IRIS CRM provides you with the ability to automatically generate a PDF application for E-Signature and populate it with information from your IRIS CRM lead form.
The mapping procedure consists of the following four steps:
- Editing your PDF fields to conform to IRIS CRM mapping rules
- Uploading your PDF application to IRIS CRM
- Mapping PDF fields to the corresponding IRIS CRM fields
- Testing the PDF creation and ensuring that the mappings were applied correctly
In this article, you will find a detailed description of each step of the mapping procedure including easy-to-follow examples using real IRIS CRM and PDF fields. There is also a video playlist that covers each part of the setup.
Prepare Your PDF Application (Part 1)
IRIS CRM supports the following four different types of field mappings:
- IRIS CRM text field to a PDF text field (Text-To-Text)
- IRIS CRM drop-down options to a PDF text field (Dropdown-To-Text)
- IRIS CRM checkbox to a PDF checkbox (Checkbox-To-Checkbox)
- IRIS CRM drop-down options to PDF check-boxes (Dropdown-To-Checkboxes)
The first two types of mappings listed above do not have any special requirements in terms of the PDF field name formatting or the field settings. Except for a few exceptions described further on, most of your PDF text fields are ready to be mapped as is.
On the other hand, the last two types of mapping listed above (Checkbox-To-Checkbox and Dropdown-To-Checkboxes) will require you to edit the PDF checkbox names and the checkbox export values in order for the mapping to work correctly.
Checkbox-To-Checkbox Mapping
In order to prepare a specific PDF checkbox for Checkbox-To-Checkbox mapping, you will first need to append "_yes" to the end of the checkbox name. For example, a PDF checkbox named "Seasonal Merchant" will need to be renamed to "Seasonal Merchant_yes".
After that, you will also need to set the Export Value of the checkbox to "Yes". Here’s how:
- Open your PDF document in Adobe Acrobat Pro.
- Click Tools > Forms > Edit (PDF field names will become visible).
- Locate the checkbox you wish to map.
- Right-click on the checkbox and click Properties.
- Now click on the Options tab and make sure the Export Value is set to "Yes" (case sensitive).
Here is an example of a properly configured Export Value of a PDF checkbox:
With that, your checkbox has been made ready for Checkbox-To-Checkbox mapping.
Dropdown-To-Checkboxes Mapping
In order to map IRIS CRM drop-down menu options to multiple PDF check-boxes, you’ll first need to set the Export Value of all such check-boxes to "Yes" (in the same manner as shown in the previous Checkbox-To-Checkbox example).
Tip: To speed up this process, select all of the check-boxes and then right-click in order to access the Properties pop-up. You can select multiple checkboxes by holding the Ctrl key pressed on your keyboard (or Command Key on Mac) and then clicking on each checkbox.
Next, you’ll need to change the names of the PDF check-boxes so that they correspond to the correct IRIS CRM drop-down options. To illustrate this procedure, we’ll use the following example of an IRIS CRM drop-down menu and the PDF check-boxes that are being mapped to it:
| IRIS CRM Drop-down: | PDF Checkboxes: |
 |
 |
We’ll begin by inspecting the HTML code behind the drop-down menu in order to find the Option Value numbers for each menu option. In your browser, right-click on the Type Of Ownership label and click Inspect:
You will now see a panel open with a row highlighted (the row shows the HTML code of the label you clicked on). Right below the highlighted row, you’ll find the <select> HTML tag:
Click on the small arrow next to the <select> tag in order to expand it. You will now see the options in the drop-down and what their values are:
In the above example, we can see that the drop-down menu options have the following values:
| IRIS CRM Drop-down Option | Value |
| (Please Select) | 1 |
| Sole Proprietorship | 2 |
| Limited Liability | 3 |
| Corporation | 4 |
| Partnership | 5 |
| Government | 6 |
| Non-Profit | 7 |
Now that we have the option values, we need to rename the PDF check-boxes using the following naming convention: <group name>_<value>
<group name> can be any name that you choose however all check-boxes which belong to the same group (i.e. the check-boxes which are being mapped to the same drop-down menu) must have the same group name.
<value> is the number value of the dropdown option that we identified earlier.
The underscore character shown between <group name> and <value> is mandatory.
Tip: It is allowed to use underscore characters in the <group name> however the final underscore must always be placed right before the <value> number. For example, Type_Of_Ownership_1 is a valid checkbox name.
