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Adobe Sign for SharePoint Online: Template Mapping Guide

Caution:

Support for the Adobe Acrobat Sign for SharePoint Online integration is set to end by June 2024. Consequently, you won't be able to send agreements through this integration after that date. You'll still be able to send agreements from SharePoint using other integrations, such as Acrobat Sign for Power Automate

We recommend that you remove the Acrobat Sign plug-in from your SharePoint site and transition workflows to other applications

Overview

Adobe Sign supports the idea of relating data between SharePoint Lists and the agreement form fields.

By using workflows and mapping the list fields to the form fields, you can automatically pre-fill documents before sending, reducing the time for senders and/or signers to complete the form, and reducing the chance for miskeying the data.

Conversely, you can also create a mapping that extracts the form field data from a signed agreement, to populate a SharePoint list.


A quick word on building web forms with fields

Successful mapping requires that you have built web forms with defined field names so you can logically relate the List field to the Adobe Sign form field. 

There are multiple ways to build forms that can then be uploaded into Adobe Sign:

  • The Adobe Sign Authoring environment has automated field detection, making form building much quicker
    • Automatically placed form fields have a generic name (Custom Field 1), and should be renamed to something indicative of the field use    
  • PDF forms can also be built using Acrobat.  Acrobat forms can also auto-detect where fields should be
    • Acrobat automatically places fields also, using a field name derived from the proceeding text on the document. These names are often obscure or extensive and should be edited to an intuitive value for the field use
  • Text tags can be used if your document generation produces an editable text document

Field mapping relies on logically relating the name of a field on the form and the name of a column in SharePoint.

No matter which method you use, be sure to properly name your fields so you can identify them easily when they are presented in a list format (during the mapping process).

Note:

The following types of SharePoint columns are supported: Single line of text, Number, Choice ("Radio Buttons"), Multiple lines of text, Yes/No (checkbox). 

SharePoint Column Type Adobe Sign Field Type
Single line of text Text
Number Text
Choice ("Radio Buttons") Radio Buttons
Multiple lines of text Multi-line text
Yes / No (check box) Checkbox


Step by step Template Mapping workflow

In the below example, the SharePoint admin wants to send agreements to a list of customers.

An existing SharePoint list with the customers already exists containing some details about each recipient ("First Name" and "Last Name"), but additional information ("Age" and "Occupation") is being collected.

A form is created (using text tags) to import the name values from the SharePoint list and collect the new values being sought.

After the agreement is completed, the mapped field values in the form are pushed back into the SharePoint list.

Note:

This example shows a form that only contains fields for the sake of clarity.

Your form will likely have far more content, but the fields work the same.

  1.  Create a Sharepoint List

    Login to your sharepoint website and create a list of signers (these are the people you want to send the agreement to for signature)

    • We will use Mr. John Smith for our example in this workflow
    image

  2. Create an agreement template (using word, pdf, etc)

    It's important to remember the use of proper Text Tags, which should be similar to this: {{first_name}}

    In this example we use a document called mapping_test.docx that contains four Text Tags:

    • {{first_name}}
    • {{last_name}}
    • {{age}}
    • {{occupation}}
    image

  3. Create Template Mappings

    There are two different kinds of template mapping: 

    • SharePoint to Agreement Mapping is used to pre-populate the details from a SharePoint list (step 1) to the Adobe Sign agreement
    1. Select the SharePoint to Agreement mapping radio button
    2. Select the correct list from the drop down menu
      • It's important to setup the template mapping for the correct list (ie: the list created during step 1) otherwise the template mapping won't work correctly
      • You can define unique template mappings for individual SharePoint lists
    3. Configure the proper mapping between the SharePoint and Agreement fields
      • The SharePoint field is the name of the column mentioned in the SharePoint list (step 1)
      • The Agreement field is the "Text Tag" name used in the agreement template (step 2) 
      • In this example, we are using "FirstName" and "LastName" for SharePoint → Agreement mapping so the corresponding "first_name" and "last_name" will be pre-populated in the agreement template using the values from the SharePoint list 
    SharePoint to Agreement mapping

    • Agreement to SharePoint Mapping is used to update the SharePoint list with the values in the agreement fields after the agreement is completed:
    1. Select the Agreement to SharePoint mapping radio button.
    2. Select the correct list from the drop down menu. 
    3. Configure the proper mapping between the SharePoint and agreement fields. 
      • In this example, we are using "Occupation" and "Age" for Agreement → SharePoint mapping, which correspond to the Text Tag "occupation" and "age" fields
    Agreement to SharePoint mapping

  4. Initiate Send for Signature

    With the fields between the list and the agreement template correctly related, you are ready to send the agreement:

    • Go to the SharePoint list (created during step 1)
    • Select a signer from the list. Mr. John Smith in this example
    • Go to Adobe Sign ribbon menu and select the Send for Signature option
    image

  5. Select the agreement template:

    At this step it is important to select the correct agreement template that you created during step 2.

    • Select the agreement template (mapping_test in this example)
    • Click Attach
    image

  6. Complete the Send Page:

    • Enter the recipient email address
      • If you are following the example, enter an email address you have access to
        • This email address must be different than the one you are sending the agreement from
    • Modify the Message as required
    • Verify that the correct agreement template is attached in the Files section
    • Check Preview & Add Signature Fields
    • Click Next
    Configure agreement

  7. Verify SharePoint → Agreement Template mapping:

    At this point you should be able to verify that the SharePoint → Agreement template mapping is working correctly.

    Following our example, you should see that "first_name" and "last_name" has been auto populated with the correct information based on the SharePoint list information:

    • Verify that each mapped field is importing the correct values
    • Verify that unmapped fields are empty. These are the fields that the recipient will complete
    • Add additional fields as required
      • At least add a Signature field
    • Click Send
    Add form fields

  8. Complete the Signer Workflow:

    The recipient completes the agreement:

    • The recipient access the agreement through a link in their email
      • If you are following the example, log in to the email box that you sent the agreement to
    • The recipient completes the agreement form
      • Enter values for the occupation and age fields
    • Sign the document
    • Click Click to Sign to complete the signature process
    Click to Sign

  9. Verify Agreement → SharePoint mapping:

    After the agreement is successfully completed:

    • Login back into your SharePoint account
    • Go to the SharePoint list (step 1)
    • Verify that the Agreement → SharePoint mapping has worked by reviewing the list, and verifying that the new values from the agreement template have been pushed into SharePoint
    image

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