How do you collect signatures on a PDF that's uploaded on a workflow?

Question

Here's some basic information in order to help you ascertain an answer for me:

1. I work for the government (Department of the Navy).

   a. This severely limits the ability for manipulation.

2. I am not a SharePoint Administrator.

   a. I am my department's office assistant and site owner that knows how to manipulate SharePoint from my time in the military. We have and IT department who's swamped with a multitude of SharePoint projects. They are the SharePoint Administrators that can create and adjust workflows in designer. They are very capable SharePoint Administrators.

3. Infopath sucks.

   a. Nuff Said.

4. We are using Mircosoft SharePoint 2010.

5. We have a third party deveoper's software, Coras Works, installed.

6. I DO NOT SPEAK FOR THE GOVERNMENT, THE NAVY, OR ANY OTHER OFFICIAL GOVERNMENT ENTITY. IS IS NOT OK TO CONTACT ME FOR COMMERCIAL PURPOSES.

   a. This is just a question from a private citizen on a public website.

Now that the primer's out of the way, I would like to use a workflow to collect signatures on a PDF. There's existing workflows that have already been created, but lack the ability to be opened directly from the workflow, manipulated, signed, and uploaded back to the workflow. Currently, I am using a document library in order to have users "Check-Out" the PDF form, sign it, and upload it back to the document library. Unfortunately, this does not automate the process for notification of pending actions within the chain of responsibility. Is there any way to adjust SharePoint to make a PDF open directly from a workflow, adjust the PDF, and upload it back to the workflow? Thank you for your time and assistance.

Answer 1

I too am doing a very similar business process for a government customer where PDFs are being used for digital signatures.

After doing extensive research, it appears there is no fool-proof way to detect when a PDF has been signed (since the PDF gets modified upon signature in a manner which is identical to a modification via normal means (like inserting a comment)).

What we have done (which is not the greatest solution) is created a SharePoint designer workflow that emails each person in the signature chain and directs them to:

1. Sign the PDF document
2. Click on the task that was assigned to them for signing the document and approve it (which indicates they have signed the PDF and resaved it).

This approach at least lets the workflow continue on to the next signatory albeit they have to "acknowledge" that they've completed the signature.

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

I'm answering very late, maybe you can use K2C dSignature that is an add-in that enables, within SPD workflows, to add a one or more digital signatures. You can have a look at http://www.k2c.com/products/Digital-Signature-SharePoint.html