How to require ID verification (IDV) for a recipient

This topic demonstrates how to request a signature via email while also using ID verification authentication.

Required data

Running the code in this how-to requires this data:

Step 1. Obtain your OAuth token

To make the API calls shown in this how-to, you need a valid OAuth access token. Docusign supports access tokens for three different recommended OAuth grant types: Public Authorization Code Grant, Confidential Authorization Code Grant, and JSON Web Token (JWT) Grant. Choose the OAuth grant type appropriate for your scenario.

Step 2. Construct your API headers

After you have a valid OAuth access token, you are ready to construct the API headers that you will pass to the API call. Construct your headers like this, but make sure to substitute your valid OAuth access token for {ACCESS_TOKEN}.

declare -a Headers=('--header' "Authorization: Bearer ${ACCESS_TOKEN}" \
					'--header' "Accept: application/json" \
					'--header' "Content-Type: application/json")

Step 3. Obtain your workflow ID

To configure recipient authentication for IDV, you must provide your workflow ID in the request body. Call the IdentityVerifications:list endpoint using your {API_ACCOUNT_ID} to retrieve the workflow ID. Different workflow IDs can be specified per recipient. If you do not have IDV configured for your account, the identity_verification call will return an empty array. Omitting a workflow ID or providing an invalid workflow ID will cause your IDV request to fail.

echo ""
echo "Attempting to retrieve your account's workflow ID"
echo ""
response=$(mktemp /tmp/response-bs.XXXXXX)
Status=$(curl -w '%{http_code}' -i --request GET "https://demo.docusign.net/restapi/v2.1/accounts/${account_id}/identity_verification" \
     "${Headers[@]}" \
     --output ${response})
#If the Status code returned is greater than 201 (OK / Accepted), display an error message along with the API response. 
if [[ "$Status" -gt "201" ]] ; then
    echo ""
	echo "Unable to retrieve your account's workflow ID."
	echo ""
	cat $response
	exit 0
fi
echo ""
echo "Response:"
cat $response
echo ""
# Retrieve the workflow IDs from the API response and put them in an array.
workflowIds=`cat $response | grep -o -P '(?<=workflowId\":\").*?(?=\")'`
# Get the index of the default workflow based on name and use that index for workflowId. 
# Workflow name of the default workflow is 'DocuSign ID Verification'
workflowNames=`cat $response | grep -o -P '(?<=defaultName\":).*?(?=,)'`
element="DocuSign ID Verification"
workflowId=$(GetWorkflowId "$workflowNames" "$element" "$workflowIds")

Step 4. Construct the request body

Next, create the request body. Replace {RECIPIENT_ID}, {SIGNER_NAME}, {SIGNER_EMAIL}, and {WORKFLOW_ID} with your recipient’s data in the JSON request body.

Note: The sample code provided uses fixed positioning for the signHere tab. If your Docusign account has Document Visibility enabled (via Sending Settings in eSignature Admin), and you have not placed a tab for each signer, you will receive this API error: “Freeform signing is not allowed for your account because it conflicts with other settings, please place fields for each signer.”

Tip: The example Base64-encoded document shown here is a generic sample that you can copy and paste into your own code for testing. There are many free online Base64 encoders/decoders, such as FreeFormatter.com, that you can use to encode the documentBase64 property.

printf \
'{
	"documents": [{
		 "documentBase64": "' > $request_data
            cat $doc_base64 >> $request_data
            printf '",
		"documentId": "1",
		"fileExtension": "txt",
		"name": "NDA"
	}],
	"emailBlurb": "Sample text for email body",
	"emailSubject": "Please Sign",
	"envelopeIdStamping": "true",
	"recipients": {
	"signers": [{
		"name": "'"${RECIPIENT_NAME}"'",
		"email": "'"${RECIPIENT_EMAIL}"'",
		"roleName": "",
		"note": "",
		"routingOrder": 1,
		"status": "created",
"tabs": {
				"signHereTabs": [{
					"documentId": "1",
					"name": "SignHereTab",
					"pageNumber": "1",
					"recipientId": "1", 
					"tabLabel": "SignHereTab",
					"xPosition": "200",
					"yPosition": "220"
				}]
			},
		"templateAccessCodeRequired": null,
		"deliveryMethod": "email",
		"recipientId": "1",
		"identityVerification": {
			"workflowId": "'"${workflowId}"'",
			"steps": null
		},
		"idCheckConfigurationName": "",
		"requireIdLookup": false
	}]
	},
	"status": "Sent"
}
' >> $request_data

Step 5. Call the eSignature REST API

Now that you have constructed your API headers and request body, you can send the envelope with the Envelopes:create method. Here’s how you make the call, but make sure to substitute your API account ID for {ACCOUNT_ID}.

curl --request POST "https://demo.docusign.net/restapi/v2.1/accounts/${account_id}/envelopes" \
     "${Headers[@]}" \
     --data-binary @${request_data} \
     --output ${response}

Expected response

If you run this code example from our Quickstart or launcher projects, you should see a JSON response similar to the code shown.

{
	"envelopeId": "4e5e1569-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-f18fc5609b48",
	"uri": "/envelopes/4e5e1569-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-f18fc5609b48",
	"statusDateTime": "2020-08-04T00:15:50.1300000Z",
	"status": "sent"
}

Next steps

• Run this code example from our Quickstart or launcher projects: Bash, C#, Java, Node.js, PHP, PowerShell, Python, or Ruby.
• See tabs for context around tabs and your options for setting them.
• See recipient authentication for details about the feature.
• See how to Go-Live with a completed app and find the base path for API calls in the production environment.