Home → Using LincDoc 3.1+ → Signatures → Using LDAP (Authenticated Digital) Signatures
17.8. Using LDAP (Authenticated Digital) Signatures
Authenticated digital (LDAP) signatures are available for all browsers without any additional equipment. This type of signature involves the signer proving their identity by providing LDAP credentials. Currently this only allows the currently logged in LincDoc user to sign, future enhancements will be made to provide both username and password to allow multiple people to sign from one LincDoc session.
Prerequisites
- Valid LincDoc Signature Capture license
- Signing certificate this can be acquired through LincWare or any of Adobe's CDS providers
- PDF document with signature field(s) (note that Word source documents are not supported with this signature type at this time)
Set-up Procedure
- Upload the signing key file as described in Installing Your Signature Key.
- Add an Adobe digital signature to your PDF document.
- Commit the document and reparse to enable configuration in LincDoc
- Set up the appropriate fields via the administrator interface.
- Set the field type to signature
- Select LincDoc Login from the list of signature types
- Choose which person will be signing this field
- Select the certification level. The following options are available:
- None
- Not Certified
- Form Filling Allowed
- Form Filling and Annotations Allowed
- No Changes Allowed
- Choose which fields to lock (if any)
- Check the "advanced" checkbox is checked to show advanced field options
- Check the exempt from flattening attribute is set to "Always"
- Set the trust levels for the certificates in order to validate signatures.
- Click on the validity unknown icon in the upper right corner of the screen.
- Follow the directions to set up the trust levels for the certificates in Adobe Acrobat (or Reader).
Signature Type
Defines the type of signature.
Signer Name Field
Defines the field value that will be used in the signature signing process. This must either be the current LincDoc user or a field in the document that will specify the signer's name.
Certification Levels
A certification level is set when the first signature is applied. Once set, it cannot be changed without invalidating existing signatures. Any changes not allowed by the level will result in the signature being marked as invalid. Changes since a signature has been applied can be listed by clicking on the signature. The signed version of the document may be seen by clicking on the signature.
- Not Certified: Additional signatures may be added. Changes to the document and the form data may be made. Document meta-data may be added.
- Use case: You have a document detailing a proposal. In order to fill this out the form must be approved. However, the contents of the form may be subject to change (new sections, schedules, etc...). This certification level would be used in this case.
- Form Filling and Annotations: Additional signatures may be added. Editable form fields may be changed or locked. Annotations may be added. Document meta-data may be added.
- Use case: Suppose that your documents need to be annotated after signing, you must choose this option.
- Form Filling: Additional signatures may be added. Editable form fields may be changed or locked. Document meta-data may be added.
- Use case: Suppose that there is an office only section of a form that must be completed after the rest of the form is signed. This certification level will allow this functionality
- No Changes Allowed: No additional signatures may be added. All form fields are set to read-only. No changes may be made at all.
- Use case: A single signature contract. Once signed, all fields are locked. If there are any other signatures present it will make them invalid.
Note: These options only affect the ability of the PDF to be modified through Adobe Acrobat.
Fields to lock
These are the fields that will be locked from user changing the values after a signature has been applied to the document.
Exempt from flattening
This must be selected for any signature field if flatten generated PDFs is checked under PDF options on the Other Options tab. If it is not, the signing process will fail and an error will be shown.