Concept Topic

Getting External Answer Data When the Interview Loads

An Interview Load Event webhook enables HotDocs Advance to populate interviews with answer data retrieved from your own web application. This event activates when the user opens an interview.

Prerequisites

This webhook has the following prerequisites:

• Creating a Webhook – you must have an existing webhook that:
  • Uses the Interview Load Event type
  • Has access to the work groups or templates in which you want the webhook to apply
• Answer JSON that matches the variable names and structure of the Author template

• An endpoint on your web application that accepts a GET request and returns a set of answer data

Overview

When you create an interview load event webhook, you specify an endpoint on your web application that accepts a GET request and returns answer data. This answer data must be in the HotDocs answer JSON format. 

The GET request to the endpoint is activated when a user opens an Advance interview. When the data is returned to the interview from your endpoint, Advance overlays the answer data into the interview, populating the answer fields for your user.

Your Existing Webhook

This example supposes that you have an existing webhook with the following properties:

• Name – WebhookExample03
• URL – https://localhost/WebhookExampleApp/GetAnswerData
• Event Type – Interview Load Event (sends request to retrieve answer data when a user opens an interview)
• Authentication method – exampleHMAC
• Active Status – Active
• Untrusted SSL certificates – No
• Work Groups - WorkGroupExample01
• Templates - TemplateExample01

The URL for the webhook should point to the GET endpoint in your own web application.

Work Groups and Templates

The webhook only applies to the selected work groups and templates.

Data Sent from Advance to your Endpoint

When the Interview Load Event webhook is activated by a user, the webhook sends a GET request to your endpoint. The request contains a JSON string that includes the following data:

• linkedVariable — typically null; may be populated with data passed from a template link's linkdata property
• userContextData — the user context data for the template; this includes details about the user that activated the webhook

For example:

{
    "linkedVariable": { "ParameterValue": null },
    "userContextData": {
        "UserId": "8727d822-7b4a-5f6d-ab56-781f498af6cc", 
        "UserFirstName": "John",
        "UserLastName": "MacDiarmid",
        "UserEmailAddress": "jm@example.com",
        ...
}

You can use this information when constructing the data you will return to Advance. For example, if you need to look up information specific to the user making the request.