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Document collections

About this feature​

Our Sign API V2 introduces the concept of the document collection, which provides a flexible way to group and manage documents throughout the signing process, with automatic packaging capabilities upon completion.

Use cases​

  • Multi-phase signing processes where signers may be added incrementally.
  • Flexible signing scenarios where the complete signer list may not be known upfront.

Technical benefits​

  • Scalable document management through collection-based organisation
  • Automated compliance via merchant certificate sealing
  • Workflow flexibility during the active signing phase
  • Asynchronous processing for improved system performance
  • Clear lifecycle management with defined closure upon completion

Core concepts​

Document collection structure​

  • A document collection serves as a container that can hold one or more documents that naturally belong together.
  • Each document within a collection can be referenced by one or more signing sessions.
  • The relationship between signing sessions and documents follows a many-to-one pattern, where multiple signing sessions can reference a single document that belongs to a document collection.

Automatic packaging and sealing functionality​

Document collections include the packageTo concept, which enables automatic packaging and sealing:

  • Automatic packaging: When all signing sessions referenced by documents in a document collection are completed, the system automatically packages them into a PAdES (PDF Advanced Electronic Signatures) format
  • Merchant certificate sealing: The packaged PAdES is sealed using a merchant certificate for authenticity and integrity
  • Optional and asynchronous: The packageTo field is optional and operates asynchronously, allowing for flexible workflow management

Dynamic session management​

Document collections follow these rules during the signing lifecycle:

  • Pre-package flexibility: New signing sessions can be created and can reference new document collections until the packaging process has been completed.
  • Workflow continuity: This allows for dynamic addition of signers or documents during the active signing phase.
  • Collection closure: Once the document collection has been packaged, it becomes closed and no new signing sessions can be created that reference documents from that collection.

Limitations​

Packaging configuration limitations​

Only one level of PAdES packaging is supported - either at the signing session level or at the document collection level, but not both. This means that you must not set the packageTo field on a signing session if it references documents from a document collection that has packageTo PAdES set.

This conflict is difficult to validate upfront because document collections only own and manage documents, not the signing sessions themselves. A signing session may contain documents from different document collections with different packageTo configurations. It's therefore important to ensure proper coordination between signing session and document collection packaging settings.

Future enhancements​

A planned enhancement will introduce functionality to package individual PAdES results from signing sessions into a Signicat PAdES container, where each signing session's PAdES (or Xades if packageTo is not set) will be included as an attachment within the final packaged document.

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