Adobe Acrobat Sign for Microsoft Dynamics Workflows: User Guide

The Microsoft Dynamics Workflow system allows for a highly customizable string of related objects to automate processes within the Dynamics environment.  These processes can be manually triggered by a user or configured to trigger when defined events occur.

This document is intended to expose and explain the Adobe Acrobat Sign objects that have been added in version 7 of the Adobe Acrobat Sign for MS Dynamics CRM package.

It is not intended as an in-depth explanation of the Custom Workflow system within Dynamics.

Adobe Acrobat Sign for MS Dynamics CRM supports the creation of custom workflows in the version 7 installation package for the 365 CRM solution only.

This package contains:

• Seven Activities, the discrete actions that can be used to create your own custom processes 
• Two Actions, ready for use “out of the box”. Excellent reusable processes for multiple workflows
• One Workflow, a functional example (in Draft status) that automatically sends an agreement when an Opportunity is set to "Won"

The previous version of Dynamics (2011/2013/2016) is not supported by version 7 of the Adobe Acrobat Sign package.

Activities

Activities are the building blocks of Actions and Workflow, each defining a discrete task that can take input from previous activities or events, and generate output for subsequent activities.

Chaining a series of Activities together creates an Action or Workflow.

There are seven Adobe Acrobat Sign Activities available:

Actions

Actions are a type of Process that link activities together to achieve some product, but they are not directly available to users. 

Instead, they can be thought of as re-usable modules that can be included in Workflows. A few carefully created Actions can be included in a wide range of diverse Workflows, without having to re-configure these common steps.

Two pre-configured Actions are available and ready for use.

These are simple, broadly used processes that you may be able to leverage in creating your own custom workflows:

Workflow

 Workflows are a type of Process that can be executed by the system or on demand by users.

Workflows typically are created with one or more Actions, Conditions, or Activities.

Workflows can respond to field-level changes or be initiated by users through the More Options (...) menu on each Entity, depending on how they are configured.

The Adobe Acrobat Sign for MS Dynamics CRM v7 package has one pre-configured workflow in Draft status. this workflow is designed with Activities to illustrate the structure, but could just as easily have been created with the one Conditional trigger event, and one Action that contained the Activities:

Building a custom Workflow Process (Example)

Below is an example of how you can build a simple process to send a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) contract to a Contact in the Dynamics system.

For the purpose of this example, there are some givens that provide a framework for making workflow decisions:

• Anyone that would be sent an NDA would exist as a Contact in the Dynamics system
• The NDA document is version controlled, and is attached through the Process Notes, not the Entity
• The owner of the Contact must counter-sign the contract
• The contract must be sent to an email archive file

If you are new to the idea of passing the output from one activity to serve as the input values for a subsequent activity, it may be worth your time to review the process.

To build the process:

• Navigate to Adobe Acrobat Sign Admin > Create New Workflow
  • A new Create Process overlay opens
• Give the process an intuitive name. The name of the process is only seen by Administrators
• Select Action from the Category picklist
• Select the primary Entity from the Entity picklist
  • Any Entity in Dynamics can be selected and provides the objects that the process can use in the workflow
  • None (global) is an option for workflows that are not tied to Entities

This example presumes that anyone sent an NDA will be a Contact, so we use Contact as the primary Entity.

• Click OK
  • A PowerApps page opens, displaying the Process Information page 

The step-by-step process is built at the bottom of the page. Scroll down to the Add Step section

• Click Add Step
• Scroll down to the Adobe Acrobat Sign picklist item, and expand the sub-menu
  • The seven Activities for Adobe Acrobat Sign are exposed:
    • AdobeSign.Activities.AddDocument
    • AdobeSign.Activities.AddRecipient
    • AdobeSign.Activities.AddRecipientUsingLookup
    • AdobeSign.Activities.CreateAgreement
    • AdobeSign.Activities.CreateAgreementFromTemplate
    • AdobeSign.Activities.GetAgreementId
    • AdobeSign.Activities.SendAgreement

The full process to get a document signed includes at least three of these in roughly this order:

Create an Agreement – The “Agreement” is the container object that holds all the configuration values for the full transaction through the Adobe Acrobat Sign system.

