Integrating with other products

Doc Auto Public Access powered by Contract Express

Use the HighQ integration with Contract Express to do the following:
  • Send questionnaires to any recipient that can automatically generate documents; recipients do not need to register to fill out a questionnaire or receive a generated document.
  • Create public access links to questionnaires that can be shared or published on a website, but retain access options for full control.
HighQ Doc Auto Public Access powered by Contract Express
 uses Contract Express templates and questionnaires and benefits from the tools and reports provided by HighQ's integration with Contract Express.
note
Doc Auto Public Access requires a
Contract Express licence
 with
Guest Access
, see below.

Setting up Doc auto public access

Doc Auto Public Access powered by Contract Express requires the same authorisation as the HighQ Document Automation module, powered by Contract Express:
note
More information is available in the Contract Express Integration setup article.
System configuration
The System Admin must open
System settings
 to enable
HighQ Doc Auto Public Access
:
Scroll down to the
HighQ Doc Auto Public Access
 section and click the drop-down menu. Select one of the three options:
  • Disabled
     - This option completely disables Public Access for this instance
  • Enabled, default OFF in every site
     - This enables Public Access, but it must be enabled on a site-by-site basis by a site admin
  • Enabled, default ON in every site
     - This enables Public Access and turns it ON for every site. If it is not required, Public Access can be disabled in Site Settings
note
HighQ Doc Auto must
Enabled
 to see HighQ Doc Auto Public Access.
You may also
Enable captcha for HighQ Doc Auto Public Access
. This adds a captcha check if too many Public Access requests are submitted from the same IP address in too short a time.
Enable system-level Secure file sharing
Secure file sharing must be enabled at both system and site levels to allow an anonymous user to view or download a generated document from a public access link.
Scroll down to the
Site file sharing settings
 section and click the
Enable Site files sharing
 drop-down menu. Select either
ON for all internal users only
 or
ON for selected users only
 to turn sharing on.
Scroll down and select
Save
 to update the system settings.
Site configuration
A site admin must configure the site to use
Contract Express Public Access templates
.
Open
Admin
,
Document Automation
,
Contract Express templates
 then
Public access
.
By default, the
Contract Express Public Access templates
 option matches the selection made in System settings. If necessary, change the drop-down to
ON
.
Enable site-level Secure file sharing
Secure file sharing must be enabled at both system and site levels to allow an anonymous user to view or download a generated document from a public access link.
Open
Admin
,
Files
 then scroll to
Advanced settings
.
Select
Enable secure file sharing
 then select
Save
.
Deselect encryption
Also in
Files
 admin settings, scroll down to the Digital Rights Management section and check that DRM encryption is not selected for the site (e.g. with FileOpen or Seclore).

Make templates available for Public Access

A Contract Express template must be made 'public' before it can be added as a Public Access template.
A Contract Express Admin or the Author of a template can open the template in the connected Contract Express licence space in
Templates
.
Select the template, then select
Template details
, the label under
Access
, then select the
Public Access
 tab. Enable
Make Public
 and select
Save
.
note
Note that this adds a 'Guest' role under User access.
note
Public access template restrictions
Public Access templates cannot be linked to iSheets for input.
Documents created with Public Access templates can only be saved to site folders.
note
For more information on creating templates:
Add templates to the Public Access list
Open
Admin
,
Document Automation
,
Contract Express templates
.
Click
Add
 >
Browse
.
This displays a list of all the Contract Express templates with
Make public
 selected.
Select a template then select
Save
.
note
If necessary, select
Change
 under
Document automation settings
 to save generated documents in the appropriate folder.
Saved documents are listed as created by 'Anonymous user'.
Select
Add
 to add the template to the list of
Contract Express Public Access templates
.
Select
More actions
 to manage or share a template.
  • Edit details
     - click to change the folder used to save generated documents
  • Archive
     - this will archive the public access template.
    All shared links created from the archived template will be disabled
Archived templates have an
Archived
 badge next to the name.
  • Share
     - click to create public access links for the Public Access template, you can create a new link each time you click Share; see Sharing a template, below
  • Audit history
     - click to see and manage a list of shared links

Sharing a template

To create public access links for a Public Access template, select
More actions
 then
Share
.
Link description
 - Describe the link. Add notes about where this link is shared and any other details you want to capture. This also helps identify links if more than one link is created with a single template.
Click on the drop-down list to set the
Access level
:
  • Anyone with the link
     - gives direct access without any password
  • Anyone with the password
     - the site admin can set a password. This restricts access to the questionnaire to public access users who know the password; the Site Admin must send the password to the users via a different channel.
Link Expires
 - choose a duration after which the link will no longer function.
note
The link expires at midnight on the set date, at the local time for the instance.
Select
Get link
 to create the shareable link.
Select the link with the cursor, or select
Select link
 to select the link URL. Copy the URL, then paste it into your email, post or web page.
note
Logged-in HighQ users cannot use a public access questionnaire. Logged-in users should use internal HighQ access to generate documents.
After a link is created, you can retrieve, view and manage it in Audit History.
Links from an archived template
In the list of
Contract Express Public Access templates
, select
More Actions
,
Archive
 to archive a template.
All links created from a template that is later archived are set to
Inactive
 in the Audit history.
To unarchive a template, open the
More actions
 menu and select
Activate
.
note
If you unarchive a template, the associated links are not automatically set to
Active
, you must change each link from the
More actions
 menu in the Audit history.

