Assembling Documents Overview
When using HotDocs Advance, the typical goal of end users is to produce a completed, customized document. You use Assembly sessions to manage the process of gathering user data and producing assembled documents for a work item.
Overview
There are two main work-flows for using assembly sessions:
- Displaying an interview – when you want to gather answer data from an end user (using an interview), then assemble documents
- Batch processing:
- Create and assemble a new work item – when you already have an answer set and want to assemble documents immediately, without user involvement
- Assemble new documents for an existing work item – when you already have a work item and want to assemble a new set of documents, without user involvement
Displaying an interview
Generally, you will use this workflow when:
- You do not already have a full set of answer data with which to assemble documents, and
- You need to gather answer data from your end-users, through a HotDocs interview
If you already have a full set of answer data and want to assemble documents immediately, see the Create and assemble a new work item workflow instead.
Steps
The steps below outline how you should use the API to create a work item, display an interview, assemble, and download documents.
| Step | Name | Description | REST API Method |
| 1 | Create a work item | Creates a new work item in Advance. Once a work item is created, you can create an assembly session for that work item. | PUT /WorkItems/{id} |
| 2 | Creates a new assembly session for a specific work item. This request provides you with the data required to display an interview in the browser and interact with the assembly session. | PUT /WorkItems/{id}/Versions/{versionId} | |
| 3 | The interview is displayed to your end user, in your own web application. This requires you to pass the following data to a page in your application:
This data is needed by the HotDocs Core Services JavaScript API to display the interview. |
N/A | |
| 4 | User clicks Finish button in interview | When the user decides they have entered all the necessary information into the interview, they click the Finish button. This posts the answer data from the interview to the endpoint you specified when configuring the interview. | N/A |
| 5 | Complete the assembly session | Call the Complete endpoint to assemble the completed documents and finish the assembly session. Advance creates a new work item version. | PUT /WorkItems/{id}/Versions/active/CompleteSession |
| 6 | Download the documents | Optional: you can download the documents produced by the completed assembly session. This requires two API requests:
|
and GET /WorkItems/{id}/Documents/{documentId}/Content |
Create and assemble a new work item
This workflow assembles documents without displaying an interview. Generally, you will use this workflow when:
- You have an existing answer set with which to assemble documents, and
- You do not require your end-users to supply any additional answer data
Steps
The steps below outline how you should use the API to create a work item, assemble, and download documents.
| Step | Name | Description | REST API Method |
| 1 | Create a work item |
Creates a new work item in Advance. You must supply answer XML in the request; Advance will use these answers when assembling the new documents. To assemble documents immediately, ensure that your request is correctly configured for the following parameters:
|
PUT /WorkItems/{id} |
| 2 | Download the documents | Optional: you can download the documents produced by the completed assembly session. This requires two API requests:
|
and GET /WorkItems/{id}/Documents/{documentId}/Content |
Assemble new documents for an existing work item
This workflow assembles a new set of documents for an existing work item, without displaying an interview. Generally, you will use this workflow when:
- You have an existing work item, and
- You have an existing answer set with which to assemble documents, and
- You do not require your end-users to supply any additional answer data
Steps
The steps below outline how you should use the API to supply answer data, assemble, and download documents.
| Step | Name | Description | REST API Method |
| 1 |
Assemble documents for a work item |
Assembles documents for an existing work item. You must supply answer XML in the request; Advance will use these answers when assembling the new documents. |
PUT /WorkItems/{id}/AssemblySessions |
| 2 | Download the documents | Optional: you can download the documents produced by the completed assembly session. This requires two API requests:
|
and GET /WorkItems/{id}/Documents/{documentId}/Content |