Public document access and signing
A publication creates one external document page; it does not open the whole document area. The owner chooses the mode, expiry, access limit, and recipient check, and can revoke the publication.
Two external pages
/public-documents/:token— view, download, and, for external signing, complete fields and submit a signature./public-signature-sessions/:token— a signer-specific page when the recipient receives a direct signing link.
Visible statuses, denial reasons, error messages, and dates on these external
pages depend on the exact portal build and the server response. Before treating
the interface as localized, check the same deployed build in the target locale:
htmlLang alone does not prove the language of visible labels, errors, or date
formatting. Do not publish PNG/evidence or expose tokens for this route until
status, error, date, and privacy checks pass an exact-build same-locale review;
public ar frames remain private until separate RTL review.
The external-signing dictionaries are not fully native in every locale yet: individual statuses, actions, and errors may remain English in DE/ZH/ES/FR and Russian in KK/KY. Keep signing targets planned/source-gated; htmlLang does not prove visible-language parity. Do not publish tokens, signatures, or real documents before same-locale review.
The recipient may open the link without a portal account when the publication allows it. A recipient-email policy may ask for an email address; use only your own intended address and never bypass the check by forwarding a token.
If the token is missing, malformed, or not found, verify the complete URL and ask
the owner for a fresh publication. /public-signature-sessions/:token is a
signing-only page; use /public-documents/:token for open, preview, or download.
If signing context fails after the document loads, retry once and then contact the
owner.
View and download
- Check the document name, type, version, access mode, and expiry before using the link.
- Use Open document, Preview, or Download as separate actions; a successful preview does not imply that download is allowed.
- Repeated refreshes or downloads may count toward the access limit. If the file, version, or recipient context is not the one you expect, stop and ask the owner to verify the publication.
- An expired, revoked, exhausted, or unreleased publication requires a new link from the owner.
External signing
For external_sign, the page shows the request status, required fields, and the method selected by the owner: click-to-accept, a hand-drawn signature, or an uploaded signature file (and any additional method explicitly enabled for that request). Check the signer name and email against the intended recipient, fill required fields, review the document and version, accept the consent, and submit exactly once. A closed, expired, canceled, declined, or completed session must not be submitted again; ask the owner for the current session status instead.
The external page exposes only the permitted document context, status, and safe signature evidence count. It does not grant editing rights or the portal's internal history.
Signer-session state
The personal signing page allows submission only while the signing session is active and the submit action is available. After completed, declined, expired, canceled, or failed, the form is disabled; refreshing cannot submit again. With manual_upload, the signer chooses the file on this public page. In a client extranet flow the signer may come from the linked CRM record, so email is not always entered manually.
Errors and safety
Expired or revoked links, reached limits, unreleased files, closed sessions, and recipient-check failures require the owner or a new link. A recipient-check error is not permission to try another person's address: confirm the intended address and request a fresh link if needed. Do not retry a signature after a success or terminal status, and do not treat a toast, page load, or closed session as proof that the owner received it. Report an error without the token or document content. Never publish tokens, production documents, passwords, or personal data in screenshots or tickets. Use a synthetic document and a dedicated or expired demo link. A page alone does not establish legal validity; signing requirements and evidence retention depend on your process and jurisdiction.
When the document or session was opened from an already signed-in Extranet, the error page’s Home button returns to /extranet, not to the staff-only portal root. For an external recipient it remains the ordinary route home. This is navigation only; do not use it as a reason to submit the signature again.
Related pages