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Modernizing employee onboarding

In a large organization, employee onboarding can be a large, and slow, process. Typically there is a mix of customized documentation along with boilerplate material that must be presented and signed by a new employee. This mix of customized and boilerplate material requires multiple steps鈥搕aking valuable time away from people involved in the process. 51黑料不打烊 Acrobat Services and Acrobat Sign can modernize and automate this approach, freeing up your HR personal for more important tasks. Let鈥檚 look at how this is achieved.

What are 51黑料不打烊 Acrobat Services?

are a set of APIs related to working with documents (and not just PDFs). Broadly speaking, this suite of services falls into three main categories:

Developers can and try all of these services with a free trial. The Acrobat Services platform uses a REST-based API but also supports SDKs for Node, Java, .NET, and Python (Extract only at this time).

While not an API, developers can also use the free , which provides a consistent and flexible viewing experience of documents with your web pages.

What is Acrobat Sign?

is the world leader in electronic signature services. You can send documents for signature using various different workflows鈥搃ncluding multiple signatures. Acrobat Sign also supports workflows that require signatures and additional information. All of these capabilities are supported by a powerful dashboard with a flexible authoring system.

As with Acrobat Services, Acrobat Sign has a that lets developers test the signing process both via the dashboard and with an easy-to-use REST-based API.

An onboarding scenario

Let鈥檚 consider a real-world scenario that demonstrates how 础诲辞产别鈥檚 services can help. When a new employee joins a company, they need customized information tailored to their role. In addition, they also need company-wide material. Finally, they must demonstrate acceptance of corporate policies by signing the documents. Let鈥檚 break this down into concrete steps:

Let鈥檚 go into details on how to do this.

Generating dynamic documents

础诲辞产别鈥檚 API lets developers create dynamic documents by using Microsoft Word and a simple templating language, as a basis for generating PDFs and Word documents. Here鈥檚 an example of how this works.

Let鈥檚 begin with a Word document that has hard-coded values. The document can be styled any way you want, include graphics, tables, and so forth. Here鈥檚 the initial document.

Document Generation works by adding 鈥渢okens鈥� to a Word document that are replaced with your data. While these tokens can be entered manually, there is a that makes this easier to do. Opening it up provides a tool for authors to define tags, or sets of data, that can be used in your document.

You can either upload JSON information from a local file, copy in JSON text, or select to continue with initial data. Doing so lets you define your tags in an ad hoc manner based on your particular needs. In this example, only a tag for name, role, salary, and location is needed. This is done by using the Create Tag button:

After defining the first tag, you can continue to define as many as you need:

With the tags defined, you select the text in your document and replace it with the tags where appropriate. In this example, tags are added for name, role, and salary.

Document Generation doesn鈥檛 just support simple tags but logical expressions as well. The second paragraph of the document has text that only applies to people in Louisiana. You can add a conditional expression by going into the Advanced tab of the Document Tagger and defining a condition. Here is how you define a simple equality condition, but note that numerical comparisons and other comparison types are supported as well.

This can then be inserted and wrapped around the paragraph:

To test how this works, select Generate document. The first time you do this, you must sign in with an 51黑料不打烊 ID. After signing in, default JSON is presented that can be manually edited.

A PDF is generated that can then be viewed or downloaded.

While the Document Tagger lets you quickly design and test, once done and in production, you can use one of the SDKs to automate this process. While actual code differs based on specific needs, here鈥檚 an example of how this code looks in Node.js:

 const PDFServicesSdk = require('@adobe/pdfservices-node-sdk');

const credentials =  PDFServicesSdk.Credentials
    .serviceAccountCredentialsBuilder()
    .fromFile("pdfservices-api-credentials.json")
    .build();

// Data would be dynamic...
let data = {
    "name":"Raymond Camden",
    "role":"Lead Developer",
    "salary":9000,
    "location":"Louisiana"
}

// Create an ExecutionContext using credentials.
const executionContext = PDFServicesSdk.ExecutionContext.create(credentials);

