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Docuseal: Open-source DocuSign alternative

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Re: Docuseal: Open-source DocuSign alternative

#141

Post by somery »

cyberax wrote: post #136
somery wrote: post #11

Hi everyone, my name is Alex and I'm the creator of DocuSeal. I was not happy with the existing mainstream document signing solutions so I decided to create an open-source alternative. I've been working on this project since the middle of May and here is what the tool can do so far: - PDF form fields builder - 10 field types available (Signature/Date/File/Checkbox etc) - Multiple submitters per document - Automated e…

> Looking for some feedback and would be happy to answer any questions It would be great if you could add support for AWS QLDB. It's an immutable blockchain database (basically, "git with an SQL interface"), and you can periodically "stamp" it by notarizing its hash with one of the public blockchains. This way you can guarantee that the records are going to be immutable and unalterable.

thanks, i think that's an interesting space to explore. there were many comments regarding the 'consistency' of the data/documents so solving this 'trust' issue especially when selfhosting it is really important

Re: Docuseal: Open-source DocuSign alternative

#142

Post by somery »

capableweb wrote: post #139
somery wrote: post #11

Hi everyone, my name is Alex and I'm the creator of DocuSeal. I was not happy with the existing mainstream document signing solutions so I decided to create an open-source alternative. I've been working on this project since the middle of May and here is what the tool can do so far: - PDF form fields builder - 10 field types available (Signature/Date/File/Checkbox etc) - Multiple submitters per document - Automated e…

> - File storage on AWS S3, Google Storage, or Azure I'm guessing it's just a mistake/miss in this comment, but for file storage it is also possible to store it locally on the server right? Otherwise all "editions" are "in the Cloud" yes or yes, so would kind of defeat the purpose of the self-hosted version.

It's possible to use local storage or Aws s3, Azure, Google Cloud to store files. When storing locally it makes all the documents 100% owned by you - but in some cases companies might want to bring a third party files storages to ensure the integrity of the documents.

But as was mentioned before in the comments - maybe bringing AWS QLDB as a third party to ensure the consistency of data with a local files storages is the best option. This way all documents can be logged with a third party so they can't be altered - while to content of the documents won't be shared with any third party.

Re: Docuseal: Open-source DocuSign alternative

#143

Post by WirelessGigabit »

rodolphoarruda wrote: post #57
somery wrote: post #11

Hi everyone, my name is Alex and I'm the creator of DocuSeal. I was not happy with the existing mainstream document signing solutions so I decided to create an open-source alternative. I've been working on this project since the middle of May and here is what the tool can do so far: - PDF form fields builder - 10 field types available (Signature/Date/File/Checkbox etc) - Multiple submitters per document - Automated e…

Hi Alex. First of all, congratulations. The product looks great for a 1.5 month worth of dev work. Impressive. Is it possible at the moment to send signature requests via WhatsApp? (even at a cost per send)

If it's a US phone number, you can send an email to the phone number:

E.g. for T-mobile it is @tmomail.net.

Re: Docuseal: Open-source DocuSign alternative

#144

Post by 29athrowaway »

somery wrote: post #133
29athrowaway wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And how do you achieve this with this? How secure is it? How confidential are the records? How does it guarantee integrity?

When self-hosting it - it's up for the company that is using the tool hosted on-premises to ensure that all their specific requirements are met - i think DocuSeal provides enough features to make this happen. AWS S3 to store documents can be integrated with DocuSeal to ensure the documents integrity - AWS services have their own logs that can't be altered and so can be used as a source of trust. And to ensure that th…

Then it is the most toxic thing you can ever self-host. I will gladly pay any company to get all the liability on my behalf.

This is the "I have a friend that does it cheaper" of e-signature solutions.

Re: Docuseal: Open-source DocuSign alternative

#147

Post by yokem55 »

ooterness wrote: post #95
dboreham wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If only someone would invent a public nonrepudiatable ledger.

Like a chain of blocks? Where each block is signed by adding a prefix that produces an increasingly difficult hash?

It could probably be done with a merkle based signature log that whoever is hosting the service could provide.

