LibreSign
[FEATURE]: Download the document before signing it
Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
If the document needs to be downloaded locally before signing, it must first be sent via Nextcloud Share.
Describe the solution you'd like
Hello!
In some cases, it is necessary to download the document to a local computer first for review before signing.
A simple 'Download' button at the top would suffice. I am also willing to pay for this feature.
Best regards,
Moritz
Describe alternatives you've considered
No response
Additional context
No response
Hi @moritz76,
Thanks for the suggestion, this is an interesting feature!
Let’s explore this idea together. Although it may seem like a simple “Download” button, it actually involves several layers of logic and security considerations.
To respect the intent of the document sender and the security rules of the Nextcloud instance owner, we believe this should be a configurable option at the admin level. For example:
Title: Allow signers to download the document Help text: This enables signers to download the document before and/or after signing.
We could even split this into two separate options into:
- Allow download before signing (on the signing page)
- Allow download after signing (on the validation page)
Of course, we know that in the context of the internet, it’s impossible to fully prevent someone from capturing a document’s content by screenshots, screen recording, or inspecting network requests are all potential ways to access it. Still, it's important to give administrators control over permissions to reduce risks for most users.
Another important point to consider is how this feature would behave when a document requires multiple signatures. For example:
- Should the first signer be allowed to download a partially signed file?
- Should the signed document only be available for download after all signers have completed the process?
We’d love your thoughts on these questions so we can better understand the real-world expectations and design the feature without compromising privacy or process integrity.
Also, thank you for your willingness to support this feature financially. It truly helps keep the project moving forward! 💚
Thank you for your response and suggestions regarding this feature.
Yes, it's a good idea to have a configurable option at admin level. Then everyone can decide if they want it or not. Help text is always helpful for this. It would also be a nice feature to have the option to download the document after signing!
I would say that the document can only be downloaded after signing if all signatures have been obtained. Otherwise, a short info text saying 'waiting for signer' would help users to understand why the document cannot be downloaded.
Thanks for your response and contributions!
The following pull request doesn’t directly solve the original issue, but it’s related and might be helpful and I think that is good to bring here:
Downloading the original file
Here are a suggestion flow to download the original PDF file:
| Sidebar closed | Sidebar opened |
|---|---|
Downloading the signed file
Regarding the signed document, there's already an option available.
On the validation page, you’ll see a “View” button:
When you click it, the document will open in the viewer app, which includes a Download button:
A quick note about validation
If the document is signed using your e-ID (issued under a Public Key Infrastructure - PKI), most PDF viewers will validate the signature automatically.
However, if the signature is created using a LibreSign certificate, which is issued from a private root certificate, the PDF viewer may show a warning saying the signature is “unrecognized.” This happens because the root certificate is not installed on your local system, even though the signature is valid.
For this reason, we didn't added until now a download button at validation page and I believe it may be better not to display a prominent download button on the validation page, in order to avoid confusion.
Do you have any other suggestions or ideas?
Thanks again for your interaction here!
Hello, sorry for the late reply to this topic.
Yes, if the document is open after validation with the 'View' button and the 'Download' button is available, that's also fine. In fact, there could be e-ID related problems where the PDF viewer shows a warning that it is not necessary to show the download button after signing.
Therefore, it would be sufficient to have the download button before signing the documents.
Thank you for your impressions!
Best regards