Flow and Digital Signatures

Hi saridd 

Below is how you may want to go (my interpretation of your brief requirements) and I've also mocked up a sample Flow to help illustrate the process (hopefully it will make sense to you).

Given you are a beginner you'll also need to play around to get a feel for where the items are that I am about to call out (let me know if you get stuck). 

0. In your Word template (Stored on SharePoint), ensure that the signature part of the document says e.g. {{yourImageVariable}:picture}. This is where the image of the digital signature will be inserted if approved.

You can also add in something like {{Approver_Name}} if you also want the approvers name to go with the signature.

1. Create a new blank flow in Microsoft Flow.

2. You may need to delete the manual trigger (click ... and Delete) and then add a suitable trigger which is an event that will begin the workflow (e.g. When an item is created or modified) when the list has a new item added.

3. Add connector Start and wait for an approval and populate appropriate details for the Approver to vet.

You can link to the SharePoint list item (it can use the attributes from When an item is created or modified or you can provide a SharePoint list item link, or both [I tend to do both]).

4. Add a Condition where the Outcome (Start and wait for an approval (V2)) is equal to Approve.

5. (a) If Yes, use Get file content of your template file that requires sign-off.

5. (b) You can use a connector like Plumsail (or Encodian, etc) which lets you insert data into documents (for this example I'll use Plumsail which is a subscription tool).

Type Plumsail into the Choose an action box.

5. (c) Add the Plumsail connector Create DOCX document from template and add the following JSON script.

{

 "Approver_Name": (Note: insert from When an item is created or modified > Created By DisplayName),

 "yourImageVariable": 

}

Note that I have left yourImageVariable output blank for the minute as we must now convert the image file of the signature (get the approver to provide a digital copy of their signature to be used for this process).

6. Go to a website like https://www.browserling.com/tools/image-to-base64 which lets you convert an image to Base64 code which will allow the signature to be inserted into the template. The code will come out a fair long set of characters.

7. Copy the output Base64 code and paste it into the space after the "yourImageVariable": and make sure that the code has " at the beginning and end of it.

Example (I didn't use the full Base64 code or this post will get very long, but you get the idea):

{

 "Approver_Name": (Note: insert from When an item is created or modified > Created By DisplayName),

 "yourImageVariable": "4jAAAuIwF4pT92AAAgAElEQVR4nOzdd5wdVd0/8M+ZuXV7zaZuCum9h4B0EBAEFAQBAUFFFFCER8QHpdgQsIPCD0F9gMfCA6j0TsAQIJCEhCSk97q72V5umzm/P6bcmblzdzdhs3eX/bxfsNm9d8qZM2fKd06ZgK7r+wHkgYiIiIiIiIh6kxRCCCllLCCEKAeg5jpFRERERERERAORECIvAKANQBEAmeP0EBEREREREQ00QkrZEZBSKkII+8NcpoiIiIiIiIhoALEqyYWS02QQERERERERERicExEREREREeUYg3MiIiIiIiKiHGNwTkRERERERJRjDM6JiIiIiIiIcozBOREREREREVGOMTgnIiIiIiIiyjEG50REREREREQ5xuCciI"

}

8. Put the output into a new Word docx using Create file (SharePoint connector) into a Document Library of your choosing (e.g. a temp holding area) and set the File Name (e.g. filenamehere.docx) and add the file content (Under Create DOCX document from template > Result).
 

At this point your Word doc will already have the signature inserted. You could stop here if you wanted to.

9. Add SharePoint > Get file content 2 and for File Identifier field use the Path from Create file or if you are just using a static path, search for the file.
 

10. Add Plumsail > Convert DOCX to PDF and in Document content field use File Content from Get file content 2.

This will take the Word doc output and convert it into PDF format.

11. Use SharePoint > Create file to create the final PDF output. Use File Name with PDF extension like filenamehere.pdf to save the output as a PDF file.

12. You can also add something like Send an email (V2) and let the submitter know that it's been approved or in the not approved side, you can use the same connector to say that the item was rejected.

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I hope this all makes sense. Have a play and move things around as you need to. Would love to know how you go please.

Cheers and best wishes

Damien