TemplateRecipientTabs Resource

The TemplateRecipientTabs resource provides methods that let you add, update, and delete tabs from an envelope. Tabs are associated with a specific recipient in an envelope and are only used by the recipient types In Person Signers and Signers.

Tab Types

This table lists the available tab types.

Tab Type	Description
Approve Tab	Place this tab on the document if you want the recipient to approve documents in an envelope without placing a signature or initials on the document. If the recipient clicks the Approve tab during the signing process, the recipient is considered to have signed the document. No information is shown on the document for the approval, but it is recorded as a signature in the envelope history.
Checkbox Tab	Place this tab on the document in a location where the recipient can select a yes/no (on/off) type option.
Company Tab	Place this tab on the document where you want the recipient’s company name to appear.
Date Signed Tab	Place this tab on the document where you want the date the recipient signed the document to appear.
Date Tab	Place this tab on the document where you want the recipient to enter a date. Date tabs are single-line fields that allow date information to be entered in any format. The tooltip for this tab recommends entering the date as MM/DD/YYYY, but this is not enforced. The format entered by the signer is retained. If you need a particular date format enforced, DocuSign recommends using a Text tab with a Validation Pattern and Validation Message to enforce the format.
Decline Tab	Place this tab on the document where you want to give the recipient the option of declining an envelope. If the recipient clicks the Decline tab during the signing process, the envelope is voided.
Email Address Tab	Place this tab on a document where you want the recipient’s email, as entered in the recipient information, to appear.
Email Tab	This is a single-line field that accepts any characters.
Envelope ID Tab	Place this tab on the document where you want the envelope ID for to appear. Recipients cannot enter or change the information in this tab. It is for informational purposes only.
First Name Tab	Place this tab on a document where you want the recipient’s first name to appear. This tab takes the recipient’s name, as entered in the recipient information, splits it into sections based on spaces and uses the first section as the first name.
Formula Tab	This tab is used to add a calculated field to a document. Envelope recipients cannot directly enter information into the tab. The formula tab calculates and displays a new value when changes are made to the reference tab values. The reference tab information and calculation operations are entered in the “formula” element. See the Using the Calculated Fields Feature quick start guide or DocuSign Service User Guide for more information about formulas.
Full Name Tab	Place this tab on the document where you want the recipient’s full name to appear.
Initial Here Tab	Place this tab where the recipient must initial the document. This tab can be set to be optional.
Last Name Tab	Place this tab on a document where you want the recipient’s last name to appear. This tab takes the recipient’s name, as entered in the recipient information, splits it into sections based on spaces and uses the last section as the last name.
List Tab	This tab has a list of options that a recipient can select. The `listItems` parameter is used to set the options that can be selected.
Note Tab	Place this tab on the document where you want to add a note for the recipient on a document.
Number Tab	This tab is a field where the recipient can enter numbers and decimal (.) points.
Radio Group Tab	This group tab is used to place radio buttons on a document. The `radios` parameter is used to add and place the radio buttons associated with the group. Only one radio button can be selected in a group.
Sign Here Tab	Place this tab where the recipient must sign the document. This tab can be set to be optional.
Signer Attachment Tab	The signer attachment is where the recipient initiates the process of adding supporting documents to an envelope.
SSN Tab	This tab is a single-line field where the recipient can enter numbers. A Social Security Number can be typed with or without dashes.
Text Tab	This tab is a field where the recipient can enter any type of characters.
Title Tab	Place this tab on the document where you want the recipient’s title to appear.
Zip Tab	This tab is a single-line field where the recipient can enter numbers.

Using Custom Tabs in Envelopes and Templates

Custom Tabs can be added to envelopes and templates by setting the customTabId property when creating an envelope or template recipient or when adding a new tab for an existing recipient. The custom tab must be added as the correct tab type. For example if the custom tab type is text, it cannot be used as a number tab.

When the customTabId property is set, the new tab inherits all the custom tab properties. Required information that is not included in the custom tab, such as document ID and page ID, must be included when adding the tab. If the custom tab does not have anchor settings, the X and Y positions must be included.

After the tab is created, it is treated as any other tab for updating or deleting.

Anchoring Tabs

The tab anchoring option allows you to send documents for signature that do not have a fixed layout or format. In these documents you might not know the absolute location of the tabs when you design your API client application because the tabs must move with text. As an alternative to sending X and Y coordinates for tabs, the DocuSign Service can derive an anchor location for the tab by correlating anchor information to data within the document.

When the DocuSign Service receives a request that contains tabs with anchor information, it searches the document for instances of the anchorString property. When found, it places a tab of the specified type for the designated recipient. Tab positions are established by setting offsets for the tab.

When you apply tabs to the document, DocuSign does not remove or replace the text in the anchorString property. You can hide codified anchors by using the same font color as the background of the document. So the anchor can be used by DocuSign processes and it will not be visible on the document.