Using the shared link

If an external user clicks the shared link a landing page opens that shows the title of the template and description of the link.
note
Logged-in HighQ users cannot use a public access questionnaire.
 Logged-in users should use internal HighQ access to generate documents.
The recipient clicks
Start Questionnaire
 to see the standard Contract Express questionnaire screen.
View, Edit or download a document
After the recipient fills in the questionnaire, they see
View
,
Edit
 and
Download
 links.
Edit public links (external video link)
note
As of June 2024, recipients can edit a document to adjust their responses to the questionnaire if they notice they've made a mistake (see below for more information). Contact your HighQ support representative to enable the
edit public access option
 on the system.
Approval and security
If approvals are are enabled on the site, the recipient sees a message at the top of the screen that says:
Documents generated from the completed questionnaire were sent for approval
The recipient is then returned to the landing page.
Also, if
Secure file sharing
is not
 enabled or
DRM encryption
is
 enabled, the recipient sees the following message:
We are unable to show the generated documents(s) to you because of security settings. Please contact the sender of the link for more information.
note
In any of these cases, the recipient cannot edit the generated document. If this is not intended, please check settings at the system and site level.
View the document
Click
View
 to review the generated document.
Edit the document
When the
Edit
 button is available, the recipient can select it to reopen the questionnaire, change responses and re-generate the document.
note
If the recipient does not see the
Edit
 button, it is possible the system-wide settings for site file sharing are restricted. Check under
System Admin
 >
System Settings
 >
Site file sharing settings
.
If the
Default DRM setting
 for file sharing is set to
view only
 or
view, download and print
 AND
Restrict to this option only
 is selected then the recipient cannot edit generated files.
Download the document
Select
Download
 to save a copy of the document to the recipient's computer.
Limits on document access
The document is available for 30 minutes after the document is generated for the recipient. The
Edit
 option is only available to a recipient during an active browser session after generating the document; i.e. they have not navigated away from this page or stepped away from their desk within that period. While the document is accessible to the public user, they can make as many edits as needed during that timeframe.
note
If a logged-in user attempts to edit the document simultaneously, the public user will encounter an error due to conflicting edits.
note
Please note that it is not possible to view the
Edit
option in a different browser to the browser used to generate the document, i.e. if the recipient copies the link and tries to open it in another browser - it is only based on the active browser session.

Audit history

To see a history of links that have been shared, with additional details, select
More actions
 then
Audit history
.
In
Audit history
, you can see the status of each link, copy the link again, see the description, access type, expiry and shared dates, and the name and IP address of the creator.
  • Select
    Copy link
     to copy the link to the clipboard.
  • Click the
    More actions
     icon on the left of the row to manage a link.
Make inactive
 - change the status of an Active link to Inactive. The link no longer works and does not open the questionnaire. If necessary, you should remove the link from web pages, etc.
Activate
 - change the status of an Inactive link to Active. The link is restored and opens the questionnaire as originally created, if it has not expired.

Approvals for Public Access templates

If a site admin wants to approve documents before they are given to a public user using the Public Access questionnaire, they need to use site-wide approvals.
Open
Admin
,
Module settings
,
Files
, then select
Enable approvals
 and
Require approval to add files and folders
. Select the appropriate
approval template
.
This sends all the documents generated with Public Access templates for approval.
note
Require approval to add files to folders
 applies to any document that is added to the site, either manually uploaded or generated by Document automation.
note
If you want to approve a generated document before sending it to a public user then you should ask for contact details in the Public Access template questionnaire, e.g. an email address. This is captured as an answer in the Output iSheet and can be used to share the document when it is approved.

Notes for ExpertiseApp templates

A Contract Express Expertise Automation Flowchart template needs to be made
Public
 before it can be added to the list of Public Access templates.
note
The
ExpertiseAppGuidance
 template also needs to be made public.
Open
System Settings
,
Document automation
,
Contract Express templates
,
Public access
.
A Contract Express Admin or the Author of a template can find the template in the connected Contract Express licence space under the
Templates / Flowcharts
 tab. As described above, select
Make public
.
Additionally, under
Profiles
 of the same Flowchart template add the
ExpertiseApp
 profile to the template:
Select
Profiles
 for the template, then
Add profile
. Add the
ExpertiseApp
 profile to the template. This profile ensures that the template and flowchart generate a document when used for Public Access.

This article applies to:

  • PRODUCT: HighQ,Contract Express
  • Subject: Add-in