Discrete Party Behavior

Overview

Discrete Parties identify which recipients should receive a document or document package. The Expere Engine uses discrete party information to support downstream integrations and document delivery scenarios, including SmartSign Plus and DGS processing.

Discrete Party information can originate from two sources:
  • Authored discrete party elements placed in the content.
  • Signature-derived discrete parties automatically generated by the Expere Engine when supported signature processing is used

The resulting Discrete Party collection is returned in the Expere response and may be used by integrations to determine document recipients, packet construction, and signing workflows.

How Discrete Parties Are Determined

The Expere Engine evaluates both authored discrete party elements and document signatures when determining which discrete parties to return.

Consider the following:
  • If no discrete party elements are authored, the engine may derive discrete parties from signatures.
  • If discrete party elements are authored, those authored elements are considered during discrete party generation.
  • When a signer is also represented by an authored discrete party, the engine avoids creating duplicate discrete party entries
Important: Automatic derivation of discrete parties from signatures currently occurs only when E-Signature and Field Support is used during document generation. When E-Signature and Field Support is not enabled, signers are not automatically converted into discrete parties. This behavior is a known limitation that has been discussed for future enhancement.

Scenario One: No Authored Discrete Party Elements

Configuration
  • No discrete party elements are authored in the content.
  • Signature fields are present.
  • E-Signature and Field Support is enabled.

Expected Result

The Expere Engine automatically derives discrete parties from the signers associated with the document. A discrete party entry is returned for each signer represented in the generated document.

Example

A document contains signatures for:
  • Borrower
  • Co-Borrower

No discrete party elements are authored.

The response contains discrete parties for:
  • Borrower
  • Co-Borrower
Note: This behavior relies on the engine's automatic signature-based discrete party generation. If E-Signature and Field Support is not enabled, signer-based discrete parties are not automatically returned.

Scenario 2. Discrete Party Elements Authored for All Signing Parties

Configuration
  • Manual discrete party elements are authored for every signing party.
  • Signature fields are present.

Expected Result

The response contains discrete parties for all signing parties. When the authored discrete parties correspond to the same parties represented by signatures, the engine consolidates the information and prevents duplicate discrete party entries.

Example

Authored discrete parties:
  • Borrower
  • Co-Borrower
Signatures:
  • Borrower
  • Co-Borrower

Response:

  • Borrower
  • Co-Borrower

No duplicate entries are created.

Scenario 3. Discrete Party Elements Authored for Only Some Signing Parties (Current System Behavior)

Configuration
  • Manual discrete party elements are authored for every signing party.
  • Signature fields are present.

Expected Result

The response contains discrete parties for all signing parties. When the authored discrete parties correspond to the same parties represented by signatures, the engine consolidates the information and prevents duplicate discrete party entries.

Example

Authored discrete parties:
  • Borrower
  • Co-Borrower
Signatures:
  • Borrower
  • Co-Borrower
  • Attest Signer

Response:

  • Borrower
  • Co-Borrower
  • Attest Signer

The Attest Signer appears because it is present in the signature set and the engine automatically derives discrete parties from signatures when E-Signature and Field Support is enabled.

E-Signature and Field Support Considerations

The E-Signature and Field Support setting is a significant factor in discrete party generation.

Configuration Expected Behavior
Authored discrete parties only Authored discrete parties are returned.
Signatures present + E-Signature and Field Support enabled Signers may be automatically returned as discrete parties.
Signatures present + E-Signature and Field Support disabled Signers are not automatically returned as discrete parties.
Mixed authored and signer-based parties with E-Signature and Field Support enabled Authored parties are returned and additional signer-derived parties may also be returned.

Known Limitation

There is currently no supported method to:

  • Include a signer in the document signature set
  • Enable E-Signature and Field Support
  • Exclude that signer from the generated Discrete Party collection

If a signer appears in the signature processing path, that signer may be returned as a discrete party even when no corresponding discrete party element was authored. This behavior was the subject of the reported scenario involving the Attest Signer and was confirmed during testing and review