To use an anchoring option:

Identify the location in the document by text string. You can use a pre-existing text string or add a new one. For best performance DocuSign recommends using single word anchor strings when possible, especially when there are a large number of pages in the envelope. For example, you might want to add a Sign Here tab to the “Borrower’s Signature” lines in a document, but that phrase might occur in places in the document where you don’t want to tab to appear. In this case, you could add the text “BorrowerSignHere” in white font color (so that isn’t visible in the document) to all the places you want Sign Here tabs to appear and use “BorrowerSignHere” as the anchor string.
Reference the anchor through the anchorString property of the tab.
Determine the offset from the anchor string location to where the tab should be placed.

Setting a positive value in the anchorXOffset property moves the tab right on the page and positive values in the anchorYoffset prove moves the tab down the page. The anchorUnits property specifies the units used for the offsets. For Sign Here and Initial Here tabs the bottom-left of the anchor string is equivalent to position (0,0), and the bottom-left of the tab graphic is placed relative to that. For all other tabs the bottom-left of the anchor string is equivalent to position (0,0), and the top-left of the tab graphic is placed relative to that. DocuSign does not currently provide tools to derive the offset values. Determination of the proper offset will likely require some trial-and-error.

Rules for working with anchor tags

When anchor tabs are used, all documents in the envelope are searched for the anchorString property.

You set the text of the anchor string in the anchorString property. DocuSign tabs are created for each instance of the anchorString property within the document, so special care must be taken to establish unique anchor strings that do not result in unintentional tabs.
You cannot use the same anchored tab for different recipients for the same document.
The DocuSign system cannot search for text that is embedded in an image when checking for anchor strings.
X or Y offsets supplied for a tab apply to all instances of the tab in the document. To use different offsets at different locations in the document for the same recipient, create multiple, unique anchor tabs.
If the Y offset value of an anchor string would force a tab outside of the page boundaries, the tag is placed at the page boundary. If the X offset value places a tab outside of the page boundaries, the error message Invalid_User_Offset is sent. The error message includes the X offset that resulted in the error.
The system does not support an anchor string embedded in the form of a PDF X-object in the document.
The system does not re-flow the text that surrounds the anchor tabs. It is the responsibility of the document author to provide sufficient white space to contain the potential width of the ultimate tab value.

Tips and Tricks

The following are tips for effective use of anchor tags:

In order to avoid unintentional conflicts between text contained in an anchorString property and the text that naturally exists in documents, establish a codified syntax for the anchor string text that is unlikely to appear elsewhere in a document.
Develop an extensible and consistent syntax that can be used across multiple document types.
Especially for documents that have variable numbers of tabs or signers, author the source document to include hidden anchor tabs for all potential signers/permutations. Then, control the tabs that are actually placed by including/excluding the anchor tabs in the request. This approach allows a single document to be used for all use cases instead of maintaining separate documents for each scenario.

Automatically Populating Tabs

If you want similar tab types to automatically populate with the same data, you must follow these guidelines:

Each tabLabel entry must have the characters \\* in front of the label. If you omit the \\* prefix, only the first occurrence of the tab is populated.

When automatically populating tabs, the tabLabel must not contain any spaces. In the JSON example below, the Text tabs properties StudentLastName and StudentFirstName will be auto-populated as specified (“Doe” and “John”) each place they appear throughout the envelope.

"tabs": {
  "textTabs": [
  {
    "tabLabel": "\\*StudentLastName",
    "value": "Doe"
  },
  {
    "tabLabel": "\\*StudentFirstName",
    "value": "John"
  }]
}

Each occurrence of the tab must have identical properties.

For example, suppose there are two Text tabs in a document, each with tabLabel set to Name. If one tab has the bold property set to true, and the other has the bold property set to false, only the first one will be populated. In order to automatically populate both occurrences of the Name Text tabs, the bold property must be set to the same value for both tabs.

Methods supported

Method	Description
create	POST `/restapi/v2/accounts/{accountId}/templates/{templateId}/recipients/{recipientId}/tabs` Adds tabs for a recipient.
delete	DEL `/restapi/v2/accounts/{accountId}/templates/{templateId}/recipients/{recipientId}/tabs` Deletes the tabs associated with a recipient in a template.
list	GET `/restapi/v2/accounts/{accountId}/templates/{templateId}/recipients/{recipientId}/tabs` Gets the tabs information for a signer or sign-in-person recipient in a template.
update	PUT `/restapi/v2/accounts/{accountId}/templates/{templateId}/recipients/{recipientId}/tabs` Updates the tabs for a recipient.