Returning to our example, we can now rename the PDF check-boxes as follows:
| IRIS CRM Drop-down Option | Value | PDF Checkbox Name |
| (Please Select) | 1 | |
| Sole Proprietorship | 2 | TypeOfOwnership_2 |
| Limited Liability | 3 | TypeOfOwnership_3 |
| Corporation | 4 | TypeOfOwnership_4 |
| Partnership | 5 | TypeOfOwnership_5 |
| Government | 6 | TypeOfOwnership_6 |
| Non-Profit | 7 | TypeOfOwnership_7 |
Note that the first option in the drop-down menu (Please Select) is not mapped to a PDF checkbox. This is normally done so that the user may retain the option of not selecting any of the check-boxes in the PDF document if needed.
With this, we have successfully re-named the PDF check-boxes and the checkbox group is now ready to be mapped to the IRIS CRM drop-down menu.
Prepare Your PDF Application (Part 2)
Several text fields in your PDF file are special and must be renamed using a special naming convention. Specifically:
- All PDF signature fields must be regular text fields named: first_es_signer_signature
- At least one field for Email Address in the PDF must be named: email_es_signer_email
- All Merchant Initials fields should be named: merchantinitials_es_signer_initials
- The names of any Date fields in the PDF must end with ".date" in order to be auto-filled with the date of signing. For example, a text field called "Signature Date" must be renamed to "Signature Date.date".
Tip: If your form doesn’t have a field for email, you can put it directly under the Signature.
Upload The PDF Application To IRIS CRM
Once your PDF application has been edited according to the above guidelines, you will need to create a new application in IRIS CRM and upload your PDF file to it. Here’s how:
- Go to Manage > Administration > E-Signature > Import PDFs
- Click Add New Application and upload the PDF you wish to map.
- Type in the display title and document name and click Save.
The new application will now appear in the list of your Current Applications:
You’re now ready to start mapping.
Create Your Mappings
To create your mapping follow these steps:
- Go to Manage > Administration > E-Signature > PDF Mappings.
- Make sure the application you just added is selected in the Choose Application drop-down (in this example we’ve selected the First Data application).
- Click Add All and wait for the page to finish loading the fields and creating your report. You will see all the PDF fields on the left side of the report, and the IRIS CRM form fields on the right side of the report.
Your mapping page should now look similar to the below example:
To complete a mapping, locate the PDF field you wish to map on the left side of the report, and then select the corresponding IRIS CRM field on the right side of the report using the provided drop-down menu. When finished, click the Save button next to the newly mapped fields.
Note that the Dropdown-To-Checkboxes, Dropdown-To-Text, and Date field mappings will require some additional actions to be taken before the mapping is saved. For more information on these actions continue to the next section where we provide several detailed examples of these kinds of mappings.
Tip: In order to locate an IRIS CRM field faster, click on the field selection drop-down menu and start typing the name of the IRIS CRM field. The drop-down menu will then automatically display the closest matches which you can then select:
Mapping examples
In this section, we provide examples of creating all of the supported types of field mappings using some of the most commonly used PDF and IRIS CRM fields.
Text-To-Text Mapping
To map the Corporate Address text field from the PDF to the Address text field on the IRIS CRM lead form first find the Corporate Address field on your report and then select the Address lead form field using the drop-down menu on the right. When finished, click Save and the mapping will be saved.
The image below shows an example of how to map the Corporate Address PDF field to the Address field on the IRIS CRM lead form correctly:
Dropdown-To-Text Mapping
To map the Title PDF text field to the Title drop-down menu on the IRIS CRM lead form, find the Title field on your report and then select the Title lead form field using the drop-down menu on the right. After that, select the Dropdown-to-text option in the MapSpecial dropdown. Finally, click Save and the mapping will be saved.
The image below shows an example of how to map the Title PDF field to the Title field on the IRIS CRM lead form correctly:
With the Dropdown-To-Text mapping, the PDF text field will display text of the option that was selected on the lead form drop-down menu (for example Owner, President, CEO, Partner etc.).
Checkbox-To-Checkbox Mapping
To map the "Seasonal Merchant_yes" checkbox from the PDF to the Seasonal Merchant checkbox on the IRIS CRM lead form, find the Seasonal Merchant_yes checkbox on your report and then select the Seasonal Merchant lead form checkbox using the drop-down menu on the right. When finished, click Save and the mapping will be saved.
The image below shows an example of how to map the Seasonal Merchant_yes PDF field to the Seasonal Merchant field on the IRIS CRM lead form correctly:
Dropdown-To-Checkbox Mapping
To map the TypeOfOwnership PDF check-boxes from the PDF (discussed earlier in this article) to the "Type Of Ownership" drop-down menu on the IRIS CRM lead form, create a new IRIS CRM field called TypeOfOwnership (i.e. the name of your checkbox group).