To cheat, the party hosting it would probably have to forge signatures for everyone after the disputed signature.

Re: Docuseal: Open-source DocuSign alternative

#148

Post by btown »

somery wrote: post #11

Hi everyone, my name is Alex and I'm the creator of DocuSeal. I was not happy with the existing mainstream document signing solutions so I decided to create an open-source alternative. I've been working on this project since the middle of May and here is what the tool can do so far: - PDF form fields builder - 10 field types available (Signature/Date/File/Checkbox etc) - Multiple submitters per document - Automated e…

This is amazing work, and this space desperately needs an open-source solution!

The signing experience could use some polish, but it's well on its way. A few things: clicking a signature field immediately opens a file upload despite the very functional draw-your-signature canvas. Focusing to type into a field scrolls the page not so the field is in view, but so it's at the top of the viewport, which prevents the reader from seeing the paragraph of context above the field. And minimizing the bottom panel where you type fields should be unminimized if you click another field, otherwise it can cause non-technical users to feel "stuck." Oh, and in terms of demonstrations, the demo PDF should likely be a (fake) legal contract of some sort, to show off how things can be positioned in a realistic document!

If there's one thing I'd suggest you implement, though, it would be the ability to embed the signing interface in an iframe whose URL can be parameterized to prefill values via the query string, e.g. following https://helpx.adobe.com/sign/adv-user/web-form/url-parameter.... (Oh, and postMessage to the parent page when signing is done so the interface can react to that!)

So many real-world workflows can be handled with a simple wizard that pre-populates a PDF to sign, with the values from that wizard. But most of the solutions out there charge an arm and a leg for this, with large minimum order sizes and even charging for the view even if the user doesn't complete the form! Not to mention that letting people self-host, thereby avoiding third-party cookie issues, makes things significantly more accessible.

Really looking forward to how this progresses!

Re: Docuseal: Open-source DocuSign alternative

#149

Post by somery »

btown wrote: post #148
somery wrote: post #11

Hi everyone, my name is Alex and I'm the creator of DocuSeal. I was not happy with the existing mainstream document signing solutions so I decided to create an open-source alternative. I've been working on this project since the middle of May and here is what the tool can do so far: - PDF form fields builder - 10 field types available (Signature/Date/File/Checkbox etc) - Multiple submitters per document - Automated e…

This is amazing work, and this space desperately needs an open-source solution! The signing experience could use some polish, but it's well on its way. A few things: clicking a signature field immediately opens a file upload despite the very functional draw-your-signature canvas. Focusing to type into a field scrolls the page not so the field is in view, but so it's at the top of the viewport, which prevents the read…

Thanks for the feedback! All your UI suggestions/fixes make sense and will definitely be brought into the the tool soon! Also I like the idea of using some 'fake' legal document for the demo.

Regarding the iframe - i've been thinking about creating an npm package for better integration with the host app - but maybe giving an option to use iframe should be available as well for companies that don't have developers to implement a better integration with the npm package.

Re: Docuseal: Open-source DocuSign alternative

#150

Post by pottertheotter »

bob1029 wrote: post #130
somery wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's interesting that you ended up developing an in-house document e-signing feature for your product. I'm curious, would it be possible for you to choose a self-hosted and open-source solution like Docuseal, integrated with your product to outsource the complexity and speed up the development? (if such an option existed back then?)

> outsource the complexity Honestly the bulk of complexity seemed to emerge from the mismatch between what we thought would be a good e-sign API and what APIs were actually available. The way our product works, we need to have access to the raw signature specimen at various stages of the signing process because we have a document generation feature that dynamically inserts the specimens into the appropriate fields. P…

> The way our product works, we need to have access to the raw signature specimen at various stages of the signing process because we have a document generation feature that dynamically inserts the specimens into the appropriate fields. Put differently, we don't show the documents until we first have a signature (and initials) specimen collected from the e-sign participant. This is basically the exact opposite of how most vendors work, but our customers really like it this way.

Can you elaborate on this? Why people would want to have the signature first before showing the document?

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