Installation and Set-Up > Configuration of the Digital Signature Functions > Signature Rules

Signature Rules

Require Signatures to be Applied in a Certain Order

You may wish to establish rules that control the order in which signatures can be applied. For example, peer review can take place only after the data is acquired.

This restriction is accomplished by using the Prerequisite tag in the reason description. The Prerequisite tag indicates the signature type that must be applied before the specified type of signature is allowed to be applied. For example, in the sample file shown above, Reason1 (acquisition) must be applied before Reason2 (peer review) which must be applied before Reason3 (approval).

Permit Signature Reason to be Used Only Once

You may wish to restrict signature reasons to be applied only once. This is done with the ApplyOnlyOnce=1 tag. In the example above, Reason1 (acquistion) and Reason3 (approval) can each only be applied once, while there is no restriction on Reason2 (peer review).

Disallow Previous Signers

You may wish to prevent people that have previously signed the data from signing it again. This is done with the DisallowPreviousSigners tag and listing the reasons that disqualify the user from signing again. For example, as shown in the sample file, above, the signer for Reason3 (approval) cannot be either the acquirer of the data (Reason1) or the peer reviewer of the data (Reason 2).