First steps
Note: These features are part of the Visforms Subscription and are not included in the free Visforms version.
For a better understanding, we recommend reading the documentation completely and using the
Section Introduction
to start.
Relationships explained in earlier sections of the documentation are not repeated here.
Note: Please make sure you have installed your Visforms Subscription.
Installing the Visforms Subscription adds a new field type Signature to your Visforms installation, which you can automatically use in all forms from now on. The new field type is displayed like any other Visforms field type in the field configuration in the “Type” selection list.
Possibilities and limits
We added the Signature field type to Visforms because it was a feature that was requested several times. If you are interested in this feature, you should be aware of the following possibilities and limitations of the field type.
Browser Compatibility
Modern signature fields are always based on the HTML5 canvas element. The HTML5 canvas element is able to “capture” mouse and touch movements. The HTML5 canvas element is widely supported by modern browsers, especially mobile browsers.
Visforms wants to ensure the widest possible browser support for the signature field. Therefore, Visforms uses Ang Brinley’s “jSignature” library, a well-established JavaScript tool, to implement the signature field. More about this here: jSignature.
However, it cannot be 100% guaranteed that the signature field will be displayed correctly on every browser, always and everywhere. Depending on the template used, it may also be possible that the display of the signature field is negatively influenced.
A signature is not a legal signature
Unlike on paper documents, “legally valid signatures” on the Internet are not generated by writing. In many cases, however, the website operator equally accepts such consent in order to act in accordance with the corresponding declaration of intent. Analogously, with the well-known PDF tools from Adobe, it is also possible to make manual digital signatures with the mouse. Such signed PDF documents are often recognized as binding documents, at least by the organizer himself.
A legally valid consent, on the other hand, is usually achieved through appropriate checkboxes. The user must actively tick these checkboxes before he can submit the form.
Suppose you want to design your form so that it counts as validly signed and approved.
Then we want to point out that
- a signature field is not absolutely necessary,
- a signature on a form does not represent a truly universal legal signature and
- You as the organizer can certainly accept a signature.
That’s why we implemented the signature field type in Visforms in such a way that it basically works like any other form type. If you give a user the right to edit the data for the corresponding field in the frontend, then he can also overwrite an existing signature.
Security
In order to minimize potential misuse of transmitted signatures, signature data in Visforms are never stored as image files. Signatures are stored in a space-saving data format and only converted to a binary image for display.