There are two options when creating the Agreement

• Create Agreement from Template – Uses an Agreement Template that must already be defined, importing all the field value
• Create Agreement – Provide the Agreement field level values for just this process

Add Document – This attaches the file (or files) to be sent

• There is a 5MB limit to the size of file you can upload to Dynamics
• Documents are added through the Notes field on either the primary Entity , or the Process, depending on your needs
  • Documents attached to primary Entities tend to be custom documents, like an individualized contract that would be attached to an Opportunity
  • Documents attached to a process could be version-controlled boilerplate documents, like a non-disclosure agreement

Add Recipient – Recipients are the people that are included in the completion path for the Agreement. They can include:

• Signers – Anyone that needs to apply a legal signature
• Approvers – Recipients that only need to approve the document, but not necessarily sign it
• CCs – Purely observers, CC’d recipients have no ability to influence the agreement
  • A great option for automatically archiving a type of document to an email address

There are two options for adding recipients:

• Add Recipient Using Lookup – Leverages Dynamics to import a recipient email from a Dynamics Entity
• Add Recipient – Allows for a recipient to be included that is not associated with any Dynamics Entity by explicitly configuring the email

Send Agreement – The activity that takes the configured Agreement and submits it to the Adobe Acrobat Sign service, starting the signature process

Our NDA example uses five of the six Activities (there can be only one “Create Agreement” type of activity), in a five-step process:

1. Add Step - AdobeSign.Activities.CreateAgreement

• Click Set Properties in the step record to open the activity properties

• Define the Agreement Name – The Agreement Name displays in the notification emails to your recipients and represents the agreement throughout the Dynamics system. Use an intuitive name that indicates the nature of the document your recipients are expecting
• Click Save and Close when done

Field values for this example:

• The Agreement Message was altered to provide meaningful instructions in regard to the document attached
• An expiration value of 5 was inserted to ensure this legal document isn’t left open for an unacceptable span of time
  • The agreement will expire and auto-cancel after 5 calendar days
• The Primary Email of the Parent Entity will be imported as the first recipient
• A reminder is scheduled for Daily iteration (given the agreement expires in five days)

2. Add Step – AdobeSign.Activities.AddDocument

• Click Set Properties in the step record to open the activity properties
  • Insert the Agreement ID value into the Agreement Id Input field
  • Define the Add Documents from field
  • Define the Select Process field if attaching the file from a Process
  • Configure any other fields needed
• Click Save and Close

Field values for this example:

• The Add Documents from field is configured to retrieve the NDA file from the Process Notes
• Select Process – Because we are retrieving the file from a Process, we need to indicate which Process contains the file
  • This example lookup refers to the same Process we are currently developing
• Document Name is left blank – Because the focus of this Process is very narrow, only pertaining to NDA contracts, there is no expectation that anything other than the NDA file will be attached to the Process
• Add only the Latest Version of the Document is configured to True. If there are iterating versions of the NDA, we don’t want to send all the versions, just the most recent

3. Add Step - AdobeSign.Activities.AddRecipientUsingLookup (User)

• Click Set Properties in the step record to open the activity properties
  • Insert the Agreement ID value into the Agreement Id Input field
  • Because this is adding a recipient by lookup, define the Entity that identifies your recipient: Lead, Contact or User
  • Define the Recipient Role – Is this recipient a Signer, Approver, or CC
  • Define the Recipient Order – As this is the second recipient, enter 2
    •  Because the CreateAgreement activity is configured to Add Primary Email from Parent Entity as the first recipient
  • Define the Identity Verification – Email is the default. If you want to add second-factor verification, adjust the field accordingly
  • Configure any other fields needed
• Click Save and Close

Field values for this example:

• Because this is the second recipient, the User Entity type is selected. Internal counter-signatures typically take place after the external recipient has applied their signature
• Add a User as a recipient is configured to lookup the User
• The default Signer is left in place as a signature is required
• 2 is entered in the Recipient Order field. The internal signer always follows the external signer

4. Add Step - AdobeSign.Activities.AddRecipient

• Click Set Properties in the step record to open the activity properties
  • Insert the Agreement ID value into the Agreement Id Input field
  • Provide the optional Recipient Full Name if there is one
  • Add the Recipient Email Address
  • Define the Recipient Role – Is this recipient a Signer, Approver, or CC
  • Define the Recipient Order – As this is the third recipient, enter 3
  • Configure any other fields needed
• Click Save and Close

Field values for this example:

• This recipient is the CC to our internal NDA archive email address
• Instead of a person’s name, an appropriate description is inserted into the Recipient Full Name field instead
• The full email address is added
• The CC option is selected as this recipient is just collecting our signed NDAs for backup record keeping
• 3 is entered in the Recipient Order field. The recipient isn’t technically in the signature cycle, but the field is required
  • CC recipients should always be listed after the recipients that participate in the signature/approval process

5. Add Step - AdobeSign.Activities.SendAgreement

• Click Set Properties in the step record to open the activity properties
  • Insert the Agreement ID value into the Agreement Id Input field
• Click Save and Close

Once the steps are all configured:

• Scroll to the top of the page, and click the Notes tab.
• With the Notes tab open, click in the field where it says Enter a note
  • The tab content changes again to expose an Attach File button
• Click Attach File

A new pop-up is generated with a Browse button so you can search for your file and attach it.

