Embedded Signing Workflows With the HelloSign and Dropbox APIs

Since Dropbox acquired HelloSign in early 2019, developers have been able to pair Dropbox’s storage and collaboration features with HelloSign’s eSignature API to build legally binding document workflows. A new sample in the HelloSign Developer Samples GitHub repo demonstrates how to combine both APIs into a single web app.

The sample app lets users select a file from Dropbox, preview it, prepare it, and send it for signature — all from one web page. When all signers have completed their signatures, HelloSign notifies the server and the signed document is automatically saved back to the same Dropbox folder where the original file lives.

What’s Under the Hood

Several Dropbox and HelloSign components make this workflow possible:

  • Dropbox Chooser — a pre-built component that lets users pick files from their Dropbox account.
  • Dropbox Embedder — a pre-built component for embedding Dropbox content on non-Dropbox surfaces.
  • hellosign-embedded — a JavaScript library that lets users prepare and send documents for signature without leaving the page.
  • Dropbox JavaScript SDK and HelloSign NodeJS SDK — the libraries that handle API communication with their respective services.

Getting the Sample

The complete code is available in the HelloSign Developer Samples repository. Developers can clone it to explore how the Dropbox and HelloSign APIs interact in an embedded requesting flow, including the server-side handling of signature completion events and the return of signed files to Dropbox.

Questions or feedback are welcome on the Dropbox developer community forum.