Connect FAQ

What is Docusign Connect?

Docusign Connect is a webhook notification service for businesses that need their systems to react when specific triggering events happen in their agreement workflows; for example, sending a notification when an envelope is complete, archiving completed envelopes to a custom document management platform, and many more.

What events are available?

Docusign Connect reports many different events for which you can program your integration to perform appropriate actions, such as an envelope being completed or discarded, a recipient being reassigned, a template being created, and many more. For a full list, see Webhook event triggers.

What are the primary uses for Docusign Connect?

A few common scenarios include:

• Business processes. Using a webhook listener, your application can detect when your envelopes are completed (meaning that all required recipients have signed all documents in an envelope). By adding your custom code written for your process, you can configure your application to trigger a workflow upon the newly signed document, such as approving a loan, initiating an insurance policy, or provisioning services.
• Write-back. Your application can provide up-to-date information about envelope status to other applications, such as the application that generated the envelope. For instance, your application could enable a user to update their contact information and propagate that update through your network infrastructure, keeping your business records up to date.
• Archiving. Your application can be configured to use the webhook notification as the trigger in a workflow to store the envelope’s signed documents in a company-specific archiving system.
• Business intelligence (BI). You can identify where envelopes are in your queue, and then update corporate databases and information systems, by configuring an application to receive webhook notifications about the status and timing of Docusign envelopes and recipients.

Are there any use-case examples?

1. Monitoring. A financial institution receives purchasing agreements from vendors. Vendors may send envelopes directly to a purchasing manager or the department’s distribution list. Envelopes sent to the distribution email may face a login issue when a purchasing manager tries to sign the inbound envelope because the envelope is addressed to a different email address. The ability to monitor their inbound envelope queue affords the institution better visibility into what envelopes are pending, and if there is a bottleneck with an employee being out of the office.
2. Archiving. A large public university wants to store electronically signed documents for new student applications. Using Connect, the university receives a notification that an application has been signed and completed, which triggers an envelope-completed event notification, then starts an automated process to store the document in their storage library.

Are there minimum requirements to implement Connect?

• Technical resources. Connect requires a listener application, which may be a server (on-prem/hybrid/cloud) or software application. Docusign recommends our customers develop their own custom webhook listener, which can be configured to initiate proprietary business processes upon receipt of Connect notifications. If you do not have internal developers, we have a vast ecosystem of partners that offer Docusign professional development services.
• Data format. The full range of triggering events is supported by the eSignature REST API v2.1 in the JSON SIM data format. The legacy eSignature REST API v2.0 and eSignature SOAP API support a limited range of triggering events in XML SIM or Aggregate format.