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For the complete documentation index, see llms.txt.

For the complete documentation index, see llms.txt

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.
    Custom SMTP server settings
  4. Click the Save button.

Add your own custom domain

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

This email-sending domain is separate from a custom account domain, which hosts web endpoints and must not be used to send email. For details, see Email security for account domains.

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.

Events

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

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

Filter by date range

To view events for a particular date range using the date filter:

  1. From the Events page, expand the date dropdown menu to the top right of the table. By default, this is set to Last 7 days.
  2. Set a date filter using either:
    • The search field.
    • One of the suggested ranges.
    • The Custom date option.

Filter by event status

To filter the events by the event status:

  1. From the Events page, select either the SMS or Email tab.
  2. Expand the status dropdown menu and make a selection.
    Status filter options

Order by timestamp

To order the events by their timestamp:

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

View JSON for a message event

You can view the JSON for a message event, whether that be SMS or email. To do this:

  1. From the Events page, view either the SMS or Email tab.
  2. Click a message event from the table that you want to view the JSON for.
Tip

You can search or use date/status filters to quickly find the event that you are looking for.