Digitally signing PDF documents using the web service API

1.	Include project files

•	Create a Microsoft .NET client assembly that consumes the Signature WSDL. For information, see Creating a .NET client assembly.

•	Reference the Microsoft .NET client assembly. For information, see Referencing the .NET client assembly.

2.	Create a Signatures client

Using the Microsoft .NET client assembly, create a SignatureServiceService object by invoking its default constructor.

3.	Get the PDF document to sign

•	Create a BLOB object by using its constructor. The BLOB object is used to store a PDF document that is signed.

•	Create a System.IO.FileStream object by invoking its constructor and passing a string value that represents the file location of the PDF document to sign and the mode in which to open the file.

•	Create a byte array that stores the content of the System.IO.FileStream object. You can determine the size of the byte array by getting the System.IO.FileStream object’s Length property.

•	Populate the byte array with stream data by invoking the System.IO.FileStream object’s Read method and passing the byte array, the starting position, and the stream length to read.

•	Populate the BLOB object by assigning its binaryData property with the contents of the byte array.

4.	Sign the PDF document

Sign the PDF document by invoking the SignatureServiceService object’s sign method and passing the following values:

•	A BLOB object that represents the PDF document to sign.

•	A string value that represents the name of the signature field that will contain the digital signature.

•	A Credential object that represents the credential that is used to digitally sign the PDF document. Create a Credential object by using its constructor and specify the alias by assigning a value to the Credential object’s alias property.

•	A HashAlgorithm object that specifies a static data member that represents the hash algorithm to use to digest the PDF document. For example, you can specify HashAlgorithm.SHA1 that results in the SHA1 algorithm being used.

•	A Boolean value that specifies whether the hash algorithm is used.

•	A string value that represents the reason why the PDF document was digitally signed.

•	A string value that represents the signer’s location.

•	A string value that represents the signer’s contact information, such as their address and phone number.

•	A PDFSignatureAppearanceOptions object that controls the appearance of the digital signature. For example, you can use this object to add a custom logo to a digital signature.

•	A System.Boolean object that specifies whether to perform revocation checking on the signer's certificate. If this revocation checking is done, it is embedded in the signature (the default for this parameter is false).

•	A System.Boolean object that specifies whether revocation checking information is specified. If this revocation checking is done, it is embedded in the signature (the default for this parameter is false).

•	A OCSPPreferences object that stores preferences for Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) support. If revocation checking is not done, then this parameter is not used and you can specify null. For information about this object, see the LiveCycle ES API References.

•	A CRLPreferences object that stores certificate revocation list (CRL) preferences. If revocation checking is not done, then this parameter is not used and you can specify null.

•	A TSPPreferences object that stores preferences for time stamp provider (TSP) support. This parameter is optional and can be null.

The sign method returns a BLOB object that represents the signed PDF document.

5.	Save the signed PDF document

•	Create a System.IO.FileStream object by invoking its constructor and passing a string value that represents the file location of the PDF document that will contain the signature field and the mode in which to open the file.

•	Create a byte array that stores the content of the BLOB object that was returned by the sign method. Populate the byte array by getting the value of the BLOB object’s binaryData data member.

•	Create a System.IO.BinaryWriter object by invoking its constructor and passing the System.IO.FileStream object.

•	Write the contents of the byte array to a PDF file by invoking the System.IO.BinaryWriter object’s Write method and passing the byte array.

Current page: http://livedocs.adobe.com/livecycle/es/sdkHelp/programmer/sdkHelp/signaturesSigning.90.4.html