Next, click on the Create Fields button and in the pop-up which appears enter the name of your checkbox group (it is also possible to enter and create multiple group names all at once). When finished, click on the Create Fields button in the pop-up and the new field will be created. Here is an image showing how the TypeOfOwnership is being created:
Next, click on the Add All button (also shown in the above image) in order to show the newly created field in a report. Then find the TypeOfOwnership PDF field and select the Type Of Ownership IRIS CRM lead form field using the drop-down menu on the right.
Finally, select the Checkbox/Radio option in the MapSpecial drop-down and click Save in order to save the new mapping.
The image below shows an example of how to map the TypeOfOwnership PDF checkbox group to the Type Of Ownership drop-down on the IRIS CRM lead form correctly:
Note that your report will also show individual checkbox fields (e.g. TypeOfOwnership_2, TypeOfOwnership_3, TypeOfOwnership_4 etc.). These fields don't need to be mapped, but instead, you will always only need to map the checkbox group name to the Lead drop-down as shown in the above example.
Date Field
The Date fields are used to show the date an application has been signed, and IRIS CRM will automatically populate such fields with the current date. The Date fields don't need to be mapped to any of the IRIS CRM lead form fields, however, they still need to appear in your field mapping list in order for the auto-fill function to work.
To set up your PDF "Signature Date.date" field to auto-populate with the current date, find this field in your report and leave the drop-down field on the right unassigned. Finally, select the Date (mm/dd/yyyy) option in the MapSpecial drop-down and click Save.
The image below shows an example of how to configure the Signature Date.date PDF field correctly:
Since we appended ".date" to the "Signature Date" PDF field name earlier, IRIS CRM will recognize the Signature Date.date field as a special Date field which will be auto-filled with the current date value.
Email field
The email_es_signer_email field can be mapped to an email field on the lead form using the normal Text-To-Text mapping procedure described earlier.
The image below shows an example of how to map the email_es_signer_email PDF field to the Email field on the IRIS CRM lead form correctly:
Other Special Fields
The remaining special fields, i.e. the signature (first_es_signer_signature) and the merchant initials (merchantinitials_es_signer_initials) fields don't need to be mapped.
Test Your Application
Once your mapping has been completed, it is recommended to generate a PDF of your application in order to verify that all of the fields have been mapped correctly and that the PDF file is showing the correct information across the entire form.
Before generating your test PDF, you should go to your lead form and enter some test data in all of the fields (as well as select random options in the available drop-down menus and select any check-boxes that have been mapped). Once finished, save the newly entered data using the Save button on the lead form.
Next, go to the Attachments tab, select your document (in this example it’s First Data) and hit the Generate button:
A PDF file will now be created and automatically downloaded to your disk. You can now open the PDF file and compare the data and the checkbox selections in the PDF with the values you entered/selected on the lead form.
Cheat Sheets
The below cheat sheets provide you with a quick reference to the MapSpecial options you need to select in different mapping scenarios, as well as the rules for renaming the PDF fields or changing their settings.
PDF Mapping Cheat Sheets
This table shows the MapSpecial options that you need to select for each of the four supported types of mapping:
| For This Mapping Type: | Select This In MapSpecial: |
| Text-To-Text | None (Default) |
| Dropdown-To-Text | Dropdown-to-text |
| Checkbox-To-Checkbox | None (Default) |
| Dropdown-To-Checkboxes | Checkbox/Radio |
This table shows the special fields and the MapSpecial options that you need to select in your mappings:
| For This Special Field: | Select This In MapSpecial: |
| Date.Date | Date (mm/dd/yyyy) |
| email_es_signer_email | None (Default) |
| first_es_signer_signature | N/A* |
| merchantinitials_es_signer_initials | N/A* |
*Does not need to be mapped.
PDF Field Editing Cheat Sheets
This table shows the field naming and/or field setting rules for each supported type of PDF field:
| To Map This PDF Field: | To This IRIS CRM Lead Field: | Do This In PDF: |
| Text Field | Text Field | No special actions |
| Text Field | Drop-Down Menu | No special actions |
| Single Checkbox | Checkbox |
|
| Checkbox Group | Drop-Down Menu |
|
This table shows the field naming rules for all of the special field types:
| For This Special PDF Field: | Do This: |
| Date | Append ".date" to the field name (e.g. Signature Date.date) |
| Rename to: email_es_signer_email | |
| Signature | Rename to: first_es_signer_signature |
| Merchant Initials | Rename to: merchantinitials_es_signer_initials |