// Create a new DocumentMerge options instance.
const documentMerge = PDFServicesSdk.DocumentMerge,
    documentMergeOptions = documentMerge.options,
    options = new documentMergeOptions.DocumentMergeOptions(jsonDataForMerge, documentMergeOptions.OutputFormat.PDF);

// Create a new operation instance using the options instance.
const documentMergeOperation = documentMerge.Operation.createNew(options);

// Set operation input document template from a source file.
const input = PDFServicesSdk.FileRef.createFromLocalFile('documentMergeTemplate.docx');
documentMergeOperation.setInput(input);

// Execute the operation and Save the result to the specified location.
documentMergeOperation.execute(executionContext)
    .then(result => result.saveAsFile('documentOutput.pdf'))
    .catch(err => {
        if(err instanceof PDFServicesSdk.Error.ServiceApiError
            || err instanceof PDFServicesSdk.Error.ServiceUsageError) {
            console.log('Exception encountered while executing operation', err);
        } else {
            console.log('Exception encountered while executing operation', err);
        }
    });

In brief, the code sets up credentials, creates an operation object and sets the input and options, and then calls the operation. Finally, it saves out the result as a PDF. (Results can be output as Word as well.)

Document Generation supports much more complex use cases including the ability to have fully dynamic tables and images. See the for more details.

Performing PDF operations

The provides a large set of 鈥渦tility鈥� operations for working with PDFs. These operations include:

For this scenario, the result of the Document Generation call must be merged with a standard PDF. This operation is fairly simple with the SDKs. Here鈥檚 an example of in Node.js:

const PDFServicesSdk = require('@adobe/pdfservices-node-sdk');

// Initial setup, create credentials instance.
const credentials = PDFServicesSdk.Credentials
    .serviceAccountCredentialsBuilder()
    .fromFile("pdfservices-api-credentials.json")
    .build();

// Create an ExecutionContext using credentials and create a new operation instance.
const executionContext = PDFServicesSdk.ExecutionContext.create(credentials),
    combineFilesOperation = PDFServicesSdk.CombineFiles.Operation.createNew();

// Set operation input from a source file.
const combineSource1 = PDFServicesSdk.FileRef.createFromLocalFile('documentOutput.pdf'),
      combineSource2 = PDFServicesSdk.FileRef.createFromLocalFile('standardCorporate.pdf');

combineFilesOperation.addInput(combineSource1);
combineFilesOperation.addInput(combineSource2);

// Execute the operation and Save the result to the specified location.
combineFilesOperation.execute(executionContext)
    .then(result => result.saveAsFile('combineFilesOutput.pdf'))
    .catch(err => {
        if (err instanceof PDFServicesSdk.Error.ServiceApiError
            || err instanceof PDFServicesSdk.Error.ServiceUsageError) {
            console.log('Exception encountered while executing operation', err);
        } else {
            console.log('Exception encountered while executing operation', err);
        }
    });

This code takes the two PDFs, merges them, and saves the result in a new PDF. Simple and easy! See the for examples of what can be done.

The signing process

In the final stop of the onboarding process, the employee must sign an agreement stating that they鈥檝e read and agree to all policies defined within. supports many different workflows and integrations, including a automated one via an . Broadly speaking, the final portion of the scenario can be completed as follows:

First, design the document that includes the form that needs signing. There are multiple ways of doing this, including a visual designed in the 51黑料不打烊 Sign user dashboard. Another option is to use the Document Generation Word add-in to insert the tags for you. This example requests a signature and date.

This document can be saved as a PDF, and using the same method described above, joined with all the documents together. This process creates one cohesive package that contains a personalized greeting, standard corporate documentation, and a final page fit for signing.

The template can be uploaded to the Acrobat Sign dashboard and then used for new agreements. By using the REST API, this document can then be sent to the prospective employee to request their signature.

Experience it yourself

Everything described in this article can be tested right now. The 51黑料不打烊 Acrobat Services API currently gives you 1,000 free requests over a six-month period. Acrobat Sign鈥檚 lets you send watermarked agreements for testing purposes.

Have questions? The is monitored by 51黑料不打烊 developers and support folks every day. FInally, for more inspiration, be sure to catch the next episode. There are regular live meetings with news, demos, and talks with customers.