DocuSign - Can't set "sent" on createEnvelope - php

Question

I am using Docusign PHP Client and trying to create and envelope and send it as email. With the current SDK, I was getting an error:
INVALID_REQUEST_BODY The request body is missing or improperly formatted. Cannot deserialize the current JSON object (e.g. {"name":"value"}) into type 'API_REST.Models.v2.document[]' because the type requires a JSON array (e.g. [1,2,3]) to deserialize correctly.\r\n ◀
To fix this error either change the JSON to a JSON array (e.g. [1,2,3]) or change the deserialized type so that it is a normal .NET type (e.g. not a primitive t ▶
Path 'documents.documentBase64', line 1, position 31.
So I had to edit EnvelopeApi.php (line 2876) json_encode($httpBody) to make it work.
Now that it's working, I receive a response like this, however I can't change status created to sent is my problem.
EnvelopeSummary {#460 ▼
#container: array:4 [▼
"envelope_id" => "6b9ef863-2ee0-4ea6-9f7e-20b7d4f59b22"
"status" => "created"
"status_date_time" => "2018-10-03T12:30:22.8600000Z"
"uri" => "/envelopes/6b9ef863-2ee0-4ea6-9f7e-20b7d4f59b22"
]
}
My full code:
First, I authenticated and fetched my $accountId
And then creating Envelope:
$path = public_path('test.pdf');
$b64Doc = base64_encode(file_get_contents($path));
$document = new Document();
$document->setName("TEST.pdf");
$document->setFileExtension("pdf");
$document->setDocumentId(1);
$document->setDocumentBase64($b64Doc);
$sign_here = new SignHere();
$sign_here->setXPosition(25);
$sign_here->setYPosition(50);
$sign_here->setDocumentId(1);
$sign_here->setPageNumber(1);
$sign_here->setRecipientId(1);
$tabs = new Tabs();
$tabs->setSignHereTabs($sign_here);
$signers = new Signer();
$signers->setName('Test User');
$signers->setEmail('test#mailinator.com');
$signers->setRoleName('Signer');
$signers->setRecipientId(1);
$signers->setRoutingOrder(1);
$signers->setTabs($tabs);
$recipients = new Recipients();
$recipients->setSigners($signers);
$envelope_definition = new EnvelopeDefinition();
$envelope_definition->setEmailSubject('Signature Request');
$envelope_definition->setStatus("sent"); // ***
$envelope_definition->setDocuments($document);
$envelope_definition->setRecipients($recipients);
$options = new CreateEnvelopeOptions();
$options->setCdseMode(null);
$options->setMergeRolesOnDraft(null);
try {
$envelopeSummary = $envelopeApi->createEnvelope($accountId, $envelope_definition, $options);
dd($envelopeSummary);
// Also tried this:
// $envelopeApi->update($accountId, $envelopeSummary->getEnvelopeId(), json_encode(['status' => 'sent']);
} catch (ApiException $e){
dd($e->getResponseBody()->errorCode . " " . $e->getResponseBody()->message);
}
$envelope_definition->setStatus("sent"); this should trigger the email, right? But it doesn't for some reason. Also I can't see this created envelope in my Sandbox either.

Answer 1

You are not setting signers correctly. It must be an array of signer objects.
Here is some untested code:
# This code creates a signer, not signers
$signer = new Signer();
$signer->setName('Test User');
$signer->setEmail('test#mailinator.com');
$signer->setRoleName('Signer');
$signer->setRecipientId(1);
$signer->setRoutingOrder(1);
$signer->setTabs($tabs);
$recipients = new Recipients();
# setSigners wants an array of signer objects.
# in this case, we make an array with one element
$recipients->setSigners(array($signer));
Also, you are not creating the tabs right either. Again, it needs to be an array of the tab type.
See this example for additional ideas.

Answer 2

Yes, setting status to sent should make DocuSign send the envelope upon creation. The fact that the response contains "status" => "created" seems to indicate that your setting of the property ($envelope_definition->setStatus("sent");) is not actually being included as part of the request that's being issued to DocuSign.
I've compared your code with the code examples provided in GitHub for the PHP SDK, specifically, with the signatureRequestOnDocument function on that page. The only obvious difference I can see between your code and that example code is in the syntax for creating objects. For example, creating the envelope:
Your code: $envelope_definition = new EnvelopeDefinition();
PHP SDK example code: $envelop_definition = new DocuSign\eSign\Model\EnvelopeDefinition();
I don't know much about PHP, let alone about the DocuSign PHP SDK, but I'd suggest that you try to closely mimic the code examples that are part of the SDK repo on GitHub, to see if you get a different result that way.

Answer 3

My code work like this :
$signersArray = array();
$signer = new Signer();
$signer->set...
$signersArray[] = $signer;
$recipients->setSigners($signersArray);
If it's not working try to dump the data send from the SDK to the API and double check that the status is correct :
Go to Docusign/esign-client/src/ApiClient.php and var_dump($postData) at line 159