username and password for the SMTP server.
    • XOauth2: Requires a client ID, client secret, necessary scopes and endpoint for retrieving an access token on your behalf.
    Disable Certificate ValidationSet whether certificates from the SMTP server being connected to are required to be signed by globally trusted certificate authorities. Certificate validation is disabled by default.
  4. Click the Save button.

Add your own custom domain​

You can add your own custom domain for use in sending emails.

Tip

If you set up your own domain, then you are using SMTP settings.

To do this:

  1. From the Email page, on the My domains tab, update the Domain field with your desired domain. For example: my.domain.com.
  2. Optionally, you can define a custom DKIM selector instead of using a generated one. All characters must be lowercase, with an allowed length of between 2 and 11 characters.
  3. Click the Add domain button.
  4. Your DNS records are generated and are visible on the next page. You can now add these to your own hosting provider.
  5. After adding these DNS records to your hosting provider, periodic checks occur which check if the domain has been verified and is ready for use. You can also click the Verify DNS button to manually attempt to verify the domain.
  6. When verified, the Use Domain button is no longer greyed out and can now be clicked.
  7. Once clicked, a pop-up appears where you can add the desired prefix for the default sender address, for example: mycompany. The domain is appended, separated by @; this results in a default sender address of mycompany@my.domain.com.
  8. Click the Confirm button. Your custom domain is now active for future emails.

Edit one of your domains​

  1. From the Email page, on the My domains tab, click the three dots under the Actions header
  2. Click Edit from the dropdown menu.
  3. You are taken to the individual domain view where the DNS records are, where you can make any desired changes.

Delete one of your domains​

Note

You can only delete a domain if it is not currently in use.

  1. From the Email page, on the My domains tab, click the three dots under the Actions header.
  2. Click Delete from the dropdown menu.
  3. As a preventative measure against accidental deletion, you must type the domain which you want to delete in the provided field in the dialogue box.
  4. Press the Delete domain button in the dialogue box.

Use one of your domains​

Note

You can only use a domain if it is not already in use and it is verified. If not, then the Use domain option is not visible in the dropdown menu.

  1. From the Email page, on the My domains tab, click the three dots under the Actions header.
  2. Click Use domain from the dropdown menu.

Logs​

From the Logs page, you can view logs of your recently sent email and SMS message events using either the SMS or Email tab.

When you have sent an email or SMS for that specific account, these messages appear with their status on this page.

Filter by event status​

To filter the events by the event status:

  1. From the Logs page, select either the SMS or Email tab.
  2. Expand the first dropdown menu and make a selection.
What are the possible statuses?
  • For SMS, the possible statuses are:
    • All
    • Delivered
    • Sent
    • Failed
  • For email, the possible statuses are:
    • All
    • Delivered
    • Opened
    • Sent
    • Failed

Order by timestamp​

To order the events by their timestamp:

  1. From the Logs page, select either the SMS or Email tab.
  2. Click the Timestamp button to sort via ascending or descending order.

View the raw JSON or message for an event​

To open up the individual event to view the raw JSON and message itself:

  1. From the Logs page, view either the SMS or Email tab.
  2. Click the three dots under the Actions header, to the right of the event you want to see further details for.
    • To view the raw JSON, click View JSON from the dropdown menu.
    • To view the message, click View message from the dropdown menu.
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