Hi Chuck,
It actually sounds more cumbersome than it is.
Also, if the actual graphic "signature" is not important, you can
just cause a flag that is secured to go onto the record. An
electronic signing so to speak. This is really what software houses
are doing when you click the "Accept" button on the software license
during an install. You can further capture the account that it was
done on and whatever other machine stats FileMaker supports.
Dave
Hi David,
On Aug 24, 2008, at 8:51 AM, David McQueen wrote:
Hhi Chuck,
Real Estate Appraisers have been using electronic signatures forever.
To build it into FileMaker, you might want to take the same
approach the CRAL appraisals did when I was appraising. I am going
back 10 years here.
1. They had the person actually sign a piece of paper and send it
back to them.
2. That signature was scanned to a file and then imported into the
database. The appraiser was given a password to access the
signature so that he could "sign things".
3. When doing appraisals, at the signature step and password
dialogue box came up. The appraiser could not sign without a
password. The signature showed up as a graphic on the document
once it was "signed".
4. Every appraiser had their own password and the only access to
the file storing signatures was via the import signature function.
There may have been a remove signature function also, but I cannot remember.
In FileMaker, you would store the signature in a global field or in
it's own prefs table or with many people in a signature table.
Then a second dialogue box would be built for people to access the password.
You could possibly put the dialogue in the initial log in, but I
would not suggest that. If the program is open and the person
leaves the desk, the signature is open to be used.
It sounds like an approach. However, a bit more cumbersome than what
I've experienced with Adobe Acrobat.
I'm just beginning to look into this as part of a project where the
potential client would require some form of legal 'signature',
ink-on- paper or electronic for some documents. Doing a search on
the web of "electronic signature" and "filemaker" I found something
about a school system that has done the electronic one in their
FMP-based database system. It looks like it might work, but there's
not much information on how it was done. [Note: It's one of those
FMP Success Stories, as I recall.]
Thanks for the suggestion.
Regards,
Chuck