TemplateRecipientTabs properties

Property	Type	Description
`approveTabs`	array	A list of [Approve tabs][approve]. This tab allows the recipient to approve documents without placing a signature or initials on the document. If the recipient clicks the tab during the signing process, the recipient is considered to have signed the document. No information is shown on the document of the approval, but it is recorded as a signature in the envelope history. [approve]: https://developers.docusign.com/docs/esign-rest-api/v2/reference/Envelopes/EnvelopeRecipientTabs/create/#/definitions/approve
`checkboxTabs`	array	A list of Checkbox tabs. This tab allows the recipient to select a yes/no (on/off) option.
`companyTabs`	array	A list of Company tabs. This tab displays the recipient’s company name.
`dateSignedTabs`	array	A list of Date Signed tabs This tab displays the date that the recipient signed the document.
`dateTabs`	array	A list of Date tabs. This tab allows the recipient to enter a date. Date tabs are one-line fields that allow date information to be entered in any format. The tooltip for this tab recommends entering the date as MM/DD/YYYY, but this is not enforced. The format entered by the signer is retained. If you need a particular date format enforced, DocuSign recommends using a Text tab with a validation pattern and a validation message to enforce the format.
`declineTabs`	array	A list of Decline tabs. This tab allows the recipient the option of declining an envelope. If the recipient clicks the tab during the signing process, the envelope is voided.
`emailAddressTabs`	array	A list of Email Address tabs. This tab displays the recipient’s email as entered in the recipient information.
`emailTabs`	array	A list of Email tabs. This tab allows the recipient to enter an email address. This is a one-line field that checks that a valid email address is entered. It uses the same parameters as a Text tab, with the validation message and pattern set for email information. When getting information that includes this tab type, the original value of the tab when the associated envelope was sent is included in the response.
`envelopeIdTabs`	array	A list of Envelope ID tabs. This tab displays the envelope ID. Recipients cannot enter or change the information in this tab.
`firstNameTabs`	array	A list of First Name tabs. This tab displays the recipient’s first name. It takes the recipient’s name as entered in the recipient information, splits it into sections based on spaces and uses the first section as the first name.
`formulaTabs`	array	A list of [Formula tabs][formulaTab]. The value of a formula tab is calculated from the values of other number or date tabs in the document. When the recipient completes the underlying fields, the formula tab calculates and displays the result. The `formula` property of the tab contains the references to the underlying tabs. See Calculated Fields in the DocuSign Support Center to learn more about formulas. If a formula tab contains a `paymentDetails` property, the tab is considered a payment item. See Requesting Payments Along with Signatures in the DocuSign Support Center to learn more about payments. [formulaTab]: https://developers.docusign.com/docs/esign-rest-api/v2/reference/Envelopes/EnvelopeRecipientTabs/create/#/definitions/formulaTab
`fullNameTabs`	array	A list of Full Name tabs. This tab displays the recipient’s full name.
`initialHereTabs`	array	A list of Initial Here tabs. This tab allows the recipient to initial the document. May be optional.
`lastNameTabs`	array	A list of Last Name tabs. This tab displays the recipient’s last name. It takes the recipient’s name as entered in the recipient information, splits it into sections based on spaces and uses the last section as the last name.
`listTabs`	array	A list of list tabs. This tab offers a list of options to choose from. The `listItems` property is used to specify the selectable options.
`notarizeTabs`	array	A list of Notarize tabs. A notarize tab is a tab that alerts notary recipients that they must take action on the page. Only one notarize tab can appear on a page.
`noteTabs`	array	A list of Note tabs. This tab displays additional information, in the form of a note, for the recipient.
`numberTabs`	array	A list of Number tabs. This tab allows the recipient to enter numbers and decimal (.) points.
`radioGroupTabs`	array	A list of Radio Group tabs. This tab This group tab is used to place radio buttons on a document. The `radios` property is used to add and place the radio buttons associated with the group. Only one radio button can be selected in a group.
`signerAttachmentTabs`	array	A list of Signer Attachment tabs. This tab allows the recipient to attach supporting documents to an envelope.
`signHereTabs`	array	A list of Sign Here tabs. This tab allows the recipient to sign a document. May be optional.
`smartSectionTabs`	array
`ssnTabs`	array	A list of SSN tabs. This tab is a one-line field that allows the recipient to enter a Social Security Number. The SSN can be typed with or without dashes. It uses the same parameters as a Text tab, with the validation message and pattern set for SSN information.
`textTabs`	array	A list of Text tabs. This tab A tab that allows the recipient to enter any type of text.
`titleTabs`	array	A list of Title tabs. This tab displays the recipient’s title.
`viewTabs`	array	A list of View tabs. This tab This tab is used with the Approve tab to handle supplemental documents.
`zipTabs`	array	A list of Zip tabs. This tab allows the recipient to enter a ZIP code. The ZIP code can be five digits or nine digits in the ZIP+4 format. The zip code can be typed with or without dashes. It uses the same parameters as a Text tab, with the validation message and pattern set for ZIP code information.