• Click Browse...
• Locate your file and Open it 
  • This imports the file path to the File Name field and closes the Browse... window
• Click the Attach button
• Click the Close button

The file is now properly attached to the Process Notes

With the file attached to the Notes section of the Process,  all that is left is to activate the Process.

• Click the Activate button at the top of the window

When the activation challenge pops up, click Activate

If there are no errors, the page will refresh, showing the Deactivate button at the top of the page (replacing the Activate button)

The Action is complete.

To make it available to users, you need to tie it to a Workflow:

• Click the Close button in the upper-left of the window to close the PowerApp page
• Return to the Adobe Acrobat Sign Admin page, and click Create New Workflow again
  • The Create Process overlay opens
• Select Workflow from the Category picklist
• Select the same primary Entity from the Entity picklist that you selected for the process
  • This is the Entity where the senders can find the workflow listed
• Click OK

The Process Information page loads.

Because this example is for an NDA contract, we want to enable it as an on-demand option.

• Check the box next to As an on-demand process
• Click the Add Step button in the process builder
• Select Perform Action from the list of options

• In the Action field, select the process that was just created
  • The Entity field auto-populates based on the selected process
• Click Set Properties in the step record to open the activity properties
  • Configure the Target setting
• Click Save and Close
• Once the steps are all configured, scroll to the top of the page, and click Activate
  • Click Activate again when challenged

The Workflow is complete, and related to the primary Entity (Contact in this example).

Test the Workflow:

• Navigate to any Contact
• Click the More Options list in the ribbon (…)
• Click Run Workflow

A list of workflows related to the Entity displays

• Check the box next to the workflow you want to trigger
• Click Add at the bottom of the panel to start the workflow

• Click OK when challenged if you want to run the workflow

Hybrid routing for signature flows

A Hybrid Signature Routing is a combination of a sequential signature process that has one or more stages where the signature process becomes parallel. 

More than any other type of signature flow, hybrid routing demands a strong understanding of the  form,  and the order that the signatures are expected to be applied.

Field assignment (signer1, signer2, etc) is predicated on the order that the recipients are listed in the process or UI.  Within a parallel signature stage, all of the recipients have the same Recipient Order number, so the physical placement in the process/UI is your only queue as to which form field the recipient has access to.

The topmost recipient in the process/UI is signer1.

The second listed recipient in the process/UI is signer2, even if the signature flow is parallel and both recipients indicate a recipient order of 1.

Requirements and limitations to hybrid routing

• Hybrid routing only works if it's enabled in the Adobe Acrobat Sign account
  • Log in to Adobe Acrobat Sign as an account admin
  • Navigate to Account > Send Settings > Signing Order > Allow senders to specify hybrid routing order
  • Save the setting
• Agreement Templates  can  not  be configured to leverage hybrid routing
• Hybrid routing is not supported when the Signature Type is Written
• Hybrid routing does not support a process where the Sender Signing Order is 
  • I sign first
  • I sign last
  • Only I sign

• Including the Primary Email from the Parent Entity, identifies the recipient with a Recipient Order of 1. If there are other recipients with a Recipient Order of 1, then hybrid rules are applied
• If a process is defined where Order Entered = False (indicating a parallel signature flow), but the recipients do not all have the same Recipient Order value (indicating a sequential signature flow), then hybrid routing rules apply.

Common causes for Process failure

Sometimes a process that shows no error in configuration will fail during runtime.

The commonly identified reasons that can happen are:

• There is no file attached to the Note section that you are attempting to fetch the file from
• The Identity Verification method, as defined in the AddRecipient or CreateAgreement Activity, is disallowed by the settings in your Adobe Acrobat Sign account
• There is no Contact on the primary Entity, and your CreateAgreement activity has Add Primary Email of Parent Entity as Recipient set to True